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AID Adyar Chapter Reports ...
Murari (from CTS) and his friends recently started the AID Adyar Chapter. They had adopted 3 balwadis. Here is a report from Murari...
Last week we visited 3 Balwadis and got a list of requirements from them. There were a huge number of poor children in each Balwadi. They wanted toys, bins to store food, clay for kids to make models, cassette player with karadi tales stories, balls and painting of the room in brighter colours. We decided to start first with the toys and then over the next few weeks do the other things as well. We collected donations and got the toys. This week we went and gave them the toys. The kids were very happy. But they need more things. So again this weekend, we will go and give more toys. I have attached the snaps of our visit. Our group is still growing and we are scouting for more volunteers. Once we get mobilized I will send you the group details. The Hindu Reports (3rd Mar 2007) Padippum Inikkum likely to be exended to the entire state "Education Minister says Government is considering extending the `Padippum Inikkum' project with a focus on activity-based learning to the entire State...."    Only 50% of children in 5th standard can read Tamil fluently. AID INDIA developed and demonstrated a program called Padippum Inikkum to improve reading skills of children within a few months. Along with the Tamilnadu Government (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) AID INDIA implemented this program in 7300 schools in 5 districts. The results of this program are very encouraging and there has been a huge jump in the reading levels in these 5 districts in the last few months. The Education Minister had visited a few schools where he had seen the program at work and is considering expanding the program to the entire state along with the ABL program. One of the major problems AID INDIA identified in primary schools is the lack of good reading materials. To address this problem AID INDIA developed and supplied reading card in lots of schools. To address the problem more systematically, it is important to get teachers to themselves generate reading materials. As the first step in this direction, in 5 districts AID INDIA volunteers identified innovative teachers who want to produce materials. In each district teachers workshops are being organized and lots of teachers are writing graded stories for children. AID INDIA volunteers are collecting these stories, designing them into posters and story cards and supplying them back to all the schools. Thanks to A.G. Karunakaran and Jayakumar, AID activities in Coimbatore district are now in full swing. AID was already working with 2 NGOs in 2 blocks. Now we have developed a district wide plan. We have identified an office space and district team. The Chief Education Officer has been quite supportive. We have got a letter from the Elementary Education Director to distribute Story Cards in the Primary Schools in the district. We have started the work in Madukarai Block and Kurichi Panchayat - initially with distributing the grade story card bags. In the summer we will build further on the contacts in the block and also start more libraries. In June, when the schools reopen, we plan to start the reading and science programs across the district. AID TN health team has put together a bag of simple-to-read health materials and posters. Village volunteers in 60 villages have been identified and given these health library bags to distribute to women and adolescent girls in the village. UNICEF and District Collector help
initiate
Ariviyal Anandam science program across Krishnagiri District Impressed by the way
students
and teachers are responding to the Ariviyal Anandam Science Experiment
program being implemented in 2 blocks, Krishnagiri Dist Collector, Dr.
Santhosh Babu, wrote to UNICEF to help expand the program to
the
entire district.
  
UNICEF has now approved
the
funds for supplying the kits to all the middle and high schools in the
district. This program will now reach out to more than 1,00,000
children in 400 schools!
On 12th March 2007, a training camp for all the Block Resource Teachers in the district is being planned. On the 13th and 14th of March, all the science teachers in the district will be trained on the science experiments. Smile
volunteers have been working with us - helping us organize educational
festivals for village children. Now they are teaming up with AID to identify
about 100 poor 12th std students in remote villages to support them through
college. Through the Eureka Scholarship Program,
AID INDIA has been providing support to over 350 poorest children - many of them
whom have also lost a parent.
AID INDIA has been identifying the poorest children in remote villages through its village volunteer base. These are typically smart kids in the 6th-12th std who come from the poorest and most vulnerable families in the village - many without a father, or with handicapped parents. These kids are studying and often also working to help their families. The Eureka Scholarship Program provides these children with a small scholarship. More importantly through this program we also try to arrange mentors for these children who will support these children. 3-4 Feb 2007 On the 3rd of Feb 2007, 100 children from
villages came to Chennai for a 2 day festival! The kids had a great time
on participating in fun sessions, seeing snakes in the snake park and attending
two planetarium shows. But the real fun was in what came next. About 50
volunteers - mostly from software companies - hosted these children. All the
children and volunteers came back the next day sharing wonderful experiences.
  
On the 4th the kids went
on-board a swedish ship. On returning from the ship they had a
celebrity waiting for them! 'Gana' Ulaganathan came to meet the
kids and sang his famous "vala meen" song. Tulika Books released
3 books during the event and copies of these books were given to all
the children. In the evening, after a visit to the beach, the
children left for their homes.
It was 2 days the children would never forget in their lives! 1st Feb 2007  
Every Tuesday from 8.40 to 9.00 AM, Balaji Sampath from AID INDIA demonstrates and explains low cost Science Experiments. The experiments can be done by school children and teachers with locally available materials. This program is called Ariviyal Vilayatu and comes on Sun TV in the Vanakkam Tamilagam program (Good Morning Tamilnadu). The program has been aired every week since September 2006. |
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