Mera Sahara: Site Visit & Funding Proposal

1. Mera Sahara: Site Visit & Funding Proposal December 2, 2013 Project Steward: Harika Reddy Co-Steward: SaitejaChava

2. Project Description • Location: Nithari, Sector 31, Noida, U.P, India • Area (urban/rural): Urban • Primary Focus: - Poor children of Nithari Village • Project Type: Primary School • Amount Requested (US$): $15,800 for next 12 months • # of Beneficiaries: About 160 children • About 40-50 children that come occasionally for skills training

3. Project Goals • Enable regular and easier transition to regular schools • Provide a safe place for children while parents are away at work • Community involvement • Most teachers and caretakers are from the community • Many adults attend evening adult education classes in the same premises

4. Current Status • Serves 160 underprivileged children • Monthly parent teacher meetings • Cutting & Tailoring, Rug making training • Several young girls started their own tailoring units and earn a living • Computer and origami classes • Also helped many young girls from child marriage and child labor

5. 2013 updates • Independence day celebrations

6. 2013 updates: Educating the Community • Police women were invited to interact with local women about domestic violence, rape and trafficking, and the role police play in preventing those crimes. • Adult education has given mothers to share their concerns while teaching them reading and writing. Increased awareness about child health, domestic violence, and malnutrition. • JWP interacts with parents and deals with domestic problems like health, abuse and economic conditions

7. 2013 Updates • Volunteers from TCS taught older children how to use computers during May and June. • Skills development in arts, origami, public speaking and computer classes with classes 2 and 3. • Tailoring classes are popular among women and housewives.

8. Impact • Center expanded allowing more children to attend school • Children participation and eagerness to attend school has increased dramatically • Community involvement is strong and growing • Asha contribution seems to have played an important role

9. Asha’s 6 month contribution

11. Funding ProposalSeptember 2013– August 2014

12. Class and Age break down age 1- 3--------- 34age 3-4--------- 28 age 4--6-------- 30age 6-8-------- 24age 9-10------- 17age10-11------ 12age 11-12---- 8age 12- 14--- 7 • Grade A&B: 3-4 years • Grade 1: 6-8 years • Grade 2: 7-9 years • Grade 3: 8-12 years • Grade 4: 9-14 years (Started this season) • These children are taught regular UP board school syllabus so as to get ready to enter mainly govt. school along with basic computer skills • The school drop outs,  all of them being girls, learn tailoring and durry making.

13. Creche • Creche: 1-3 yr old, sometimes 7-11 month old • Both parents are employed. Babysitting for younger kids while older siblings learn. • Helps older children stay in school • Provides nutrition and care to 7-11 month old. • Learning activities include learning vegetables/fruits, and getting used to schooling system, reciting rhymes, familiarizing with the alphabet, etc • 8 AM -12 PM • Crèche helper paid by CBN Foundation and Intercontinental Technocrats Pvt. Ltd.

14. Teachers • Skills teacher: Ph. D. Teachers computer skills, works 2days/week. 2 hours/day, teaches children from ages 6-14 • Crafts teacher teaches durry making for the ages of 14-18 school drop-outs and some young mothers • Tailoring teacher: Teach school drop-outs (all girls), and young mothers from ages 14-22. • 2 teachers completed 12 grade. 3 teachers are graduates (BA or BSc). 2 teachers are post graduates (MA or MSc) • All teachers work 8am-1pm daily. (Except computer)

15. Why are academic teachers paid less than skill teachers? • Try to match the honorarium according to what is paid in local and unaided private schools around Nithari; cannot follow the salarystructure of the recognized Municipal or Private Schools • All of the academic teachers are from the community and do not have to pay for their travel. • Four teachers joined before they had completed their Bachelor of Arts degree and were enabled to complete their university degree while teaching • We do recognize the fact that the academic teachers provide instruction to all children and work for 5 and a half hours a day and are of greater importance to child education. However, the Computer teacher also provides specialized training to all students in batches. She is more qualified as she has a Doctorate degree. She is not from the local community as we could not find a computer teacher from Nithari and she has to  therefore travel to the Centre from quite a distance. The Tailoring teacher,  (qualified to do so), attends to school dropout girls and mothers daily from 11 am to 4 pm. We had to match her request for her demand of Rs. 6000/- per month as she has to travel to Nithari from a distance because she is not a local person of the community. 

