Below is a note we recently received from a member of the Nanubhai team. Please check out the links for the latest updates!


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Hi Joyce,

I just wanted to send you a note to say thanks for the initial seed money from Givology to get our library started at Bajipura in India. We recently ran a half marathon in Chandigarh, and we were able to raise an additional $1,000 for our library project here and at Madhi high school. We also began a new test series this week for working with Microsoft and Pratham Books to provide some books on DVD, so that students can have books read to them in their own homes. We can also put many books on 1 disc, for about the price of 1 book, so it seems to be a cost effective program that could have a greater reach. The fellows next year will continue researching the program.

I posted a blog to say thank you for all those that contributed, and Givology was a big part of getting the project going in the first place.


Thanks!

Drew

In December, two members of the Givology team had a chance to visit the Peace School as volunteers to assist with the relocation of the Lower Campus and to document the project progress to share with you, our community.

As we had too many updates, photos, stories, and videos to share, we created a separate site that chronicles our day-by-day experiences at the Peace School. Through this site, you can read a detailed blog post for each day that we spent at the Peace School by clicking on the link at the lower right hand corner of each expanded thumbnail, and our experiences of taking down the Lower Campus and rebuilding the structures at the Upper Campus.

The youtube video below explains the basics of this site.

Click here to go to the site to view the project update.

The Solo School continues to provide education to over 180 students in Solo. Teachers recently participated in training programs to help them better teach in Bambara and French, the two languages spoken in the village. They also received training in literacy teaching.

Due to the ongoing construction, many teachers have moved their classes outside, as seen in this picture:



The School has also shared an interview of one of their students with Givology. The student's name is Drissa Bagayogo, and he is 12 years old. Below is his picture followed by the text of his interview.



"Hi, my name is Drissa Bagoyogo and I live in a village called Solo. I am 12 years old and I have a younger brother. My favorite color is yellow and my favorite sport is soccer.

"In school I like to learn math, although I don't like division very much. School is important to help me get a job and I like it because I know how to read.

"I have some pet sheep and my chores include getting water each morning for my family to use throughout the day.

"I get up at 7 am each day and eat porridge for breakfast before I go to school.

"When I grow up I want to be a professional soccer player.

"Something I want to say to my friends in Utah is "bonjour" or hello."

--

Note: Givology's partner organization, Ouelessebougou Alliance, is based in Utah and was founded by Utahns. This is why Drissa refers to his friends in Utah.

Please drop a message to the students to show the school your continued support!

This winter vacation, Alex Martins - a team member of Givology - will be visiting Solar to witness the impact of all the donations raised through Givology. She'll be delivering letters to students, helping provide updates about the impact of the funding, and sharing the stories and messages of the the students and faculty.

Below is a video about the students of Solar that Alex had previously worked with over the last year.

Watch the students practice English on Youtube.com

This blog entry was written by Alex Martins, a Givology volunteer and supporter who worked at the school. His inspiring story about his experiences working at Solar reveal the challenges of providing quality education in an urban context. We deeply admire the mission of the school, and hope that you take the time to learn more about the school.

A Journey up the Hill:
Teaching in Brazil

As I climb the never-ending stairway to get to the school, the unfolding view of the community living above never fails to shock. Endless rows of shabby brick and tin houses rise up before me, a sight that is too familiar in Rio de Janeiro, a vibrant city where the extreme poor perch on hills just above the wealthiest residents. This particular favela, or shanty-town, is made up of three different communities called Pavão Pavãozinho and Cantagalo, the names of the hills on which they were built, and like all Brazilian favelas they stretch high above one of the richest areas of the city. The contrast in standard of living between the apartments just below and the shoddy houses sprawling above is striking, and once I reach the top of the stairway I’m completely out of breath and sobered by the view above.



My mood instantly improves, however, when I set foot in Solar Meninos de Luz, a school and NGO started 18 years ago that is dedicated to educating and improving the social situation of the favela residents. Think of it as a pocket of hope in an otherwise despondent area, where poverty frequently leads to violence, drug-abuse and social stagnation. On my way to Solar, I frequently walked by children and teenagers lying on the streets, clearly high on some very potent drug, and only a five-minute walk away from the school is a place known as ‘Crack land,’ a reference to the amount of drugs consumed in broad daylight in the favela, mostly by men but some women as well. Solar was created with the goal of giving children, and their parents, opportunities to escape these dangers through education, and its success provides an example for similar projects across Brazil.

