Grant Status $49 needed

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Expected Usage of Funding
Supplies, Furniture:
$0
Labor and Salaries:
$10263
Transportation:
$1880
Raw Materials:
$11278
Research:
$6759
Administrative:
$2820
Other:
$0

Profile

Eureka SuperKidz aims to help underprivileged and marginalized children attain basic skills in Tamil, Math and English. This after-school program has dedicated teachers who teach daily classes using specially designed colorful and attractive materials. The teachers focus on learning goals and measure every child's skill through a simple visual tool called the Skill Chart'. The Skill Chart has specific goals for each month and each child's name attending the centre is also mapped on it. This simple tool helps tutors focus more on children who need additional help and support to attain skills.

The Eureka SuperKidz program has been especially designed integrating the following key elements

Specific learning goals for every month
Attractive learning materials and activities in Tamil Math and English to make learning fun and interesting

Regular evaluation and tracking through Skill Chart to identify and focus on children lagging in a particular skill.

Training teachers through interactive and innovative methods.

Village level events that showcase the achievements of children and tutors, to promote parent engagement and community involvement

Eureka SuperKidz' certificates to all children enrolled in the program on achieving the targeted skills in each of the subjects.

Eureka Super Teacher'certificates awarded to teachers who have been instrumental in bringing a remarkable change in the learning levels of children.

History

AID INDIA is a non-profit organization, founded in 1996, by a group of IIT and BITS alumni who quit corporate careers to work on various development initiatives. AID INDIA's education initiative EurekaChild', where Eureka' represents the spirit of discovery, focuses primarily on education quality improvement programs in Tamilnadu. All AID INDIA's projects aim to instill this spirit in every child.

Over the past several years, AID INDIA has worked with several thousand Government schools, NGOs and village centres in over 10 districts of Tamilnadu. AID INDIA's Padippum Inikkum' Tamil reading skills program reached out to teachers and children in more than 8000 schools all over the state.

Learnings from the Padippum Inikkum' program and demand for a good quality education, led to the conceptualization of AID INDIA's flagship Eureka SuperKidz program in 2010,
Several studies have repeatedly shown that though both Government and Private schools in rural areas have well qualified teachers, the learning levels are quite lower than the expected levels. This is primarily because most teachers are not able to identify the specific areas where a child is lagging behind due to lack of a systematic tracking mechanism that will help them focus on these children better.

Impact

The project will directly impact learning levels of 600 children, in classes 3-5, in 20 villages in Tamilnadu. Most children are from disadvantaged backgrounds (poor families, dalits, tribals and most backward groups) living in villages. They are often first generation learners from poor families whose total income is less than $100/month. Other important benefits include confidence building, creating a learning environment and building parent involvement in education.

Team Credentials

AID INDIA draws people from diverse backgrounds. Our management team has IIT and BITS alumni who quit corporate careers to serve the poor, professional social workers with years of field experience and committed community leaders who lead large field teams..With a strong presence in Tamilnadu, our field staff is often from the same communities that we serve marginalized, disadvantaged groups. Brief profiles of key persons follow:

Dr.Balaji Sampath, Secretary-CEO
Started 25 chapters of AID USA.
Member of several Govt education & health committees.
Recipient of international awards.
Author of several books and videos on education, science popularization & health.

Chandra Anil, Treasurer, Director-Eureka SuperKidz
Designed successful reading and ICDS pre-primary interventions.
Founder-Trustee of Pratham TN.
Consultant to Government on Reading Program'.
Recipient of Pratham 2006 Achievement Award.

Dr.Ravishankar A, Jt. Secretary, Director-Eureka Books
Adjunct faculty, IIT Madras.
Developed award-winning Eureka Science Lab-in-a-Box.
Member of Govt's Education Curriculum Revision Committee.
Co-authored Std 6 TN Maths textbook.

Damodharan M, Director-Eureka SuperKidz
Born into a poor Dalit family, was a migrant child labourer. Overcame hurdles to complete education.
Authored books, developed reading & pre-primary kits adopted by the Govt.
Recipient of Pratham 2006 Achievement Award.
Implementer of many large scale rural programs

Radha Aravamudhan, Director-Eureka SuperKidz
Quit corporate career in the US to join AID INDIA in 2008.
Contributed significantly to content development especially maths.
Instrumental in conceptualizing and designing children's workbooks and early English reading books.
Implemented the Eurea SuperKidz program since inception.

Padmini Srinivasan, Director-Eureka SuperKidz
Quit corporate career to join AID INDIA in 2009.
Played a key role in training our field teams in English teaching.
Key member of the Project planning and donor reporting functions.

Samundeshwari, Asst. Project Director
Played a key role in organization building.
Helped start field programs in new districts.
Has the unique ability of building up a committed field team, to carry forward work in a new district in 5-6 months.

Rajapandian State Coordinator
Joined as a young teenager just out of school. Played a very important role in developing content for Tamil reading skill.
Was involved in training and monitoring of Govt school teachers for the PadippumInikkum reading program.
He stepped into a leadership role of building a strong base in Trichy district and coordinating several field programs there.
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