ASHA SANDESH * The quarterly newsletter of Asha-Atlanta EMPOWERING THROUGH LITERACY

1. ASHA SANDESH* The quarterly newsletter of Asha-Atlanta EMPOWERING THROUGH LITERACY http://www.ashanet.org/atlantaVol. 2, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2004 We wish our readers a happy new 2004. A body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. --- Mahatma Gandhi Project Update A check for $2020 has been issued towards our first project – Rehabilitation center of blind women in Tiruchy, Tamil Nadu. The money will go towards the education of the following students: VIII STD   Name                                    Age         1.  Ajantha                            15 2.  Chitra                              19 3.  Deepa                              25 4.  Kanaga                             15 5.  Roobini                            26 6.  Shanthi                           28 7.  Sharmila                         14 8.  Saradha                          20 9.  Saraswathi                      22 X STD 1.  Jenmarani                        14 2.  Amali                               17 3.  Lilly Malar                       15 4.  Shanthi                           20 XII STD 1.  Latha                                23 2.  Maduradevi                      18 3.  Muthumari                        18 4.  Sumathy                           20 Undergraduates 1.Rani, 22, B.F.A, Kalaikaviri College of Fine Arts, Trichy 2.Kavitha, 23, B.A Avinashilingam Deemed University  Coimbatore 3.Baby, 23, B.A Avinashilingam Deemed University, Coimbatore Ashok and Sathyan will conduct a site-visit in December 2003. Details of this will be available in the website and our next newsletter. Events Update Our first fund-raiser was organized along with Greater Atlanta Tamil Sangam (GATS) on the 12th of October, 20003. Titled “Milan Sangeet Aur Nrityakala”, the event was a success with good turn-out. The show started with a Bharatanatyam dance performance by Smt. Padmeja Kelam and group. During the break, our chapter coordinator, Udai Tennati, gave a presentation on the different activities of Asha. The presentation is available on our website http://www.ashanet.org/atlanta * `Asha Sandesh’ is a phrase in the Hindi language that translates to `Message from Asha’. The word `Asha’ means hope, while `Sandesh’ means message. This newsletter aims to bring you the message about the on-going activities of Asha-Atlanta.

2. Following the break the Ananya group, originally formed in Florida, delighted the audience with cinema music (old and new). Our first newsletter was distributed to all the people who attended this event. Donation slips were also provided. The Ananya music was so good that several of our members and the audience ended up displaying their dancing skills! We received a check for $1700 from the proceeds of the event from GATS. ASHA-ATLANTA Vol. 2, No. 1, Jan-Mar 2004 Coordinator Udai Tennati Publicity/Fundraising Gaurav Bakshi Ashok Narayan Lavanya S. Swami K. Treasurer Anup Lakare Projects Ashok Narayan Sailaja Tennati Vani Sarin Puneet Sarin Web/Newsletter Sathyan Subbiah Asha for Education is a non-profit public benefit corporation and is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for charitable purposes. Our Federal Employee Identification number is 77-0459884. It has been granted a federal tax-exempt status under IRS Code Section 501(c). A revolution in public school education? In an effort to find new projects to continue our efforts to fund education of children, we invited a speaker, E. S. Ramamurthy, to one of our meetings on November 8th. Mr. Ramamurthy has started a organization called Sivasri Trust (http://www.sikshana.org) whose goal is “To evolve a sustainable and replicable model for an effective and decentralized public school system based on good management practices“. He talked extensively at the meeting about the trust and their activities. He has visited several Asha chapters in the US and other organizations to spread the word about his work. The following is an excerpt of his speech from our Asha’s main website: “My background is industry and I got into education by choice to do something socially productive. I believe education is a fertile field to do something productive in. What part of education should one get involved with? We have a lot of niche areas in education. Education for special children, premium schools, schools that adopt alternate models of educating children, many schools that innovate, schools for children with disabilities etc. We have lot of thinking and innovation going on in the field of education.

