Happy New Year 2012!

December 29th, 2011

For Seva Mandir, the year 2011 has been a year of changes and success. Ms. Neelima Khetan stepped down after 12 years of her excellent leadership (total 25 years of association with Seva Mandir) in March. Ms. Priyanka Singh became our new Chief Executive in April 2011. Seva Mandir is ready to see many more years of its successful engagement with rural communities in Southern Rajasthan in her leadership.

In October, Seva Mandir became the implementing agency for the MNREGA projects for 32 sites in rural Udaipur. It is a significant achievement as well as an indicator of the faith of the 74 Panchayats in Seva Mandir’s work. These Panchayats have endorsed us to be their implementing agency for MNREGA. Of these 32 sites that were sanctioned, the work has begun on the 22 sites. Most of these sites of pastureland development and currently the building of boundary wall is going on.

In 2011, Seva Mandir has been included in two working (sub) groups – {i) Child Survival & Development and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and ii) Girl Child} constituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to review the existing priorities, policies, strategies, programs and their implementation for fulfilling the rights of children to survival, development (including early childhood care, early learning, elementary education). Also, to highlight emerging issues and recommendations, resources allocation and utilization for Twelfth Five Year Plan of Government of India.

Several of Seva Mandir’s programs have seen a maturing in the last years. For example, in the villages where Seva Mandir organized regular immunization camps, the complete immunization of children is 60%, while in comparison villages it is only 35%.

Similarly, the work on Natural Resources is yielding a lot of benefits to the poor. Every year grass worth Rs. 52 lacs (5.2 million rupees) is being harvested from the common lands developed under this program.

In April 2011, Champa Devi from Vassela village was awarded the “Woman Exemplar Award 2011″. It is another reason to look back and feel joyous to see that a community member of Seva Mandir was being recognized by rest of the society for her selfless services.

We are privileged to experience exciting stories of women like Champa Devi.  It is gratifying that with your support we have been able to create spaces where ordinary people can exercise truth force to bring about social and political transformation.

The full and deep impact of Seva Mandir’s work lies not so much in the tangible development activities that it promotes, but more in bringing the poor and rich together and enabling them to work for the commons of building more just and oppression free communities.

We look forward to all our friend’s continuing support in the year 2012 too. Wishing you all a very happy New Year.

Posted in Uncategorized

Mohan is buying another buffalo

December 8th, 2011

Mohan Lal lives in Antalia village of Kumbalgarh block. He owns a small farm, two bulls, one buffalo, twenty goats and three cows. Since he has a large number of animals, he is always concerned about the fodder. A few years back in Mohan’s village a piece of land (pastureland) was lying barren with no vegetation. In subsequent years, the land has been contested and many people had build barns for their livestock. The land was completely encroached upon by influential people. But it is not the end. Mohan says the story of our pastureland was turned around.

In 2008 under the MN REGA the pastureland was taken up for treatment. Some Jatropha plants were planted and a few check dams (to prevent soil erosion) were built. However, Mohan says, with inadequate funds the boundary wall was built only halfway through.

The villagers were concerned that if the boundary wall is not completed sooner, the land would be contested again. The issue remained a concern in their several subsequent village meetings. Eventually they decided to ask Seva Mandir to help them develop this pastureland. It was a good sign that everyone in the village was concerned about a piece of land which was mostly encroached upon. Mohan says, we had understood the significance of taking care of the land which will yield benefits to all of us in the village.

Therefore, the villagers made a proposal to Seva Mandir along with the full details of the land and the blue print of the work. Seva Mandir conducted a survey with the help of its engineers and estimated the resources required (cost was Rs. 2.85 lacs or USD 6,334). The work began including digging trenches and building check dams (to prevent the soil erosion and facilitate water percolation), building the rest of the boundary wall, digging pits, planting saplings and sprinkling grass seeds.

However there was another two hectares of land which was encroached upon. The villagers began a dialogue with the trespasser families. Eventually these families agreed to vacate their possessions. Therefore, villagers requested Seva Mandir to take up the remaining land for pastureland development. With Rs. 1.54 lacs (USD 3,422) the remaining two hectares of land was taken up for building the fence, digging trenches and pits, plantation of saplings. The pastureland was closely located to a road with a small bridge. This allowed the animals an entry into the pastureland. Therefore, a thorny (spiky) wire was installed to prevent animals entering into the pastureland.