16. School and its times • Center runs throughout the year except 20 days in summer and a week in winter. Creche runs all year round. • Sometimes closed during rainy season due to water clogging. • Present on a daily basis: • Ms. Vimla Pant- headmistress and accounts person • Ms. Padmini Kumar – Coordinator and Counselor • Ms. Manisha Sharma, Adult Education teacher

17. Other Fundings • CBN Foundation India -Rs. 21,400/- per month which pay for salary of the headmistress and accounts, teaching material and conveyance and part of nutrition and medical needs. • Intercontinental Technocrats Pvt. Ltd -Rs. 50,000/- per month to take care of part of the Rent for the Centre, Stationary & Documentation, Salaries of the Crèche in charge, Ayah, Cleaner, General Knowledge teacher, Adult Education teacher, Organizational Conveyance, Monitoring & Administration, Audit and Miscellaneous expenses

18. Transitions and Drop outs • (Show the excel sheet)

19. Transitions • Some that transitioned to mainstream schools who are still living in Nithari continue to come to Centre for information and extra studies • Schools that students joined: SarvhitkariSiksha Kendra, Noida  Govt. school, Noida  SaraswatiVidyaMandir, Noida

20. Reasons for Drop outs •  The major reason for drop out is migration by parents in search of daily wages and temporary jobs. • There are seasonal, yearly contract workers like painters, construction workers and carpenters, rickshaw pullers and vegetable/fish/meat vendors • It’s hard to keep track of students who have transitioned or moved because these are migrant’s children • Dropouts after joining mainstream: • 15 % have continued their studies in mainstream schools • Possible to keep track of children (about 50-60 who have gone to mainstream schools in last 5 years) for only a certain period since they are children of migrant labor

21. Background of Parents • These parents work as domestic helps, rickshaw pullers, tea vendors on the street, fish and vegetable sellers. • They are very poor living in thatched huts and some one room rented accommodations. • Almost all families belong to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe and Minority communities.

22. Why Mera Sahara? • Mera Sahara is specially serving the children of migrant labour which moves from one area to another in search of jobs and their children are the most neglected population of society. • Mera Sahara helps the parents understand the necessity of their children being educated • Works with parents to keep children in school and from being exploited as child labours.

23. Why Mera Sahara? • The children are being trained to meet the challenges when they transition to mainstream and assimilate with other children • The children are enabled to compete and participate in programs and activities in mainstream schools. • This enables them to get over their social complexes and stand with their heads held high as equals • Facilities like free schooling, two fresh meals, expenditure for educational materials and aids, (sometimes provided with clothes, sweaters, shoes, etc.) are all provided to them • Working mothers are not privileged enough to leave their young children in a paid creche's ( there are no aanganvadis in this area and the one in the nearby govt. school is dysfunctional)

24. Site VisitNovember 28, 2013 • Their center starts at 8 and goes on until 4pm.  • The adult education program runs in the afternoon and the school for children as well as creche runs in the morning. • There are 5 teachers who are supported by Asha and 1 Creche teacher who is supported from other funds. • TCS has donated computers and TCS people come every week to teach computers and other activities.  • not limited to Mera Sahara children as others in that village also can attend these events.

25. Site VisitNovember 28, 2013 • Of the teachers: 2 teach pre-primary (there are two sections), 1 each teach class 1-3/4.  • This year, the class 3 students refused to leave the program so they have started class 4 but currently the children of class 3 and 4 are clubbed together. This is not an ideal situation and they are thinking of expanding their program but it depends upon the availability of funds.

26. Site VisitNovember 28, 2013 • 1 computer teacher who is categorized as skill teacher. • When I visited today she was taking written test for the class 3 and 4 students. It just consisted of writing part names of the computer in English and Hindi.  • I visited the classes,  all the teachers were present and the children seem enthusiastic about learning. On roll, there are 160 children but all of them do not attend. • The major problem is that the majority are migrants. So where ever they get a job, they will go.  And also many will have small landholdings in their village. So during the sowing season, they will go back to the village with their family. When the child comes back, he/she will be a blank slate and the learning process has to start again (remember their parents are illiterate and therefore, learning happens only during school hours). This situation is universal across the country and this problem is difficult to solve. • In fact,  schools like Mera Sahara are needed for these children. The formal schools (private as well as govt) will not allow children to go on extended leave or to join mid-session. So schools like Mera Sahara work with this realities and will not only allow them to go to their village but also allow them to join mid-session. That flexibility helps the children. 

27. Site VisitNovember 28, 2013 • Once the child reaches class 3, they are encouraged to join mainstream school. However, it depends entirely upon the parents. • So the organization monitors children who are still living in the village. • But many children have enrolled in schools in Delhi region and the parents have moved so the organization cannot monitor them. • The major reason for dropout is economic and marriage. Child marriages are common and very often the parent goes to the village, gets them married and comes back. However, they now noticed that marriages are delayed a little bit so that the child starts earning and contributes to the budget of the house. These children, especially girls, are employed as domestic workers.   • Mera Sahara is moving to a new location within the village as the current place has become too noisy and dirty. When I went today the drains were overflowing because the sanitation workers were on strike.