Attendees: Ankur, Arvind, Arun, Ashwini, AnitaI, AnitaK, Bharath, Chiranjeet, Divya, Gayatri, Kushbu, Gaurav, Priya, Roopa, Savita, Sanjeev, Santhosh, Vinod.

1) About Assam and some projects in Assam - Ankur

Ankur has been interacting with Asha-Dallas. As part of the process, he visited a couple of projects in Assam when he was in India. He recently moved to Austin. Ankur gave overview of Ankur’s understanding of Assam.

He also introduced Parijat Academy and Pragyalaya two projects he visited and shared videos of the projects that he had taken.

Parijat – 2 days, Pragyalaya – 1 day.

http://www.outlookindia.com/mad.asp?fname=Making&synopsis=&subsubsec=Assam&fodname=20060213&personname=Uttam+Teron

Some questions and answers:

Q: Stone quarry details?

A: Used for construction.

Q: Minimum wages? Do they get min wages?

A: Will find out.

Q: Age group of the children

A: 5-14 yrs Pragyalaya

5-8 yrs Parijat

Q: Are the teachers from community

Yes.

Q: Urban setting or rural setting?

A: Pragyalaya - suburbs of Gawhati,

Parijat - Johnhar

Q: Is there access to other schools?

A: Some govt schools are available around Pragyalaya not around Parijat.

Q: Have any people graduated?

A: Not yet.

Q: What will happen next?

A: Vocational skills available at Pragyalaya. Also further education. Parijat, planning for vocational skills for parents and local community.

Q: Do only women do weaving?

A: Yes

Q: What is the girl boy ratio?

A: Will find out

Q: Is there any opportunity after X and XII?

A: Will find out.

Q: How did you hear about them?

A: Both through magazines, Outlook India – Parijat, Assamese magazine – Pragyalaya.

Q: Why do they not go to govt school?

A: No motivation in the govt schools. Through vocational skills they will be able to secure a job.

Q: Attrition to govt school?

A: Don’t think so.

Q: How long have the schools been running?

A: Parijat – 2001, Pragyalaya – 2002

2) Right to Education (RTE) Update - Vinod

http://www.ashanet.org/campaigns/rte/

Right to education as a fundamental right, however, there is no specific law in place.

- Email and fax to the PM setup.

Increasing awareness about the issue. When we table we try to get signups

In India the idea is to take out ads in public newspapers.

Talk to people in India including talk to MPs.

3) WAH

Asha’s annual online fundraiser. We are supporting MSS. Please read about MSS the project and inform people and support the project.

http://www.ashanet.org/workanhour/2006/projects-nmenu.html?prj=mss&a=53

4) Marathon Program - SOH

Different action items are pending for the marathon program, we decided that a few people can take the lead and work on it and then we can discuss the refined version at meetings:

- Fundraising workshops - Gaurav

- Motive/AT &T/Any race - Define and organize approach as a charity organization: We can approach the companies organizing half and full marathons and see if they can waive the fees for team asha runners.

- Tech Tees/Cotton tees order – Santhosh can order the T-shirts, however, he requires the artwork.

- Registering each runner to appropriate program (Motive half, AT&T half or AT&T full) - Ashwini

Some things to check:

- 50 miles what time is the quality sessions and the long runs. Will Santhosh and Gaurav be able to coach the sessions.