Newsletter-cum-magazine of Oasis Movement        Year 10 /  Issue 03 /  January 21, 2017
Oasis Valleys Comes Alive to Celebrate
2nd Grand Annual Retreat of Oasis Movement Core Community
Jubilant group of friends of Oasis Movement Core Community
The Annual Retreat was organized at Oasis Valleys from December 2 to 4, 2016. 91 guests from 6 generations of 80 year old veterans to 15 year old teenagers, came together from U.S., different parts of country and state.
Day 1 ~ Mapping Oasis Movement from The Beginning....
Before the Annual Retreat 2016, Oasis Movement Core Community got together to prepare Exhibition. The displays included Work and Wealth Audit Reports, Alive Archive, Media Coverage, Projects of Oasis Movement, Literature of World Movements from Oasis First Annual Retreat and Photographs from the year 1989 to 2016.
    
 
Display walls and guests conversing about Oasis Movement in exhibition hall


After visiting the exhibition, 6 generations of friends came together for the introduction in this diverse group on the first day.
Hiral Patel (Trustee, OASIS) and Sheeba Nair (Trustee, OASIS) commenced Annual Retreat with hearty Thanksgiving. Sheeba Nair expressed gratitude for all the support that Oasis had received from well-wishers and friends over last 25 years.
Sanjiv Shah sharing the nostalgic journey of the first generation core team of Oasis.
He expressed his deep gratitude for his life-long friends.
To keep the torch burning, the first generation of Oasis Core Group (OMCC X)
passed on the legacy in the form of
Oasis Movement Vision Document - A set of values and principles to second generation (OMCC Y).
It was a symbolic handover of Oasis Movement to the new generation.
Second generation of core community, OMCC Y, answering the questions.
Honorary trustees of Oasis Movement posed tough questions to test
the commitment and preparedness of OMCC Y to lead the movement further.
OMCC GenNext (Budding Teenagers) confidently answering questions posed to them

Teenage participants from different parts of India (Ahmedabad, Surat, Navsari, Anand, Dangs and other parts of Gujarat, Bengaluru, etc) were invited impromptu to be the next generation leaders. All accepted the challenge courageously and  enthusiastically.

Book Launch of the Day

Swatantrata-
Nahin Ke Swechchhachar!

Book Launch by:
Mahadevbhai Desai

About Biren Kothari, the Translator

Chemical engineer by profession now turned to full time Writer - biographer - translator turned blogger. He loves music, art and history. He believes in Character Building Education. When he got an opportunity to contribute in this field he took it up enthusiastically and translated the book- Freedom - Not License! by A.S Neil in a very short span of time.
It was dedicated to all the children.
Day 2 ~ The Sharing of Receiving & Giving....
Siddhartha Mehta (photo below left) facilitated the sharing sessions for beneficiaries of Oasis Movement. Snehal Shah (photo below right) facilitated the sharing sessions for facilitators of Oasis Programs.
The Beneficiaries....

Bhupal (Bengaluru): “When I was in 7th standard ‘ASHA’ friends came in my school. I was selected by them for camp. I didn’t know anything about parliament and election but I gave my speech and I was elected. I learnt lots of things which I always like to share and teach others also.”
 


Vishal (Dang,Tribal Area of Gujarat): “I was very shy. In my first life camp I spoke only my name. I don’t like to speak a lot. When I came in Dream India camp I became jury and I became confident. Now I can speak in front of anybody. Here I found my dream. I want to work for Dang tribal kids.”
Atulbhai Pandya (શિક્ષણ નિયામક, લોકભારતી, સણોસરા, ગુજરાત)“ગાંધીજીના આદર્શો પર ચાલતી ઇન્સ્ટિટ્યૂટને પણ સુધારાની જરૂર પડી. સંજીવભાઈને મળવાનું થયું. મીટિંગમાં હું ૩ કલાક સતત બોલ્યો છું અને સંજીવભાઈએ મને માત્ર ને માત્ર સાંભળ્યો છે. હું બોલતો ગયો ને તે મને સાંભળતા ગયા, સમજતા ગયા. જે વાતાવરણ મારે ઊભું કરવું હતું તે વાતાવરણ ખરેખર તો પહેલાં દરેકના હૃદયમાં ઊભું થવું જોઈએ તેવું મને જાણવા મળ્યું. અંતે ઓએસિસ સંસ્થા સાથે પાર્ટનરશિપ થઈ અને કાર્યશાળા યોજાઈ. હવે જે બદલાવ હું ઇચ્છતો હતો તે હું જોઈ શકું છું.”
Nowsheen Khan and Tahir Mir visited Annual Retreat as representatives of newly launched Oasis chapter at Jammu and Kashmir. They shared the prevalent scenario of the state and aspirations to make a difference with the help of Oasis. Nowsheen Khan willingly accepted the role as the Chief Coordinator, Oasis, Jammu and Kashmir.
The Facilitators....


