Asha Boston then applied for and got a grant from Oracle to expand the program to all government middle schools in HD Kote taluk. The grant helped acquire a new van for the middle schools and helped spark interest in science in all the middle schools that led to the 19 high schools.

The vans were a success – children and teachers welcomed the arrival of a van with great enthusiasm, and it was very exciting for the children to do hands-on work. The facilitators in the vans also taught classes if there were Science teacher positions vacant.

The program began to have an unexpected side effect in identifying government school teachers who were keen to improve themselves but had no guidance whatsoever. It was eye opening for us that such teachers existed – most people dismiss government school teachers as ‘useless,’ but here were were highly motivated teachers who wanted to learn! Some in this group have gone to be rock stars – they won awards and are highly respected in their schools, and they have also become proponents for creating labs in their schools. Here is an article that profiles one of them, who has gone on to do amazing things, including winning the Karnataka State Award for teaching last year.

The teachers have gone on to create interesting labs, including a lab for Maths that typically doesn’t exist in schools. They created opportunities for learning by doing of their own accord.   And became resource persons for other teachers.

Asha Boston then helped fund an expansion in nearby Nanjangud taluk, and then neighboring Kodagu district. Note that the amount Asha Boston funded remained more or less the same, we just kept changing the focus depending on the need and ideas of SVYM. As the project grew other corporations wanted to be involved. McAfee foundation, Qualcomm foundation are some examples. When an idea is successful funding avenues open up. Nothing succeeds like success.

Praveen’s leadership at SVYM has played a critical role. Praveen, started his education work at SVYM with the mobile science van project and now is the head of all education activities at SVYM. Under his leadership he made connections to other education projects run by SVYM, bringing them together as a coherent whole, as he writes here.

Praveen then replicated the model in Dharwad district in Karnataka. Here is a video from that work.   Asha is not involved in funding that program, but Praveen credits the initial funding from Asha for all subsequent developments. Says he, “Asha’s funding was critical for our experiments. None of the other donors let us play around with an idea.”

Along the way we have sometimes stepped in when there was an urgent need. Post pandemic the foundation supporting the Mobile Science Van Kodagu district did not continue right away. Asha Boston identified a donor to support the program for one year, giving SVYM time to find other funding.

One Asha chapter can never fund large projects like this. But with strategic partnerships, with the tried and tested model of working with new ideas and small organizations, of considering project partners as real partners and friends (not as donor recipients with interactions limited to reviewing reports and financial statements) we can create larger scale impact.

We are an all-volunteer group and 99.5% of all of your donations were sent directly to projects. This has repeatedly earned us a four star Charity Navigator rating. In the latest rating Charity Navigator gave us a score of 100 in Accountability and Finance, an endorsement of our “financial efficiency, sustainability, and trustworthiness, and commitment to governance practices and policies.”

New Project Spotlight

We started support for a new project in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Lok Chethana Samiti runs a girl’s hostel from about 40 girls from the Musahaar community, an extremely disadvantaged community. Parents work in very low income jobs, often are migrant laborers, and most girls are first generation learners. Asha Boston helps support the day-to-day expenses of the hostel.

Libraries

We continue our support of libraries in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Tamil Nadu

Asha Chennai volunteer Paripooranam coordinates the community libraries in four villages.   The library is a center not just for books but also for learning Science.  Creating a rainbow and making a light ray visible in a container filled with smoke are some of the experiments the children proudly showed us in a Google Meet call.  Asha’s support covers the librarian honorarium and books expenses.

Major Achievement: The libraries are humming with activity with almost all children from the village visiting.   School headmasters are reaching out to these libraries to request support.

Uttar Pradesh

Study Centers

Seed Narpanigal in Madurai, Tamil Nadu

Study centers play a crucial role in covering gaps caused by poor quality schools or difficult situations at home.   They complement school education, and also act as an extended family for the children.   This can make the difference between being successful in school and dropping out.   As the Seed Narpanigal team says in their annual report, “All a kid needs is a little help, a little hope, and someone who believes in them.”   As part of their empowerment programs the children elect student officers, who take on several important duties.  Here is the president of the student body hoisting the national flag on Independence Day.

Working with Government Schools

In government schools our focus is on improving an existing system, that is the only school available to 90% of rural children.  Most villages have a primary school with decent infrastructure.  But the quality of education means most children who attend government schools are left behind.   Delay in teacher appointments, vacancies for a whole year, lack of labs and equipment, lack of any book outside the textbook, rote memorization based teaching are just some of the problems.

