Minutes of the Projects Focus Group meeting
Feb 15, 2003
by Anirban and Sridhar
Attendees: Vikas, Rajesh, Sridhar, Amrish, Hansa,
Anirban, Manoj
Minutes taken by Anirban (Action items added by
Sridhar)
Summary:
--------
Vikas updated the group on the Aajgaon pottery
project. There are some clarifications required from
the project about how they plan to move forward. This
project will be revisited in about two months to
decide on its future course. Rajesh informed the group
about Asha Chennai activities and requested partial
funding for the Asha Scholarships. $1,000 was approved
for the next year (2003 July to 2004 July) and
additionally funding upto $2,000 will be considered
provided there is a need and our chapter has the
money.
Detailed minutes:
-----------------
I. Update on Aajgaon pottery project by Vikas
This project is located in Aajgaon in rural
Maharashtra. The organization running the project is
Lok Kalyan Shikshan Sanstha (LKSS). LKSS has been
working in the area for 40 years. They run a school
which has grades 5th to 10th and a B.Ed. (Bachelor of
Education) college. The pottery project with which we
are involved was started in 1999. Vikas visited the
project for the first time in March 2001 and the
project was presented at our chapter in November 2001
and approved for funding at a level of $8,000.
For more detailed history please see
http://www.ashanet.org/princeton/projects/aaj/
The initial funding for this project was approved to
buy an electric kiln and other infrastructure and also
to pay 12 months salary of the instructor. The kiln is
needed for glazing the pottery which is necessary for
making it attractive in the market. However, the
electric kiln was not purchased because the kiln needs
to be hot continuously for 22 hours and this was a
problem because of discontinuous power supply in the
region. We did not anticipate this problem before. As
of today the traditional gas kiln is being used, but
the problem with the gas kiln is that it depreciates
quickly. Our funding was partly used for modification
of the existing kiln and for the salary of the
instructor. The LKSS folks consulted Vikas before
deciding to use the money. The balance money with
LKSS is Rs.2,75,000 (2.75 lakh rupees).
The main problem with the project is that there is no
dedicated person there now to give the pottery center
direction and vision. A dedicated and resourceful
person is required to ensure that the quality of the
products that the students are taught to make are such
that they can sell. Also the project has to become
self-sufficient and grow. Mr.Aajgaonkar who initiated
the project and is a very successful potter himself,
is now 82 years old and not keeping well. A person has
to be found who can take over from Mr.Aajgaonkar. We
can pay the salary of this person if needed, but LKSS
has to find this person.
Action Items:
Vikas to follow up on questions that were raised at
the meeting. We will revisit this project in two
months to decide on the future course of action.
Specifically, i. Can LKSS find a person who will take
over the role of a resource person like Mr.Aajgaonkar
and help move the project forward? We can consider
funding the salary of this person if needed. ii. Can
the potters form a cooperative? What does it involve
to form a cooperative and what help do they need to
start one?
2. Vikas to take the lead on forming a working group
of volunteers interested in the Aaj project. This is
particularly relevant as Vikas needs someone to help
him with project stewardship responsibilities
(Timeline to be determined by Vikas).
II. Presentation of Asha Chennai activities by Rajesh
[ A copy of the presentation made by Rajesh is available here. ]
Asha Chennai has been active for about one year now
(It has been around from earlier). Asha Chennai is
like an NGO in the sense that it runs projects.
However, it is also different from an NGO because the
projects are overlooked by volunteers (not paid) and
two Asha Fellows (who receive a stipend from Asha).
Asha Chennai currently has 6 projects:
1. Asha Scholarships - given to underprivileged
children.
2. Project Build - supports children of migrant brick
workers.
3. Project Pride - aims to make Besant Nagar/Urur
Kuppam are a model area for Chennai.
4. Project Bridge - is to create a technology aided
learning environment.
5. Spread the benefits of Technology Assisted learning
to Udavum Karangal, which is a well known charitable
institution in Chennai.
6. Fund the computer center of Sevachakra orphanage.
Rajesh discussed the first two projects in some
detail.
Asha Scholarships is one year old. Scholarships are
given to needy children who are in regular school
ranging from Kindergarten to College. There is a
nomination form for selection, there are rules and
guidelines and a sound process for selection of the
scholarship recipients. The person who nominates a
child is responsible for the child's progress. The
amount of money given to the children was flexible
when this scheme was started, but after going through
a learning curve, it has now been fixed for a
particular grade. So all children in a particular
grade get the same scholarship irrespective of which
school they are studying in. In the first year (that
is last year) 49 students got scholarships. Average
expense per student was Rs.3,294. The money came from
Asha stars ($1,200), Asha Princeton($1,000) and Asha
Berkeley ($2,000).
Asha Build is to extend the work done by an
organization called Pasumani (Pasumai?) trust, which
has been working to provide Non Formal Education to
the children of brick workers. Rajesh pointed out that
there are 80,000 children working in brick industries
near Chennai city alone. Bonded labour is rampant
because of the nexus between brick kiln owners and
money lenders. Asha Build has started three non formal
schools in Jan-Feb 2003 which is catering to 50+20+56
kids. A question asked was why these schools are not
formal schools?
Rajesh said that Asha Chennai needs a chapter in the
US, which will be a 'home' for it. Right now, the
group in the US working with Asha Chennai is a virtual
one, so people participate in meetings over phone or
email. The proposal for the Princeton chapter was to
take responsibility for all Asha Chennai projects and
thus be a home for it in the US. It was felt by the
group that this was not possible because of lack of
bandwidth to review every single Asha Chennai project.
We could consider taking up one additional Asha
Chennai project, but not overall responsibility for
Asha Chennai.
As far as funding for the Asha Chennai Scholarships is
concerned, like last year, $1,000 was approved for
this year. Rajesh will send Manoj the initial project
proposal to put up on the webpage. $2,000 is expected
from the Berkeley chapter, but if this money is not
received, Princeton will consider funding it for the
next year provided we have the money. Meanwhile, the
'Support a Child' approach will be pursued to get
money for this project.
Action Items:
1. Asha Princeton webpage to be updated with the Asha
Scholarships project information (Rajesh, Manoj)
2. Rajesh to present a specific potential Asha Chennai
project that has a broader impact on education across
Asha Projects (like Technology Assisted Learning
project). Timelines to be determined based on the
availability of information.