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| Dear All, As part of taking Pustaka Abhiyana to the remotest parts of rural India, Aashayein Foundation invites its volunteers to join us for our initiative at Govt School, Baldarey village, Hassan District. Announcements for this week:
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| Shikshana Abhiyana is an attempt to bridge the gap in the quality of education between Government/Government aided schools and Private schools by training students in English Grammar & Communication Skills and teachers in Computer Skills. Schools open this Saturday for Shikshana Abhiyana :
As part of the project plan for 2010-2011, we are planning to introduce Shikshana Abhiyana Activity in new schools shortly. Please refer to the below information for information about schools shortlisted for SA this academic year.
If you would like to volunteer for Shikshana Abhiyana, please write to info@aashayeinfoundation.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Week 35 | Sunday Breakfast Serving | Sunday 29th August 2010: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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If you like to volunteer for serving breakfast, sponsor a Sunday's Breakfast on any occasion, be part of the Sunday Breakfast Activity team of your zone write to us at breakfastserving@aashayeinfoundation.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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We are creating a team that will work on Fund-raising. This team will play a crucial role is the growth of Aashayein foundation. This gives the interested people an opportunity to pursue their interests in the true spirit of volunteering. Following are some of the benefits of volunteering that the existing volunteers have shared, · A great way to spend your free time and develop skills in dealing with people, public speaking and so on · Opportunity to meet people from various backgrounds -- Social networking -- and also people from your industry · Experience the joy of executing projects that make a difference in the lives of many people · Since the people who will be joining this team will take up honorary positions like Assistant Director, Vice Presidents, Project Leads etc, it gives sense of responsibility · Since this is kind of on-going project/activity, it gives you immense experience, which can help you perform better in other areas of your life. · A nice opportunity to know your strong skills/weaknesses since you get a chance to work on a variety of things. If you are interested in joining this team, please write to somaiah.mp@aashayeinfoundation.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abhishek S R is a BMKS volunteer and was responsible for the project operations in Jayanagar area, until he was nominated as the BMKS project lead. Abhishek has always lead by example; be it volunteering for Shikshana Abhiyana, SBA or BMKS. He was instrumental in organizing Aashayein Foundation Walkathon 2009 and is known for his creative approaches and well planned executions. Abhishek is an Electronics Engineering graduate and is currently working in SAP Labs, India. He likes watching English Premier League football and supports Chelsea Football club. He also likes solving math puzzles, watching movies and browsing Wikipedia. AF: You are one of the founding members of Aashayein Foundation. How has the journey been so far?
The experience in AF has been amazing the last 4 years. I still remember the beginning - we used to visit orphanages, Nimhans hospital, old age homes on Sundays, one such place every Sunday, regularly, to serve breakfast. Back then we were only about 20 in number, I guess and our intention was just to help some of the needy in our own small way. When we used to visit orphanages, we used to serve breakfast to the children and nobody used to touch the food till everyone had been served. Once everyone in the orphanage was served, the children (guided by the head or the teacher), would say a prayer, which sometimes involved lines like "Thank you Aashayein Foundation for this breakfast/God bless Aashayein Foundation for providing us this breakfast", and only then would they start eating. This made us feel that we are doing something important and encouraged us to continue regularly.
Anyway, from these cute little beginnings we have grown and gone on to become a registered NGO with about 2000 registered members, spread across 3 cities now, and most importantly, as the size of the organization increases and more and more people are noticing us, we are giving an example/lead to society to help and share. We have matured as an organization, brought in an organizational structure, brought in formal processes, together with a vision and a mission.
AF: What were the challenges you faced while organizing Walkathon '09?
The key to the success of Walkathon '09 was the timely movement of tickets to where it was most required and the biggest challenge was the tracking of this movement. The tracking of the tickets, receipt books, etc. We had formulated several processes for this very purpose, but it was not possible to follow that all the time.
Also with respect to receipt books, the people buying the tickets always expected to get the receipt immediately after paying the money which is fair. However at AF we had a restriction that not everyone can sign the receipts. Rather it was an informal restriction to ensure that we never lose track of any receipt books and also to avoid distribution of receipt books. This forced us to follow a cumbersome process.
AF: Are Government schools doing enough to provide quality education to the poor? Where else can we, as an organization contribute?
I am sure Government schools can do much more if they are only willing to. The education is definitely there, but the quality is missing. Everyone, including the poor students, prefer private schools if they have an option. Government schools are outdated with respect to their processes and their curriculum and I feel students studying and completing schooling in Goverment schools are usually not at par with the other private school students, they are not as smart, they are not as analytical, they are not so expressive/communicative and hence this leads to industry clearly preferring private school students.
We can contribute more, in identifying strengths of students and give them assistance in developing that strength from a young age itself, and not just academics and also a lot more in the area of general awareness which is very important.
AF: You have been the face of BMKS project in the area. Have you faced any challenges from the locals or the school authorities during admissions?
I have not faced many challenges during admissions, or during the time I have been involved with the SVK school in Jayanagar, since the work we are doing is a win win situation for all. The locals want their kids to study, the teachers want more kids in the school since the teachers have their jobs only if there are kids in the schools.
AF: Where do you see Aashayein Foundation in the next 5 years?
In the next 5 years I want to see a very organized, procedure/process oriented AF with each and every activity, each decision, each meeting in AF logged, recorded and well documented. It should be easy to make decisions in any possible situation based on our documentation of processes and guidelines and past experiences. We should be able to have a very clear plan always for the next 12 months, and every volunteer knows his/her responsibility clearly because there is a document for the same. Nobody needs to be told anymore as to what needs to be done. This will make the organization run much more smoothly and efficiently.
Also I still find that we are reinventing the wheel again and again. Each time we have to conduct Art Mela, we start from scratch. We start from what are the things we need, what is the agenda going to be for the day. Same case with Walkathon, etc. We do not realise that we have already done this once and it should be easy this time. If we have documented well the last time, then there is no need to discuss again. We would only need to assign responsibilities and then the event becomes very easy. All we need to do is think about changes for this time.
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As part of taking Pustaka Abhiyana to the remotest parts of rural India, Aashayein Foundation invites its volunteers to join us for our initiative at Govt School, Baldarey village, Hassan District on Saturday, 28th August 2010. Venue:- Govt School, Baldarey village, Hassan Timings:- 9.00 AM- 12.00 Noon Agenda:- 9.00 – 10.30 – Drawing Competition and Rangoli Competition 10.30 – 11.00 – Distribution of school items by Tahasildar (Bags, Notebooks, School Dress and other stuff) 11.00 – 11.30 – Games 11.30 – 12.00 – Lunch time. For further details Contact:- Shashikant: +91-9886846009 / Avinash: +91-9886241191 / Aditya: +91-9886014225 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best Regards, Follow us @ Compilation by Ruthvika Angadi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| © Aashayein Foundation, 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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