The villagers decided to penalize (Rs. 501) those families whose cattle enters into the pasture. It helped. They also appointed one person to guard their pastureland. Every family pays 2kgs of wheat every year to the guard.

Mohan says, years ago the pastureland was a piece of stones and barrenness. Now when he looks at it, he sees greenery all over. It makes him feel serene. Earlier, he was concerned about fodder for his cattle and now he has plenty. Currently he is thinking of buying another buffalo.

According to Mohan if they haven’t developed this pastureland, in future his children would only see private encroachments and barns on the land. With their collective work on the pastureland they re-generated the land as well as produced enough labor work for everyone. Their cattle have an access to leaves and grasses now. Some fruit trees such as custard apple are of much delight to children. In future they can sell the surplus of the fruit and generate village revenue.

The villagers are also planning to grow more trees including Neem, Tamarind, Mango, and Bamboo. The pastureland is having a positive impact on the environment. In the region mining is growing and to Mohan pastureland like this will be the only greener areas around in future. The 145 families of his village will continue to reap benefits from this pastureland since the entire village has vowed to take care of their lands.

 

The story is written by: Kishanlal (Zonal worker, Seva Mandir Kumbhalgarh).

 

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Block, Income Generation, Natural Resources, Story, Village Institution Program

What happens after graduating from a rural school

December 8th, 2011

The Rural School (Shiksha Kendra or SK) was set up in 1994 in Khara Fala, Jhadol with 50 children. For 3 years the community was very happy with the progress made by the school. In 1997 a Government school was set up near the SK. Most children got enrolled in the Government School.

Since now there was a government school the SK was closed down in Khara Fala. The village decided to take it to some other remotest hamlet of the village where there was no Government School. In the other remotest hamlet, the first year 30 children got enrolled. However in the second year, the enrollment was raised to 50 children because the parents were not satisfied with the performance of the Government school in Khara Fala. It meant that children who got enrolled in the government school began to come to the rural school which was located very far from their homes. Every year, more and more children got enrolled in the rural school. In village discussions the parents reported that they would not send their children to government schools because their children were receiving better education in the rural school.

Currently there are 107 children at the rural school. The children who have graduated in the past are excelling in their higher studies. Two children have acquired Bachelor degree (Under Graduation) , one is pursuing his Masters in Hotel Management, the other one is pursuing a Nursing course and 2 others are pursuing their B.S.T.C (Basic School Teaching Certificate).

Some children who have more recently graduated from the rural school are also pursuing higher education including – two children are in their first year of under graduation degree (Bachelor), five children are in 12th standard, 11 children are in 11th standard and fifteen children are in 10th standard.

The children who are graduating from the school have secured good grades in their higher studies too. They are all very happy to have access to quality education which will help them live a good life that they aspire to.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Education, India's Giving Challenge, Jhadol Block, Story

Talk on “Sex ratio trends in Census 2011″.

November 22nd, 2011

Prof. Ravinder Kaur addressing whole audience.

Prof. Ravinder Kaur enlightened the audience at Seva Mandir with a talk on the crucial issue “Sex ratio trends in Census 2011”on November 22, 2011. She explained “Sex ratio is an indicator of gender equality where normal sex ratio stands for 950 girls for every 1000 boys but the girl child sex ratio stood on 914 in census 2011”.
She elaborated reasons, facts and figures behind the declining sex ratio. One main reason which came out of her discussion was sex determination and selective abortion of female foetus.  A study done by LANCET puts the number at around 12.1 million for selective abortions which took place between 1980 to 2010. The discussion was complied on the issue of  not wanting a daughter because of her low economic value as compared to a son in our society. The audience too shared their life experiences of facing differences between a male and a female child.