Several of our projects partner with government schools to address these issues, particularly the glaring ones such as a teacher vacancy or the lack of lab for a high school.

Mobile Science Van in Kodagu district, Karnataka.  The successful project in HD Kote taluk is now implemented in two taluks in Kodagu district.   A generous grant from Hansa and Jitu Shah helped us re-start this project.  The project is moving towards the goal of increasing the number of students who study Science after high school.  As described here, 1% or less of students from rural areas study Science after class X.  This shuts them out of lucrative careers.   Projects like the Mobile Science Van work in tandem with other initiatives to achieve successes like this student, helping him move from being a low-wage agricultural laborer to an engineer.  Further, the transformation in some government school teachers is remarkable, as with Harsha S who has gone on to win the Best Teacher Award in Karnataka this year.

Major Achievement:  3 government school teachers from Mysore district voluntarily signed up to spend some time at Karike, a remote village in Kodagu district during the Dasara holidays.   All teacher positions are vacant at Karike High School, and Harsha, Satish and Kiran along with the students and headmaster of Karike High School sacrificed their holidays to come together to learn.

REWARD Trust in Kancheepuram district, Tamil Nadu.  We are grateful to the generous grant from Anita Sra and her family that has kept this successful project going.  REWARD appoints over 70 teachers in 40+ schools to maintain a 30:1 student:teacher ratio and ensure that there is no teacher vacancy that leaves a subject untaught.   These teachers are trained by REWARD, which is the core pillar of the project.  The results are there for all to see.   As Mamta Naidu, who visited last year, says, “I am absolutely amazed with the students’ confidence, fearlessness, and eagerness.  Such students truly inspire me in my small role as an Asha for Education volunteer.”

Major Achievement: 4 students in class VIII from schools with REWARD appointed teachers won the NMMS (National Merit Scholarship), and will get Rs 1000/month for four years (till class XII).   A tremendous achievement by these students in rural government schools.

Deenabandhu Project Shaale in Chamarajanagar district, Karnataka.  The annual Science Day held on August 30^th on the Deenabandhu campus is an important Project Shaale event.  After a Covid hiatus, the event was back in full swing, and attended by 2500+ students from government schools near and far!  The children’s eagerness was palpable and their excitement infectious. They wanted to absorb as much as possible from everything they saw.  Deenabandhu school was full of students demonstrating Science experiments, complete with an hourly open air chemical reaction demonstration (with small explosions and light and smoke, hence it was held outdoors).

Major Achievement: The focus oncreating very low-cost teaching aids continues.   Deenabandhu created a very simple microscope using a 5mm lens they found in a toy and zoom function in a smart phone camera.  Voila!  Any teacher can now show students how much life is in a few drops of pond water.

Sahanivasa, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh

Independent Schools

Running a full school is resource intensive.  Our partners start schools when there are no other options in the area, or when the schools do not meet the needs of the students in the area.  Or if the school has a whole new approach.

Viveka Tribal Center for Learning  This school for tribal children in the middle of a forest serves not just as a school, but as a platform to help tribal students meet their goals.  It is also highly sensitive to tribal culture, something that is not the case in other schools in the area, which are also difficult to reach in this forested area.

The focus on Arts received a huge shot in the arm with the recruitment of Manoj, a school alumni, as the Arts and Crafts teacher.   As he says in this interview, “I try to use naturally available things to decorate, for example, we sometimes use rachis of a coconut leaf.  My students inspire me by their learning.  They learn well and fast.”  To learn more about VTCL students, see this video: Dreamers today, Doers tomorrow!

Major Achievement: 98.5% students passed class X examples and 47 of 68 students got first class, an increase from recent years.  

Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (KSV) near Dharwad in Karnataka integrates the performing arts into the curriculum.   Like with so many schools this year marked a return to normalcy after the pandemic, with a focus on remedial education.  Students passed exams with flying colors, won prestigious awards, and participated in many new initiatives such as the Saturday morning Discovery and Development sessions.  KSV is honored to win the Best School award from Bala Vikas Academy, recognizing KSV’s commitment to holistic, value-based education.

Children are in schools and learning, and our project partners are working hard to close the Covid learning gap. Deenabandhu is a shining example of how dedication and focus on addressing the issue can make a world of difference.

