Site visit to Asha Deepa School for the Blind, Bidar

Visit by: Anand - uanandrao@yahoo.com

Date of visit: 20th September 2006

Purpose of the site visit: First follow up site visit to check the
status of the project

The school was first visited by Ram, Thomas and Kalpana in February
2005 before Asha started supporting the school. History of the school
on how it started is in the site visit report by Ram, which is on the
website. There were a few concerns that needed to be looked into in
this site visit. Following are my observations after my site visit. 

Accounting Practices: One of the main concerns that this project had
was regarding the accounting practices at the school. I had a look at
the account books maintained by the school. The accounts maintained
are fairly satisfactory. Although, accounting practices are not 100%,
I think they are acceptable. Bills and vouchers have been maintained
for most of the expense items. The school seems to have improved on
their accounting practices from the time the first Asha team visited
the school. Sanju Kumar (Sanju Kumar is the brother of Dilip Kumar,
the person running the school) is taking the lead role in maintaining
the accounts. There was one issue of an advance given for the building
they are located for which the school was not clear about. I probed
this and I believe that they are clean on this. The issue is that the
school is dealing with a land lord who is not used to doing
transactions through agreements and legal procedures. This is not
surprising looking at the backwardness of Bidar. 

Dependence on Asha funding: Asha is by and large the only source of
funding for the school. So, this continues to be an area of concern.
However, Sanju Kumar has progressed in looking for alternate sources
of funding. 1. Sanju Kumar is now in touch with the Hyderabad chapter
and hopefully the Hyderabad chapter can provide the school with
funding in the future. This makes a lot of sense as Hyderabad is only
3 hours from Bidar. 2. Sanju Kumar has also contacted some other
funding agencies such as the Global Fund for Children (GFC). In fact
GFC had asked Asha Bangalore for a recommendation of the school.
However, the school does not have FCRA clearance for getting foreign
funds. Fortunately, Sanju Kumar is working towards getting an FCRA
clearance.

Irrespective of merits of this project, it will be difficult for Asha
Bangalore to fund this project on a sustained basis simply because of
the lack of band width at Asha Bangalore to closely monitor the
project. I indicated this to Sanju Kumar and told him not to be
entirely dependent on Asha Bangalore for funds. However, I also
assured him that Asha Bangalore will help the school get other sources
of funding.

Capability to get additional funding: I found Sanju Kumar to be
capable to write proposals and look for sources of funding beyond Asha
Bangalore. Sanju is internet savvy and is aware of places to tap for
funds. The new website that the school now has is one of the efforts
initiated in this direction. 

Working of the School: Bidar seems to have a much higher incidence of
blindness in children than other parts of Karnataka, although I do not
have any figures. Also, the district is one of the most backward
districts in Karnataka. Looking from this angle, support from Asha
Bangalore to this school makes a lot of sense. Also, the school is
being run by Dilip Kumar who is blind and so one would expect the
school to understand and cater to the needs of the children well. I
interacted with the children, asked them questions in maths and
general knowledge. All the children were sharp and their answers were
satisfactory. All the children looked happy and seemed to be enjoying
their stay at the school. The school currently has 25 children who
stay and study at the school. The rooms and the school premises were
also clean and tidy. The school also seems to have established contact
with hospitals in Bidar with one of the local doctors volunteering to
freely consult and provide medicines free of cost/ subsidized price to
the children. The school has also involved the personnel of the local
Air Force base. The need for the school to further involve the locals
in their activities and funds is necessary and this was indicated to
Sanju Kumar. 

Conclusion: I think, the school is doing an excellent job in providing
basic life skills and formal education to its children. The accounts
maintained were satisfactory, but still needs improvement. Asha's
funds seem to be well utilized. I believe that Asha's funds have
helped start a blind school in a remote district and hopefully will
help take this school to the next level, where they are in a position
to get funds from multiple sources to sustain them in the long run.
So, I feel that we can continue to fund them as per our commitment of
funding them for 3 years and in the mean time work to help the school
to get other sources of funding so that their dependence on Asha's
funds comes down, preferably completely by the end or even before the
commitment period.