3. In my experience 90% of the teachers are motivated. They need a pat on the back when they do something good and a lot of interaction. They need some direction.  … Today the qualification of government school teachers is far higher than the qualification of the private schools. They are paid well. Yet the results are nothing to speak about. Most of these schools are getting only 58% pass, so how do we increase it to 100%? There is no target setting today so what if we set the goals? Some of the management principles that routinely apply in industry need to be applied in education regularly and routinely to get results. So we pushed these schools to get to 100% pass, gave whatever inputs they asked for and the school did get good results. They just had 4 months to get the children ready and they actually managed to do this. In this time they managed to prepare the children so that all of them passed. A few actually managed to get distinction grades which is rare for such a school. … But I still believe that some principles that are applied in industry can be applied to education. We should insist and demand results. Today there are many people including reputed NGOs working on mainstream schools. How much are the resources being pumped to increase the learning levels? …" For the complete speech, http://www.ashanet.org/lni/shikshana.htm As a follow-up to this, Asha-Atlanta along with Vibha invited Mr. E. S. Ramamurthy for a formal presentation about his organization, to a larger audience. This meeting was held at Georgia Tech. About 25 people attended. Outside of all of this there is the wide area of mainstream education. Just to give an idea about the numbers - nine million children in Karnataka attend primary schools. In all about 48000 primary schools are there. If you are looking at working in the area of primary education the numbers are mind boggling.  Ninety percent of children go to simple, down to earth government schools. What are these schools like? In most cases the schools are just 4 walls. Many government schools don’t have roofs. There are schools in Bangalore that do not have classrooms, classrooms are held in the open. We have something radically wrong in the mainstream education system. Mainstream education needs attention in many areas from people, organizations who can contribute towards improving the situation. With such huge numbers the problem seems daunting. But people need to step forward. If some way can be found out it can be proven that this can have an impact on the system. This is an area I decided to focus on. We have started a program called Sikshana. The aim is on evolving a model that is sustainable and replicable. If a school needs improvement we can pump in a lot of money and make that school much better. But if every school needs Rs 2 lakhs, then who will fund 48,000 schools? So we need to make efforts to improve learning levels of the children in schools, so that the resources that are called for are not high or expensive - are available, and the efforts are scalable, replicable and sustainable. Contrary to what one might believe there are good teachers in these schools.

4. A 2 x 3 lattice is created at a skewed angle so that the diagonal columns line up vertically. The numbers to be multiplied are placed outside the box starting at the lower left corner and going clockwise. The product of each pair of numbers (e.g. 9x2=18, 6x2=12) is written down in each box (left to right) with each digit on either side of the diagonal. Then starting from the right side, each column of numbers are added and reminder carried over as in usual addition! The technique also works if you start from the upper right going anticlockwise but this time you will have to write the product of each pair of numbers from right to left! - Sathyan Children’s Corner Want to know of a new way to do multiplication? Hi, I am a volunteer for Asha-Atlanta and do some volunteer math-tutoring of 4th grade children at the Herndon Elementary School in Atlanta. During the course of my tutoring I learnt that children are taught several different ways to multiply and it is left to the children to pick the one that is most convenient for them. I would like to mention one method here called lattice multiplication. Say you want 69 x 257. Possible upcoming event Heritage India is a cultural event held by Rushi Entertainment Inc. The idea for the Heritage India Festival is as follows: “To present the vast cultural panorama of India in an outdoor festival in the United States. The festival would allow for entire families to attend and immerse themselves in the colorful, vibrant and diverse mosaic that is the Indian subcontinent.” Asha-Atlanta is considering partnering with Rushi for the event to be held in June 2004. CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS: We have an urgent need for volunteers. Please lend us a helping hand. Email utennati@hotmail.com to find out how you can help! Our Corporate Sponsors DATAMATICS CONSULTANTS INC DCT SYSTEMS (NILOY INC.)