Asha Meeting
23rd September 2007
Attendees: Savitha, Itisha, Sais, Ganesh, Santhosh, Gaurav, Mohit, Santhosh’s parents
1. Talent Show Update - Itisha
2. Prassna Jyothi Annual Review - Savitha
3. Vikasana - Ganesh
4. Strides of Hope Update - Ganesh/Mohit
1. Talent Show Update - Itisha
Itisha provided an update about the Talent Show Prelims and what help they needed.
2. Prassna Jyothi Annual Review- Savitha (http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=137 )
- Project is stewarded by Sharanya and Rajiv. Savitha is also helping out.
- Located in urban Bangalore in JP Nagar
- Started in 1994 and provides boarding, lodging and school of disadvantaged girls - children of divorced parents, orphans. There are 22 girls living there now.
- Started by the Prasanna Trust
- The children attend very good urban schools.
- One concern is the location of the house - it is in a low lying area and every winter the place gets water logged. They are working with the government in constructing a wall to prevent the water from coming in.
- The children are supported through the Support-a-Child (SAC) Program - $20/month.
- One of the girls has finished her engineering and she has obtained a job in the IT industry.
- PJ has started a catering unit to help them in terms of self-sustainability. Some of the older kids work with this unit or help out.
Q. Who helps in the catering unit?
A. Only the older kids help out.
Q. Do they pay the kids who work in the catering unit?
A. Kids maybe paid when the catering unit is more established.
- Since the children are being supported by donors - maybe the kids contributing to the catering unit could be paid a stipend.
- The kids have a space of their own in the house.
Q. Would be support a religious school?
A. We need to make sure the school is secular in practice though the coordinator could ideally follow their own religion, as long as he/she does not enforce it on the children.
Q. Do we need to increase the support/month?
A. The coordinators are not sure an increase is needed as they are concerned that it may result in a loss of donors.
- One of the donors wanted her child to interact with the child she was supporting. The conference call did not work in the past. They are checking on using email or letters.
- Budget review will be provided next week. The budget update will include costs for the catering unit.
- The children have changed schools and joined another one in the neighborhood.
- Do the children need coaching or tuitions?
- They have only one computer and do they need more play material?
Action Items
Q. How do they plan to get around the water-logging issue?
Q. Do they pay the kids who work in the catering unit?
Q. Why did the children change schools?
Q. Check on the play material and the computer
3. Vikasana - Ganesh - (http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=414 )
- Meenakshi, an Asha Florida chapter, is running the Chicago marathon and raising money for this project.
- It is being supported by Asha Seattle now and was also supported by the WAH campaign this year.
- The school provides residential support for children of migrant laborers. Some of the children may also be actually working. School is in Karnataka.
- They support upto 25 kids per year.
- They provide food and education to each kid
- Beyond class 7, they try to put the kids in govt. hostels
- Beyond the age of 14, they try to provide vocational training
- They have two teachers and two cooks. One teacher and one cook have been with the group in the beginning and they stay on-campus. The other teacher is high-school passed.
- They have an annual budget of about Rs 2,20,000 and they also receive support from a German organization.
- They follow the government syllabus books. It follows a formal schooling system.
- Each child has a vegetable plot - to provide some income.
Action Items - Read up the project on the project website.
4. Strides of Hope Update - Ganesh
- 25 people registered for the half marathon
- 18 registered for the full marathon
- 6 registered for the ultra marathon
- 3 registered for Chicago marathon
- T shirts will be ready very soon. We are going with the same color and design.
- There is a fund-raising workshop today