Join the Moment !!

Art Expression Workshop @ Project Pehal

Workshop with Project Pehal – AID Delhi’s School Adoption Program at BT and Sahipur Schools in Shalimar Bagh, from 17-19th of June, 2010. Timings: 9-11:30 am and 12-2:30 pm

The Art Expression Workshop was an initiative by Chulbule team to provide a medium of expression to children.

The underlying theme of this workshop was ” Expressing Emotions” through lines, shapes, colors, exploring different medium of art. All this to tell and encourage children about this wonderful form of self expression and give them a new direction to vent out their emotions. Art is the expression of our lives, soul, mind and body. It is the expression of our heart unbound by shapes, forms, lines and figures.

The short term workshop at Pehal was to broaden the minds of the children and bring out their true self expression. Children gained self confidence and have their thoughts a direction.

Day 1: The children were given an introduction of how to express themselves through art. They were then given some emotions. Most of them were hesitant in the beginning, but really freaked out once they started coloring and came out with some amazing pieces of works.

Day 2: The children were introduced to other art forms, like advertising, story telling, jingles etc. They were given very unusual products, which normally are never advertised. They were told to make jingles, story, advertisement – anything, using those products, which they enjoyed to the core. With this activity, they learnt to think out of the box, to think about uses of products that they use in their day to day life, to work in groups as a team, and about the different forms of “art”. These kids have immense talent, which stood out distinctly with this activity.

Day 3: Junk and Action Art – The whole idea of this activity was to make kids “experience” art freely. They were told to work carefree, without bothering about figures, forms or anything. The kids loved dripping the paint and seeing the arbit color mix. It was great fun, both for the kids, and for us!

Impact day @ Project Pehal – 11th June 2010

Deloitte visit to AID school adoption program (Pehal)

Impact day at Pehal (June 11th 2010)

“Pehal” – AID Delhi School Adoption Program

A new chapter was added to project Pehal, when two schools were adopted in Shalimar Bagh. In light of this transition  now project Pehal is a large scale program and known as AID Delhi School Adoption Program. Please read on to know more about this new initiative……… AID Delhi has successfully ventured into a new arena where it has penetrated into the existing education system with an underlying aim to fix all the loopholes that act as a barrier in delivering quality education to students.  In order to bridge the knowledge and opportunity and divide, we have focused on students that receive formal education as well as those who don’t. The objectives of this program are: To assess the current level of learning of school going children and strengthening the weak areas To impart basic education to non school going children to bring them up to speed with those receiving formal education To promote the ‘Right to education’ act by providing every child with access to formal education. The program utilises the existing government infrastructure and resources and is currently implemented in two MCD schools located in Shalimar Bagh, Delhi. In total, 270 children are being taught by 7 teachers, maintaining the teacher-student ratio of ~ 1: 40. We are intervening at three levels, mainly at Students, Teachers and Parents level. At the teachers level we are contemplating providing training facilities and simultaneous regular feedbacks on student performance and areas of attention. Currently, we are dedicated towards student development which we are doing through various methods: We have divided students on the basis of a performance test into batches, so each student receives personal attention in line with his/her capabilities. The basics, i.e., reading, writing and comprehension forms the core foundation of the teaching curriculum A special focus has been given to enhance and inculcate reading habits into the students through initiatives like Reading Club and Library Period. Specialised Eureka kits have been introduced in the regular classes. In addition to education, co-curricular activities, such as sports, music classes, art classes, dance classes, and theatre classes are held weekly Rigorous monitoring sessions are carried out by the volunteers in order to assess the teachers as well as the students Student tracking is done at regular intervals to ensure 100% attendance We ensure that the parents stay informed about their children and their performance at school. Counselling sessions have been held, where parents are encouraged to send their children to school, review their notebooks when they come back home, and question them about what they have learnt. AID Delhi has been supporting non formal education initiatives in various parts of National Capital Region (NCR) Delhi for several years. Our experiences from mainstreaming children living in slum areas made us realize that it’s not good enough to send children to school. We also have to improve the standards of schools  especially the free ones (Government and MCD) to achieve the desired levels of literacy in India. We hope AID Delhi school adoption program will provide a major thrust in implementation of Right to Education in it’s true spirit by providing end to end solution i.e. starting from initiating slum children into education -> mainstreaming them -> improving the schools where they are sent. Monthly budget : Rs. 20,000 per month (7 teacher’s salary and stationary) Currently we have a deficit of Rs. 5000 pm. How Can you help ? Individuals can sponsor the running cost of this program on a monthly or an annual basis, partially or fully Adopt a School program : Corporates as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can send their employees to volunteer to create a significant impact in the lives of the children. They can help us in conducting fun activities like painting competition, talent shows, picnics and much more. Corporates can also sponsor the running cost of the school through a monthly pay roll deduction or an annual contribution. As an individual you can volunteer with the school adoption program to help in the management tasks (monitoring, coordination, volunteer recruitment, fund raising), documentation (photography, articles, designing brochures/flyers, shoot event videos etc.), preparing education material, creating awareness in various underprivileged communities for sending their children to school, reaching out to local Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) to support the adopted schools. We have several internship opportunities as well. You can do a survey on the status of Right to Education in NCR. You can help us identify schools which may benefit from our school adoption program Here is a video which inspired us, and we hope it will inspire you as well.

