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Minutes of Asha
Seattle meeting on 08/01/07 Venue : RTC LWSD No 414, Morton Johnson
Room, Attendees: Gagan Chopra, Mithun.
Hareesh Veldandi. Swati, Aruna , Megha, Anusha – Uillinois, Balasubramanyam
uncle, Ken, Vijay, Srijan, Palani Ahead Presentation – Presented by Swati §
Working with mentally disabled children, Special teacher training §
Used to run the program in a club house - kicked out > approached
Asha §
Originally Asha Berkeley project funded §
2006 - $11k (part) - Building support §
Jan 2007 Site Visit - Building is laid out - built now §
Now - want to furnish the building. Asking for funds §
From Another source (NYCNJ?)- requesting
school bus, library etc. §
From Asha Seattle - Computer, Internet
connection, printers, projectors etc. §
They have 4 storied building - vocational training, office, parent
counseling, exhibition, educational development, seminars, sports, - Full
fledged resource center and school §
They approached bid donors like Tata, rotary club and other donors §
Funding details 2005 - $7K, $3K (Asha
Berkeley) - 2006 - $11K from Asha Seattle Lots
of Q and A answered. All
the documents online, send any questions in a week. No
Voting done. Budget details: $9K - UPS, Computers, Projectors etc. Will
come to discussion again. Questions and Answers: §
Did §
Still a §
Children - who are they?
Not just neighborhood, all sections. Only on mental disabilities. Long
term plan - 300 students; 35 students now. §
Free? Sliding scale. §
Major sources of funding ? Lots of
individuals etc. Well connected to get from donors. §
IT companies donate computers, did they contact IT companies? Good suggestion - will check into it.
Laptops etc. from here. Swati knows Cognizant. §
Why did §
Total budget? Swati to find out. §
Residential? No. §
Primary funding sources? Local Tata ,
Rotary club etc. §
Do they need Special software - Don't know. §
Medical help? Govt. program only! No other medical help. §
Find out the costs of all the individual items, especially overhead
projectors - why so high? §
Personal feeling by one volunteer - Fund directly touching
services, not administrative activities. §
Primary funding sources?
Local Tata , Rotary club etc. §
Do they need Special software ? Don't know . §
Medical help? Govt. program only! No other medical help. §
Find out the costs of all the individual items, especially overhead
projectors - why so high? AID §
15,000 schools in 10 districts - Projects - §
Balaji Sampath - "The next
Mohammad Yunus of §
Arogya Iyyakam- Project Improve
health in poor 5000 volunteers -
Among Top 10 projects in all over the world – §
Where there is no doctor! - translated into Tamil - When Tsunami hit
- great help - massive project – §
Third massive project –
Directly impacted 2500 schools, -directly reached 100,000 students
– §
Working in districts - One district by one – §
Effects the entire curriculum - Take one kid and make him literate -
He knows how to scale projects to entire TN - $5-8million - he could use it §
When identifying one massive project for entire Asha
- This is it - contacted Asha President §
Site Visit - The best ever - For variety of reasons §
Very few projects scale, sustainable, impact - System in place to
achieve §
Asha SV funded $100K
- Out of budget for most AID chapters §
Asha Silicon Valley supports Tiruvannamalai district - 20 blocks - This
chapter - Now proposal to support Krishnagiri
district Next steps §
Need more time. §
Bring one more time to project, a small group to meet regularly. Questions and Answers §
Does Balaji do the work by himself? §
Political - How can you guarantee district - he went onto describing
the process §
How the system works?