Due to increase in violence against women, availability of means to determine sex of the foetus, the status of girl’s education,  prevalence to career etc are some of the reasons that contribute towards poor sex ratios.  Though there are laws and policies to protect girl children, the presence of the stereotypes in our society ensures that a girl stands nowhere when compared to a boy.
She further added that despite there are improvements in some northern states of India (like Punjab Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh etc.) the decline in child sex ratio stands 26 points for Rajasthan in 2010-2011. Apart from Banswara, Bhilwara, Dungarpur, and Udaipur where the child sex ratio is 915-920, all other districts are miserably between 830 and 903.
The talk was very useful in bringing the perspective together for all the participants.  Everyone felt to do more efforts in sensitizing everyone about the issue by spreading more awareness and organizing more gender trainings. The participants discussed the steps ahead. Ms. Pamela Philipose (a veteran journalist and feminist) and Prof. Ravinder Kaur suggested to record experiences and observations from Seva Mandir field staff on the issue. They suggested to a) break the stereotypes of symbolic behavior and attitude towards a girl child and b) organizations like Seva Mandir to sensitize people by focusing more on the issue.

Chief Executive Ms. Priyanka Singh also shared her concerns. She said it is unfortunate that people not only go for selective abortions but also kill a girl child after her birth.  She also added,that expectations are high from civil society organization such as ours. The organizations also find it very challenging because the people working in organizations also come from the same society. Therefore, it is very significant that everyone works on this issue collectively. She thanked everyone for participating in the discussion and talking so openly about the issue.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Gender, Gender, News, Speaks, Talk, Women Empowerment

What is a Seasonal Resiential Camp?

November 18th, 2011

An assessment was done on the camps in 2004. The study covered 233 children of 7 villages. 60% children want to come back to the camp.

BACKGROUND: Seva Mandir started conducting residential learning camps for children in 2001. Till then, most of our work in the field of primary education was through village-based centres called Non Formal Education centres (now called Rural Schools/ Shiksha Kendras or SKs). However, field assessments revealed that even in villages with SKs, there were a large number of children who were still out of school/SK. Many of the children were those who would migrate out of their villages for work hence, attending a regular school or an NFE was not a very viable option for them. These out of school children also included those who had gone to school but dropped out very quickly because they had some bad experience in the school. These bad experiences included beating or ill treatment by teacher, beating by other children, or non-comprehension in the classroom.

Looking at these reasons, we conceived of conducting residential learning camps (henceforth referred to as camps) for such children. The first camp was conducted largely by Vidya Bhavan on our behalf. Vidya Bhavan is an NGO based in Udaipur. They have immense experience and expertise in field of education. They have been Seva Mandir’s partner in the education programme and helped us improve it qualitatively. We identified the children and negotiated with their families and communities to bring them to the camp but Vidya Bhavan was more involved in the academic activities.

The camp had 80 children and was conducted for 20 days. Since then, our understanding on how to conduct camps has evolved and we have been conducting camps with support from Vidya Bhavan. There were a lot of questions among ourselves about starting the camp, how good was it an idea to bring children out of their natural environments for learning? What will the camps achieve, at most enable the children to read and write because the probability was that most of them will never go back to school- so were we adopting a minimalist approach for such deprived children’s education? Many such questions plagued us and we have not found answers to all. Nevertheless we have since then continued and some answers were provided through overwhelming response to the camp.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A CAMP?

The duration of our camps has varied, though most of them have been for one month. However, we have been experimenting with increasing the duration to 45 days and 60 days. It is a fully residential camp for both children and teachers. Seva Mandir programme staff takes turn to stay in the camp and at each point of time, there is a programme person in the camp. The campus chosen for the camp has always been a place wtih lot of open space and trees so as the children can play and explore.

Our endeavor is to enable a child ” to be able to read and write independently with comprehension”. For this, on an average, a child needs to undergo three camps. Sometimes, if the child is unable to attend successive camps, she might need to attend more than three camps. The two main subjects taught in the camp are language (Hindi) and mathematics.  Outdoor sports activities are organised every evening and the children hold cultural programmes in the night. Along with these main subjects, there are sessions on health, hygiene, environment, art, and theatre. These sessions are organised on a weekly basis as per the interests of the children and availability of resource persons. Groups of 10-15 children are made for classroom activities. These groups are made as per the children’s learning level.

Most of the children who come to the camp are from very impoverished backgrounds. Often they are very weak and susceptible to illnesses. Health checkups and medical aid is therefore also an important component of the camp. For example, in the present camp, there is a health check up every Friday.