As an organization with a four star Charity Navigator rating, we have an extremely low overhead. We are an all-volunteer group, and 99.5% of all funds raised by Asha Boston in 2022 were sent directly to projects.

Total funds disbursed to projects in 2022: $130,781 for 12 projects impacting 23,000 students. You make this possible.

The students are in government schools, slum areas, or remote rural areas and Asha’s work empowers women and marginalized communities, enhances the curriculum for improved learning levels, trains teachers so that they can be the best possible, provides books for libraries, and more.

Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution and maximize the use of every dollar for a great cause.

Below are some updates.

Madurai Seed Narpanigal: Libraries and reading has been one of the themes for the year. In addition to our support for village libraries in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh (which has spawned more such efforts in nearby villages), study centers like Madurai Seed Narpanigal have conducted several events related to reading.

Libraries in Tamil Nadu: Seeyapoondi and nearby villages have libraries which are also community centers for children giving them access to computers and various learning activities. The libraries are thriving with active participation from the community.

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Libraries in Uttar Pradesh: The Asha Samajik Vidyalaya school in Rajatalab expanded its library to much fanfare. The new libraries for children of migrant brick kiln workers are going on well in the areas surrounding Varanasi. And we are very encouraged to get requests for similar initiatives in the area.

Bhagwati Sarla Paliwal Shiksha Samiti (BSPES), near Jattari, Uttar Pradesh: It was a struggle to bring girls back to school after the pandemic in the highly patriarchal society in the area.   Slowly, there is progress.  Last month attendance was up to 86% of pre-pandemic levels, an encouraging sign.  The school Science exhibition as always generated excitement and everyone learned a lot.

Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (KSV), near Dharwad, Karnataka: KSV has been conducting remedial classes in the second half of the year to bring the students back to desired levels of learning. They are making steady progress and hope to be caught up at the end of the academic year (ending in April 2023). And in spite of the challenges of online classes for children from remote villages they managed to maintain a 100% pass rate with an average score was 74%. The topper had a score of 94%.

Reward Trust: Reward hires youth from the local communities, trains them, and appoints them as teachers in local government schools. Asha funds are 100% used for these teachers’ salaries. This model has been very successful, and following Covid more headmasters/headmistresses were clamoring for these teachers. Thanks to support from a generous donor, Reward has been able to respond to these requests.

Sahanivasa: Sahanivasa teachers teach government school children. They tried to keep students engaged in learning through story-telling and games. Sahanivasa also successfully petitioned the state government to phase in English medium in the government schools. As classes resume the government school teachers and principal are very appreciative of the help provided by the Sahanivasa teachers – they say this supplemental support has helped tremendously in addressing the learning deficits over covid time. Although some covid protocols are still in place, children, and the teachers, seem very happy to be back in school, learning and growing – their enthusiasm is palpable.

Mobile Science Van: This project in Kodagu district in Karanataka, where a Mobile Science Van (Vijnana Vahini) visits 96 government and government-aided schools reaching 13,000 students had to stop abruptly in March 2020. Some corporate donors’ priorities had changed by the time schools re-opened. Thanks to support from Hansa and Jitu Shah this project is being re-started this academic year.

In HD Kote taluk in Mysore district the Mobile Science Van work continues to yield results. Students from remote hamlets have gone on to become toppers in exams. Praveen and Nagendra were students in village high schools without Science labs and enough Science teachers, and today are toppers in the state recruitment exam for the positions of assistant professors in Mathematics. They now go on to teach other students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Viveka Tribal Center for Learning (VTCL): VTCL is transforming itself into a school that acts as a springboard for the aspirations of tribal students. In particular, they are focusing on the integration of Arts and Sports in the curriculum that students have shown an aptitude for. Focus on the curriculum is not compromised – at the 2022 SSLC exam the school achieved a pass percentage of 78.6% with 3 students scoring distinction and 9 students scoring above 80%.

Center for Development, Ahmedabad, Gujarat It is the little things that can make a big difference – and in a girl’s life the space to study and an encouraging environment can make the difference between succeeding and dropping out.   The Kadam Resource Centre provides this space and often it is difficult to find a landlord to rent a space for this purpose.  They recently moved to a new apartment, hopefully the final one, with funds from Asha.   Girls come together and study and stay together, especially during exam times.   Most girls are back in school after the pandemic, all actively working towards their education, some in 10th, some in 12th, some in college.

