Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 07/20/06 Venue : RTC LWSD No 414, Morton Johnson Room, Redmond, WA Attendees: Arvind, Sudarshan, Raji, Srijan, Palani, Mahadevan, Vibhavre, Shailesh, Sofia, Raghav, Swati, Tulika, Raj Acharya, Aparajita Summary of the STP - Sudarshan & Raji What went well: good fund raising - $5558.00 without matching, approx $8000.00 with matching. This year they had 8 people, last year was 5. They trained for 2/3 months. What didn't go well: They were not a cohesive unit, different people training differently, difficult to get together. Plans forward: -start early next year, recruit people earlier. -update website. -get local people involved for eg. sponsor for biking gear - local bike shops are interested in sponsoring. WAH update - Srijan & Palani Work An Hour is an Asha wide program where we pool in projects from different chapters. All chapters come together and raise money - peaks around Independence day - till September. Give campaign is the primary source, planning to have it a little low key like sending emails, having link on website. Send a mail template to Asha Seattle which people can forward to different people. send 1 liner email about all the WAH projects, and take vote next meeting. Give WAH cood authorization to pick a project or two, which our chapter will fund. RTE update - Srijan Bill came out last year and we started reviewing it. Looks like central govt is trying to back off, pushing it on the states. Lots of protests around this. Draft Bill is being pushed as the "model bill". Asha wide we are thinking of doing some petitions. Haven't exactly figured out what. Adruta Children's Home, Bhubaneswar, Orissa – Presented by Palani This project was presented by Rajat Mishra about 2 months ago - Rajat was Asha Seattle volunteer. Home for 40 destitute girl-children has been in operation for the last 8 years since 1998. Home was set up with a lot a financial hardship. Unique thing about this home is emphasis on all around development of children, eg yoga, dance etc. Right now funding is pretty ad hoc, founders have taken huge loans over the years. They have got some local support but no good way of guaranteed funding. They have received no govt support till now. Never turns down a child who approaches. There are 5 people to take care of the girls. Questions Now do they have FCRA/FCNR clearance? clarify. Are they increasing from 40? - no one turned down, so they might What school do they go to? - Kendriya Vidyala is one school, there are other schools Exact age group of girls is not provided. 1st presentation - budget was not there, now we have the budget. Site visit has not been done yet - makes sense to go over the budget after site visit. So we are putting this project on hold till then site visit is done. Senjiagaram - Presented by Palani Name of the Group: Bharati Trust  Established: 1990  With Asha: 2002 Location: Senjiagaram, Tiruvallur district, Tamil Nadu School set up by Bash & Jayashree after they talked to different NGOs before settling for Bharati trust, 3 yrs ago. The Irula Tribal communities live in the interior pockets of Thiruvallur district. They have lived in forest for several years, now banned from using forest produce. Now most are bonded laborers, cooli etc. - whole community have been displaced. There are children who were released from bondage - never seen the outside world from rice mills. Senjiagaram is 60kms from Madras. Started in the morning at 8:00 - took about 2 hrs to get there. Jayashree & Bash - 3yrs ago trained teachers(2) - made learning aids - flash cards - Learning Network - lot of that has gone into this school The building has low walls - to let air in - after the Kumbhakaran fire, no thatched roof had to use tiles - wall had to be increased for tin roof. 1 tv & all kids watch tv a lot. Palanit took some toys and fruits. Strength 35 - that day there were 30 kids. Toddler kids have gone to Govt school & are doing very well. Most kids did the flash cards right - impressed about kid 1.5yrs who could sing, read - alumnis from this school came to meet. One of them (in Class1 in Govt school now) was teaching other kids in the school. Kids liked story telling, folk songs, everyone gave a performance - they actually constructed smart stories. Initially there were 2 classrooms. - other room being used for the kitchen, food was very good, very clean kitchen. Now 35 children being managed by Mariamma - from morning 10:00 till there parents pick them up - 4:00/5:00. Few parents were there. Major complaint - very hot - some days classes have to be stopped cause of this. Its going to remain a kindergarden place. Planning to get a fan - the only thing missing. Clean up the website - Avaya Resource centre website is there. Palani visited another school, setup by special permission from the collector - In this school, Govt has given books, 3 meals a day - but kids learn by rote, didn't know colors on the board. Vote on $100 to get a fan - voted YES by everyone. BTS - Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha - Presented by Arvind This is a Asha Cornell project. There was a discussion on what amount to vote for since this has been presented to other chapters. Decided to vote on entire amount and inform the other chapters on the decision. Action items for us:  - find out how money can be transferred to BTS  - talk to Bikram Das (Asha Cornell)  - find out if Asha Cornell has approved So, pending Asha Cornell approval, vote for sending Rs 4,30,198 to BTS :- 7 Yes, 1 No, 3 abstains RTE - Presented by Vibhavaree Here's the SMC (School Management Committee) statement that we voted on unanimously. This contains the edits we agreed to before voting: We have several concerns regarding SMCs as mentioned below. We feel that these concerns should be taken into account and a new proposal made regarding SMCs and their role before we can lend our support to the establishment of SMCs. We do view the management of schools by the communities that they serve as a positive in the long run. Specific Concerns: - The SMCs are given way too much power too quickly. They need time to be established. - Constitution of SMCs should be made clear with adequate provisions for representation by minorities and oppressed classes. Methods for becoming a member of an SMC should also be made clear (elected/appointed etc.) - Individuals holding any other elected government position should not be allowed to be a member of an SMC. - Appropriate remuneration based on local prevailing wages for similar positions should be provided to SMC members unless they decline to be compensated. - A method and process for addressing grievances against the SMC should be provided in the bill. - The bill should provide for the establishment of an autonomous body to oversee the SMCs, the primary purpose of which would be to help establish, train, guide and monitor the SMCs. The experience of such a body would go a long way to offsetting the problems associated with new SMCs lacking guidance and experience. - A clear statement that assuring the right to education remains a state responsibility, and in as much as any local SMC or government fails, then it is the responsibility of the state to step in to guarantee this right to education.

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