FOR EDUCATION

Asha Chennai

Asha India Conference

(BITS-Pilani)May. 2003

FOR EDUCATION Asha Chennai History• Several projects in Chennai and Vicinity have been funded by Asha

chapters ever since 1992.• In 2000 Dr D.P. Prakash started the Asha-Pride project “to make the

Besant Nagar area a pride of Chennai”. This project was run by Asha as opposed to funding projects run by other NGOs.

• Asha-Chennai has grown since then to include more than 10 highly committed volunteers in India and several more contributing remotely from the US, Singapore etc.

Coordinators are Lakshmi (Principal of Olcott Memorial School) & Rajaram (Alumni of IIT Madras Computer Science Dept).

• In financial year 2002-2003, the project disbursements exceeded Rs. 10 Lakhs (US $20000). This is expected to cross Rs 20 Lakhs in 2003-2004.

• Asha-Chennai is currently actively managing 5 projects. In the coming months we would be adding several more projects to the list.

FOR EDUCATION

Asha Chennai Activites (2002-2003)

• 2002-2003 was a period of rapid growth• 2 active volunteers to over 15 active volunteers.

• One project to 5 active projects.

• Grown several folds to Rs 10 Lakhs of disbursements.

• 2002-2003 was also a period of qualitative changes:• Evolution in Organisational Structure (with a coordination team, a

treasury team, a webmaster and project stewards).

• Formalising processes to make working with world-wide volunteers feasible.

• Besides the projects we successfully conducted Vanavil a novel event organised for the children from Asha supported projects.

FOR EDUCATION 2002-2003 Finance Overview• Funding (By Source)

• Asha Princeton 358657• Asha Berkley 144000• Asha Silicon Valley 239000• Asha Houston 142000• Others 33032

• Expenses (By Project)• Admin 78032• Asha Scholarships 173657• Urur Olcott School 367340• Project Build 297659

39%

16%

26%

15%

4%

Asha Princeton

Asha Berkley

Asha Silicon Valley

Asha Houston

Others

15%

21%

46%

18%

Admin

Asha Scholarships

Urur Olcot School

Project Build

FOR EDUCATION Asha Chennai (Current Projects)• Project Pride – Urur Kuppam School and Balwadi.

(Improvements to a primary school and Balwadi to create replicable models)

• Project Build – (Continuing education for children of migrant brick kiln labourers).

• Project Bridge – (Provide computers and other TAL aids to bridge technological divide between the haves and the have-nots).

• Asha Scholarships – Provide scholarships and mentoring for underpriviledged children and get them involved in social service activities.

• TRY Anand Children’s Home – Provide support for running home for children of commercial sex workers.

FOR EDUCATION Asha Chennai Project Overview• Project Pride – Urur Kuppam School and Balwadi.

Education of children from low income fishermen community.

– 2000 – Project pride launched to make Besant Nagar the pride of Chennai. Urur Olcott school founded by Gandhi in 1939, receives a major facelift. Schoolnet curriculum made available to Urur Olcott School.

– 2001 – Class 6 introduced at Urur Olcott for the first time. This is an event that never occurred in the school's 60 year history. Drop outs and child labor supply are addressed.

– 2002 – Class 7 added to the school. Supplements added to noon-meal scheme to better the food children eat.

– 2003 – Working towards adding class 8. Continuing the nutritional supplements and Technology Aided Learning. Started project to improve Urur Kuppam Balwadi.

FOR EDUCATION Asha Chennai Project Overview• Project Build

– Addressing the education needs of children of migrant brick-kiln labourers.

– Establishing 3 teaching centers at brick-kilns at rural Thiruvallur to cover over 125 children.

– Adviser – Vijaya Ramachandran (expert on migrant labourer issues and daughter of former President R. Venkatraman).

• Project Bridge – at Olcott Memorial School– Develop a Computer center at the Olcott Memorial School to

serve as a center of excellence for the neighbourhood schools.– Supporting Tamil CD content development initiative.– Of strategic importance to Asha’s UQE mission.

FOR EDUCATION Asha Chennai Project Overview

• Asha Scholarships– Low income group children from isolated families.– Support includes school fees, uniforms and books. – Wide range from UKG to 1st yr MSc in Bio-Technology.– 45 children are supported this year (first year of the program).

• To Reach You (TRY) Children’s Home– Funding ongoing expenses TRY children’s home.– Working with TRY to find them a permanent home and thus

provide a platform for the organisation to flower.

FOR EDUCATION Pictures from Urur Olcott School

Before Asha After Asha

FOR EDUCATION Pictures of Asha Scholars

FOR EDUCATION

Pictures from Anand Children’s Home (TRY)

FOR EDUCATION Asha Chennai (New Projects)• Project Dream and Light – Take up improvements at two primary

schools and 3 Balwadis in the remote villages of Rishiyur and Vilakudi in Mannarkudi district.This would lead into a broader project to improve the economic conditions at the village to reduce/stop economic migration.

• Sowbagya Trust Scholarships – Helping Asha-Silicon Valley to administer the college scholarships portion of an existing project providing scholarships to underprivileged students from Neelankarai.

• TEA Trust – Working in conjunction with Asha-Boston and TEA trust a local NGO to provide assistance for primary schools and Balwadis in two villages near Chengelpet.

• Tea Training – We have in the past conducted training for teachers associated with Project Build. Since we have several projects dealing with teachers from Balwadis and Primary Schools, we have decided to conduct a joint training session for all these teachers. While reducing our costs this would also provide opportunities for these teachers to interact and learn from each other.

FOR EDUCATION Vanavil (A painting Mela)• On April 20th 2003, Asha Chennai successfully organised Vanavil, a

painting festival for Under privileged children from Asha-supported projects.

• The reasons for this event were many:• Give a good time for these children – We supplied food and drinks for all

children. All participants were given prizes. Further the best entries received special prizes.

• Get in touch with the projects and the children – Over a 100 children from over 10 organisations turned up for the event. It gave us an opportunity to talk to the children and people from the organisations.

• Publicity – This could have been better. We got good coverage from the local newspaper (Adyar times). However we still haven’t seen the articles that were supposed to appear on the bigger newspapers (Hindu and Indian Express)

• All the expenses for the event were met by sponsors (corporate and individual donors).

• The event was held at Urur Olcott School which is itself a Asha-Chennai supported project! Several of the volunteers who came to help us during the event were Asha-Scholarship recipients.

FOR EDUCATION Asha Chennai – Salient Features• Projects First – At Asha Chennai we started with Project Pride. We came

together to execute projects. Execution of projects have been our primary focus ever since. We have relied on funding for US chapters. We are only now looking into local fund raising.

• Full Time Interns – Asha Chennai believes that for people from economically under-privileged sections to get actively involved in social work, some stipend to take care of their necessities and obligations is essential. Full-time interns has enabled Asha Chennai to undertake projects that would require full-time commitment.

• Involvement of Experts – Several Asha-Chennai volunteers are experts in the field of education and social work. This has enabled to ramp up quickly in the path towards successful project execution.

• US based volunteers – Several of the Asha Chennai volunteers are people from Asha chapters in the US who have a tie with Chennai. This has provided us a Asha-wide perspective while not losing focus on Chennai.