We the students of Mechanical Engineering (Team Mechanical) at V.L.B. Janakiammal College of Engineering and Technology initiated a unique program, perhaps a very rare one in campuses, which we believe would go a long way in fostering goodwill and developing holistic personality traits in individuals. We live in a rapidly changing world where every person tries to outsmart the other and ‘survival of the fittest’ being the established order of the day. In our pursuit to become the fittest and with every system acting as a means to promote this mind-set, we easily tend to forget the condition of the so-called “not fit”, that is when the question of social responsibility pops-up. We get accustomed to a system which infuses certain skills which are materialistic and essential for being the best in business, but over the years such a system has failed to inculcate certain core values which would make an individual go much beyond the status of being the best superficially. The objective of this initiative is to inculcate those core values which are a host of life-skills which not only help in making a person successful but make him more sensitive to his environment, fellow beings and society at large.
We have embarked on a series of activities like visits to orphanages, campaigns for eye and blood donation, programs to abolish child labour, fund raising to help financially weak students, campaigns for road safety, anti-tobacco drives and a cluster of activities to fight against global warming. The invitation card we used is an exemplification of how waste paper can be reused and the burnt sides is an indicative of the fact that our Earth is in a precarious condition and our lives are burning due to global warming and other man-made disasters. Adding seriousness to this fact, our banner showcases thought provoking captions on a huge collage of emotion triggering pictures.
To highlight on the activities, we believe that a visit to an orphanage would make us feel how fortunate we are compared to its inmates and it would certainly help us to count our blessings rather than complain of what we do not possess. It would go a long way in developing the much required virtue of humility. We strongly believe in the saying that The Eye is the lamp of the body; there are millions of people living in darkness because they have lost their vision and certain misconceptions in the society are preventing a large number of people from donating their eyes. Through our campaign for eye donation, we wish to get rid of those erroneous beliefs and encourage individuals to perform this act for a noble cause.
It is a fact that The Government of India has banned child labour and takes stern action against those employers violating the law but we still find children being employed in a number of places and we know that it is because of the fact that poverty is a big reality in our society. Keeping this in mind we came up with the idea of forming a group “Yours Friendly” within the campus, its members would contribute One Rupee every day and this fund would be utilised for supporting a poor family and for the education of their children. If not at once but eventually we wish to abolish child labour through this program. It’s not enough for us to help the society alone when we have our very own brothers and sisters suffering in our family, “A Helping Hand” is one such initiative which supports financially weak students within our community, in view of their plight and in greater view of their dignity we have a requisition box placed where the students can drop a letter stating their problems. Funds for “A Helping Hand” is collected through a unique model, all the people who make use of the cafeteria are requested to drop 10% of all the food expenses into the box kept for this purpose. With such initiatives, we wish to develop individuals with a sympathetic or compassionate attitude towards their fellow beings.
Around us there are victims of road accidents and many have even lost their near and dear ones through it. Realizing the urgent need to act on it we came up with the idea of campaigning at traffic signals with the aid of placards, information leaflets and even gifting drivers with their seatbelts fastened and bikers wearing helmets with tree saplings as a sign of appreciation. This would encourage people to follow road rules and will go a long way in fighting against Global Warming. As part of our individual activity to curb the menace of Global Warming and Climate Change, we would be distributing tree saplings (1000nos) which will be provided by the ISHA Foundation free of cost and placing placards at different locations within our campus which would provide useful information on carbon footprint and will act as an effective reminder to those lavishing scarce resources, like water and electricity. Through such activities we wish to make every individual more responsible and sensitive to their surroundings.
We strongly believe that the success of any venture can always be attributed to the level of hard work, dedication and attitude of the people behind it. But we also believe that the surroundings or the environment plays a very important role in deciding the success of any individual or organization. In view of this we have implemented the Japanese system of house keeping, 5S, which is a rare initiative in academic campuses. This system places high emphasis on maintaining orderliness, cleanliness and a highly systematic and disciplined approach towards every sphere of activity.
We strongly believe that hard work and dedication are prerequisites for success but humility, purity, and compassion are prerequisites for sustainable success. With this strong conviction and a humble heart we are working towards creating extraordinary individuals who are not only empowered to address technological concerns but concerns of the society as well, with all our efforts centered around the famous saying
“If Wealth is lost, nothing is lost,
If Health is lost, something is lost,
But if Character is lost, everything is lost.”
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