Meeting held on June 1, 2002 - minutes by Sumathi Meeting Attendees: Priya, Madhav, Amit, Maya, Uday, Sachin, Santanu, Vinay, Sumathi, Manoj, Soham, Sharmila, Shyamal, Jayant, Ranjana, Dipali, Kumar, Abilash, Anirban, Asha, Vikas We had 6 new volunteers at the meeting ! We introduced them briefly to the function of our chapter and our projects. The FODRA project discussion helped them understand the evaluation process. FODRA Discussion: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Madhav presented the latest on the project. His presentation is available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ashaprinceton/files/Projects/FODRA/ [ OR from the FODRA webpage, at http://www.ashanet.org/princeton/projects/fodra/FODRA_visit02.ppt ] His site visit was quite positive, with significant progress seen in the Remedial Education Center(REC). They have been able to bring down the REC dropout rate.. the children are quite interested in attending REC classes and there is also considerable parental involvement. The new proposal from FODRA requests funding for 2 RECs and Bal Niketan from April 2002 - March 2003. The govt. school in the area is supposedly in a bad shape. The teaching is very poor and there is a very high drop-out rate. The RECs were started in order to teach children in an alternate way, so that they do not dropout of school. The children attend govt. school in the morning and come to the REC in the afternoon. The REC teaching is also instructional, just as in a school. Bal Niketan was started last year for 1st and 2nd grades to circumvent the need for children to go to government school(and hence the need to use the REC). It charges Rs. 45/month for each student as fees. This school has other rival schools in the area that charge Rs. 200 - Rs. 400 per month per student. The quality of the Bal Niketan is supposedly as good as the other schools. A number of questions were raised regarding Bal Niketan. Some of them were : 1. Asha, raised the concern that its not a very good idea to circumvent the government school.. the bal Niketan will not be able to support all the kids there. What exactly are the reasons why the government school is termed bad ? 2. Vinay wanted to know the demography of the people benefitting from Bal Niketan.. others added.. Are the parents of the children indeed poor laborers who cannot afford to put their children in the private schools ? What steps is FODRA taking to ensure this ? 3. We should make sure that FODRA's intention of Bal Niketan is not tainted. The children attending RECs(and govt school) should not be compelled to join Bal Niketan. 4. Is the Bal Niketan a registered school now ? First and foremost, we should get FODRA's 2001 "Annual Financial Report" . Madhav said he would work on it. Madhav said that from his site visit he got the impression that FODRA there was general satisfaction regarding FODRA's work in the local community. Many surrounding villages also want them to start similar centers there.. FODRA is not able to do so primarily due to lack of resources. Madhav also said that a chapter of AID which was supporting a day care center in FODRA is no longer doing so .. the reasons for it were not known. Budget Requirement for each REC(50 students in each) April 02 - March 03 : Rs. 51,600 Budget Requirement for Bal Niketan : Rs. 51,600 - Rs. 15,000(fees by 25 students so far) = Rs. 36,600 Final decision on FODRA: since the review of the Remedial Education Centers(RECs) is fairly good and satisfactory, we will go ahead and fund it for the next 6 months.(2 centers -- 50 students in each class).. approx. $1075 We will defer funding Bal Niketan till we are absolutely sure..all our questions should be answered. Other Discussions/Announcements: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 2. Work An Hour 2002:(www.workanhour.com)The deadline for submission of our chapter votes is June 15th. A WAH team is now formed to review all the 11 projects and submit chapter votes. Whoever wishes to join this team are welcome to do so.. please contact Amit Sahai or Vikas Sawant. 3. Asha Princeton Talk: On June 10th at 7PM in E-Quad Princeton Univ, By Mrs. Rashmi Mishra, who runs an NGO called Vidya to impart education to young girls and women in villages around IIT Delhi. 4. Asha Regional East Coast conference : On August 24th and 25th 2002 in Princeton. The purpose of this conference is to bring the various Asha chapters in the East Coast together... so that various things can be discussed and knowledge flow can be facilitated.