Approval Poll Results (Sep 12, 2010) ------------------------------------------- (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ashasv-vol/message/8022) The following ashasv-vol poll is now closed. Here are the final results: POLL QUESTION: Do you approve Rs.10,80,000 towards June 2010-July 2011 for Pranabananda boy's Hostel? Budget and other details are uploaded at http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=842 . Their annual budget is Rs. 17,88,224 of which we will be funding Rs. 10,80,000. CHOICES AND RESULTS - Yes, 10 votes, 100.00% - No, 0 votes, 0.00% Chapter Meeting Minutes 09/08/10 ------------------------------------------------ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ashasv-vol/message/7923 Pranabananda Boys Hostel Renewal [Manoj] Project website:?http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=842 Site visit report presented:?http://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/documents/842/SiteVisit.pdf Budget proposal presented:?http://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/documents/842/NewYear2010.pdf - Boys hostel in Sahapur, Malda, West Bengal. - Manoj was personally involved with the project in terms of funding them whenever he visited them. At some point they requested if Manoj can find a continuous funding. Thats when the project came to Asha AV for funding - We have been funding them for 3 yrs. This is the 4th year. - Sandip Pal has done site visit for past 3 years. This year the site visit was done by Manoj - Manoj is very satisfied with the project and children's progress - 100 boy students are provided complete room, board and education. Upto 4th grade go to on site school. Higher grade students to local public schools - 3 meals and one snack are provided - Students are provided with uniform and also for prayer. Students get sweaters and shoes. Q: Do students who go to on-site school live in the hostel? A: Yes - Minor illnesses are treated in the hostel and major illness are treated in nearby hospital. - 6 teachers are employed - 4 work for on-site school and 2 work for morning tutoring - They have very low salary but still they are very dedicated - 10 other staff including cooks, superintendent and night guard - Hostel and school buildings were constructed from donations Q: Is the school religious? A: Bharat Seva Ashram is a Hindu based organization but they do not discriminate among children. Children from different backgrounds are in the hostel. Muslim and other religion children can choose to keep out of the prayer. Q: How do they find these kids? A: Word of mouth - they do other services at villages and they get children from there. Unfortunately they cannot accomodate more children. Q: Do parents pay any fees? A: Students don't pay any tuition because either the parents can't afford or parents are not interested. Q: Why do we have onsite school when we have local public school nearby? A: - The students at hostel were lacking educational background ?? - They needed special care as most of them didn't speak formal Bengali lang. ?? - The public school has no intention to teach ?? - Attending public school while getting private tuitions didn't help ?? - The onsite school is really helpful and children are learning Q: Are other donations local? A: Bharat Seva Ashram is their parent organization. They generate a lot of money through donations. They loan some of this money to the hostel and they give some money as donation. Hostel also generates some local donations. - Major eval criteria: ??- Improvemnent of lower grade students - currently teachers are conducting regular exams. The mark sheets are sent to parents. The students are ranked in class ??- Monitoring of high school - This is the first year 9 students are attending local high school. The progress of these children will be tracked - Suggestion to form advisory committee which will provide advise and suggestion to run the hostel better. this committee will bring ownership to the community.? Q: Do children go back during vacation? A: Hostel is open throughout the year. They can stay year long but some do go back home. Some children who go home, don't come back. Then the hostel authorities have to go and find them. So going home is not encouraged particularly - Long term sustainability: Asha SV funding cannot contunue forever. So they need to work on long term sustainability. ??- Generate support from outside donations - substantial progress has been made ??- Farming: the school has unused land. Some vegetables have been grown. Students take part as an extracirricular activity. ??- School to open for outside students. This can generate some funding. This year some girls have come from outside. ??- Asha funding to be smaller fraction of total expense in coming years Q: What does Bharat Seva Ashram (their parent organization) do? A: They work on variety of things - help during flood, medical camps, etc Q: There were discussions about the school going public and getting aid. What happened to that? A: No. Because it is a strenuous process and it is hard C: If they can get through with the process and become aided, it really helps because the amount is substantial. A: Manoj will ask them. The mentality is they don't mind going and getting local small donations but it is hard for them to push through with govt and get work done. - Major problem is low teacher's sal. Teachers complained themselves Q: If students are not interested in education, the children are let go. How many have left? A: Manoj doesn't have the number. - Manoj has all marksheets. Manoj to upload them - They raised Rs. 4.5 lakhs last year and remaining Rs 10.8 lakhs came from Asha SV. - This years funding requirement is Rs. 17.8 lakhs. Steward wants to go with the Rs. 10.8 lakhs - same as last year - If they are really short on funds this year, they can reach out to their parent org who can loan them money to operate while they try to raise the funds and repay the loan. - Budget to be uploaded and email to be sent to the vol list