Site Visit to NICE – Giri Kolanupaka
Date: Sunday, 30
th April 2006
Mr. Madhava Rao, Mr.
Purnachander Rao, and myself left to NICE by a rented car at 7 AM in the
morning and reached NICE at 12 PM.
This is my second site visit to NICE. I could see a huge
difference compared to the last site visit done in Jan 2004. There used to be a
single big room for 15 kids at that time and one kitchen in a thatched roof.
Now there are 12 rooms (two are for teachers to stay) and one kitchen. More
toilets were built. The strength now is going to be 90 to 95 kids with
presently 5 teachers and 7 non-teaching staff. There is plan to recruit two
more teachers in a month.
I see all the kids in one class. It seems it’s a special
class as it was the time where the exams got over and it is supposed to
holidays for them. I asked why did they not go their hometown or any other
place for their holidays. The answer I got was that they do not prefer to go to
their hometown, as there are no caretakers for them there. They only have one
week holidays starting next week and in shifts. One-class students will have
holiday one week and the other class the next week and so on. The same is done
for the teachers also. They have a 15-day holiday in shifts so that some
teacher will be there to take care of the kids.
Here are a few questions that I asked to the team there
during my visit:
- Is
there any change in the mission statement or vision of the organization
during the last year?
- No
- What
kind of vocational training is being planned for the kids? Since some kids
have reached 8th STD now.
- They
looked into some of the vocational trainings like Phenoil making, soap
making, candle making etc. They think that these may not help the kids
survive as they are the most common training that they can have. Mr.
Purnachander Rao has made a survey in nearby villages and he noticed that
there are almost 30% farmers and others in the villages ride bikes and
scooters (most of them are Bajaj). But there are no repair shops. Even
for a tyre puncture, they end up going to nearby town. So, he is planning
to setup a scooter and bike mechanic training with a professional
guidance. He also has an idea of maruti car mechanics as well on the
similar grounds. Dairy technology could also be the vocational training
that they are planning but it’s a bit expensive, as they need some land
to set it up.
- I
asked teachers if they think that there is something that there is missing
and lacking that Asha can provide.
- The
teachers are saying that there should be a lab facility to teach the
students with more practicals in physics and chemistry. There are no good
lab material at the moment There is no good library as well. The library
that they have right now is only the news papers that they get (Telugu
and English), one magazine (Discovery). They also had to omit computer
subject (optional subject) to the kids because of non-availability o
resources.
- I see
that there is a mention in the old project proposal (NICE) to Asha that
NICE intends to bring awareness in water usage and conservation in rural
areas around its projects. Is there some progress made in this regard? If
so what?
- They
said that the water content there and nearby areas is very less. The
water from the underground is also not usable. They are using bottled
water for drinking though. But to save water, they make a water sinking
pit The water that they get from the bore well and tap are collected in a
big tub and they use only one bucket of water for bathing from that tub.
- What
was the amount Rs. 2,40,000 received from WAH 2005 used for in NICE and
can you show me the accounts?
- The
amount was received in Dec 2005 and was utilized partially for teachers
salary which come approximately Rs. 21,000 per month. The rest of the
money also would be used and will be sufficient for teacher’s salary for
the rest of the year.
- Are
there any parents meetings conducted?
- Yes
they are conducted once in a month to avoid the parents or visitors
coming irregularly to attend to the kids and disturbing them. They also
take their suggestions in improving the school and get their feedback on
the kid’s improvement.
- Do you
think the teachers need any kind of training that would benefice the kids?
- Yes,
even though the teachers have been going to places like Haritha in
Khammam dist and any other informative places, it would be beneficial if
the teachers are given teachers training especially in how to making the
local resources useful to setup a lab and demonstrate it to the kids.
They prefer their training to take place at their place only rather than
them going to some other place. Since the trainers will have an idea on
what is the atmosphere that the current teaching is going on.
- Since
there are new children joining the school (20 to 25) every year, how do
you plan to take care of the finances and the infrastructure?
- Yes,
the financial requirement have been increasing year to year with the
growing number of students. They have approached one more organization
called Save the Child (UK based NGO), which can fund them if they have
FCRA. So, that would help them partially if they get FCRA. The first
priority for them now is to get FCRA. Also, to get rid of the area and
infrastructure constraint, since they are planning for similar setup for
girls, they can take another bigger area and construct a new building
with more space for existing boys and make the present infrastructure for
girls.
After all the questions, I had a very nice lunch along with
the kids. With two different kinds of curries, rice is served along with rava
sweet. I observed that the kids are maintaining proper discipline before they
go for lunch or come out for washing. I do not think this kind of discipline is
there in the kids from urban area. I gave a few suggestions to the teachers and
staff as to improve in teaching methodology and using best practices in
teaching.