Purvi Dalal,સુરત: “જ્યારે પહેલી વાર હું કૅમ્પ લેવા માટે ગઈ ત્યારે હું તેમાંથી ઘણું બધું શીખી. કયા કામને કેવી અગ્રિમતા આપવી તે જાણવા અને શીખવા મળ્યું. મારા બહાર નીકળવાના કારણે મારો દીકરો પણ ખૂબ જ સરસ રીતે ઊછરી રહ્યો છે. હવે હૃદયથી શાંતિ મળે છે.”


Nilesh Vankawala, સુરત: “૨૦૦૪માં જ્યારે કાર્યશાળામાં જોડાયો ત્યારે પહેલો સવાલ અને મારી ચિંતાનો વિષય એક જ હતો. મારાં બાળકોનું ભવિષ્ય કેવી રીતે ઘડું? પછી મને સમજાયું કે મારે હજુ ઘણું બધું શીખવાનું છે. હું જ્યારે પણ કૅમ્પ લઉં છું ત્યારે પણ હું ઘણું બધું શીખું જ છું.”

Avni Naik, Navsari shared the experiments she performed in her school with children and teachers to create an atmosphere of joyful learning. She shared how she is leading as the principal for transforming her school in an Oasis school. She also added flavors to the Annual Retreat with her spontaneous creative poems.

Snehal Parmar and Neha Vyas are principals in Navsari schools. They both shared how they complemented each other by organizing a student exchange program between their schools, how it benefited the children of the two schools from different economical strata, how affluent children learnt from indigent children and vice versa.
શ્રમદાન - Labor of Love
Guests came along to join hands with nature and contributed in physical labor by sowing small plantations in the farming beds of Oasis Valleys. Through this process they appreciated the labor of farmers. The session was facilitated by Mehul Panchal and Viral Panchal.
Guests appreciated and applauded for the warm, loving and caring nature of the staff of Oasis Valleys over dinner at camp fire. In return, staff members shared their joy in everyday learning experiences. Deep gratitude was expressed for the staff of Oasis Valleys for their self-less, untiring service.


Book Launch of the Day

Samarpan Ni Sadhana

Book Launch by:
Dhirubhai Mehta
Dr. Dilipbhai Desai
Shri Dhirubhai Mehta is the Trustee of Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust and the Director of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Sevagram. He shared his motivational stories and has been an inspiration for Oasis to live with Gandhian Values in today's contemporary world.

Dr. Dilipbhai Desai is one of the founder members of Sewa Rural (Jhagadia, Gujarat), Industrialist and an ardent follower of Swami Vivekananda. He has been a friend, philosopher and guide to Oasis since the time of inception.
 


સમગ્ર જીવન સમર્પણ છે એ વાત સમજો;
કુદરત તમને આપી દેવાની ફરજ પાડશે;
માટે સ્વેચ્છાએ આપો.
ભેગું કરવા તમે સંસારમાં પ્રયત્ન કરો છો,
પકડી રાખવા તમે મુઠ્ઠી વાળી રાખો છો,
પણ પ્રકૃતિ તમારું ગળું દબાવીને
તમારા હાથ ઉઘાડી નાખે છે.
તમારી ઇચ્છા હોય કે ન હોય
પણ તમારે આપવું જ પડે છે.
જેવા તમે કહો છો, 'નહીં આપું'
કે તરત જ થપ્પડ લાગે છે, માર પડે છે.
વહેલું-મોડું તો દરેકે દરેકને
બધું જ આપી દેવું પડે છે.


- સ્વામી વિવેકાનંદ
 
Day 3 ~ The Foreseeing....
3 most beautiful things that Defines Oasis
1. Trust and Unconditional Love for People
2. A Space for Acceptance of Everyone
3. Principal-centered and Value-based Work
Small Acts which Reflect 'What is Oasis?'

On the last day, when asked upon, which one act will reflect Oasis in you,
everybody contributed and we derived upon the most common 5 gestures.


1. Smile - Smile when it is very difficult to smile
2. Glad game - Being happy in all kinds of situations
3. Giving with Love - Give till it hurts
4. Fulfill commitments which are very difficult
5. Bring out maximum potential through unconditional love
The Annual Retreat was concluded with the review of Goals achieved in 2016
and setting of renewed goals for 2017.
A pre-retreat was arranged on November 30 and December 1, 2016
for friends and well-wishers who could not join us in 2015 to review
the First Annual Retreat of Oasis Movement.
This pre-retreat was facilitated by Neha Vakharia and Neeta Sanghvi.
Annual Retreat Documentation Team
Notes of Proceedings: Kshama Kataria, Hasmita Parmar, Dr. Maya Soni, Avani Kulkarni
Photography: Viral Patel                       Videography: Anuj Gohil
Team Alive
• Alkesh Raval  • Avani Kulkarni  
• Hiral Patel  • Kshama Kataria   
• Mayuri Gohil  • Mehul Panchal  • Sanjiv Shah
 • Sheeba Nair  • Vatsala Shah
Alive Archive

View archive

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