WARM - Welfare Association for the Rural Mass

Melli
Oct. 12^th, 2003

http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=271

Warm is project running tuition centers for the children in villages. Asha supports one such school in one village, and 13 others are supported by another Dutch funding agency. These are Non Formal Education centers with limited infrastructure and costs. The cost per year for running one school is about $1000. The NFE our chapter supports has about 25 children. There is no school in the neighbourhood, and these children do not go to a Govt. school. Interestingly, the state of Tamil Nadu does also claim that all primary children are in school, and further there is a school within a few kilometers of the children / villages.

As there is no better alternative, the NFE centers are helping quite a bit. Ram has been able to visit the project a couple of times, and is in good contact with the coordinator and the teacher. He was all praise for the teacher and her dedication and willingness to help the children. She rides her bike from a few kilometers away.

The teacher also participated in the Asha Literacy meet earlier, and hopefully has been able to get a few more pointers to better teach. Ram took a set of books to the project for the children. Allowing the children to read outside of school material is quite important.

There was only one class being held for the 25 children, who are in various age groups. Why can the children not be divided into multiple age groups? Hire another teacher? Teach in a better structured manner? Are there no more children in the village? Do the teachers from the other villages interact and learn from eachother? What study material is being used, and what is the syllabus followed? How are we ensuring that the children are learning? Tests?

As the children are not actually going to school, this NFE center is held during the day. Can the centers not be run for longer hours then? What are the deliverables that we would like to see from the project?

This project is up for annual renewal. Ram’s site visit report can be found on the project page. The proposal is similar to the previous years, with reduction of the non-recurring expenses, but inclusion of another teacher. The proposal request is of $1000 per year, to be paid in two installments. The vote at hand is whether our chapter should continue working and funding with this project?

Melli did mention concern with respect to our relationship with the project. We are seen as a funding agency also, as opposed to a project partner. At times it has been felt that the project coordinator is doing things just to please us, as opposed to what may actually be best for the children and project. This aspect should be worked on, such that they realize our relationship with them.

Yes : 8
No : 0
Abstain : 0

This project will be renewed. Better deliverables need to be identified and communicated with the project.

Some questions that arose:

Why can't they get more teachers?
What are they teaching, how are they teaching?
Books: Why photocopy? Why not rotate them from center to center?
Have the Asha NFE teachers interact with teachers from
the other NFEs?
More boys than girls?
Non-recurring costs are high.

Warm

Feb. 3^rd, 2002

Melli

5 non-formal centers in 5 villages for basic literacy. WARM existed for 15 yrs. Site visit to find out whether they really need benches etc since they have been in existence for 15 yrs. Ranjit’s response was +ive. We decided to fund 1000 $ in 2001. WARM is a professional NGO. Asha DECIDED TO FUND ONLY TEACHERS SALARY. 3 monthly report focus on the opening ceremony.

WARM has FCRA. Children of ages 8-14. We’ll get a clear idea only after Ram visits the project. We can decide for next year after Ram visits the project.

Vimal from Asha Chennai was supposed to visit. Melli wants someone reliable (like Ram) to site visit.

Is there an exam in NFE center? (Smitha)

Nilanjan asked for FCRA statement. We should fund the money.

Vote - Should we fund the money for WARM?

4 ABSTAIN

11 YES

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WARM - Welfare Association for the Rural Mass

Sept. 10, 2000

Ranjith

(proposal received March'99, discussed May'99, sent in questions June'99,

received answers "early"2000); this is a professional NGO and covers 60

villages near Tiruvannamali in Tamil Nadu. WARM has 33 full-time and ~60

volunteers. WARM is involved with government dairy schemes, non formal

education, immunization, family planning, eradicating illiteracy / child

labor,... WARM's budget proposal concerning 5 education centers was

discussed and overall found to be too braod in its scope and contained

several inconsistencies.