From my first few visits, I could tell that Solar was more than just a school. It takes in as many infants, children and teenagers as possible (at the moment 400) and sees them through to university or their first job. The students remain within its grounds all day, whereas most Brazilian schools operate on a half-day system. The morning is reserved for formal study and the afternoons are dedicated to learning crafts, such as music, theater, dance, English and art. Its main focus is on prevention and family support—the logic is that by educating children from a young age, it is possible to lure them away from the temptations of their surroundings, mainly drug use and gang activity, and by supporting their parents as well it becomes easier to create a stable family environment.





My specific role at the school was to teach English to a particularly unruly but nonetheless endearing group of teenagers. Speaking English is increasingly becoming a coveted skill in Brazil because it opens doors in education and in the working world. For some of my students, English class was a bit like having your gums cleaned at the dentist, but adding a bit of fun helped immensely.



At first, I was uncomfortable asking probing questions about their families and background. But as we grew closer, they began to provide unsolicited information. I discovered that many came from broken homes (torn apart, I can only imagine, but the realities of favela life) and thus had come to view Solar as a second home, their classmates as brothers and sisters. They are, of course, normal teenagers with the same complaints about useless homework and unfair teachers, but they have incredible dreams and aspirations as well. For one English project, we decided to focus on the future, specifically the question where do you want to be in 5 years? The answers ranged from football player to businesswoman to lawyer and eventually judge, as you can see in the video we filmed below. They feel as though attending Solar gives them the opportunity to achieve these goals.

It can be difficult in a world with so many problems to choose one upon which to focus our energies and financial resources, but believe me when I say that Solar is worthy of attention and uses its contributions in the most responsible of ways. The school relies entirely on contributions to function, and as such is in constant need of help. If you believe in its mission, consider getting involved. At the end of the day, it is impossible to address all of the problems in the students’ lives, but providing them with a solid education gives them a greater chance than anything else of creating a better future for themselves.

In many ways, a picture is worth a thousand words. Below are some of the most recent pictures from the Peace Primary School. Thank you all for your support!

Getting ready for lunch:


Lower School Classroom:


MJ Reading a Story to the Class:


P3 Class:


P4 Class:


P7 Class:


School Yard:


Students Give the Thumbs Up:


Waiting in the Lunch Line:

Dear friends,

Thanks to all of you for your ongoing support of GPE. We would like to take a few minutes to keep you abreast of our progress in Rwanda after three weeks. As many of you know, five GPE volunteers have been placed at the Universite Catholique de Kabgayi and another six at Bukomero Primary School. Currently, both groups have been working intensely to get their projects off the ground.

Each project focuses on English education, as Rwanda’s national language of instruction changed from French to English less than one year ago. Understandably, many mechanisms were lacking to provide a smooth transition for primary, secondary, or university students. Our goal is therefore to improve English language instruction and resources so that students are more equipped for learning in their new Anglophone environment.

Bukomero Primary School

The educational system in Rwanda presents quite a challenge as a whole, with Bukomero acting as a microcosm of many national problems stemming from the fact that students must learn all subjects in a target language different from their own. Bukomero serves approximately 1,100 students and, like many rural schools, lacks even the most basic resources. Students are forced to study under sixty year old roofs without books, learn computer science without computers, and lack properly functioning toilettes. In addition, teachers must conduct all lessons in English, though many have only a basic command of the language itself.

Though there exist many difficulties imposed by such a rural environment, the project is off to a promising start. GPE volunteers cover all upper primary and lower secondary English classes in addition to holding teacher trainings two days per week that focus upon learner-centered teaching methods and English competency. Such methods are currently being taught by Rwandan government trainers, yet localized trainings in rural districts rarely occur. Because Bukomero has barely enough English resources for the teachers themselves, these short-term initiatives will be coupled with two long-term steps by the beginning of July: hiring a trained English teacher to work full-time and continue teacher trainings as well as creating a library through the renovation of a storage room and provision of basic resources such as dictionaries, English workbooks, and audio materials.

