1) Name of WAH 2006 Proposal: School Construction at Natpurwa

Summary
2) Total amount required (USD): $8545

3) Chapter’s target to raise in WAH 2006 (USD): $6400
4) Cost Type (Fixed/Recurring): Fixed
5) Number of People Served:  The structure that is planned to be constructed will serve as a school and as a community center for the developmental activities in the area.  Hence many different groups of people will be served.

(a) School: 85+ children. They are currently of primary school age, but the goal is to get them to middle school and later high school, probably by growing the school.  It is expected that the children in neighboring villages will also benefit as the school grows.

(b) The larger RTI activities and other developmental activities in the area will also benefit from the proposed structure.  Specifically the women’s groups are expected to use the structure as they develop alternative sources of employment for the women in the village.  The physical structure will be a visible symbol of progress, giving a boost to all activities in the area, which is expected to be all the activites in a 10 km radius (as of now, this is expected to grow rapidly).

6) Project Location (State): Uttar Pradesh
7) Category: Formal school and community center/base for developmental activities
8) FCRA Approval (Yes/No): Yes

9) Nominating Chapter: Asha-MIT/Boston
10) Contact Person: Melli Annamalai

      E-mail: annam38 <at> yahoo.com               Phone #: 603-886-3332
11) Project Website: http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=350

12) Link to latest site-visit: http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=350

13) Link to photos of the project: On the project webpage

Info required to transfer funds to the project:
14) Name on the Bank account: Asha

15) Bank account number:

16) Name of the bank:

17) Branch and city that DD will be encashed at:

18) Address of recipient (not bank): Gram : Barahi (Natpurwa)
                                                          Post: Sikroriha
                                                          Sandila, Hardoi District
                                                          UTTAR PRADESH  241001
                                                          India

19) Landline number of recipient: Landline is in Lucknow, at Sandeep Pandey’s house (91-522-2347365)

20) (opt) mobile # 91-9451148061 (Neelkamal), 91-9451209863 (Guddu)

21) (opt) email of recipient


Organizational Information
22) Name of the Organization: Asha Trust
23) Date of Establishment: 1997 (work at Natpurwa began in 2002)
24) Registration Number:

25) Tax Exemption Certificate Number

26) Exemption End Date

27) FCRA Number:

28) MOA (if available):

29) Brief long-term Objectives: Asha in this region consists of several objectives.  The objectives listed here focus on objectives of the work in Natpurwa village:

(a)   Provide women in the village (specifically of the Nat caste) an alternative to prostitution): through (i) education and (ii) development of other means of livelihood

(b)   Development of a school (for the objective listed under (a) (i)), high school, and eventually an intermediate college, specifically for girls, but also serving the needs of all

(c)   Sustain and continue the Right to Information movement for better governance: transparency and better usage of govt. funds, election of non-corrupt candidates to village administrative positions, better functioning of public services like the primary health center, govt. school, execution of specific govt. schemes ranging from a hand pump to an intermediate college.

30*) Blurb of organization

 

The work at Natpurwa village is coordinated by people from the village.  Here there is no distinction between Asha and the people – Asha is the people and the people are Asha.  Natpurwa has a 300 year history of women going into prostitution, and it is to change this that two youth from the village came forward and asked to work with Asha.  In the last four years, the work has evolved into three major components: the Right to Information movement, women’s groups and educational activities.  The villagers themselves coordinate all the activities, with about 6-8 of them taking the lead and forming the core team.  The Right to Information movement is leading to transparent and effective governance.  The women’s groups are being organized to empower the women and this effort is led by a former sex-worker.  The Natpurwa core group believes that education is the key to providing girls in the village with alternatives; with that in mind they started with a primary school run in a one-room mud structure belonging to one of the core team members.  The WAH proposal is to build a pucca structure which will provide the school with much needed space and protection against the weather and also pave the way for government recognition and future expansion into a middle school.  It will also provide a much needed physical structure that will function as the center of the developmental activities in the village and surrounding areas.


31) Background of founder(s): Neelkamal and Guddu are two youth from the village.  Neelkamal is a graduate and was working in Lucknow when he heard of Asha and worked with Asha for a  while at Lucknow.  He very soon thought – why not do something in my village with Asha’s help?  He and his cousin Guddu got together and started the Asha effort in Natpurwa.  Slowly the group grew larger with Chandralekha, Durgesh, Neelkamal’s wife Mamta and several others joining in.  Almost all of them are from Natpurwa village, and some like Chandralekha and Guddu’s mother had been sex-workers themselves and were very keen on providing the girls in the village other options. The way Asha functions in the area is that there is no NGO which “does things” for the people.  Asha is the people, and the people are Asha.  In other words, the people themselves are coordinating and running the various activities, and are all part of Asha.  Asha meetings are open to all villagers and anyone can participate in the work. 

