Asha Austin Meeting Minutes (January, 2012)

Attendees:  Murali, Charanya, Vishwas, Arvind V., Mohit

1.RMKM-CBR : Update [Murali]

Click Here for Project summary

Click Here for Annual Report

• RMKM-CBR Funding started in 2007, $49K total. Located in Ajmer district.
• Asha Austin is a major funding souce. Asha funds salaries for 2 CBR workers and associated expenses.
• RMKM addresses issues associated with children w/ mental disabilities. Including:
• Prevention strategies (pre-natal, neo-natal, ongoing)
• Awareness
• Support and therapy for MR children
• Rehabilitation of MR children
• Integration of MR children into mainstream
• Tie-in support for govt schems
• Currently supporting 330 children (up from 100 in 2003).
• About 120 in school, and remaining are in the field Ð of which 170-180 in urban areas, remaining in rural areas.
• Full time workers travel to areas where children are.
• Back in late 1990Õs RMKM lost funding for 3 years. Many children relapsed due to lack of training.
• RMKM is well recognized in Rajasthan, has been recognized as best NGO in state in the past.
• Estimate is that 60,000 children require assistance in Ajmer area. Funding constrains current number of children RMKM can reach. Funding affects scale of operation as well as ability to attract and retain people.

Some comments regarding annual report statistics:

• Gender distribution: One issue is all CBR workers are male. Many people are not comfortable with male CBR workers in the house working with female children, thus the gender distribution is distorted towards male. Age: most kids are over 18 in urban CBR. However their mental age may be far less

Q: Is there someone looking for funding from other organizations?
A: They have success with infrastructure, but not for programs like CBR. There is no individual responsible for this.

Q: How did Asha Austin start supporting RMKM.
A: Murali was working with this project w/ Vibha. Vibha had funding issues, and Murali brought it to Asha.

Q: Would Vibha consider supporting RMKM by 100%
A: This is something that Murali would like to take to Vibha.

Q: How were CBR workers paid as there was no recent Asha disbursement?
A: RMKM is a large organization and has a common account, so funds that were available were used to pay the CBR workers.

Budget

• Total budget is Rs. 867,000 (~ $16,825)
• This is a retroactive budget request.
• The Asha Austin reqest is Rs. 264,000 (~$5,000) to support 2 CBR Workers. This is for the past 6 months.

[AI: ] Murali will set up an on-line poll for this.


2.Jeevan Gnanodaya (Charanya)

Click here for Slides

• Location: Chengalpet near Chennai since 1989
• School serves hearing and speech impaired kids from poor, rural backgrounds
• All facilities including lodging are free
• Currently 113 students
• Goals:
• Formal education thru Class 10
• Industrial vocational training (certified)
• Mr. Devarajan who runs JG also runs a primary school.
• 8 teachers are trained in special education, sign language, etc, 6 are untrained. However the untrained teachers are more experienced and often more effective.
Also, there is more turnover amongst trained teachers.
• Funding is by 3 Asha Chapters (Austin, Seattle, Urbana-Champaign). Atlanta used to fund, but pulled out due to budget reasons. No other NGO support. Other funding is from public donations, state govt. and parents. Asha Austin support is ~12% of Asha funding.
• 6 new trained teachers recruited in 2011.
• 9 ITI students passed in November, 2 have started working. Mr. Devarajan is actively involved in placement of ITI graduates.
• School plans to become self-sufficient by 2013, mostly thru revenue from wedding hall.
• Construction is almost complete. Donations to JG dropped off for a while as people perceived that there was a lot of money when hall construction was going on. Mr. Devarajan met with donors and explained how that was going to help long term, and private donations have rebounded.
• Budget:
• Asha Austin request is for food.
• Total amount is Rs, 620,700 (~$12,000)
• Goal is to make JG a Support a Child project. SAC donation amount will be $120/child x 113 children.
• Formal SAC event has not been done, but $5157 has been raised thus far thru SOH, matching, Dell Volunteer giving, chapter general funds, direct donation.
• Amount of funding with Asha includes SOH on-line donations and chapter general funds, this amount is $1719. Dell matching is not with Asha at this time due to time lag in receiving funds.
• Charanya will check with Bharath and Ranga to determine what amount to vote for approval at this time.

Q: Why no other NGO support?
A: Initial funding was from Asha SV. As funding needs grew, other chapters were willing to take up support, as a result, other NGO funding was not required. Also, there are a lot of public donations.

Q: What are reasons for teachers leaving?
A: mainly salary, but also location and marriage.

[AI: Charanya ] Contract duration is 2 years, how is that duration arrived at?

3.Calendars (Charanya)

• There are 40 calendars with the chapter. If anyone wants, please email Charanya asap.
• Sale cost per calendar is $10. Chapter nets $6.50 per calendar.
• Charanya will share sales sheet.