Asha for Education July 06 2005 Monthly Meeting Akkarapettai Project Proposal

1. Asha for Education July 06 2005 Monthly Meeting Akkarapettai Project Proposal Asha AZ Project Champions – Susan and Mukund Asha Chennai Contacts – Lakshmi and Rajaraman

2. Following individuals and their friends have pledged their support and following chapters had expressed interest previously when the very preliminary project details came up around April 26 2005 Pledge support1. Chandra Sekhar Chennupati and Vasundhara of Hyderabad Rs100,000 nearly.Individuals/ Chapters express interest1. Arun ( from Netherlands for funds from USA) (for any school rebuildingprojects)2. Asha Arizona3. Asha Stanford4. Asha St.Louis5. Sriram (The Akanksha Foundation Mumbai)

3. After due diligence and site visits and estimates from volunteers with thehelp of the experts in this field Asha Chennai has come up with a proposal and fairly clear estimate of the costs involved for the following: 1) Reconstruction of buildings,2) Furniture,3) Learning-teaching and sports materials,4) Teacher salaries Following documents for the project are on the projects webpage. 1) Letter from the head of the school to Asha.(page-1)2) The plan and details of construction at the school (page 1, 2 & 3)3) The request from the school for materials etc. (page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6) 4) Photos taken at Sinthanai Sirpi School5) Site visit report6) Project Proposal

4. Rebuilding Tsunami Affected School at Akkarapettai Sinthanai Sirpi Nursery and Primary School(School Recognition No 1725/98) No: 32A, Amman Koil Back Side, Akkarapettai-611106, Nagapattinam Dist. Brought to Asha Chennai notice by Dr. Aruna Rathnam working with Unicef. District Education Officer recommended that Asha Chennai take up the school. It was a good and flourishing school and could not get any support from the government as it was a private school. The school had a strength of 319 before the Tsunami The school was charging a nominal fee and some special fees.

5. 28 children of the school have died during the Tsunami (in their homes). The school relocated siblings to other schools to help reduce trauma. The school now has 278 children Children are in classes 1 through5 and medium of instruction is English. The school is now running with reduced staff due to financial constraints. The children need bags, books, notebooks, uniforms and materials for the next academic year beginning June 2005. The school cannot charge any fees from Jan 2005 to May 2006 as the children are from families affected by the Tsunami.

6. The site visit was on April 26 2005 by the following four people: 1) Mr. Kamakoti – Asha Chennai Volunteer 2) Mr. Seetharaman - Currently managing the ASHA projects at Tiruvarur and Vishnupuram. 3) Mr. Ramanathan – Civil Engineer 4) Nagapattinam-based photographer The school has damaged buildings, lost all teaching learning materials. Please refer the site visit for more details and photos on the project proposal website.

7. The school is a privately managed one, recognized by the Government. A trust has been formed to manage the school and the copies of the trust deed were provided to Asha Chennai. Asha Chennai also has the Xerox copy of the Government approval. The school occupies the land that belongs to the Village Panchayat. The latter has given the land to the Trust for a lease duration (~30 years). The copy of this lease deed was also given to Asha Chennai. Asha Chennai submitted a formal project proposal to Asha Tsunami Group on June 30 2005. Refer the detailed project proposal on the project website.

8. Refer Item 3 on Slide 3 and following pages for the project proposal. • Page 1 - Text books and Page 2 – Notebooks • Have already been received as also school bags for the children • (not mentioned here) from another NGO (in June 2005). • Page 6 - Some of it seems to have happened at the right time. • Asha Chennai is in the process of getting 267 student kits for all the • children (2 sets uniforms, shoes, 2 pairs of socks and a tie, a tiffin box, • pencil boxes, crayons and drawing notebooks) • through their back to School project at a cost of nearly Rs 110,000. • These should reach the children by 10th July 2005 at the latest.Asha Chennai is looking at help with pages 3,4,5 besides construction • and may be teacher support.Since it ia big project it will need support from as many people/chapters,Asha Tsunami Projects to ensure completion and success.

