Dear Friends:

This is a progress report for MICDA which I received through email. 
MICDA
is a very special project that has received excellent site visit 
reports
from many Asha volunteers. Asha Stanford, Asha Delaware and Asha SV are
actively involved in this project. I hope you enjoy reading this 
report.
One of Asha SV volunteers, Jayakannan Jayapalan, showed me pictures 
from
this project during a site visit earlier this year and also mentioned 
how
he was amazed by the work done there.  Dr.Subbaramaiah, the 
co-ordinator
of this project has requested an additional Rs 1,42,000 which works out 
to
about $3000. I will work with Anand on a proposal for this amount.

Madhav.

Asha for Education
An action group for basic education in India
http://www.ashanet.org/stanford

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 20:36:28 -0800 (PST)
From: micda sai <micda2000@yahoo.com>
To: madhavr@Stanford.EDU
Subject: re

To

Mahadev P. Ranganadhan,
Treasurer,
ASHA for Education, Stanford Chapter,
P.O. Box 641741
Sanjosh, CA 95164-1741 USA
E-mail : madhavr@stanford.edu
http://www.ashanet.org/siliconvalley


Dear Sir,

Greetings from MICDA

I write to extend our deep sense of gratitude to you
and all at ASHA Stanford for the generous donation of
US $2500, sent through Mr. Suraj Jacob, who had come
on a visit to India in September 2002. The grant
amount, I assure you would be used exclusively for
meeting the recurring expenditure on the ASHA VIDYA
MANDHIR school at Vidyutsadasivapuram, Puttur Mandal,
Chittoor District, AP.

You will be pleased to learn that the school building
funded by ASHA Education Silicon Valley and other
chapters was completed and inaugurated recently. The
school is now functioning in the new building.

The school project was completed in all respects as
envisaged by us. The school building, appropriately
named as ASHA VIDYA MANDHIR, was inaugurated on
September 9th, 2002 by Sri P.V.S.N. Murthy, IAS,
District Collector and Magistrate, Chittoor. The
galaxy of public representatives including the local
MLA Dr. R. Raja Sekhar Reddy, the Member of Parliament
Dr.N. Venkata Swamy, Dr. Jayesh Ranjan, IAS., Director
of Poverty Initiative Project and a host of others
public representatives and government officials
participated in the inauguration. The whole community
of the Vidyutsadasivapuram including the aged and the
children celebrate the occasion as a festival. The
sense of participation of the community and its
emotional involvement cannot just be described in
words. The MICDA and the whole community felt the
absence of representatives from ASHA, which made it
possible. We expected Mr. Shanmuga to participate on
the occasion, but we were unlucky that he would not
make it.

Soon after the inauguration, the school was shifted
from the temporary sheds to ASHA VIDYA MANDHIR, the
permanent building fondly named after its generous
donors. In a humble tribute to ASHA, the community
remembered Dr. Sandeep Pande, and other illustrious
founders and volunteers of ASHA. The MICDA and the
community thought it fit to inaugurated a portrait of
Dr. Pande, the Megsaysay Award winner and founders on
this joyous occasion. On behalf of MICDA and the
community, I salute all those proud Volunteers of ASHA
who are lighting the torch of education in some other
dark areas of India.

As you are aware an amount of Rs. 100,000 is provided
for purchase of equipment for the school. As the
school is complete in all respects and fully
operational, I request that the budgeted amount may
kindly be released for the purchase of required
equipment for the school including furniture,
laboratory equipment, etc.

You will be pleased to learn that we have set up an
energized drinking water bore-well for the supply of
drinking water to the school children. Incidentally
the water from the bore-well was helpful for the
construction of building. The bore-well cost us Rs.
42,000/- including the cost of drilling, and
installation of electric motor with pump set. MICDA
has advanced the funds on a temporary basis. May you
be pleased to consider releasing this amount of Rs.
42,000/- to MICDA. The photograph of the bore-well
with pump set is enclosed as an attachment for your
kind perusal.

As Ms. Sowmya has suggested in her email dated 26th
July 2002, we are eager to hand over the running of
the school to the government. I am aware that we
cannot continuously run the school with your hard
earned resources. I am also aware that there are
number of other communities such as
Vidyutsadasivapuram which require your generous
support. Infact, the very purpose of inviting the
District Collector and the elected representatives to
the inaugural function was to explore the possibility
of handing over the school to the government or to get
the school admitted for some sort of recurring grant
from the government. I understand that the Government
of India, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment
has a scheme to support residential schools for
children of under privileged sections. Satisfy certain
initial conditions laid down by the government.
Availability of hostel accommodation with all basic
amenities including sanitary facilities, compound
wall, electrification etc is a pre-requisite. Luckily
for us, the first floor building of the school could
be used for the construction of the hostel. But this
requires additional support. if you do not mistake me
for creating addition burden on you, I request you to
explore the possibility of funding the hostel building
at an appropriate time. We would be glad to submit the
estimates for the said building if ASHA permits us.
The hostel facility would enable us to approach the
government to admit the school for total support of
the government on a continuous basis. The residential
school would effectively check the problem of school
dropouts, particularly among the girl children.
Besides, the residential school facility with assured
supply of free meals by the government would alleviate
hunger and malnutrition of a large number of children.
What is more, the residential school in such natural
environment of Vidyutsadasivapuram could also support
children of the poorest of the poor families from the
neighbouring villages.

The community of Vidyutsadasivapuram in general and
the poor children in particular join us to salute you
and all those at ASHA who have supported the creation
of ASHA VIDYA MANDHIR which will support generations
of the poor students. Hopefully a few of the children
of the ASHA VIDYA MANDHIR will grow up to realize your
dreams and values.

Convey our regards to Mr. Suraj Jacob and Ms. Mala
Nuggehally and other volunteers at Asha, Stanford. I
am herewith enclosing the disclosure statement as
desired by you. And also enclosed please find the
photos as attachment.

With greetings and regards,

Yours sincerely,
R. SUBBARAMAIAH