            

With schools shuttered by the pandemic for almost two years, millions of children across India lost precious learning and growth opportunities. Access to resources is (and has always been) a challenge in marginalized areas of the country and the pandemic exposed these faultlines in a glaring manner. Asha for Education operates in some of the most marginalized areas of the society and providing access to educational resources has always been a priority in all Asha supported schools. However, with a large demographic to support this hasn’t been easy even in normal times. Computer labs that have a ratio of 1 computer for every 5 students or vocational centers that teach sewing to girls having 4-5 sewing machines per 25-30 girls is how Asha Samajik Vidyalaya has been operating over the last few years. The focus had always been to ensure children from neighboring villages come to the school and make use of these resources however scarce they might be because in the villages there are none.

The pandemic turned this model upside down where students lost access to classroom teaching, computer labs, sewing machines, and other learning materials that Asha Samijik Vidyalaya had so hard to acquire. One saving grace was the school library which was relatively well stocked and the school allowed students to check out books to take home to study. The teachers monitored the students learning remotely over the phone or WhatsApp. The school library was opened for access by students of other schools and drop-out students as well. The goal was to ensure that a child of a schoolgoing age in any of the nearby villages gets access to learning materials of some sort. With unprecedented times upon us, the staff at ASV Rajatalab, Varanasi wanted to ensure we do not fail the students who would have ended up becoming the ‘lost generation’. The library remained open on weekends through the school closures as no in-classroom teaching could be conducted during the lockdowns.

The library proved to be a savior in remote learning and helping students provide access to learning materials. The higher usage meant books are now getting worn out and now need to be replaced. Having a well-stocked library also allows Asha for Education to provide resources to those who lack them and can’t afford them. A good library promotes a culture of curiosity and learning wherever it is established and operated well and this library at Asha Samijik Vidyalaya in Rajatalab Tehsil just outside of Varanasi city is no exception.

Schools reopened after nearly a 20 month shutdown, and attendance was 40-70% in many schools. Boys had taken up jobs, girls had been married off. Children had lost the habit of being in a classroom. Children had fallen behind in what they need to know at their grade level. For a rural child such as Rani, this could have a devastating impact on her life. She had been in class II when the pandemic started and now she was in class IV. She had missed class III entirely, and had virtually no access to online learning during the shutdown. Can she now fit in class IV?

We are determined to ensure that she does. Our project partners are working hard on closing the learning gap and ensuring children like Rani stay in school and catch up with what they need to know.

The core tenets of Asha’s project partners are so relevant at this time: an unwavering commitment to help each child reach their potential, however poor and disadvantaged their situation. Building on trust developed over the years with the community and parents, and by creating a nurturing atmosphere for children to grow and flourish, several projects have been able to get the attendance back to 100%, a major achievement in a short time. And in this time of COVID they have created specialized programs. First, they designed community learning centers during the shutdown. Now they are focusing on the basics – languages and arithmetic – to close the COVID learning gap. For a child such as Rani, helping her get ready for class IV makes the difference between dropping out and staying on, with a far-reaching impact on her life. It can determine whether she will scrub floors for a living or help the world with the next great invention.

There is so much potential that is lost because of limited access to quality education. Seeing the rings of Saturn through a locally developed telescope brought a sparkle to her eye. There is no limit to her potential if we can help her dream – of designing the next generation James Webb telescope.

Can you help?

Asha has a 4/4 rating from Charity Navigator for its transparency and integrity.

Asha Boston projects soldiered through the pandemic with efforts such as community learning centers in tribal hamlets (reaching about a third of the students from the school), focus on two wheeler driving and other activities to empower girls, procurement of devices to continue mentoring activities online, and more.

Now as schools reopen, challenges are many.

For high school students government guidelines require schools to complete the syllabus of the missed year in one month. An impossible task in the best of times, this is complicated by large class sizes and covid-related protocols. Individual attention enabled by Asha Boston projects is more important than ever, to help children make up for the lost year (class VIII or class IX ) as best as they can, and get ready for the all important class X exams (SSLC).

For younger children, the lost year has meant a regression in reading, writing, and arithmetic skills. Asha Boston projects are focusing on re-learning these basics before starting work on catching up with the required syllabus.

