ASHA: Minutes of meeting held on 6/24/99 at Mem. Union

[Kamalkumar Gursahani <gursahan@cae.wisc.edu>]

Attendees: Kamal, Mahesh, Neraj, Param, Vidhi, Vineeta, Vinod

The discussion was on:
1.      Summarizing the Work and Hour (WAH) 99 projects
2.      Discussion of the points to evaluate the projects and voting
3.      Need for better projects for future WAH proposals
4.      WAH fundraising at Madison

VESC:
Venky got clarifications on the VESC project from Pritvi Prabhu (Asha AZ). The
main responses are:
·       The school is part time (4 hrs a day, 6 days a week)
·       There are no religious affiliations. However, the school tries to
instill Swami Vivekanand's ideals in the children
·       The school is 20kms from Calcutta. The second center is further away.
·       There is a govt middle school in the area. However, the ability of the
children to go to other schools are not known
·       Do not know how long it will take to get FCRA clearance.  The Home
ministry is involved and they already lost the files once.

Seva Nilayam:
·       The question "from where do the children come from is yet to be
resolved".
·       The remaining aspects of this project seems to be well explained
in the
project proposal

Anandwan:
Param had got responses for questions raised about this proposal. 
·       The whole project seemed to be based on local know-how and available
human resources available with the NGO
·       They have a proven track record. They already have funding for  $6.5k 
for the project - so they will definitely start going about with the project.
·       This is a big well established NGO (existing since the 50's). They have
a higher chance of getting funding based on their  name

Boomiheen Seva Samithi:
Responses  for the questions could not be obtained. The main remaining concerns
are their track record and the report from Mahesh, which does not indicate
enthusiastic support. There seems to be a lack of vision and implementation
record on part of the people running the project.

Jyothi Nilayam:
·       Few students benefit and the costs are high.

Udhavam Karangal
·       This project is not put together properly

Criteria for WAH decisions:
·       New and upcoming NGO versus established group
·       The impact generated by a small group versus the credibility of the
well
established group
·       Planned and sustainable versus high budget
·       Urban versus rural
·       Community involvement and people with long term vision

Vineeta and Param emphasized that large NGO should not be ruled out if they are
doing a good job.

A big concern was the quality of project for WAH consideration. It was strongly
felt that projects like Udhavam Karangal and Jyothi Nilayam was not worth
considering. In future there should be a more effort spent on submitting
proposals for WAH consideration.

WAH'99 fundraising at Madison
·       It is important to have a event for WAH fundraising
·       A list of  faculty at UW Madison will be made. The hope is that there
would be a chance to reach out to a wide network for fundraising and for other
resources
·       Vidhi and Mahesh will look at contacts outside the university
·       Vidhi will contact Prof. Bharghava for a Asha open house for
fundraising
·       Neeraj raised the need for a separate administrative cost account