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Minutes
of Asha Seattle meeting on 06/05/08
Venue : Redmond Town Center, Lake Washington School District, Sammamish
B Room (moved from Morton Johnson room)
Attendees:
Binay,
Ravi, Pooja, Nagendra, Marina, and Ken
Project:
Work An Hour (WAH)
Presenter:
Pooja Jain
Background
+++++++++
- Work
An Hour (WAH) is an ASHA wide, annual fund raising initiative where
individuals donate an hours worth of their salary to projects chosen by
ASHA.
In 2008, WAH runs between July 15th to Sept 15th.
- Any
chapter can suggest projects to be part of WAH. This year 15
projects will selected to be a part of WAH. A chapter can only have 1
project as a part of WAH.
- WAH
also provides an incentive to chapters without projects to get started
with projects.
- Once
a project becomes part of WAH, it gets donations that are made to WAH.
Also, ASHA makes 1:1 contribution to every dollar that the chapter
raises as a part of WAH. So, if a chapter raises X $s as a part of WAH,
it gets back X $s which it can use toward a project of its choice.
- WAH
also helps ASHA deplete it's general funds.
Questions
++++++++
- Can
the return ratio to chapters be raised to 2:1?
- Is it
a sustainable model, i.e. what if there are huge donations, and ASHA
cannot match the funds?
- What
if a chapter already it doing well? What if such a project raises a lot
of funds?
- Can
we get more projects into WAH so that funds get depleted faster?
Voting
+++++
Should
ASHA match funds which are raised by individual chapters towards WAH?
Yes
- 6. No - 1. Abstain - 1.
Project:
AVEHI ABACUS
Presenter:
Ravi Manghani
Discussion
++++++++
- AVEHI
ABACUS is the biggest project funded by ASHA, Seattle. The funding is
round $125k per year.
- The
project was initiated in 1990. ASHA, Seattle has funded the project
since 2000.
- The
project aims at developing a supplementary curriculum to schools.
- The
supplementary curriculum takes the form of "Sangati" kits. It
consists of 6 kits taught between grades V - VII (inclusive).
- The
kits contain material related to communal harmony, gender equality, and
other social issues, which are taught as a part of regular school work.
- The
kits are taught once per week.
- The
kits were rolled out in 180 municipal schools, in Mumbai, between 2001
-- 2006.
- After
their successful implementation, across 180 schools, these are being
rolled out in 904 municipal schools in Mumbai. This work started in
2006, and is in the 2nd phase.
- All
the municipal schools are divided into 3 zones. Each zone has an
assistant program coordinator and two field coordinators who take care
of the schools within their zones.
- 47
field observers visit each school once every 15 days and work with the
teachers to implement the curriculum in the class.
- ASHA,
Seattle has supported the following costs of the project -- teacher
manuals, flip charts, and remuneration of field observers.
- The
project has faced difficulties working with the Mumbai Municipal
Corporation's education department in recent years. This has lead to
difficulties in organizing the teacher training workshops.
- Budget:
There is a significant increase in the cost of manuals and flip
charts.
- Budget:
Starting this year, they want ASHA, Seattle to fund the salaries of
field coordinators (5 in number). The field coordinators were earlier
funded through REACH. As REACH is no longer funding them, they are
seeking funds from new sources.
- Budget:
Last year the funding was around $132k. This year the expense is going
to be $191K. The increase is around $59K which is around 45% of previous
years budget.
Questions
++++++++
- Do
they work with parents of the kids? -- No.
- Do they work with non-municipal schools? -- They work with some
of the schools which work with mentally challenged children.
- What
is the language used in the flip charts? -- Marathi/Hindi.
- What
the current state of the kit roll out? Rolling out kit #4.
Minutes
by Nagendra Singh
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