Minutes of Asha Seattle meeting on 08/12/07 Venue : Redmond Regional Library, Redmond, WA Attendees: Kunal, Purnima, Neeha, vijay, Gagan, Srijan, Swati, Rohit, Binay Bhoomiheen Sewa Samiti Trust – Presented by Gagan and Srijan Established in 1979 in Aau Village in U.P. This school has been has funded by Asha primarily since 1998. Additional funds are needed as the school has added two more classes, 9th and 10th grades. There are 274 children in pre nursery to 8th grade, plus another 80 which is additional student target for 9th and 10th grades (combined). The budget is approximately Rs 400,000, annually (recurring). Site visit was done by Srijan in March 2007. Srijan presented the site visit report § Not only a school running in a village but more : impact is much wider § Before project: Feudalistic system § Empowering labors – opposed by landlords § Life long struggle by Lalitji  - 19 years to win court cases § School starts at 10 but kids would come down as early as 8 § Two organizations administrate – Bhoomiheen and other counterpart body § Planning to fuse these two group § Extension primary focused towards girls since reluctant to travel long distances for education   § Adding 9th and 10th grade, it will add more 85 + 100 students § Roughly 8th grade had 75 students Recurring extension of 4.00,000 to 20 lakh Rs. approved  VOTE: Yes :10 , No : 0 , Abstain : 0 Tomorrow's Foundation  - Presented by Swati and others Established in 1991 and funded by Asha from 1996. Located in Kolkata, West Bengal they work with the deprived children from the streets, slums and red light areas in the most extreme and vulnerable zones of urban Kolkata. They are engaged in education and child protection through simple care and apt training to help them secure their basic rights. § Use existent facilities – use government buildings, leverage existing government services § REACH pulled out funding: project was for two years and it is over and no new budget was appropriated after that § Budget: $10,039.68 § Mother project: After school projects  or evening programs – supplemental education on top of regular school academics   which includes sports, tutoring, arts also a foster environment    § Funding is requested for a new project 1 year geared toward children who do not attend school. Through this program they are ramped up and encouraged to participate into government school and then be part of mother project (provided the next site visit is positive) Vote: Yes: 7, No: 1, abstain : 0 AID-India (EQUIP Krishnagiri Project) – Presented by Vijay Established in 1991 and located at Krishnagiri district, Tamilnadu. AID INDIA is a voluntary organization that is working in nearly 15000 schools and villages in 10 districts across Tamilnadu. AID-INDIA's mission is to ensure quality education for every child.Tamilnadu has an excellent school system and has been able to address the question of access almost completely – except in certain tribal pockets and child-labor intensive areas.  But there is a very serious problem of learning quality in schools. AID India has been working for the last 5 years on a number of education initiatives in Tamilnadu which include improving reading and basic math skills of children, science, life skills and health education, village libraries, children clubs, science and math clubs etc . § EQUIP is Eurekha Quality Improvement Programs. § Review of ASER report on the quality of education in Tamilnadu – depressing. Reasons are poor facility, ill motivated staff, spoon feeding. § EQUIP hopes to participate the community to improve kids learning ability. § Can we ask these volunteers to go and implement this program to other Asha funded projects ? o Local volunteers – hard for them to be effective outside TM. The higher level implementer are generally pre-occupied § Three programs o Tamil reading program: (7 year program) o 5 levels depending on the skills o Classify all kids into these levels o Activity based for kits for all these levels o Experimented on schools from 5 districts = +ve results ( report is available) o What about sustenance? – 7 years program o Ariviyal Anandam science education Program: § Supplement current science syllabus providing tools and resources to explain   and teach scientific concepts o Library in bag: § Volunteers carry books to different schools § Avenue to hold various education fostering clubs, events to encourage community to be part of the program. § What are they doing to preserve the quality of volunteers? o Coaching in madras. Program cords get daily updates and have tracking system about regular activities § Additional Training? o Yes,  1 week in Chennai and 1 week later on the site § How do they mobilize village volunteers for library program ? o Tap into localized NGOs and train them o Fan clubs: eg. Celebrity clubs – mobilize them § Generally probono work § Total Proposed budget: $70,000 i.e Rs. 30,00,000. $50,000 is asked from Asha Clarification Needed: § How many kids are supported by one kit? § Is project cords full time? If part time by district cord what salary is offered? § Would like to get money in two installments § Can they include this in B.Ed syllabus? VOTE: Yes 2, Abs: 7, NO: 0 (online voting) waiting for site visit.

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