Meeting Minutes
April 20, 2008
Anil, Sapan, Ann, Amit, Lakshmi, Milla, Bala, Pankaj, Ikhlaq, Jyoti
I. Asha-wide elections
II. Pranjalaya Storm damage
III. Asha Ashram
IV. Kabir Project
V. WAYSS Project update
VI. IOI, Asha West Conference
I. Asha-wide elections (Sapan)
- Asha-wide elections are currently going on
- One vote/chapter
- April 30 is the deadline to vote
- Contested positions are – President and Secretary
- Other positions are uncontested
- Chapter Vote was taken for President and Secretary
- Before the deadline, Sapan will also email the group detailing contested positions/candidates.
Action Required
(Sapan) Email the group about Asha-wide elections.
(Sapan) Upload meeting minutes online.
II. Pranjalaya Storm damage (Pankaj)
- Project is supported by Asha Austin
- Located in Distt. Jorhat, Assam
- Rural project, Asha Austin is supporting the vocational traning program there
- Prajnalaya has been affected by the recent storm
- Damage is about Rs. 2,00,000
- Pictures of storm damage were shown
- Given chapter's projected disbursal, it was decided to send $1000 for relief efforts in Pranjalaya
III. Asha Ashram (Bala)
- Located in Hardoi, UP.
- Project idea is to have a global place for learning.
- Individuals, activists and scholars are welcome from around the world to come and live in this area, teach or attend courses and do research.
- Areas of Interest for academic and activism work: Right to Life, Right to Food, Right to Employment, Right to Information, Transparency and Accountability in governance, Human Rights, Communal Harmony, Traditional rights over natural resources of local communities, South Asia and Global peace and nuclear disarmament, gender equality, Decentralized political and economic systems, community health.
- More detail are available at http://www.ashanet.org/india/lalpur-1.htm
- $15000 with Berkeley chapter to support this project
Action Required
(Jyoti) Follow-up with Asha Ashram members, figure out how they would like to spend $15000.
IV. Kabir Project (Bala)
- Located in Dewas and Ujjain (Rural)
- Prof. Linda Hess (Stanford) started this initiative, she did the site visit.
- Focus on older primary school and middle school children.
- Experimental, non-conventional education.
- Pilot project, 9 months duration
- Singing of Kabir bhajans in school and discuss the meaning.
- $2000 budget
- Project steward is needed for the project.
- Money will be sent through Eklavaya.
- Last time when we discussed this project, it was not clear how the project would be evaluated.
- Because it is a pilot project, Linda has suggested that kids should be able to sing and understand the meaning for the evaluation of project
Action Required
(Bala) Email the group about Kabir project.
V. WAYSSS Project (Bala)
Update
- Located in Guntur, A.P.
- Surprise site visit was done in Jan 08 by Bala.
- He found no school at that location.
- Bala showed pictures from current and past site visits.
Background
- Sitaramaswamy started WAYSSS in 1996.
- Govt started Balahita schools in Guntur run by NGOs.
- WAYSSS applied for funding to operate these schools.
- Govt promised funding for 2001-2003. But funding was stopped in 2002.
- So, school was also stopped.
- Site visit done in 2002.
- Asha Berkeley started supporting the school in 2002 – vocation training, mid day meal, rent, and salaries.
- Change of administration took place – Dr. Prasanna Yashashwi became new head.
- 2004-2005: no project steward in Berkeley, no updates from project partners.
- 2006: Bala became project steward.
- Site visit by Sowjanya in 2006.
- WAYSS nominated for WAH 2006. Got funding of $7000 for two years (for vocation training, mid day meal, rent, and salaries).
- Administration of WAYSS decided to move to school to a new location.
- Construction of new school closer to Guntur in 2007. Named it Asha School.
- Bala had phone conversation with Dr. Yashashwi in Mar 07.
- Future Plan was to make WAYSS a SAC project for self sustainability.
- WAH money was sent in Jun 2007.
- Since then no financial report or updates.
- Bala did surprise visit in Jan 2008 and found no Asha school building.
- He talked to Dr. Yashashwi and a teacher of nearby local govt. school.
- According to the teacher of local Govt. school – there was no need for another school in that area, this govt. school is missionary school and they get money from Italy.
- According to Dr. Yashashwi – that teacher begged them to remove school from that area because otherwise funding would be stopped and that school needed certain minimum number of kids to secure funding every year.
- He also mentioned part of the school building collapsed during rains. Finally, they dismantled the whole school.
Status
- Not supporting this project.
VI. Images of India 2008, Asha West Conference
Action Required
(Anil, Milla, Amit, Lakshmi) Start initial preparations for IOI 08; decide on date, core team etc.
(Lakshmi) contact Barnali for Asha West conference.