CAMP- PEDAGOGY AND PHILOSOPHY

Children learn best when they are allowed to explore, think and reason on their own. A child as young as two not only learns to speak but also picks up the complexities of the language without ever being told about that. While even today there are no clear answers about how that happens, it is clear that all children do this in their natural environs and this may be accelerated with more stimuli and exposure. We follow this principle in facilitating children’s learning. The classrooms are structured in a way that allows children to work  (individually and in groups) on their own, there are spaces and exercises, which allow them to read, write, speak and reason on their own. The teaching materials and aids used are those which maybe meaningful and interesting to the child. For example, Hindi lessons are started with the help of small stories so that children understand that what they speak and hear can also be expressed in the written form. Stories are also used because full texts have more meaning for the children rather than just words or alphabets. Therefore, they are able to establish a relationship between the written word and its meaning. This also fuels their curiosity to understand the written text and be able to read and understand on their own.The children are also encouraged a lot to speak and ask questions. Of course, following this pedagogy demands that the teacher be confident and mature enough to allow children the space to formulate questions and also allow answers that may not be technically correct. Trainings help but they are not enough. Hence in our day-to-day interactions, we have to reinforce the feeling in teachers that they are respected and they have the intelligence to frame their own classroom activities. Only if they are treated with respect will they accord the same respect to the children. While we keep trying to create the culture of mutual respect and democracy, we also strive to create systems, which will reinforce this culture. For example, the teaching learning activities are designed in a way to allow children to work on their own and not one in which the teacher can dictate one right answer.

The attempt is that in each and every activity in the camp, the participants are allowed to take a decision and implement it the way they think best. We are there for logistic support and facilitation. For example, there are children’s committees with various responsibilities, the regular teachers’ feedback meeting is carried out by the teachers themselves. We also sit in the meeting and often ask very tough questions about the way they conduct the class but we do not lead and plan the meetings.

None of this is of course very smooth. There are times when the systems break down; there is a sudden increase in the number of children falling ill or staff getting tired of this work. Yet, we try that we treat each camp as a new and different camp and improve.

THE TEACHERS AND TEACHING MATERIAL

The first round of selection comprises a written test that tests basic abilities in Hindi, Mathematics, reasoning and attitudes. After this, they go through a training process, which seeks to both train and also eliminate, teachers who we feel will not be able to treat their colleagues and children with respect and affection. We do realize that it is difficult to find such “readymade” teachers and the need is to create such teachers. But, we also operate under time constraint so we often have to reject teachers in whom the chances to change seem difficult. Preference is given to women candidates and people from rural backgrounds. By now, we have groomed and prepared a cadre of teachers who also realize the value of treating children as intelligent human beings irrespective of their age, economic and social backgrounds.

Similarly a lot of care and energy has gone into preparing the learning materials for the children. We continuously keep selecting storybooks, which are in good and simple Hindi and suited for children of different age and learning levels. In mathematics, exercises are designed which allow children to understand the concepts of numbers and the functions possible with them instead of just learning the algorithms. Plenty of exercise sheets and workbooks are designed for children to solve and work in. There are lots of other play material like snakes and ladder, dices, flash cards that are also used for teaching. A library is set up for the use of both teachers and children. There are reference books for teachers in the library from which they can take help for designing classroom activities. Posters of poems have been printed and they are put up in the camp. A lot of the written work done by the children is also displayed so that the children always have something on the walls, which they can read. And it also makes the children happy to see their work as everybody’s work is put up and not only the best ones.

RESOURCES REQUIRED

Often, it is thought that children can stay in the camp in the same conditions as they do at home but actually if children in such large numbers are to stay comfortably, then the conditions have to be much better than are at their home. This means a lot of monetary investment also in their health, food, clothes, stay arrangements, study material etc. A large number of children even today work and camps are often the only option where they can enjoy some of their childhood even if it is at higher costs. The camp is not only a place for becoming literate, but a whole new experience of living together, getting to know each different people and taking responsibility.  The cost of supporting one child for 55 days is Rs. 13,000 (USD 280)

IMPACT AND BENEFITS

The villagers and children have shown an overwhelming response to the camp. From a modest start of 80 children, we have had batches of 900 children. In the closing ceremony of every camp, parents and committee members request for increasing the duration of the camp. They also request us to allow the children currently studying in school to participate in the camp. The plea is that these school children can in any case not read and write, so here they will learn something. In the earlier camps, despite all our efforts at trying to bring only out of school children, a large number of children who were going to school would also come. With the village communities also understanding the objective of the camp, over time, the camps have managed better targeting of out of school children.

