Site Visit Report of Abhiyaan

Here's a site visit report of Abhiyan that was posted on the Asha wide list. Abhiyan is a project in rural Bihar that we funded jointly with Asha AZ last year. Our contribution was $2000. The project is in Bhaiswa village in Patna dist. The original proposal included a full time education center, economic self sufficeny program and social awareness program. The details of the project and budget are on the Asha AZ site at http://www.ashanet.org/arizona/projects/ABHIYAN.html

I will also mail a report of an earlier site visit.

As the report indicates, things have not been proceeding smoothly. Our commitment to future funding was based on site visit reports, so we have a chance to evaluate our involvement with the project and make suggestions. Last year we decided to fund the project (knowing that it was a bit of a risk) because it targeted severly underprivileged people. I do not want to comment on future funding before it is discussed at one of our meetings, but I think this project illustrates how important it is for us to be able to monitor the project effectively. One of the problems we had monitoring was the lack of direct communication with Abhiyan. Asha AZ has 'ownership' of the project and we had to get information through them. This led to some delays in finding out about site visits and how the money was spent.

Please go through the report and let me know if you have any questions.

• Vinod.

Visits made to Abhiyan:
1. By Arundhati and Sanjay Rai in the beginning of 1999. 2. By Mahesh towards end of 1999 (for a three day chyawanprash making training programme).
4. By Arundhati and Parmita in Oct. 2000. 5. By Sandeep in Nov. 2000 (for a three day jeevan vidya shivir)

Comments:
1. The alternative education experiment, as we had jointly envisaged it with Rupesh and Chandrabhushan, is not being carried out. The present programme includes children from poorer segments of society but the education pattern, methodology and values are same as conventional system.
2. There is no serious attempt towards self-reliance in the ongoing experiment. Only the sewing-embroidery-painting-craft activity for women seems viable but here also ?Abhiyan? is charging a fees from the trainees. Why is it so? Asha is supposed to be supporting this activity. Diesel Pump bought with Asha money is mostly lying idle. Now there is a proposal to convert it to a Generator set. This should have been seriously thought over before taking a decision to buy the pump. Chyawanprash can be another viable activity but they will have to make major effort in this direction.
3. There are too many teachers (seven) for the number of students (about 50). Only four teachers apart from Pramila, who is the over-all coordinator for the school, seem to be regular. Out of these only two girl teachers, who belong to the same village, are sharing a major responsibility of running the school. The team of five seems to be sufficient to run this school.
4. Rupesh?s involvement has been much less than what was decided in the beginning. There was no effort for curriculum development or any seriour teacher?s training by him. He probably makes a visit to the school only on special occasions when some or the other programme is being organized. We don?t feel the need of him continuing as a consultant. 5. The progress reports prepared by ?Abhiyan? do not present the true picture. They make exaggerated claims and make everything look very smooth.

Budget:
We are proposing the following budget for ?Abhiyan? for its second year. This is a modification of what they have submitted to Asha-Arizona.

Items
Amount (Rs.)
Supporting material for Screen Printing 4,000.00
Capital for readymade garments
10,000.00
Honorarium for Chandrabhushan, Rs. 1500/- pm 18,000.00 Honorarium for Pramila, Rs. 1200/- pm
14,400.00

Honorarium for Saroj and Sangeeta, Rs. 700/- pm               16,800.00
Honorarium for Satyendra and Upendra, Rs. 1000/- pm      24,000.00

Comments on Budget:
1. Instead of seven teachers, Asha would like to support only five - Pramila, Saroj, Sangeeta, Satyendra and Upendra. 2. In addition we would support Chandrabhushan for over-all coordination of the project. The support for Rupesh is being withdrawn due to his insignificant contribution to the proejct. 3. The office at Masaudhi is being shared by a number of programmes being run by ?Abhiyan? supported by other funding agencies. Hence Asha will bear only partial rent. We feel ?Abhiyan? operates like a typical NGO receiving support from a number of funding agencies and faces the danger of being reduced to a project oriented organization rather than programme and people oriented.
4. Snacks should be arranged with local support from Masudhi and Patna. Our experience in Lucknow shows that it is very easy to get local people to contribute for this purpose.
5. ?Abhiyan? has reported to us that it wants to buy the computer from some money left-over from last year?s budget and requested for additional grant of Rs. 35,000.00 from Asha this year. However, in their proposal they have mentioned that the remaining amount has been raised from people?s contribution. ?Abhiyan? has not been very transparent with its accounts. It sould learn to be consistent in its statements and should say on paper what it communicates to us orally or in letters treating us as their friends. ?Abhiyan? has a tendency to make everything look nice on paper. It should learn to free itself of the bureacratic mentality and be more honest with itself. 6. In the overall analysis we have decided to give them the three years that was agreed in the beginning and hope that things improve with time. They have a good team of volunteers with lot of potential but are handicapped by their NGO mode of operation.

Mahesh, Arundhati, Parmita and Sandeep