Media Links

Here are few clippings that came in media from time to time.

1. Small Wonders Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 17 June 2008

2. Helping the Needy- South Asia Times, June 6, 2007

By Rajeev Sharma

In the age when small girls play with dolls, Meenu Saxena had something else in her heart. She was always anxious to do something for the helpless. Her mission began with injured little puppies, left moaning in dust and muck. Small Meenu would take them home and do whatever she could. Her father would often get upset with her. One day, Meenu was faced with a mountain of troubles: the ninth standard girl lost her father. He left behind Meenu, her two younger sisters, a brother and his ailing wife. Today Meenu is 50 years old and unmarried. Carrying on with her duties towards her family and others, Meenu is no less than Mother Teresa when it comes to serving the helpless and needy.

Meenu Saxena, on the strength of her savings and contribution from friends, and wihout any help from the government, has been running an organisation for the disabled and the polio victims, Prerna Niketan Sangh. The Sangh functions from a newly developed residential area of Delhi, Dwarka. Meenu is a career counsellor in Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies (FMS). She spends a large portion of her modest Rs. 26,000 per month salary on the care of these children. They study under the tutelage of Meenu-didi and stand on their feet through vocational training. All this is not possible for a lone woman, who feels in the name of NGOs, many money-spinning shops have come up all over the country. She says none bothers to care for a lone lamp giving out its little warmth and light. Meenu Saxena is grateful for the success of her venture to Yogi Ashwini, whose organisation Dhyan Foundation donates Rs. 5,000 to the Sangah for meeting expenses on milk and vegetables needed for the children. The caravan of Meenu includes Dr.V.K. Jain, Sanjay Puri, Shanti Devi, Mrs.Anjli Aggarwal and bhajan singers Saxena Bandhu.

3. Gulf News Coverage (28th Apr 2007)

Pitting herself against polio

(By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent Gulf News)

New Delhi: Meenu Saxena lives in constant fear of being evicted, for the government building she is occupying “illegally” houses the haven she holds dear – a voluntary organisation that helps polio-stricken children stand up for themselves.

Prerna Niketan Sangh, Meenu’s brainchild, helps the youngsters get over their insecurities and instills in them the life skills needed to contribute to society on equal terms.

Eleven of her wards have already found gainful employment, happily slipping into their new roles as bread-earners for their families.

The government building which is central to Meenu’s selfless work is meant to be a community centre for slum-dwellers near southwest Delhi’s Dwarka sub-city.

“Villagers want the community centre and the newly elected Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) councillor has promised them the building. I need a place and require it urgently lest my children suffer,” she says.

Class under a tree

Having started off with counselling 11 polio-afflicted children under a tree near her Janakpuri house way back in 1987, Meenu was allotted the building in 2002 for three years on a temporary basis. Ever since the offer elapsed, she has been rendered an illegal occupant of the community centre.

At last count, she had 49 children with her in the 7-21 age group, including 38 boys and 11 girls. The young residents of the building attend a government school and receive treatment and vocational training totally oblivious of how their dreams may get shattered were the organisation to be evicted from the building.

“It is the government’s work that I am doing. The least they can do is to support people like us who are doing their job,” Meenu observes.

The MCD, she says, offered her a place in Tilak Vihar on a monthly rent of Rs16,000, which she can ill afford. All that she can offer is the Rs10,000 she received as grant from the MCD last year.

The 50-year-old channels all her earnings into her pet project. She works as a career counsellor with Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies, where she once studied.

With donations from friends, she somehow ensures the children can pursue their studies and treatment while enhancing their self-belief.

A challenge

“I take it as a challenge and am doing it as best as I can. I feel I was born to help others,” she says.

Life indeed presented no mean challenge for her. The eldest of the four children of an Indian Navy officer, she was in class IX when her father died.

Her mother lost her mental balance and the responsibility of taking care of her family fell on her slender shoulders. She completed her studies, ensured her siblings had an education and got them married, deciding to remain unmarried herself.

It was a chance meeting with the watchman of her colony that was to change her perspective radically.

“I saw the watchman holding a not-so-young girl in his lap. I learnt that the girl had polio and could not stand on her feet. I told him to take her to a hospital and he said that he could not afford to make frequent trips to hospital since he had a job to do besides taking care of his other three children. ‘Is it not enough that I have kept her alive,’ he asked,” she recalls.