An assessment was done on the camps in 2004. The study covered 233 children of 7 villages. Most of the children said that they enjoyed the camp. 60% said that they wanted to come back to the camp.

Over time, the number of children graduating from camps to schools/NFEs has also increased. This has happened because the children are now better able to cope with the studies in government schools. Since, they can themselves read and write, they are able to comprehend in the classroom even if the teacher is not teaching too well. However, this is mostly in younger children i.e. under 10 years.

120 children of 7 villages of Jhadol block who had participated in the camp in 2005 were tracked in 2010. Of these 61 were going to school while the rest were out of school. Of the remaining, 33 had gone to Gujarat for labor. Such tracking will be done for other blocks. This data when looked village wise reveals even more. For example, the number of school going children is very high in 2 villages. One of this is where Seva Mandir has had a long presence while the other has had a medium presence but there are two well functioning NFEs in that village and many of the children have joined the NFE after the camp.

CURRENT CAMP

The current camp started on 5th November and will end on 31st December. There are 191 children participating in it and there are 19 teachers who are staying with them.

 

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT

Kindly send in us a cheque favoring “Seva Mandir’ and send in us at the following address -

Seva Mandir,

Old Fatehpura

Udaipur 313004

For any assistance or queries, kindly contact Ms. Deepti Ameta

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Education, Fund Raising, News

Closing Ceremony of English Access Microscholarship Program.

October 28th, 2011

A Certificate Award Ceremony was held on 30th August, 2011 for the students of the English Access Microscholarship Program. The program was conducted by Seva Mandir in collaboration with Vidya Bhawan, at Seva Mandir’s conference hall.

scholarshipThe occasion was graced by our Chief Guest Ms. Joelle, Regional English Language Officer of the American Center, Ms. Neelima Khetan, one of the trustees and Ms. Priyanka Singh, Chief Executive of Seva Mandir. All the teachers, colleagues from Seva Mandir and Vidya Bhawan had participated in the ceremony.

The Chief Guest and the panel addressed the gathering and shared their thoughts on the journey of this programme. 60 students from 4 centers had received their certificates later on they explained how the program has helped them to build their confidence in spoken English as well as in reading comprehension. Ms.Gunjan Doogar, coordinator of Access Programme gave vote of thanks to everybody after the completion of the programme. To know more write to us

 

Posted in Education

Kamla too, wishes you happy Diwali

October 28th, 2011

Kamla, a 12 year old girl aspires to become a teacher. She lives in Sagwara village with her parents and one elder brother. Kamal is a hard working girl. She had dropped out of school two years ago in order to make money. However, she has recently started attending the Rural School (Shiksha Kendra).

Kamla’s father is a farmer. He owns a small piece of land. Small land with access to little water assures him food-security for a couple of months every year. Therefore, he has to work as a labourer to support his family.

Two years ago when Kamla’s brother graduated from Rural School, he was sent to a Government school for further studies while, she was asked to migrate to Gujarat (a nearby state) to work on a field for cotton picking. She had to work for cross pollination in the field and later in a factory for processing the cotton. She worked 12 hours a day starting from 8am morning till 8pm night. Kamla doesn’t want to talk abut those two years that she spent in Gujarat in the cotton field. She said “…I would like to forget those days as nightmare”.  She wasn’t the only child there working but she missed her family, friends, and the school.

This year too, her father wanted her to work in Gujarat. Small income earned by Kamla is of a great help to her family. Kamla wanted to go to school. She spoke to her father and expressed her desire to attend school. The teachers of Rural School and Government Primary School as well as neighbours also spoke to her father in this regard. They all encouraged him to send her to school instead. Kamla’s father, eventually agreed. Kamla was very happy at his decision. She started going to Rural School. Soon she began to recognize some words and numbers. Kamla says with much confidence – “I will continue going to school and will try to perform well”.