Project Pehal – School Adoption Program

PBSEI- Project Basic School Education in India

[PBSEI – Project Basic School Education in India]

At Project Smile India we believe that the opportunity must be provided to all who deserve it. Via the educational projects in New Delhi we reach out to a number of children & provide them the elementary education so that they are able toperform basic literary tasks in day to day life.

Intoduction to PBSEI

It is time for us to embark on another ambitious journey – this time to make a difference to the vast population of India that has been deprived of the right to basic education. The aim of Project Basic School Education in India ( PBSEI) is to provide a platform to the various members of society who, irrespective of their personal and professional standing, feel a strong desire to give back to society and to participate in building a nation based on more solidarity and justice – by providing basic education to the undereducated children and adults of India. The drive is aimed at connecting educated individuals with the specialist providers – the NGOs that work tirelessly to bring more children under the umbrella of basic education.

Objectives:

1. Raise Awareness on the state of education in India – gaps, challenges and possible solutions – and talk about sustainable public policies that can have a positive impact on the literacy rate of India.
2. Inspire, motivate and mobilize people to volunteer for education and be more socially active citizens.
3. Build a more cohesive and inclusive society based on trust and reciprocity through bridging people from different backgrounds in order to fight discrimination and marginalization.
4. To contribute towards reaching the Millennium Development Goal of achieving universal primary education by 2015, which will require the involvement of not just the government but also the citizens of the country?

Project Basic School Education in India Aims to achieve its goals by:

1. Inspiring the vast population of this country through a dedicated campaign which raises awareness about educational issues in India and instills in people a desire to contribute towards expanding basic education coverage.

2. Mobilizing a pool of learned people who in their own capacity can spare time for sharing knowledge and teaching the vast population that has not been so privileged as to receive continued education.

3. Partnering with leading local NGO networks to achieve a match by providing them the resource pool meeting their needs, thereby achieving the advocacy goals of the program.

4. Putting together a panel of motivated and professional NGOs to enable continuous monitoring and evaluation.

Approach and Strategies:

The project will weave together various activities targeting multiple stakeholders – NGOs, Corporate, educational institutions, individuals – to finally create an ecosystem of shared thought and knowledge.

Various initiatives will include:

v Mobilizing a pool of people with varied backgrounds that contributes to the Project Basic School Education in India campaign in terms of man hours.

v Engaging partner NGOs to aid these individuals in imparting quality education to uneducated or undereducated people. Partnering with NGOs is imperative for this effort to sustain itself over time.

v Roping in corporate partners to participate in this effort by encouraging their employees to contribute their time and knowledge to the program.

v Tying up with key schools to organize teaching camps where their students teach undereducated children.

Geographic Focus:

Geographically, the program aims to impact uneducated children/adults in urban mega-cities, with the hope that the program shows the way forward for similar efforts in other smaller cities/rural areas at a later stage. Delhi was chosen using the following criteria:

v A large number of people with a latent desire to do a little more than their regular mundane jobs – to help build a society offering equal chances to all and create a culture of self sustenance for all.

v Delhi has a large numbers of child-workers, educationally deprived children, wide economic disparities and high human trafficking rates.

v Cooperation and receptivity of corporations, students and individuals regarding NGO sponsored activities and the important presence of well established, committed and professional NGOs in education to absorb volunteers.

Time Frame

v Within the month of May, partnerships are sought with a few key NGOs/ Schools/ Corporate to understand the areas where propagation of basic education is needed the most, and to start building the network of teacher-volunteers.

v The campaign is launched in Delhi in June with a call for volunteers to come forward and help expand the focus and coverage of the basic education system in India. The campaign also invites more NGOs/Corporate/Schools to become a part of the process. Towards the end of June, the process of matching teacher-volunteers with NGOs that organize the students who wish to gain a basic education begins. This process carries on well into July.

v In July, side-by-side with the process of matching volunteers and NGOs, the monitoring process will begin to check the impact of the classes and the efficacy of the program.

Funding

For funding the education of students, Project Smile India reaches out to its volunteers & volunteers reach out to their friends whenever the admission process is to start. This usually happens during May. The amount required to fund one year of basic education sums up to around INR 2000( aprox USD 45). The exact amount varies fromyear to year. In case you are interested to provide funds for full/half sponsorship of any student, please contact the Project Smile India New Delhi coordinators. Incase the admissions are complete and you are interested, you can pledge for supporting the next one year of any student. Project Smile India volunteers will get back to you during the next admission cycle.