In addition, because Bukomero’s infrastructural needs are many, GPE volunteers will electrify the classrooms in the school as well as explore additional future projects such as improving IT resources and connectivity, the provision of functioning toilettes (as the current facilities overflow when it rains), secondary school scholarships for students who cannot afford the fees, and roof renovations in the most dilapidated classrooms.

Thank you for your ongoing support of our programs. We will continue to keep you updated on our activities and progress. Please feel free to contact us with any feedback or questions, as we would love to hear from you.

Kind Regards,
The GPE Team

The money raised Givology has been used to purchase textbooks and learning materials for six children at the school, at approximately RNB134 per child. More information about the specific children benefiting from the textbook fund will be posted to this blog.

Phelex is working with the community and local school staff to identify additional student needs to improve their classroom experience.

Qiao Village Elementary School is located in Yichuan County, Luoyang City in Henan Province, 350 kilometers away from provincial capital Zhengzhou and 30 kilometers away from the major city of Luoyang. It is most accessible from the county seat by way of the Shaluo/Luoluan highway. The local economy is mostly agricultural, and major crops include wheat, corn and cotton. The Qiaocun jurisdiction includes eleven rural work teams and has an average yearly income of 2760 RMB per capita.


Students at Qiaocun Elementary School

Qiao Village Elementary School is a K-6 primary school. The school has 130 students, 67 of which are girls and 78 (about 60%) of which come from poor families. There are 8 teachers, one of which was appointed and the rest of which were provided by the government. After the implementation of the new national education equality law, incidental fees were abolished for all students. 29% of students no longer have to pay textbook fees, but the remaining students still must pay between 96 and 140 RMB for books. Since all the students are day students, none of them receive subsidies for living expenses.

 
Major Project Updates:

• Funds for the first half of 2009 have been disbursed.
• The construction of permanent rooms for the NFEs (Non-Formal Education Centers) is now complete. In the past, the NFEs ran in mud huts or under trees, which made operations difficult during the monsoon season. The project is situated in a flood prone region. The mud huts were almost always washed away by the overflowing river, and had to be rebuilt every year.
• A health camp is scheduled to be held soon, and the children studying in the NFEs toured the nearby city of Varanasi.
• Women from the village have begun training on the embroidery machines purchased for the vocational center. Two more machines will be purchased soon.
• A site-visit is scheduled for the month of March.

 
Timeline of Updates:

• Jan 06, 2009: Funds disbursed for the period January-June 2009
• Dec 23, 2008: Teleconference updates from Vallabh Pandey and Ajay Patel. Construction of rooms for NFEs and roof installation complete. Health camp to be held in January 2009. Tour of Varanasi for children completed.
• Dec 10, 2008: Budget for 2009 approved in chapter meeting. Budget document is available here:
• Nov 25, 2008: 1-week long sports and theater fair held for children. Events included badminton, football, athletics and issue-based street theater performances by children.
• Nov 04, 2008: Teleconference updates from Ajay Patel. Distributed uniforms and bags amongst needy children. Raised money locally for building permanent rooms for NFEs and construction underway. Sewing center expanded from 1 to 2 sewing machines and added 1 embroidery machine.
• Sep 15, 2008: Special additional budget approved and funds disbursed for Aasra.

 
Site Visit Pictures: For a more comprehensive project update, please visit here. This summary of the more detailed site-visit report and feedback Q&A is by Sathyanarayan Anand. The funds raised by Givology are used in the education portion of Asha's work, detailed at the end of the report.
 

 
The Musahar Community outside Varanasi
 
Varanasi (or Kashi) is one of Hinduism’s ancient and holy cities and is a place of strong Hindu character. As with most holy cities, Varanasi displays both the glory and blights of religion and the Musahars exemplify all that can wrong at the bottom of a rigid and unyielding caste system. In the villages around Varanasi, the Musahars are a dispersed and disparaged lot. They live in groups of tens, the biggest being in the village of Jogapur numbering around 80. This lack of numbers translates into a lack of representation at the level of the village. These people do not own any land and are forced to live in temporary mud huts or even just under trees on the outskirts of villages. Their mud huts have straw roofs that leak every time it rains and more often than not, every structure gets destroyed during the monsoons & has to be rebuilt frequently.
 






