Project Sangamam - Poondi
Report for Feb 2005

ASHA Chennai Projects
Sangamam Poondi – Working with Primary schools near Poondi

March 9th, 2005
Questions? 
Contact Rajaraman Krishnan 
rajaram@solnettechnologies.com




Recall …

The project was approved and started in September 2004. We started work with the schools at Kuppammal Chattiram and Kanakavalli Puram then with the understanding that we will take up the school at Pattarai Perambudur once we get more comfortable with the funding situation. During the December monthly meeting we decided to start work with Pattarai Perambudur in January.

From the last report, the expected activities for this period were,

  1. A medical camp is to be organized at all the three schools.
  2. Sports and learning materials are being purchased for the Pattarai Perambudur school.
  3. Srinivasan is working towards organizing a school day function at these schools sometime in early March.
  4. We need to start planning for the summer and the next academic year. For the summer my thought was to have the Asha teachers conduct a survey of the parents in the village in lines with the PROBE study. Details of this need to be defined shortly.

Out of these we could not organize the medical camps because of lack of availability of the doctors. We are still looking for volunteer doctors. We are still in the process of defining the activities for Summer as well as writing the proposal for 2005-06.

Happenings during period Feb 2005

  1. Infrastructure 

    Chairs were purchased for all the three schools (total cost – about Rs 2500). Most of the rest of the infrastructure work planned for this year have already been done.

    The following items were purchased for the Pattarai Perambudur school,
    • Learning and sports materials (total of Rs 1500 for the two schools)
    • A bureau to store these and the school registers. (Rs 2250 each)
    • A tape recorder and audio tapes. (Rs 2500 each).
  2. Ongoing

    The Asha teachers are continuing to teach at all the three schools. The schools are continuing to function as usual. Cost of teacher salaries and office rent – Rs 9400.
  3. Fund Raising

    Donations are continuing to come in. We have raised about Rs 60000 for the project. We have made arrangements with Asha London to help us route donations from a UK based donor that may be used towards this project.

Expected Activities for March and Future

In the next month the following activities are expected in this project,

  1. Partitions are to be purchased for the schools to more effectively use the space available.
  2. A desk is to be purchased for the Pattarai Perambudur school.
  3. School day is planned at Pattarai Perambudur and Kanakavalli Puram schools on the 19th of March. The school day will be organized couple of weeks later at Kuppammal Chattiram. Sports and other competitions are being held for the children. Some functions and prize distributions will be held during the school day.
  4. A medical camp is to be organized at all the three schools.
  5. We need to start planning for the summer and the next academic year. For the summer my thought was to have the Asha teachers conduct a survey of the parents in the village in lines with the PROBE study. Details of this need to be defined shortly. The proposal for the next academic year should be ready by the end of the month.