In families with acute financial distress boys have become daily wage laborers, and girls have been married off. This has resulted in decreased attendance at study centers and schools run by our project partners. After near 100% enrollment and full community support for education in recent years, project partners have to again focus on efforts to bring everyone back to school. “It is as though we have gone back ten years,” says the principal at one school.

Other unexpected challenges are difficulties children face in focusing their attention in class, picking up of tobacco and other habits when they were out of school, and parents’ fear of COVID among their children (in India vaccination is not available for children under 18).

If we don’t act fast, the consequences of the lockdown will have a lasting impact on a generation.

Will you join us in our effort to do what we can to help?

https://donate.ashanet.org/?c=16

A student who stopped going to school in class 4 is now in class 6. A student who was in class 6 is now in class 8. A complete year lost. Particularly hard hit are rural children, who are typically advancing more in school than their parents and so are able to get less support at home, and who were nearly impossible to reach with online learning.

Basic lessons have to be re-taught. Our project partner Deenabandhu is focusing on bridge lessons for government school children, taking into account the bridge curriculum outlined by the government. Visits to government schools (as part of the Science education project) by facilitators and resource persons from the project have been increased in frequency. Focus is first on 40 schools where they have a good rapport with the government school teachers and who they have been working with for a while.

Reaching 40 schools means helping 4000 children catch up.

Government school teachers are happy to have the guidance.

Smiles on children’s faces as they are back in school are a joy to see!

Maniya had everything stacked against him.  His parents own a 1-acre agricultural plot and work as daily wage laborers.   There is a serious shortage of government school teachers in his Gram Panchayath, many government lower primary schools are completely without teachers.

Vijnana Vahni (Mobile Science Van) project supported by Asha for Education and Oracle encountered Maniya in his high school, and the Viveka Scholar program from SVYM worked with him and mentored him during his PU years.  The hurdles continued – there is no PU Science college within 80 kms of his village, it was extraordinarily tough for him to switch to English medium in PU (needed to take the Science stream), and he could not get an educational loan without collateral.

But now he stands at the cusp of tremendous achievement.  After B.Sc and M.Sc at the University of Mysore he plans to start a Ph.D at IIT Guwahati, pursuing research in synthetic organic chemistry.  He was also selected by IIT Madras, IIT Dharwad, and NISER Bhubaneswar.   He expects to get a CSIR fellowship for his Ph.D.

The key to success in helping students like Maniya is working alongside the right organizations and the right programs.  The Vijnana Vahini (Mobile Science Van) program helped spark Maniya’s interest in Science and started him on this road; working together SVYM and the Viveka Scholar Program was critical for continued mentorship and support,  We are happy we played a role through Vijnana Vahini, and it is all because of supporters like you.

There are hundreds and thousands of students like Maniya.

“….Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”

Working together we can ensure that there are fewer such flowers who languish in the desert air and more students like Maniya.

Be they formally trained teachers with education degrees,

Or teacher trainers who train other teachers,

Or volunteer youth from the community who help younger children,

Or experts on specialized topics sharing their expertise,

Or mentors who inspire,

Or Asha volunteers who visit and interact with students.

Happy Teachers Day!!

In Asha Boston we have pledged to continue support for our projects through this time, supporting our project partners as they continue with their mission in many innovative ways.   It is more important than ever to support these students and ensure that recent gains are not erased.

Madurai was initially hit badly by the pandemic and the Seed Narpanigal study centers were closed.  As the lockdown was relaxed, the Karumbalai study centers were determined to have educational activities for youth volunteers and students.  Given the extra time available when schools and colleges were closed, they focused on activities beyond the curriculum.  English classes, and a series of lectures ‘Introduction to Language’ by a renowned Linguistics professor on Zoom were much appreciated by the youth.   Best of all, all female volunteers were taught to drive two-wheelers and are on the verge of getting their licenses.   As we have seen in many projects female empowerment is strongly linked to mobility, whether on bicycles or on two-wheelers.   Now colleges are re-opening, and the yearly event of giving scholarships to students took place with masks and social distancing.   Classes for X and XII have been re-started.

Asha Boston volunteers on a Zoom call                               College scholarships are distributed
with Asha Fellow Karthik Bharathi

Karthi has soldiered on in the face of personal tragedy.  His sister passed away from heart failure during the early days of the pandemic, because private hospitals refused to admit patients with breathlessness symptoms.

The children and youth we support need to come out stronger than ever when the pandemic finally ends.