Asha for Education: An action group for basic education in India

This is the first issue of the Asha Patrika. The objective of this Patrika is facilitate the flow of information within Asha with regard to the various happenings at the volunteer, chapter, project, focusgroup and asha-wide level. As volunteers involve themselves with various projects, groups and activities, the learning is immense and varied. The role of the Patrika would be share this learning across Asha. So, while it might be less of a publicity vehicle for an event [event publicity can be done by mails on the asha-wide lists], the Patrika would be more of a followup on the event and the volunteers learning from it. It is also an attempt to archive the ideas that volunteers could use in the future.

The views presented here will be of the concerned volunteer(s) and the editors and donot necessarily reflect those of Asha. Sometimes, decisions of the ARC, chapters and the coordination team will be conveyed through the Patrika. Anybody can send in an article that they think will be useful to Asha volunteers, now and in the future too.

Lastly, this is meant primarily for the Asha-wide volunteers and volunteers from all over Asha (India, US, Europe, Australia) are encouraged to use this medium of spreading learning and best practises. The Patrika will evolve into what we as volunteers want it to be. Chapter coordinators are requested to forward this mail to their chapter volunteer lists.

The Income Tax department in India scrutinised the accounts for the financial year 2001-2002 and has satisfication with the accounts. Mahesh, Kumar and Sandeep from India were responsible for interfacing with the IT Dept on this matter, and their efforts have helped clear this matter.

Biannual elections for various asha-wide coordination roles are to be held this year in Asha. There has been discussions on the asha-wide coordination list on increasing the number of coordination roles as we grow. So far, two nominations have been received: Chandra for web-master from Stanford, and Prithvi for President from NYC-NJ. The nominations are due by March 15th. View the list of candidates.

Asha Sanctuary is an Asha focus group which is interested in issues concerning children of Women in Prostitution (WIP) and children at the risk of being commercially sexually exploited The children of WIP grow up in harsh condition that distort their sense of normalcy, 99% of them ending up in the same trade (boys as pimps or goondas, girls starting young in the trade). It is therefore important for Asha to develop an understanding of the issues in this domain and a concrete plan of action.

At an operational level this translates into better use of existing infrastructure through sharing of information and best practices, and into novel coordinated efforts aimed at addressing some of the more fundamental issues such as awareness, weak legislation, and gender biases in society. We felt that an NGO network might be necessary to foster interaction and joint efforts. However, it was necessary to first take stock of the situation that exists on the ground in terms of what efforts are happening, what kinds of networks exist, what are major issues that the organizations face and so on. A conference was organized for this purpose in December 2003 hosted by Asha partner organization Odanadi Seva Samsthe in Mysore. It was attended by 26 NGOs from all over India.

We learnt several things about the domain, organizational dynamics, and lastly about organizing a conference of this sort. A quick synopsis is as follows:

•First, prostitution is exploitation in the worst form. To the victim it is a slow death, first of the mind and spirit, then of the body. As young as 35, they are no longer ‘in demand’, meaning they make less money and have children by this point. Exposure to STD’s even HIV is also high.

•Second, this is a sizeable but invisible segment of children. Many of several lakhs of prostitutes in India get introduced to the trade at an age when they should be in school.

•Third, there are deep linkages to economic, cultural and global patterns. At the core of the problem is the lack of alternatives sources of livelihood for women everywhere and neglect of the girl child.

•Fourth, this domain is different from some others that Asha deals with because there are powerful vested interests that would like to see trafficking and prostitution continue in the existing form.

•Fifth, community has an important role to play in every level in ensuring safety and security, and complete and overall development of the children.

There are a large number of NGOs working in this domain. The areas of work include rescue and rehabilitation of girls from prostitution, developing in the children awareness of health, development and legal concerns, anti-trafficking efforts, providing housing alternatives and education to children of WIP (street based or other) and so on. There are several initiatives to network the NGOs but they have not been as effective as one would like to see. There is a general consensus that there should be greater amount of networking. Also, no single NGO has the capability to take on large initiatives that are necessary to address the fundamental problems in this domain.

We see the former happening through regular project evaluation and support processes, and the latter through focus groups such as Sanctuary.

Asha has an important role to play as a third party in bringing together organizations in this domain. However we have to be careful about three things.

There are many: (1) learn more about this domain (2) read the conference proceedings (3) be more sensitive to issues of women in prostitution (4) treat girl child better (5) coordinate efforts in domain with the Sanctuary group (on the web at http://www.ashanet.org/focusgroups/sanctuary/, or join the yahoogroup at asha-sanctuary@yahoogroups.com ).

Attendees: Badrish (Central NJ), Caroline (Arizona), Chidu (Zurich), DP (Vermont), Mehar (Munich), Melli (Boston), Netika (SV), Prithvi (NYCNJ), Shailen(NYCNJ), Shubo (SV), SKI (MHV)

There has been a considerable increase in the number of requests to establish new chapters of Asha at various parts of Us and Europe. As of now, there are requests to start new chapters at Ireland, Lehigh University/ Harrisburg, Penn State University, Toronto, Aachen [Germany], FSU [Tallahassee, Florida] and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.

As we work with the enthusiastic volunteers who are involved in starting these chapters, there is a big need for mentor chapters and/or mentors to help connect with the new volunteers. Volunteers interested in helping out with this activity can send a mail to secretary@ashanet.org

First Data Western Union Foundation has made a generous donation of $73,000.00 to Asha for Education – Colorado Chapter towards the construction of classroom building for Sebama Foundation (SF). SF runs a residential center called ‘Mercy Home’ for children with orthopedic, hearing and developmental disabilities in Dharmapuri District of Tamil Nadu, India. There are three schools on-site with a total of about 240 children.

Asha-CO has been partnering with SF since 2001. Our initial focus had been to support the children at the Rosa Vocational Rehabilitation Center for the Mentally Retarded. Overtime the then project stewards understood the need for improving infrastructure of the school and worked closely with the principal contact for SF, Louis Ryan, to formulate a proposal for the construction of classroom building and submitted the same for WAH 2003 and later to Western Union Foundation.

The grant from Western Union Foundation will enable SF to have a new classroom building for the children comprising of 15 classrooms and 5 other rooms for a science laboratory, medical, Staff, Administration and a multi-purpose room.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in Asha Patrika are not necessarily those of Asha For Education. The views of the editor(s) do not necessarily reflect those of Asha and the views expressed by volunteers do not necessarily reflect those of the editor(s).