Note: The increasing incidence of seasonal migration of rural and tribal children from southern Rajasthan has been a cause of great concern. Most of these children are below the age of fourteen years and are forced to migrate so that they can contribute towards the household income. They migrate for more than 2-3 months to work in BT cotton farms and factories in Gujarat. The work is extremely hazardous as both adults and children work in pesticide-sprayed fields from dawn to dusk. Migrant workers also live on the farms under a shed with no basic amenities. Seva Mandir has been trying to prevent children from migrating. In addition, efforts are also focused to create more income generation activities in villages. To know more, please contact us.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Education, India's Giving Challenge, Kherwada Block, Story

Rajasthan to develop pastureland under MGNREGS now – The Hindu

October 18th, 2011

Seva Mandir with the Panchayati Raj will develop pasture lands in villages of Udaipur under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The first project has been launched in Chhali and Amleta villages of Udaipur District.

On Oct 15, 2011 the project was inaugurated in these villages by State Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Bharat Singh. He said, This is the first instance when a voluntary institution together with the Panchayat under the MNREGS are working on a development project of this nature in this region . He said, “it will provide livelihoods to the people as well as help protect their land for reaping benefits of fodder and trees in the future”. Minister of State for Youth Affairs Mr. Mangilal Garasia, our Trustee Mr. Ajay Mehta and our Chief Executive Priyanka Singh were also present at the inauguration.

Mr. Ajay Mehta expressed his gratitude to Mr. Singh for allowing civil societies opportunities of these kinds. He also congratulated both of the villages for choosing an idea of mass development other than personal growth at this opportunity.

Ms. Priyanka Singh said “MNREGS is the world’s biggest employment generation program. By giving space to a Non Government Organization, Rajasthan’s State Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Government has started a new journey in the field of development under this scheme. Seva Mandir will execute 32 works spread in a pasture land area measuring 650 hectares at a cost of Rs. 2.25 crore under the MNREGS”.

Also see the news coverage by The Hindu : Rajasthan to Develop Pastureland under MGNREGS now.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Badgaon Block, Income Generation, Natural Resources, News, Visitors

You and Jasmine, Udaipur

September 11th, 2011

How good do we feel when our hopes are accomplished. When our prayers are answered, our efforts gives the desired results and when our dreams comes true. The story below is about a small girl whose name is Jasmine. This story will define the meaning of above lines, how she made efforts to follow her dreams.

jasmineBefore three years, her days would be spent in helping her mother in the household chores. Besides this, she would take care of her newly born younger brother and would also assist her father in farming. In the afternoon she would hear noise of children rushing to home after attending the rural school. While listening to those sounds Jasmine would wonder if she could also go to school and learn things she can only dream about.

One day she asked her parents if they would permit her to go school. Her parents especially her mother said that it would be difficult for them to send her to school. Since she needed someone to help her with household work and looking after the little baby. Jasmine was sad to hear this.  Her parents felt bad too. They didn’t know if school would avail anything to their daughter. They know that girls in their neighborhood have dropped out from a government primary school in the past.  They were convinced that Jasmine too, would drop out soon, even if they allowed her to go to school.

Jasmine’s uncle one day, had a conversation with her parents. In his conversation it turned out that some kids who have started going to Seva Mandir supported Rural School are doing well in their studies. He encouraged them to also send their daughter to school. Especially if she has a keen interest. Jasmine’s parents looked at each other. They agreed to give it a try.

Jasmine got admitted the next day  in Level C at  the Rural School. She was happy to be there and since the school was not too far away it was easy for her to reach there.  This school in Palesar has been there since 2003 and every year 10-12 children pass out and join government school for higher studies.

In the beginning Jasmine didn’t know how to read and write and how to count numbers. Slowly she started learning everything. The instructor engages all the students in various group activities which helps them identifying the letters. He would use pebbles, charts, pieces of twigs and flash cards to help the kids recognize the letters, count numbers and do simple math and forming words. Jasmine loved the friendly environment and interacting with other kids. Only in a year she cleared the C level. At the level B she was able to write words and do simple calculations. She was thrilled as now she could read out things written in the village around the walls of her house. Her parents were delighted to see their daughter scribble things around the house.  After another year, she was now in Level A.  She learned to make sentences with the words and could execute complex calculations.