32) Number of Staff: As described in 31, this is a bit fluid depending on people’s participation.  Honorarium is being supported for 6 people.  Honorarium is typically given after someone has volunteered with Asha for a whole and shown that he/she is committed to staying on and interested in the work in the long-term.
33) Annual Budget: Year 2005-2006: $6000 (honorarim for 6 people, and expenses such as school supplies, travel, phone)
34) Previous Funding: 2002-2003: $1800, 2003-2004: $4030, 2004-2005: $4500
35) US Contact: Melli Annamalai
36) India Contact: Neelkamal, Guddu, Chandralekha
37) Previous Sponsor(s) for the Project: Asha-MIT/Boston, with recent supplement from Asha-DC
38) Previous support through WAH: None
39) Information about the alumni, if available: N/A

40) Location and Demographic details: Natpurwa is about 60 kms from Lucknow but seems to be in a different world.  It takes about 2 hours from Lucknow to get there – one has to get off the main road and take the small roads (unpaved after a while) to the village.  There is no electricity in Natpurwa, and one (or maybe two?) handpumps.  There is a primary school that is accessible, but the high school is 9-10 kilometers away (not within easy walking distance) and the girls from the Nat caste from Natpurwa are made fun off in the bigger village where the high school is, contributing to girls not going to high school there.  One community in Natpurwa is the Nat caste, which has a 300 year history of women going into prostitution.  Often the women’s earnings are completely under the control of the men folk in the family (for example, a woman’s income might be completely under the control of the brother).  As a woman grows older her income goes down, and the harsh financial conditions might force her to introduce her daughter into the profession and the cycle continues.

Proposal Information

41) Goal of WAH project: The larger goal of the work in Natpurwa is to (1) provide women an alternative to prostitution and (2) To achieve change in the village through several activities coordinated by the villagers themselves, one key activity being the struggle for effective governance.  To help in these larger goals, the WAH project proposes to build a physical structure in the village, which will function as a center for the work and provide a base for the developmental activities in Natpurwa and the surrounding areas.  The structure will be utilized for the three major components of work in Natpurwa: (1) Educational activities (2) The Right to Information (RTI) movement and (3) Development of women’s groups to empower women.  As a visible symbol of progress the structure wil enhance the work in the area – the immediate tangible benefits of the structure include functioning as a school for the children (which is currently being conducted in a one-room windowless building), functioning as a space for RTI and related meetings, and functioning as a space for people to stay when they visit from other villages to learn about and participate in the RTI movement (it is such interaction between villages that has helped the RTI movement in the area grow).

42) Total Amount Required: $8545

43) Beneficiaries of the project: 85+ children from Natpurwa village are the direct beneficiaries of the school structure.  The larger RTI movement in the area (covering a radius of about 30 kms, the whole of Sandila block) will benefit from the structure, as also the efforts to empower women.

44) Expected outcomes for people served by the project: (1) The immediate goal is the ability to get a good primary school education.  The villagers’ goal is extend it to the middle school, and then high school, and eventually intermediate college (with the help of the govt.).  This will particularly be beneficial to girls.  (2) The building will serve as a center for the right to information activities in the area – provide space for meetings, provide space for people who come from surrounding villages to stay, and provide a space that will belong to the community that the community can utilize for development related activities. The plan is to model the structure on the lines of the Lalpur and Barawan ashrams.

45) How long will the benefit last: The usages are for a formal school and a community center, so the benefits are potentially permanent.

46) Number of people reached: The school will reach 85+ children.  The larger RTI movement will reach all the villages in the area (the entire RTI movement is active in an area of 35-40 km radius, the community center at Natpurwa will be most beneficial to the people in the area surrounding Natpurwa, about a 10km radius initially, and is expected to grow).

47) Provide itemized budget for WAH project:

48) Other sources of funding (confirmed and anticipated): Villagers will contribute labor.
49) Duration of the project: School is ongoing, this construction will provide a better structure.  RTI activities and women’s groups are also ongoing and will all benefit from the structure.
50) Government Involvement: The Right to Information movement in the area gives the Natpurwa group the ability to leverage government resources where possible. (Past work includes identifying corrupt teachers who were pocketing scholarship money and ensuring that it reaches the children).  The plan with this school that is being built is that govt. funds will be obtained and used where govt. schemes exist.  For example, there is a govt. scheme for building intermediate colleges for girls for Rs. 15 lakhs can be sanctioned (this would be in the future, but this is described here as an example of the kinds of schemes that will be used).  Such schemes for primary and middle schools are being explored.

51) Duration of Chapter's involvement: 2002 – present.

52) Personnel Involved: The Natpurwa team described above.
53) References: Sandeep Pandey, Vallabh Pandey

54) Minutes with Q&A of meeting or conference call at which the project was approved by the chapter: Refer to: http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=350