Asha for Education

Project Brief: Towards sustainable development through education
Project Type: Community Based Interventions (description)
Primary Focus: children of dalits/tribals (description)

Secondary Focus: creating resources

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact:
London

Status: CURRENT
Project Steward: Vidhya Sridhar
Co-Steward: Vidhya Sridhar
Project Partner(s): Meenakshi Umesh
Project Address: Puvidham Rural Development Trust
Puvidham Rural Development Trust
Nagarkooda Village Post
Nagarkooda Village Post, Tamil Nadu 636803
Tel: 91-4342-311641
Stewarding Chapter: London

Puvidham - How it started

In 1992 Meenakshi Umesh and her husband decided to start a farm and school of their own in the dry, draught prone Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu. To make this dream come true, they bought 12 acres of land in the Dharmapuri district, dug bore wells, and built a house of their own in 1994. The next five years were spent in making the rocky piece of land cultivable. They planted trees, trained themselves in biological pest management and started practising self-sustaining organic farming of rice, ragi and jowar. The school Puvidham was started in 1999 and has been steadily growing in strength. The school started with seven children (two of whom were children of Meenakshi and Umesh). Most children came from the villages of Kalani Kattur and Avvai Nagar and a few from Savalukkuttai and Kuduppatti. Within a mere 10 years, the school gained so much support and appreciation from the community, that they now have 96 student, with 56 children in the hostel!

Mission
1) Providing primary school education to children of migrant workers, and providing hostel facilities to as many children as possible.
2) Imparting education to government school drop outs and children from the National Child Labour Prevention Program, who have been unable to cope with the pressures of formal schooling, with the intention of helping them join regular schools after Class VIII. Many of their students join without even a basic knowledge of the alphabet, or have been out of the educational system for many years disillusioned by the rigid schooling at government schools.
3) Giving the children a working knowledge of Tamil and English and a strong foundation in Mathematics, and getting them familiar with farming activities.

Methodology/ Niche/ What sets them apart?
1) Puvidham believes in holistic learning and seeks to improve self confidence of children who have been out of the educational system for many years.
2) Science, Art, Language and Math are all mixed in the same class!
3) Tamil and English are introduced simultaneously. Often in their books, the same text is given both in Tamil and English!
4) Children are taught the importance of nature and the relevance of farming to their lives.
5) The children are placed in classes according to age. Activities vary from one age group to another. The younger children enjoy clay jigsaw puzzles, pronunciation games and nursery rhymes. The older children are taught Science, Social Science and Mathematics and engage in farming related activities such as drawing of village maps, making weather vanes, sun dials, designing better tools for plantation, experimental farming on small plots of land etc.
6) Teaching is done creatively. English and Tamil are taught through language flash cards. Maths is taught through the abacus, counting on stringed beads and Montessori like learning aids.
7) Importance is given to creative extracurricular activities like clay modelling, drawing, conducting puppet shows, stitching etc.
8) Story telling is considered important to give each child the confidence to speak.
9) Children are encouraged to help at home and are taught about their responsibilities to their families, so that the parents don�t lose out on helping hands at home. Unlike at government schools, students are not penalised for missing a few days because of work at home.
10) The teachers are also from the Dharampuri district from similar backgrounds, so they empathise better with the children.

Recent activities of students/ teachers (updates)
1) Hostel building structure completed in May 2009. Projected completion end of this year for use in winter.
2) Teachers received training to orient curriculum towards farming, bring science into the classroom, teach children basic sewing activities and practice conversational English (April and May 2009).
3) Class 8 students went on a trek to Ooty with teachers, their first real experience in a forest.
4) 35 students are karate enthusiasts and take regular lessons.
5) 30 children and 6 teachers went on a tour of Tamil Nadu to learn more about the diverse culture of the state and appreciate the importance of environmental conservation.

Success Stories
1) Out of the first 4 children who finished school in 2005, two have now been successfully integrated in government schools and are in their final year, one is working, and the fourth (a girl) is married and wants to work as a teacher in Puvidham.
2) In September, 19 students between the ages of 12 yrs and 14 yrs left Puvidham to join mainstream government schools. Most of these children are in the top ten of their class.
3) Meenakshi's three children are all in Puvidham, two are in Class 12 in government schools now!
4) Puvidham has taken 35 children from the NCLP program. These children have been unable to cope with formal schooling and Puvidham will help them join regular schools in 3 years.
5) Almost 25 children had come to Puvidham without even a basic knowledge of alphabet or numbers up to 10. Most of them have been placed into classes of their age groups and after another year will be as good as the others.

Some numbers:-
1) Number of children:- 97 (January 2010), 96 (September 2009), 140 (2008), 75 (2007)
2) Number of children in the hostel:- 57(2010), 56 (2009), 65 (2008)
3) Student teacher ratio 1:14
4) Total budget:- Rs 10.4 lakhs
5) Major donors:- Asha Silicon Valley, Asha London