dear friends.

 this is a report on the bharathi trust staff & teachers meeting held on july 8th 2000.

 the purpose of this is to give to you an organizational perspective which doesnt come through in site visit reports. it also has a progress report on the asha motivational centres as of the meeting date.

 warm regards.
 shanmuga

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 Date of Meeting : July 8th 2000
 Venue : Bharathi Trust Thiruvallur Office

 Bharathi Trust holds regular weekly meetings for its staff and teachers. I attended the July 8th meeting. By the time I joined in, both meetings were going on in parallel in adjacent rooms. Siddamma was moderating the staff meeting and Nirmala, education coordinator, was moderating the teachers' meeting.
 

 Staff Meeting :
 =========

I joined the staff meeting. The staff were planning an annual outing  for about 3 days where they hold intense review of the work of the past year, analyse each staff
members achievements and failings and lay down the next year's plans. After this E.Murali, field worker in Gummudipundi Taluk, brought up the issue of rice-mill workers. He pointed out that Bharathi Trust even after 8 years of work has not really taken up their cause fully. He said that these bonded labourers and their  children are the most oppressed of the Irulas and that Bharathi Trust should begin work with them this year. Siddamma explained the past attempts to improve the life of ricemill workers. She gave an analysis of the situation. She sees bringing them to live outside of the mills, even as they continue to be bonded labourers at the mills, as the crucial first step. She also pointed some success stories in the past - how some families were brought out and integrated with existing Irula villages. She said that surprisingly some rice-mill owners are quite forthcoming to help out to a limited extent.  She said these owners should be used to persuade the rest to take positive steps.

 The other main debate was whether Bharathi Trust was expanding too fast to too many villages. There are already 60 villages where Sarpam Village Committees
are fully functional and 30 more in various stages of formation. Some of the staff were of the opinion that they should slow down expansion and consolidate the
work in the villages which already have an SVC before moving on. Some staff expressed the opinion that Sarpam is really a people's movement whose growth
Bharathi Trust should not restrict and that Sarpam is spreading to new Irula villages through people's contact and not through Bharathi Trust.They said they must try
to keep pace.

 Other minor routine issues were picked up and I left to join the teachers meeting.

Teachers' Meeting:
============

 I introduced myself and joined in. This was the first time I was meeting the teachers.

 The teachers were explaining in turn the happenings in their schools in the past week to the rest of group. The teachers were also asking for suggestions for
problems they encountered. Silvia and Nirmala are the only teachers who have been around for several years. All the others are new recruits. Silvia and Nirmala were most vocal in asking questions and giving suggestions. Nirmala is the overall education coordinator for all the motivational centres. In each village, an education committee of three villagers has been or is being formed to serve as an independent monitor of the functioning of the school.

Ramani shared the exciting news that 21 children from Kottakulam are already attending the nearby government school. She said that these children are not
attending the motivational centres. However, she gives them a special coaching after school hours (4:30 pm to 6 pm) to help them keep up with the demands of regular school.

Sumathi said that during the last week or so children having started dropping out from the Ramapuram centre. She said this was because some families were leaving the village in search of employment.

Padma said that the children are not showing much enthusiasm in studies. Nirmala questioned Padma about the complaints received from the Rasapalayam education
committee that she closes school around 3pm whereas it should be open until 4pm and also that she took leave for a day during the past week without giving prior notice or an explanation immediately after. Padma gave excuses for both. At this time Siddamma joined us. She explained to Padma that the motivational centres should be a model school for others to follow and should avoid the same problems one finds in government schools. Padma promised that she will avoid the past mistakes and do her best to improve. Later in the day, Siddamma informed to me that Padma was the only non-Irula recruit and also the only one who applied on her own for a teaching job. Her adjustment and attitude problems are expected and should be solved with proper guidance. She cited Silvia as an example of non-Irula teacher who initially had problems but soon learned to cope up.

 I asked the teachers what exactly is being taught in the motivational centres at this time. The teachers explained that currently they are teaching the children some simple games and songs. Nirmala explained that during the initial months the teachers are expected to develop good rapport with the children so that they overcome fear and are comfortable around them. The children are also trained to listen and concentrate. The games help develop a community feeling among the children. The songs and accompanying charts have further role of teaching the kids to identify birds, animals and other common nouns. She said that the next stage will be to teach them slightly sophisticated games using boards and toys. Teaching of alphabets will begin only in later stages.

 After the teachers meeting, Nirmala gave directions to some villagers who had come to the office regarding the motivational centre construction work. She then distributed for food provisions for the next week to the maids of the centres. All maids belong to the respective villages. The teachers signed in for the amount of provisions taken. Nirmala does a good job at distribution of provisions and maintaining the records. Some amount of this work can be reduced if the provision distribution is done monthly rather than weekly. However, there is not enough storage capacity to keep provisions for more than a week. At this time all
provisions are stored in a aluminium drum which is kept locked after school hours.

Below is the table filled in by the teachers which gives the status of the motivational centres as of July 8th 2000.
 

S.No	Village	Teacher	Teacher Resident in same village?	Building Construction Status	Meals given
1	Kottakulam	Ramani	Yes	Not started	Yes
2	Rasapalayam	Padma	No	In Progress	Yes
3	Ramapuram	Sumathi	Yes	Not started	Yes
4	Kulathumedu	Amulu	Yes	In Progress	Yes
5	Senjiagaram	Selvi	No	Finished	Yes
6	Janganapalli	Mariamma	No	Not Started	Yes
7	Mullainagar	Kanniamma	No	In Progress	No
8	Thiruvallur	Silvia	No	Finished	Yes

 Note:
 The Kulathumedu school is supported by a local group called "Ekaamal'. The Thiruvallur school has been around for a while. It is supported by funds raised by
Muriel Jellet, a Belgian well-wisher of Bharathi Trust and Irulas.  The rest of schools are Asha Motivational Centres.

Overall comments:
 Good progress has been made within the last two months of the project. It is too early to make specific comments except that the situation in Ramapuram and Rasapalayam need close monitoring.  The concept of weekly staff and teachers meeting is an excellent one and should be encouraged in other projects when appropriate.