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Minutes of Asha Seattle Meeting, July 1, 2004 Venue: Steven’s Court (UW Campus) Attendees: Sunil, VIdya,
Vibhavaree, Manoj, Raghav, Priya, Joyeeta, Venky, Arindam, Sairam, Paramita, The agenda discussed were 1. Suvidya (Sunil): Suvidya
makes educational aids for urban and rural schools in poor parts of
Karnataka. It is currently being supported by Asha
Princeton. Suvidya is a well-connected group. They
are short by Rs. 60,000 as they are getting Rs. 4,50,000 from Ratan Tata trust, Mumbai. The current project is for
making place value kits with 10 activities, worksheets, some jokes, user
manuals, field tirals of these kits, workshops,
consulting fees, travel, etc. They plan to make around 500 kits and the total
cost for each kit (including all the activities mentioned above) is estimated
to be Rs. 1500. There were some questions asked
like: a. What is the adoption rate of
such kits made by Suvidya in schools? b. Won't making government schools
buy such kits result in bureaucratic delays in implementation of the kits? c. If they are short by only Rs. 60,000 in a Rs. 5,00,000 project, then why not start the field trials with
lesser number of schools? d. When do they need the funds? The
project timeline is July 2004-March 2005. 2. Nirjaji from Asha
Mumbai: Nirjaji gave an overview of her involvement with Asha Mumbai and how her institute S.P. Jain Institute of
Management and Research (SPJIMR) is associated with various NGO’s (Asha being one of them). 3. Kalpavriksha (Sunil): Sunil gave the update
on Kalpavriksha based on the questions that were
raised during the project proposal presentation in an earlier Asha meeting. Sunita Rao wants to build a resource center to raise
environmental awareness about Uttar Kannara, a
world biodiversity hotspot. She has put together a book providing
environmental education that she intends to integrate into school curriculum.
The proposal is in 3 parts: handbook, resource center and workshops.
Currently, Kalpavriksha wants financial support for
the handbook. The budget is for Rs. 3,00,000, for over 1000 books each 150 pages. The book is
being professionally designed and has lots of pictures. There were some
questions asked like: what will be the printing costs, how does Kalpavriksha plan to incorporate the book in the
curriculum? Sunil said he would forward these questions to Sunita and get back to us. 4. Astha (Lakshmi):
In fall 2002, Gagan had presented this proposal,
and was included in WAH 2003 as part of ‘TRIGGER’. Astha
works with children with disabilities. The proposal is for ‘Astha Helpline’, they have been doing this for the last 3
and half years without any available funding. They had reached out to 650
children till last year. They have teamed up with Just Dial phone directory
service, and at end of every week contact numbers of those who need help are
passed to Astha, who call them back. Actions
usually include: calling back, counseling, forming parental groups, assessing
the child, conducting workshops. This service is located in Tuglakabad on outskirts of 5. WAH publicity (Rahul):
Work An Hour was introduced to new volunteers
present at the meeting. Ways were discussed to publicize WAH through fliers
(in Microsoft, UW, CISCO, Amazon), to target non-regular donors, add
signature on emails. 6. Asha Marathon (Rahul):
Asha marathon was introduced to new volunteers and
as per update by Rahul, the intial
response had been good, but off late, there was a drop. The week before the
meeting, there were only 6 runners for training session. 7. Odanadi (Joyeeta):
The project proposal for completion of residential homes for girls rescued
from sex trade and children of sex-workers was presented. The home will have
capacity to host 200 girls. This is not an interim shelter scheme. Girls stay
with them till they are trained vocationally and can start earning for
themselves, or finish their education, or get married. The stay period is
different for different cases. The total budget is for close to $40,000. Asha Seattle is looking at supporting part of this. There
were some questions raised: a. Are all the HIV/AIDS patients
kept together? It was agreed that Odanadi is a very well run organization which has taken
up rescue and rehabilitation of children of sex workers and those directly
involved in sex trade. The project would be presented in detail in next
meetings. 8. Asha Picnic (Venky):
Asha Seattle has completed 10 years and a volunteer
picnic has been decided. Possible venue ideas were discussed, 9. Allgorhythms (Venky):
September 11th was chosen as the date for the annual Allgorhythms show, since it coincides with third
anniversary of 9/11, the issue was brought up to see if there were any
volunteers uncomfortable with the date. All other dates in September were
unsuitable for the concert. So it was agreed upon to have the concert on
September 11th, and if felt necessary to have a minute of silence
on the day of event to pay tribute to victims. 10. The day my God died (Paramita):
This is a movie on victims of sex-trade, and possibility of screening it as
an Asha event was discussed. It was felt that Fall quarter would be the best time for screening so that we
could get large participation. Paramita updated on
her communication with Women’s center, UW who is keen on jointly hosting the
movie. 11. Clothes drive (Joyeeta):
Clothes drive is a no-pain non monetary means of contributing. Various
logistics issues will have to be considered before it can be taken as an Asha Seattle activity. More will be looked into it by Joyeeta and |
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