9. Project Details and Estimates

13. Fund Requirement Information/Summary Under Option 1, Asha Chennai would be building the ground and first floor of a new building. Under option 2 Ashe Chennai will be building the second floor of the new building that has been built by the Thiruppur Textile Association. It has been verified that this building is built with foundation sufficient to support one more floor. And Asha Chennai is happy with the quality of the building. Since Option 1 required foundation work, it should start before the end of July. Otherwise the ground would have very high water content and would make foundation work impossible. Further a high tension cable is currently running over the ground where this building would come. All these make Option 1 more complex. Therefore Asha Chennai recommends Option 2.

14. Fund Requirement Information/Summary Note – The costs of the furniture is given with country wood. This is sufficient for the school furnitures. Use of Vengai wood would the cost 60% higher. Asha Chennai recommends country wood furniture as listed. With these assumptions the total cost is as follows. Building 1700 Sq Ft of first floor – Rs 7.2 Lakhs Furniture for the classrooms etc. – Rs 1.3 Lakhs Teaching/Learning materials – Rs 1.2 Lakhs Teacher Salaries and Miscellaneous Expenses – Rs 1.5 Lakhs Total Cost for the project – Rs 11.2 Lakhs – USD 26,670.00 @ $1= Rs 42 (This is what we get after bank charges)

15. Proposed Asha Arizona Funding Furniture for the classrooms etc. – Rs 1.3 Lakhs (~ USD 3,100.00) Teaching/Learning materials – Rs 1.2 Lakhs (~ USD 2,900.00) Teacher Salaries and Miscellaneous Expenses – Rs 1.5 Lakhs (~ USD 3,600.00) Total Cost for the Asha AZ part of the funding: ~ USD 9,600.00 Rs 4.0 Lakhs – USD 9,600.00 @ $1= Rs 42 (This is what they get after bank charges) Current balance of Asha AZ Tsunami funds = USD 13,613.41

16. Asha St. Louis has emailed Asha Chennai back stating that they will come back with the areas they will fund by July 10th 2005. Asha Arizona has emailed Asha Chennai back stating that they will come back with the areas they would fund (if approved) by July 09th 2005. Areas that remain unfunded (after funding by individual chapters) will be funded from Tsunami Asha-wide funds. The project goes through ARC (Asha Representative Committee) for voting. The ARC is the only body for making decisions at the Asha-wide level. ARC has one representative from each chapter. Chapters discuss at the chapter-level before coming to the ARC. Proposals for ARC discussion has to be brought forth by a chapter. There are three kinds: Executive: Ratified by ARC. Tactical: Chapter representative can vote on ARC. Strategic: Chapter ARC representative to take it back to the chapter and vote.

17. Akkarapetai Project List of Questions (Have already emailed Asha Chennai with list): 1) What is the assurance that the Trust will not use the buildings for some other purpose once the funding has been provided? 2) What if the lease is terminated early by the Village Panchayat? 3) What happens to the kids after the primary education is complete? Where do they go? Does the school help in anyway? 4) Who will own the furniture and the teaching supplies? Asha or the trustee or the village Panchayat? 5) Does the Trust have interests other than education? 6) What is the source of income for Trust to pay for the yearly lease? 7) What are the current sources of income to pay for salary, materials, etc. 8) What is the Girls versus Boys ratio? 9) How many class rooms are currently and how many are going to be built? 10) Volunteer/Intern Travel (10 trips * Rs 1000 per trip)? Who is this person and what is their role? 11) How long has this school been in existence? 12) How will Asha Chennai ensure that the proposers really have the ability and intention to execute the project with good quality? 13) What are the mechanisms in place to ensure accountability of the money given? i.e. it should not be used for anything other than the purpose for which it is sent.