Project Sangamam - Jambumadai

Project Brief: A pilot rural empowerment project in Jambumadai village in Trichy district managed by Asha Chennai in partnership with individuals from IIT Chennai
Project Type: Working with the Government (description)
Primary Focus: creating resources (description)

Secondary Focus: to go to formal school

Area: Rural
Supporting Chapter Contact: Chennai
Status: completed - requirements ended
Project Steward: Vijay Sappani
Project Partner(s): Bhaskar Venkateswaran
Other Contacts:
Project Address: , ,,Jambumadai,
TAMIL NADU 
Tel:
Stewarding Chapter: Chennai
Jul 2010CanadaCAD 4320
Nov 2008ChennaiUSD 1942

Total = $5657.2

Background

Jambumadai is a remote village in Trichy district of Tamilnadu. It lies in a backward area of this district that is not river irrigated and is thus dependent on the mercies of rain for their single crop. There are other rural development projects in this village by Vijay Sappani, a volunteer from Asha Canada. He had requested Asha Chennai to make a site visit to the village school. The intention was to undertake improvements to the quality of education at this school in the lines of the other schools we are working with in Project Sangamam. Vijay Sappani is looking at a bigger project that will look at all aspects of quality of life at this village and cause improvement to all of them. The aspects of this project include health, nutrition, income generation, micro-credit, advocacy of their rights etc. Project Sangamam-Jambumadai will be a part of this broader project to uplift the village.

The village sends its children for 6th to 12th standard to schools in Thathangar pettai and Thuraiyoor. One of the main complaints of the villagers is the lack of regular bus service to take these children to the school. More than any quality improvement at their primary school, this was their main complaint. Many children especially girls drop out after 5th standard because of this problem. We should try and address this by raising the issue with the appropriate officials. Vijay Sappani has already contacted the district Collector's office.The district Collector has agreed to take the issue with the Transportation department and have it fixed before the end of December 2005.

The quality of the education at the school is similar to other rural government schools in Tamilnadu. The school did not have much in terms of materials. The remoteness of the place means there isn't really any alternative available to these students in terms of private education. Some of the richer people in the village send their children to English medium schools in neighbouring towns. There is not much scope to increase the enrollment in this school either.

Other General Inputs from Asha

Asha Chennai has undertaken several projects with government schools. As part of these projects Asha Chennai provides several standard inputs including
1. One set of Uniforms for the students. The one set that the government gives is grossly inadequate for wearing every day for a year.
2. Notebooks/Slate for the children.
3. Other education material as appropriate for the class. This would range from crayons to atlases and geometry boxes.
4. Bring the teachers from these projects to Chennai for training. This would be covered under the budget for Project Rightstart.
5. Trips by educationists from Chennai to these projects to monitor, provide onsite training and other inputs for the teachers in these schools.

Further this project being in a remote area would require a local coordinator and cannot be executed directly by the volunteers in Chennai. Srinivasan would perform the role of coordinator for the project would require a salary.

Project Goals

The project would impact about 60 children at this Primary school.

In these institutions the boy: girl ratio is approximately 1:1. We hope to see the following qualitative improvements due to this project
1. An acceptable educational environment that is conducive to and promotes learning.
2. A motivated and trained group of teachers that cater to these children.
3. Children who perform at or above the level expected for their age.
4. Use of technology,computers, library and other resources to further enhance the learning experience.

As the project progresses we hope to develop better metrics to measure the progress of the children and the success of the project like monitoring levels of numeric and literacy skills of the children.

Project partners and supporters

Asha for Education Chennai is helping with implementing the project through its Sangamam model. Rotary club Rockfort, Rotary International, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Tamil Nadu Science Forum(TNSF) in partnership with Association for India's Development (AID), Indian Institute of Technology-Chennai, Center for Women Empowerment, Anna University and few others are helping with resources and materials to create a learning network model that can be used in other villages too. Vijay Sappani is talking to village elders in surrounding villages to create a village champion who can learn from this project and help implement it in their respective villages.

Cost
Rupees 3,63,000.00
US Dollars $8160.00

Methodology and Additional information
Please refer to the Feb 2006 document on the right margin of this page.