 
Their primary livelihood comes from plucking leaves and breaking branches off trees and selling them to other traders. In many cases the traders pay them only a few kilos of old and even rotting rice or grain in return for their goods. If they run out of trees or for any reason, the villagers do not allow them to go about their work then they are forced to move to a different village. This combined with limited numbers of trees in a given area explains their dispersion into small groups. Some Musahars also work in brick making factories for meager wages.
 


 
Hardly any child and many of the adults can be categorized as healthy. There have already been two child deaths due to starvation in the village of Mankaiyan. And instead of providing adequate support, the State Government promptly reduced the dead children’s quota of food to the families from the public ration system. Most families did not have ration cards before workers of the NGO Aasra Sewa Sansthan (Aasra) came in and forced the hand of government officials. The nomadic nature of these families further complicates the situation, in that they are not registered as residents of any particular village and hence, cannot be issued ration cards.
 
The severity of the situation is exemplified by a story that the founder and current head of Aasra, Mr. Ajay Patel mentioned. A few years back, late in the evening he was standing outside one of the Musahar huts talking with the family when a street dog came and started eating their dinner. They shooed away the dog and started eating the same food for they had nothing else for the night. The incident prompted Mr. Patel to form his NGO.
 
Sanitation and health care is non-existent for these people. Almost every child suffers from one disease or the other and none have been properly immunized. Two girls in the Jogapur community suffer from lack of consistency of blood and were only treated when Aasra brought in its own doctors for a general checkup of the community. In these villages around Varanasi, the only time the Musahars see a doctor is when Aasra organizes a health camp and arranges for doctors and nurses to come in.
 
Socially, these people are outcasts and have no say in mainstream society. Their lack of numbers means that their voice is never heard and political will at any level of government to improve the lives of these people does not exist. One villager remarked that nobody would employ the Musahars for household work or at any community event because no one would eat the food they served or drink the water they filled into glasses.
 


 
Given their socio-economic status and quality of life, the attitude of Musahar children and indeed, their parents towards schooling is surprisingly positive. The two non-formal education (NFE) centers run by Aasra – in Mankaiyan and Jogapur - covered in this site visit were both run in Musahar communities and were both well attended by almost all the children of the slum. About 7-8 of these children were attending government school in a nearby village but were discriminated against and regularly beaten by teachers there. They eventually dropped out. Conversations with teachers at the NFEs revealed that the Musahar children are eager students and their parents recognize that education might be their best hope at a potential change of line of work and a better way of life. Apart from occasional absences due to work or family related issues, the children are regular and enthusiastic about attending school. The majority age between 5 and 13 years. Older boys go to work and the girls are married off.
 
If ever there was a community in need of empowerment, the Musahars are it. Somewhere along India’s journey from License Raj to nuclear and IT superpower, these are a people who’ve truly missed the bus. What they need is education, a voice in mainstream society and more importantly, a set of basic skills to make them employable in regular factories and workshops. Ideas and recommendations to help out this marginalized community are given in the last section of this report.
 
Aasra Sewa Sansthan (Aasra) & Its Work
 
Aasra is a non-registered NGO founded by Ajay Patel and works primarily to improve the lives of marginalized communities in villages outside Varanasi. These communities include the Musahars, Khatiks, Ghaunds and poor Muslims, among others. These people are economically deprived and are mainly carpet weavers, handloom workers or brick makers. The Musahars seem to be the worst off.
 


 
The founder, Ajay Patel moved from the state of Gujarat to the outskirts of Varanasi in the mid-eighties along with his parents who were looking for work in the construction industry. He completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Allahabad University and started working with the Government of India’s National Social Service (NSS) program. He said that he started working full time on education related issues for marginalized communities after spending some time with Mr. Sandeep Pandey, the founder of Asha for Education. He was prompted to start Aasra after he saw a Musahar family eat the same food that was partly eaten by a street dog, for lack of anything else to eat. Even though the NFEs, health camps, women’s programs and other work by Aasra focuses around the Musahars, people from other communities in need are also actively sought out and encouraged to participate.
 
