December 2019

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During this Holiday Season, let’s us partake in the warmth and caring of family and friends, and put our hopes and aspirations together for the year to come.

 

Here at ServicePlace, this is our third Christmas season, and this year we are expanding our distribution to include our many sponsors and well-wishers. The ServicePlace family is growing quite quickly, which only could happen with your good wishes and continued support.

Organizationally speaking, we have filed to create a sister organization in India, which is being set up as a Charitable Trust. This is because our activities in India have exponentially increased, and we are getting set up to solicit grants, and do product development in India.

Also, we have a brand new web-site, at www.ServicePlace.org Please feel free to check it out and give us your feedback. A list of sponsors/donors is included in the web site, as is typical of many non-profits. If you’d prefer to remain anonymous, please let us know.  

Elder-Care:

 

Some of our most exciting developments are in the Elder Care initiative. A few months back, working with RGVN, a time-tested NGO operating in the NorthEast of India, we started a Pilot for the Millo (meaning community/gathering) project in Guwahati. The Pilot review date is projected for mid-February, after which we would codify the systemic learning, and see if we can expand the services elsewhere. A picture from our Guwahati Millo gathering is included below.

 

We are in early stages of planning the next Elder Care Pilot, which will test out the ‘Hello’ service. Here the elder(s), who typically stays at home, would be able to request a variety of in-home services just by picking up the phone (hence the name Hello), or by using an intuitive App interface. These services could include food delivery, cleaning/hygiene, medicine delivery (from third parties), or just someone to talk to. The full range of services is likely to grow over time, and could be carried out by volunteers, the elders themselves, or professional service providers. One of the locations we will be looking at initially is Siliguri in North Bengal. Also, the India ServicePlace sister organization is getting ready to bring in some IT professionals to help with the App and support.

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Save-A-Life:

With the release of the Telugu language CPR video, the Compression Only CPR offering now extends to 9 languages. These multi-lingual videos are used by India based NGOs to bring life-saving CPR instruction to thousands of lay people, and is ably supported by the Celtic CPR App for digital depth/beat-rate readouts during practice. The next two health awareness modules, Burns and Wounds/Bleeding are currently in script review, with plans to start video production early in 2019. In addition to the NSS (at IIT Kharagpur), the NCC now has adopted the CPR training, and ServicePlacve has donated one sensor equipped training mannequin to NCC to jump start the program. Since all incoming students will got through either NSS or NCC, we should now have 100% coverage for the entire undergrad student population. Thanks to Pandit Subhen Chatterjee, we even have our own 100 beats a minute CPR practice music, and don’t need to rely on licensing for our tracks.

Mannequin availability is an issue in India, and we are working with IIT Kharagpur to develop an advanced mannequin. When completed, the new mannequin will need to be manufactured in India, and the App interface created such that digital measurements can be transmitted directly from the mannequin to a smartphone app. This involves significant development work, and we are looking for technology sponsors in this area – in case you are considering last-minute end-of-year charitable donations,

Save-A-Life work is happening in the US as well, and not only India. We held an event with BCAA where the youth group was trained in the use of CPR, and in turn conducted an event during the BCAA Durga Puja (Sept 28th) and was supported by our Advisory board member from Canada – Dr Tapas Mondal. Below is a picture of the BCAA youth group just after the training/practice session.

Mannequin availability is an issue in India, and we are working with IIT Kharagpur to develop an advanced mannequin. When completed, the new mannequin will need to be manufactured in India, and the App interface created such that digital measurements can be transmitted directly from the mannequin to a smartphone app. This involves significant development work, and we are looking for technology sponsors in this area – in case you are considering last-minute end-of-year charitable donations,

 

Save-A-Life work is happening in the US as well, and not only India. We held an event with BCAA where the youth group was trained in the use of CPR, and in turn conducted an event during the BCAA Durga Puja (Sept 28th) and was supported by our Advisory board member from Canada – Dr Tapas Mondal. Below is a picture of the BCAA youth group just after the training/practice session.

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Cultural Preservation:

Significant field work has been completed, and editing started for the next Cultural Documentary on Odisha – Where Gods Draw. This documentary intends to cover both the tribal lost-artforms, and also the traditional temple based artforms surrounding the worship of lord Jagannath in Odisha. Also, a short discovery trip is being planned for Bangladesh in January.

Sponsorship Opportunities:

In addition to the Technology Sponsorships ($1K+) for CPR mannequin development mentioned earlier, please check out the Sponsorship section of the website for many other sponsorship opportunities.

For transparency reasons, we have started listing our significant donors/sponsors in our web site. All donations of $100 and above are listed, and donors can choose to remain anonymous. If you haven’t already, please consider a web based donation before the end of the year, and we will make sure to send you your charitable acknowledgement in time for the next tax season.

 

Again, wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year 2020.