Balaji knew collector with IIT
background -he goes to district, gets to know people for 4-5 months,
identifies 5-6 volunteers for small money, send volunteers to main office ,
they come back, interesting grading system for anything and everything - Go
to A schools, Activity based learning, not done a good job. Created five
stages - character recognition, word recognition, sentence, read a story, interpret.Large statistical samples of stories -6 months
to complete the stages §
Direct impact/leveraged play? Schools in one district
are effected directly. The scale is huge and I think this is direct impact
project. §
Site Visit Report? Not yet , don't know whether Balaji will be happy about. Prepare two reports - one
public, and private (for Asha) National Association for Blind
– Presented by Megha §
NGO - National Association for Blind. §
Integrated learning - set of teachers/educators who work with blind
and help teachers, students, and parents. §
33 rural educators funded. 17 by Gvt. (Rs 4500 + 500 Rs). Sense
International - 8 teachers funded (Rs 4000 + 500 Rs). 8 by NAB India (now 2500 rs/-). Voting for budget $ 4800 per year – one time. Yes
– 8, No –
3, Abstain – 3. Questions and Answers §
Why Less? NAB says
that's all it gives. §
Doesn't it believe to pay equal? It doesn't may be. §
Check sent to? NAB Karnataka will get - part of NAB India. §
Can NAB Karnataka take the decision? Yes. §
Is 33 more? Will they have more? Not asked the question. They will
hire on as needed basis. §
Why doesn't gvt fund? Only willing to fund
so many per organization. §
Have we supported NAB Karnataka? Six years before, one time project. §
Site Visit ? Done by Megha
- only in urban areas. §
Teachers ? Megha knows
the names and can ask her. §
Megha’s current project
? Children with multiple
disabilities. §
We fund other NAB stuff. Why not recurring? Megha said it would first time and then recurring. §
We might have to treat this recurring
type? Megha wants to look at the money again, so
needs might change again - So NO. §
More teachers or salary increase? Salary increase - based on trust
only - will talk to teachers directly. §
Govt. funded are not direct govt.
employees. §
Effectiveness of this funding?/ Do we trust
NAB? 2000 is not enough - Srijan - so far good,
recently approved. §
Historical attrition rate? No idea - Megha
visited urban, not rural - She can ask.
Infrastructure is small, but makes difference. §
How urgent? Sooner, the better §
Can Asha Bangalore visit? It's in rural area, Megha (this Dec or Aug
next year) might do the site visit. Mega already did visit urban system -
same set of educators/teachers. §
Urban teachers - how much paid? Different jobs - Rs
3500/- + hostel §
From govt and others 4K Not adequate for rural -
extra allowances? - No idea. §
Any other reasons for paying differently? No - just lack of funding. §
Why not self fund it? Is this really needed? Next low hanging fruit?
Can they not be efficient? Ambiguous to Megha
herself, that's why brought the item to discussion and want to vote. Adruta - Site Visit Report – Presented by Palani §
Prof Mohanti, Founder - took care of first
girl child himself, then didn't turn down anyone after - looking after these
children - §
§
One man's dedication - §
Infosys, Rotary gave some money §
Depended on adhoc support, no continuous
support §
Needed stable funds §
Project came here from Rajat Mishra - last year $30K funded §
At that time we funded, 36 girls - from various categories - §
Adruta comes under big organization. §
Now 46 girls - §
Annual expenditure - Rs 14L (Almost $30K) Site Visit §
10 AM site visit start - stayed overnight §
4 months girl - Nandini - small girl -
medical help was needed for her §
Parents came, saw - impressed §
Dr. Sagarika - came, like mother to
students §
Few students became full time members §
Only 2 security guards §
Prof - lot of debts to run the organization §
They need funds §
Provide amenities beyond food, sheltering, etc. - ex: dance
teaching, national level performer §
Emphasis - arts, science §
Balanced day - 5 Am start §
Young - malnourished - different media schools - §
Talked about one prodigy in school §
Helping hands always come §
Never given used clothes- own sewing machines! §
They prepare good food! §
Potatoes - costly in Orissa §
Energetic kids §
Oldest 15yr kid §
Auto Rikshas are used for transporation §
Women get groceries §
2:30 - 3 - young children come, nap §
Bunk beds - SBI sponsored the beds §
No toys §
Quality of life - good, music etc §
Smarter than average §
Get training by state level volleyball player §
Closed life - after 18 - it will be difficult §
No graduation system yet Questions and Answers §
How much is Asha doing? Less than requirement costs. §
Children background ? Abandoned. §
How long have we been funding? One year. §
Are these kids disabled? Some of them – malnourishment. §
Where are they going? Long term? No plan yet. §
Adoption? Not yet - caretakers love children. Might end up as bad
adoption. |
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