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Minutes of Asha
Seattle meeting on 09/13/06 Venue : RTC LWSD No 414, Morton Johnson
Room, Attendees: Srijan,
Ken, Updates WorkanHour.com fundraiser - Presented by Srijan §
11 projects being funded by this ASHA
wide §
raised so far $120-130K w/o matching §
Target is $160K AllGoRhythms - Presented
by Srijan §
still need more volunteers to help out on
the days of the event §
dates: Oct. 14-15 Volunteers needed - Presented by Srijan §
Two volunteers are still need to take of
organizing Talks and to help with finding content for the newsletter §
there was some interest shown by some of
the new volunteers who attended the meeting, but
no commitment was made Project – Sikshana
- Presented by Vani Report from informal site visit conducted at a Kanakapura, Karnatak school §
objective is to improve quality of
education in gov't school through intervention
programs §
funding will be supporting the current
academic year and 15 schools will be added as well §
they have been experiencing problems with
dropouts in secondary/higher secondary schools §
volunteers are in low supply and most
volunteers are either retired people or housewives §
Currently there is only one person who is
overseeing the improvement for 30+ schools, and an idea has been proposed to
hire individual coordinators for each school §
in the
school visited, there is a definite lack of infrastructure, especially in
terms of tables, chairs, rooms, etc. Currently, children sit on the floor and
learn, and sometimes more than one grade has to be combined §
children on the other seem to be enjoying
the improved learning methods as they appeared energetic and enthusiastic
about their education and the school §
overall, site visit report was approved
and funding to be released shortly Meeting Schedule - Presented
by Ken Two Options available for vote: Opt.1) Meet at RTC on W during WK1, on Sun.
during WK3, at RTC on W during WK5, and on TH at the HUB (UW Campus) during
WK 7. Opt.2) Meet 1st W at RTC, second Sat/Sun
(location TBA), 4th TH at the HUB, and continue this pattern §
reason for
doing at HUB is to recruit more student volunteers to maintain ASHA as a UW
Student group, and to get more volunteers at general...having meetings at the
HUB would increase these likelihoods. Vote results : Opt.
1 received 4, and Opt.2 received 6. So we'll be meeting
according to the Option 2 schedule, and Ken will update accordingly. Tasveer - Presented by Srijan §
Tasveer will
be hosting a South Asian Literacy forum named Education in §
this will be during ISAFF (Independent
South Asian Film Festival) §
Tasveer requested
ASHA-Seattle to be a co-sponsor of this forum §
Co-sponsorship consists of providing
materials for discussion as well as knowledge on the program topic, and
a negotiable $250 sponsorship fee §
ASHA-Seattle will benefit from publicity
(through banners, other materials, etc.) as well as reach out to a
different/diverse group of people who do not generally attend ASHA events,
hope to increase members/volunteers §
Vote to co-sponsor forum: 9 Y, 3 Abstain Kalam: Margins Write - Presented by Sahar Romani §
Sahar
Romani is a co-founder of this Kolkata based
organization, Kalam: Margins Write; Started in 2004 §
Objective of the program is to help
promote literacy to marginalized youth by means of creative writing; Belief
that most literacy programs focus more on getting youth to be literate,
rather than teaching them how to express themselves through creative writing
and other literary arts, once literacy has been established §
Kalam and
partner work with these kids by asking them about their identities and
teaching them how to express these feelings through creative writings such as
poetry and narratives (brought some sample writings to the meeting) §
Once these youth learn how to express
themselves creatively, they gain an understanding of their voice and
identity, which leads to movements of social change §
Currently, they have hourly paid youth
staffs who not only participate, but also recruit and teach other youths
about this program §
Annually, the program receives funding of
~$30K, most of it from the Daywalka Foundation,
based in §
The program also works with children of
women in prostitution §
Sahar gave
an informal presentation of her organization, and was requesting financial
support from ASHA-Seattle; she will be giving a more formal presentation and
budget requests at a later meeting |
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