Aasra currently runs two NFEs and provides one teacher each to two government primary schools. Attendance is taken daily at all schools. Details of the schools are as follows:

• NFE at Mankaiyan: Teacher: Usha Patel (With Aasra since 2006); No. of students: 35-38;  Timing: 6am – 8am, Mon - Sat
• NFE at Jogapur; Teacher: Shanta (With Aasra since January 2008); No. of students: 20-25; Timing: 4pm – 6pm, Mon - Sat
• Government Primary School at Kharagrampur; Teacher: Pratibha; Grade: 3, No. of students: 81; Timing: 8am – 11am, Mon - Sat
• Government Primary School at Kansraipur; Teacher: Ashok Kumar; Grade: 3, No. of students: 85; Timing: 8am – 11am, Mon - Sat

According to the teachers, there are no dropouts anymore and the children are enthusiastic about coming to school. Indeed, kids in all four schools were very responsive to their teachers and also to Ajay Patel.
 
All four teachers are paid by Aasra using the funds given by Asha for Education, Philadelphia Chapter according to the approved budget. In addition to their teaching duties, these four teachers are also actively involved with other activities of Aasra. Most important, they and Ajay Patel have formed personal bonds with the students and their parents. The parents and the kids seem to know Mr. Patel and their teachers very well. As a result, claims the NGO, dropouts are now virtually non-existent. This claim might not be untrue and was backed up by positive comments from parents and headmasters of the two government schools, all of whom were very happy with Ajay Patel and his teachers.
 
The NFEs are aimed towards kids who cannot or do not want, for fear of discrimination and even violence, to go to government primary schools. The ultimate goal is integration of these people into mainstream society. To that end students of the two NFEs will eventually be merged into government primary schools. Their progress and treatment will be monitored on a daily basis by Aasra workers. Mankaiyan NFE students will join the government primary school in their same village at the end of this academic year. Ajay Patel will start working towards the same process for Jogapur NFE students sometime this year.
 
All four teachers have undergone teacher training courses under the Eklavya program and use its methods on a daily basis. At the NFEs, the attempt is to bring the level of the students on par with government school kids. This is not always possible as they do not have the same books. Most NFE kids do not own any books. To maintain their interest, the teachers first ask them everyday what they want to learn – English, Hindi or Math. If consensus cannot be reached, then the content for that day is randomly chosen.
 
The primary focus at these classes is always on getting the children to actively express themselves and give them confidence to speak out in front of other people. This is a skill sorely missing from these communities.
 
he range of issues covered by Aasra includes making these communities aware of their right to food via the public ration system, spreading knowledge of the Right to Information Act, fighting for the right of children to receive education, getting public areas to include facilities for the disabled and working for empowerment of women. At the time of this visit, Ajay Patel and Ashok Kumar were working obtaining job cards for the Jogapur Musahar community. Job cards are provided to all Indian families under which at least one member of each household is guaranteed 100 days of work every year at a preset wage.
 


 
Aasra also runs a sewing center for women. At the time of this visit, there were about 8-10 girls working on various types of clothes. They typically learn at the center for 6 months to 1 year. According to Ajay Patel, some of these women are eventually able to earn Rs. 2000 – 3000 a month, which is usually as much or more than what their husbands earn. The center runs Monday through Saturday, 9am – noon.

 
Above is a picture of the school that TECC's More for Migrant Kids (MMK) program serves.
 

 
The children enjoy folding paper!
 

 

 
The students attentively greet the TECC volunteers and teachers from universities in Shanghai.
 

 

 
The students watch a science experiment unfold.
 

 
Students volunteer to take part of an art activity!
 

 
Everyone is hard at work, doing his or her part to contribute to the art project.
 

 

 
Instructions are carefully laid out - each student's contribution will be combined into one final product!
 

 

 

 
Everyone is hard at work, drawing pictures to celebrate the upcoming Olympics.
 

 
Teams collaborate to design, draw, and color a banner to celebrate the Olympics.
 

 

 
The final product is proudly displayed!
 

 
Students leave the classroom to get some fresh air and to play games with TECC volunteers.