WARM Site Visit (27 July 2000) Report by Ranjith:

BACKGROUND:

WARM (Welfare Association for the Rural Mass) was started in 1983

in Tiruvannamali by Mr. Krishnan. It has been active in the upliftment

of SC/STs, particularly, women and children. Mr. Krishnan died in

an accident in 1991, and since then it is being run by Mr. Rajavelu

and Mrs. Shanti Krishnan, widow of the founder. Mr. Rajavelu has a

B.Sc in Physics. His interest in social work started with the NSS program

during his B.Sc studies. Subsequently, he earned several degrees and

diplomas related to social work. Mrs. Krishnan's direct involvement with

WARM started after her husband's death. She has a Master's degree in Public

Administration and, very recently, has been attending computer courses to

take the CSI examinations. She lives in the same building that houses the

WARM Headquarters. Both Mr. Rajavelu and Mrs. Krishnan are native to

Tiruvannamali and have spent most of their lives there.

The funding request is for non-formal educational programs. Currently there

are no such programs underway. WARM apparently has been holding such

programs right from its inception. They are particularly proud of Mr.

Lakshmanan, who benefited from one such program and has been with WARM for

about 15 years (Unfortunately, I did not get to meet Mr. Lakshmanan).

SITE VISIT:

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I visited WARM sites on 27 July 2000 for about 7 hours. I had called the

previous day and Mr. Rajavelu and Mrs. Shanthi Krishnan were able to

organize the visit at such short notice. Activities of WARM are very

widely spread in Tiruvannamalai. By Mr. Rajavelu's estimates at the

end of the day, I got to see only about 25 percent of their work.

At the WARM headquarters, I saw photos of some of their past programs.

One innovative item was an awareness program for women that WARM holds

once every year since its inception. Here, WARM brings together several

successful women from in and around Tiruvannamalai - doctors, lawyers,

policewomen, etc. - to address some of the poorer sections. WARM has

also run an English-medium primary school in the past. The school had

been very popular, according to Mrs. Krishnan, but was shut down in 1998 due

to lack of funds.

The places visited were:

1) Computer training centre: This centre prepares +2 passed girl

students to take the CSI diploma exams. The centre is funded by the

Government. I was told that the Government has committed to fund the centre

for 20 years (!) subject to proper functioning. There were

about 25 students and 4 computers. Each student gets a stiped on Rs. 350 per

month. Most of the students were from the SC/ST community

in the neighbourhood (I saw some records confirming that most of them

were SC/STs). There were a few upper caste students also, apparently because

of lack of qualified SC/ST students in the area.

Classes go on from morning to evening, like in a regular school.

One student mentioned she gets an hour of on-hands practice everyday.

As part of their training in databases, they collect local demographic

data. An Assistant at the WARM headquarters had also been borrowed

from the class. The first batch of students were just getting ready to take

the CSI exams. I was shown their hall tickets. The students looked confident

and it seemed to me that the program had made a positive impact on their

lives.

2) Coaching centre: This centre coaches 10th failed girl students to

reappear in the exam. The first batch had apparently just taken the exam and

were awaiting their results. So, there was no activity when I visited. Some

past students had been put together for the sake of my visit. This program

is again funded by the Government.

3) Literacy centre for hotel workers: Boys working in the hotels nearby

come to this centre for 2-3 hours everyday. They are taught to read and

write. There were about 10 boys in the age group 5-10 years when I

visited. They had been coming to the centre atmost for 3 months.

4) Training session to form women's Self Help Groups (SHGs): The Tamil Nadu

Government has begun in 1998 a state-wide program to form women's

self-help groups. WARM has been selected to help form these groups in

Tiruvannamalai. I attended (or interrupted!) a session where a WARM

volunteer was training women of a village in micro-credit schemes. The

Government sets the criteria by which women are selected to take part in the

program. About twenty women were in this particular program and it had been

going on for a couple of months. Surprisingly, most of the women in the

group owned land - many owned about an acre, one had 15 acres (!) but said

it was tied up in some family problems. About 5 said they were landless.

Despite the two months spent, the training had not seemed to make much

progress. I also talked briefly with the husbands of one of the women in the

group and he said the men were in general supportive of the SHGs.

5) A full-fledged SHG: Finally, I met with members of a full-fledged SHG

that had been working since the days of Mr. Krishnan. They had started as a

chit-funds group, but now, with the Government initiative, had reorganized

themselves. This group has been very successful in making use of the

Government program. They had just been given a loan of Rs. 3 lakhs for

purchase of cows. Women in this group were clearly more vocal and confident.

None of them seemed to own land.

CONCLUSION:

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It is obvious that WARM wields significant influence in the community.

An outstanding feature is that they have been able to tap Government

resources for their work. They should be able implement the NFE

program easily.

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