3rd Dec 06
Minutes of Asha Meeting
Attendees: Murali, Sanjeev, Anita, Gaurav, ArvindV, Sharanya, ArvindR, AswiniS,
Vinod, Arun, AshwiniG, Ajay, Venkatesh
1. Pragyalaya:
Ankur had visited the project when he visited
1) Proposal is available at
http://data.ashanet.org/datastore/data/Chapters/Austin/proposals/Prajnalaya/ProposalPrajnalaya.doc
2) Earlier Q & A and minutes
http://www.ashanet.org/austin/minutes_html/27aug06.html
http://www.ashanet.org/austin/minutes_html/8oct06.html
http://www.ashanet.org/austin/minutes_html/20oct06.html
3) Conference call with Pragyalaya:
http://data.ashanet.org/datastore/data/Chapters/Austin/proposals/Prajnalaya/pragyalaya06Nov2.rtf
Pragyalaya runs a school in Assam. The initial proposal was for generation of
organic fertilizer that would help them work with the local community and help
them in self-sustaining the school.
- Initial proposal was for 10 tanks, after conf call, reduced number of tanks
to start small
- why organic fertilizer? income and employment
- students learn vocational skills through this project
- who is going to buy the fertilizer? tea gardens around there
- all costs in the budget are one-time
- school expenses are for the 3 new classrooms
Proposal:
- Rs.22,000 for 3 tanks, sheds and materials
- Rs.63,000 for furniture, water filters, mosquito nets for hostels
- About 15 kids get full scholarship for school and hostel
We still need to understand:
- is the school representative of the community economically?
- do the parents of the poor kids work on the tanks in lieu of paying fees?
- we need a report after their first compost
- clarify that if the tanks are successful we expect that they can start the
remaining tanks themselves.
- we need to crosscheck the costs for furniture with Biju/others
Everyone was comfortable supporting tanks and children's requirements. We could
not reach concenses regarding school furniture and took a vote. For – 9,
Against – 4
The project is approved.
2. Fellowship: Siddamma
Continuation of the discussion of Siddamma's fellowship from the last meeting:
http://www.ashanet.org/austin/minutes_html/12nov06.html
Reading material available at:
http://www.ashanet.org/austin/projects/siddamma.html
Most recent update about the resource center is at:
http://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/documents/579/btUpDec06.ppt
We discussed Siddamma's work further and talked about increasing Siddamma's
fellowship amount. When we started the fellowship Siddamma had mentioned that
she required Rs.20,000 per month. Since our chapter still fresh and was not
sure of raising the funds we had decided to support Rs.10,000/month since we
could support it consistently. Also Siddamma was receiving support as the
coordinator of the Tsunami rehabilitation project from Save The Children
Foundation of Rs.5,000/month. This grant will expire in Dec '06.
The proposal was to increase her fellowship to the full amount requested.
Since the amount is on the higher side there was some discussion on what her
expenses for the amount would be. The fellowships program has been defined
through the Asha Representative Council by all chapters.
http://data.ashanet.org/datastore/data/Focusgroups/Fellowships/ARC/
In the program guidelines it was decided to ask fellows about their
requirements, but not to ask about the details of their personal expenses,
since it is very personal to them. The fellowship should only be supported when
we are perfectly comfortable with the individual and can trust them implicitly.
In case of Siddamma, Asha has worked with her over the years for the
motivational centers, release of bonded laborers and a school for them, Tsunami
relief and rehab and more recently the Bharathi Trust resource center.
Some volunteers were still curious to understand what the expenses of people
living in the city would be and if Siddamma's expenses are typical. Sanjeev
spoke to Siddamma to understand her expenses and conveyed it to the volunteers
at the meeting.
luv,
Sanjeev
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Ran 60k to fundraise for the underprivileged in India...
http://www.ashanet.org/austin/soh/runners/anitaNsanjeev.html