Asha for Education

Project Brief: School providing remedial education and health camps to children in rural communities of landless farmers, daily laborers, coolies and brickfield workers. Asha focuses on higher education of girls and helped fund building of an educational center.
Project Type: Community Based Interventions (description)
Primary Focus: remedial education (description)

Secondary Focus: health and cleanliness

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact: NYC/NJ

Status: completed - requirements ended
Project Steward: Rigi Philip
Project Partner(s): Rekha Sarkar
Other Contacts: Agamoni Pia Majumdar
Project Address: , Sector F/1,,Sarat Pally,
WEST BENGAL  721 101
Tel: (011)-(91)-03222-63866
Stewarding Chapter: NYC/NJ

The community which Sarada Kalyan Bhandar (SKB) serves is one of landless farmers, daily laborers, coolies, and brickfield workers; the children come from families where the average monthly income is around Rs.700. The government schools in the area suffer from a scarcity of teachers, adding to the lack of motivation among students to attend school.

Sarada Kalyan Bhandar (SKB) started over 25 years ago as an after-hours school program where children are motivated to review their class/homework and to attend school regularly. Through sustained work over a decade, the pass percentages in classes have increased dramatically from 30% to over 95% in recent years.

This program still continues strong with increasing community support. Over the years, SKB has added more initiatives that include the funding of higher education for women and providing medical care for the villages which it serves. It also seeks to increase the number of villages that it supports.

Asha has been supporting this work for over 10 years. In 2005, the Work an Hour fundraiser helped raise over $7,000 to help build what is now the center of all of SKB's activities. This building hosts supplementary education classes, medical training camps and vocational training of students.

Here is a list of the subset of SKB initiatives supported by Asha:

1) Higher education of women
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Asha supports the Women Self-independence Promoting Scheme, an SKB project supporting the higher education of women. This project supports the education, lodging and living expenses of young women pursuing a Bachelor's or Master's degree.

In this community, women traditionally sacrified their dreams of pursuing a career in favour of male family members, mainly due to social and economic pressures. This is one step towards educating more women and also battling the social prejudice against educated and independent women.

To donate towards the education of a young woman, visit the Asha Support-a-Child website:
http://www.ashanet.org/nycnj/projects/sac/projects/skb.html

2) Supplementary education
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SKB aims to create a better educational environment to motivate illiterate children towards education and learning by providing them with study materials.

SKB provides additional incentives which mean much in this community. Students are provided with uniforms which give them a sense of identity and pride, and make their schoolgoing experience more formal. All attending children are also provided with bread and biscuits everyday, and milk is provided on 4 out of 7 days.

3) Medical camps
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On the health front, SKB hosts camps to provide awareness, testing and treatment of medical conditions. Villagers are trained in first-aid responses to conditions such as shock, drowning, burns and snakebite, while women are trained in how to care for a sick child.
Tuberculosis and malaria are prevalent diseases in the area; SKB tests for these diseases and provides immunization against them.

Sep 2019 SKB_BudgetProposal_2019
Aug 2019 SKB Damayanti SiteVisit August 2019
Nov 2018 SKBBudgetProposal_2018
Oct 2017 SKB_SiteVisit_Oct2017
Jun 2017 SKB Budget Proposal 2017
Aug 2016 SKB Budget Proposal 2016
Aug 2016 SKB Budget Proposal 2016
Aug 2016 SKB_BUDGET2016.xlsx
Jun 2015 Site visit June 2015
Mar 2015 SKB Budget proposoal 2014
May 2014 SKB_BUDGET_DETAILS_2013
May 2014 SKB_Budget_Notes_2013
Mar 2014 Report_Assessment_Asha Partners
Dec 2012 SKBBudgetProposal2012
Nov 2012 Site_Visit_Nov_2012
Dec 2011 SKB_2011_2012_BudgetProposal
Jul 2011 Budget-SKB-2010-11.docx
Jul 2011 SKB_Report_2010_2011
Dec 2010 2010-2011 SKB Proposal Documents
Jun 2010 SKB_At_Glance Photo
Jun 2010 SKB_Structure Photo
Jun 2010 SKB_Dashboard Photo
Jun 2010 SKB_Activities Photo
Jun 2010 SKB_Library Photo
Apr 2010 Updated_Detailed_Budget_2009_2010
Apr 2010 Detailed_Info_SKB_Budget_2009_2010
Apr 2010 Updated_2009_2010_Budget
Jun 2009 Site Visit June 2009
Jun 2009 WAH_Guidelines_for_SKB
Jun 2009 Poll_results_for_SKB_2009_2010_Budget_Approval
Jun 2009 SKB_Activities Photo
May 2009 Detailed_Utilization_2008_2009_Funds
May 2009 Some_Success_Stories_2006_2009
Apr 2009 Budget 2009-2010
Apr 2009 WAH 2009 proposal
Feb 2009 How to reach SKB
Jan 2009 Proposal 2009 & Update 2008
Jan 2009 List of 17 girls for 2009-2010
Jul 2008 Site Visit 2008
Jul 2008 2007-08 Expense Details
Jul 2007 RevisedBudgetProposal2007
Jul 2007 BudgetProposal2007
Jul 2007 EmailFromRekhaDi2007Budget
Apr 2007 SiteVisitByAvishekNandi
Apr 2007 Visit photo: At entrance
Apr 2007 Visit photo: Singing session
Apr 2007 Visit video: Classes in session
Jan 2007 Auditor's assessment of building costs
Dec 2006 Progress report 2006
Dec 2006 Progress report 2006
Dec 2006 Progress report 2006
Oct 2006 Balance Fund transfer receipt
Mar 2005 WAH 2005 Proposal
Dec 2004 Site Visit by Shibani
Nov 2003 2002 Annual Report
Sep 2003 Article in the Statesman on SKB