Now this is 2011. She has graduated from the Rural School early this year. She is now able to  read and write sentences independently with comprehension. Recently she was admitted in a Government school. Everyone was so proud of Jasmine as she got enrolled in sixth standard. Jasmine’s uncle was so happy to see her progressing in her life. She is not only been able to help her family with household chores a little but she has also worked to hard to study. Her hard work and progress made Jasmine’s parents proud.

Jasmine did it. Many other kids can also do it if they also have a chance like Jasmine.

You can also help a child to go to school for just Rs. 2,000/. Here is another reason for you to donate to this program now.

 

Posted in India's Giving Challenge, Story

You and children of Udaipur

September 5th, 2011

Seva Mandir is participating in India’s Giving Challenge 2011. We are championing our rural school for this project. Our target is to raise at least 5 lacs during this challenge. There is a also a matching grant of 65 Lac rupees, if we win the challenge. You will also be able to read periodic latest updates/ stories /articles on the program you are supporting.

The following article will tell you more about the rural schools and how can you help children of Udaipur to win the education.

Introduction:

Education has been one of the core programs of Seva Mandir since its inception. With the passage of time the strategies and pedagogy has been developed and modified whenever and wherever needed. Rural Schools are single teachers-schools catering to 25-30 rural children (6-14 years of age). The teachers belong to the same village and have a desire to help his/her village children with education. At present 188 Rural Schools (also known as Shiksha Kendra) are running in 186 villages which are reaching out to 5,694 students. Every year more than 1,000 new students are enrolled and over 800 children graduate from these schools and join Government schools.

Enrollment & Classroom structure:

At the time of enrollment children are graded into three groups viz A, B, & C, according to their learning levels. The highest level is A, after completing this level they graduate from Rural Schools. The C level is for the beginners. The children are taught Hindi (language) and Maths. In addition, they are also taught Science and Environment in a way that children can relate to with their practical knowledge. Recently the children are also taught English. There are group activities, worksheets, flash cards, story books, posters, charts and outdoor activities that make classroom learning interesting and joyful. These activities encourage children to think and reason on their own.

The instructors often have schooling till 8th or 10th standard. They receive several rounds of trainings to engage with children of different learning levels in the same classroom. The trainings also strengthen their conceptual understanding of the subjects they teach (math and language). Building their capacities allow them to design the classroom more context-oriented, child centered and interesting. Currently there are 200 teachers in these 188 schools. A few rural schools have more than one teacher where the enrollment is beyond 25 children in one school.  Visit a one-minute video to see a rural school.

Impact:

Every year more than 840-850 students graduate from our school and take admission in government schools for higher studies. Studies have shown that these children outperform over other children who have not been to rural schools in the past. On an average a child attends rural school for 3 years and after graduation they often are admitted to class 6 in government schools. A study done recently has indicated that 87.5% children were still found in government schools who have graduated from these rural schools in the past. This is a significant impact as most of these children otherwise drop out early from schools due to non comprehension.

In many cases the local communities have demanded for quality education from the government schools. It is largely due to the fact that these communities have experienced the quality education in rural schools. Watch another video of one of these schools

How you can help:

It costs Rs 2000 ($ 44) to send one child to rural school for a year. The opportunity of reaching to these children for you is tenfold at the moment. For, Seva Mandir is participating in an online fundraising challenge – “India Giving Challenge, 2011” starting from 6th September to 20th October 2011. There is also a chance to win a matching grant of Rs 65 lacs ($141,304) if we receive most donations with most number of unique donors.

We encourage you to support rural children of Udaipur so that they win this challenge. The minimum amount we are requesting is 400/- that enables a child to attend school for 66 days. You can donate us by a

Ø  Debit or credit card or

Ø  Net banking or

Ø  Demand draft/cheque favoring Give India.

Please click on to our iGive page.

You will get tax benefits for your donation if you are a citizen of India/UK/USA. For any assistance and details please write to Khushboo at rmu@sevamandir.org

Keep visiting this page for periodic updates about the challenge and the program you are supporting.

Posted in India's Giving Challenge

« Older Entries