Minutes 11/19/06

Paneer pakoras were excellent.
Thanksgiving Party on Wednesday, 22nd, 7:30 p.m. – Gaurav's place

Vinod presented on Shrusti Special Academy.
Based in rural Bangalore primarily for autistic and other disabled children.  There is a building in Bangalore city for the very young children.  The facility in rural Bangalore is new.  Total of about 120 children.   Approximately 5:1 student to teacher ration.  They try to find such children at an early stage to help integrate into mainstream.
New program Balvadi -for very young children (like a day care center)
Each child is exposed to a variety of options (pre-vocational training).  The goal is to make the child self-sufficient.  Once it is determined what the child is good at, vocational training is provided.  This is not traditional education.  It is not residential.  Children come in the morning, and go home in the evening.  Success depends on parental involvement.  Corporations can be involved by ordering products, donating facilities, or encouraging employees to volunteer. 
Background of children varies.  Some pay fees, others do not.

Vinod & Gaurav have visited, the impression is very positive.

This Diwali, they made 1.81 lakh (monthly expense around 5 lakh).

They held a sports day (special event, not part of the regular operating budget).

Asha has been supporting salaries for 5 teachers.  Salary ranges from $93-$150 per month.  Support a teacher program has been started, but is not in place yet.  Donors were asked to donate directly to Shrusti.

Vinod will research into the number of schools in India set up for special education, & what % of population is mentally challenged (ie autism, ADD, etc).

No clear structure as to how they get new ideas on different skills for the children.  Largely dependent on skills of the staff & volunteers. 

It is difficult to get the children fully into mainstream due to barriers in society,  There is a lot of stigma attached to it.  Also, some support structure is still required.  An idea is to set up a separate company that would employ the graduating children.  This may or may not be sustainable.  This would be a financially separate so the funding and money would not be mixed.  Those who work should be paid at least minimum wage, but the transition from training to working is also not clear. 

A local project steward is needed once Vinod moves out of Austin.  He will still be project coordinator and continue to work with the project.

Other:
Vinod will write description of Chapter Coordinator and ARC Rep.



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43 miles over the weekend...
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