Project BUILD 
Report for January - February 2004

March 4, 2004
Questions? 
Contact Lakshmi Suryanarayanan 
surlak@vsnl.net


Project Build
Report for January - February 2004

Recall (from report Dec 2003)

  1. Tamarai has started on 23rd December 2003, earlier than expected. K.Murthy was working towards the opening of the other centers for this year’s season, with 15 students on the first day.
  2. The Build teachers who were working with govt. schools nearby have come back to BUILD Centres. Their work in the govt. schools has been highly appreciated in the schools and the villages.
  3. Fund raising was active- Money equivalent of $651 has reached Chennai. $1000 was on its way. Project Steward Vijay from Houston and Asst. treasurer Asha Chennai Sudhagar at Sunnyvale are making the routing of funds smoother by the day.
  4. There has been problem for the workers at the Madras brick kiln (Roja) Centre as the payments from the kiln owners are supposedly not received on time. So en-masse the entire group of workers (who are from one place in Tirunelveli Dist.) have moved to work in another kiln.)
  5. Mr. S. Viswanathan , Asha Chennai volunteer is helping Murthy K.

Current Status Jan- Feb 2004

  1. Centre Chembarathi of the previous year has been revived. Initially there was a lot of trouble with the location of the center at the same place because the land had changed hands and the location was going to be used for digging up to provide water to city of Chennai, However K. Murthy relentlessly worked and the place has become available. Chembarathi is back in action with renewed vigour- more children and three teachers. About 70 children in age groups 2-16.
  2. New Centre Suryakanthi was opened on 22/01/04. The owner of the kiln has provided a two-room pucca building and also requested the workers in the kiln to send the children to the centre. There are more than 50 children in the age group 6-16 and about 20 children in the age group 2-5. Hence 3 teachers are working here.
  3. There are 8 teachers and one support staff with Murthy now.
  4. On 28.02.04 Murthy has conducted meeting of parents of in all 3 centres.
    Parents have participated with great enthusiasm. They are very happy that the centers have been revived. Parents have agreed to contribute Rs.10/ per month for per child.
  5. Murthy K. has given the required details to Sarva Siksha Abhiyan ( a central Govt. initiative for NFE). He expects to get support for the centers. The SSA will certify that the children did attend the centers. This will help them to return to/enroll in the formal schools in their home-villages.
  6. Mrs. Vijaya Ramachandran made a site visit to the centers in end feb 2004 with Sri. Viswanathan. This was followed by a discussion on how to follow with the children and ensure that the children continue to learn when they are not at the BUILD Centres. The importance of keeping track though very difficult would be attempted, as project BUILD is only a year old and we can really keep track. Some very useful ideas emerged. Mr. Murthy will follow up and report. Mrs. Vijaya’s experiences shared with us helped bring about the understanding.
  7. The fund raising has been further successful with the tally of funds raised being $5656 against the $8000 required. $2026 have reached India. Serious efforts are in to get the money routed to India soon.
  8. Materials and nutrition are well taken care of. Murthy and Viswanathan are doing all the running around ably and promptly supported by Treasurer Geetha and Jeba.


Planned Activities in March- April 2004

  1. Follow up with SSA.
  2. Follow up of students who have no returned since last season.


Details of accounts will be posted separately.

Lakshmi Suryanarayanan
For Build Project Steward