Name of WAH 2005 Proposal : Rishiyur School New Building


Summary

Total Amount Required (USD) : $57K (Rs 24.3 Lakhs)
Target Amount from WAH 2005 (USD) : $50K
Cost Type : Cost for construction of new building for Panchayat Union Middle School at Rishiyur village in Thiruvarur Dist., Tamilnadu.
Number of People Served : 300 – 350 children in a population of about 2500 in the village.
Project Location (State) : Tamilnadu (Thiruvarur Dist.)
Category : Working with the Government (Govt. school improvement).
FCRA Approval : Will use Asha India FCRA.
Nominating Chapter : Chennai
Contact Person : Rajaraman Krishnan
E-mail : rajaram@solnettechnologies.com
Website : www.ashanet.org/chennai for Asha Chennai and http://www.ashanet.org/projects/project-view.php?p=494 for the project.
Site Visit : Several reports (including one in this month) listed in the project website given above.
Photos File : Several photo albums listed in the project website given above.


Organizational Information

Note a big part of this section is not applicable since the organization that will get the funds and execute the project is Asha Chennai (i.e. part of the Asha India organization). 

Name of the Organization : Asha India, Chennai Chapter

Date of Establishment : N/A.

Registration Number : N/A.
Tax Exemption Certificate Number : N/A.
Exemption End Date : N/A.
FCRA Number : N/A.
MOA : N/A.

Brief long-term Objective : N/A.

Creation and Activities : N/A.

Background of founder(s) : N/A

Number of Staff : 5 teachers are funded at the Panchayat Union Middle school at Rishiyur. Total number of people paid salary by Asha Chennai is about 20.

Annual Budget : Annual budget for Project Dream (that funds Panchayat Union Middle school at Rishiyur) is about Rs 2 Lakhs.

Previous Funding : Asha Chennai and Asha Singapore have been funding Project Dream. Note this information is not complete in the project website. Total funding for Project dream in 2003-04 was about Rs 1.3 Lakhs and in 2004-05 about Rs 2 Lakhs (of which Rs 1.3 Lakhs was funded by Asha Singpore). The rest of the funding was from Asha Chennai’s own funds.


US Contact : None.

India Contact : Rajaraman Krishnan (rajaram@solnettechnologies.com) and S. Arjunan (arjun_radha2002@yahoo.com).

Previous Sponsor(s) for the Project : Asha Chennai and Asha Singapore have been funding Project Dream.

Previous support through WAH : None.

Information about the alumni, if available : Arjunan and his family are from this village (but did not study at this school). We do not have specific information about other eminent alumni of the school. Note several of the Asha teachers at the school had their primary education at the school.

Location and Demographic details : Rishiyur is an interior village in Thiruvarur district of Tamilnadu. Rishiyur has a total population of 2500. There are two government schools serving this school. There is a primary school with just 30 children and there is a middle school with about 250 children (130 girls and 120 boys). The school currently has only upto 7th standard and will be adding 8th standard in the coming year. The strength of the school is expected to go up to 300+.


Proposal Information

Goal of WAH project : To provide a new building for the school. SSA has already provided a new building for the school with 3 classrooms. The old building that has space for 6 classrooms (barely enough) is far away from the new building and therefore it is difficult to run the school. Further the village lacks any medical facility. The plan is to convert the old school building into a medical facility. The money required for this will be obtained elsewhere. (Please see the attached proposal for details).

a. Total Amount Required : $57K
b. Target Amount from WAH 2005 : $50K

Beneficiaries of the project : Panchayat Union Middle School at Rishiyur and the people of Rishiyur.

Expected outcomes for people served by the project : A better education that would be obtained through the running Asha Chennai project Dream would be enhanced by this new school building.

How long will the benefit last : Atleast 30 years (life of the building).

Number of people reached : 2500 people (population of Rishiyur).

Provide itemized budget for WAH project : (See attached proposal).

Other sources of funding (confirmed and anticipated) : Asha Chennai chapter and Arjunan’s family.

Duration of the project : Construction would take approximately 1 year from start.

Government Involvement : We work closely with the Panchayat leaders of Rishiyur as well as the BDO, AEO etc. officials at the district level.

Personnel Involved : Currently we have only the 5 teachers employed by Asha Chennai in Rishiyur. Arjunan visits the village frequently (atleast once a month). The village leaders (incl. Maruthamuthu the Village Education Committee head) help with handling of the accounts/money at the project. We are planning to employ Neelamegam a motivated local youngster to coordinate our activities in the village.

References : Several volunteers of Asha Chennai and Asha Singapore have visited Rishiyur and seen the project. The list is below.

Minutes with Q&A of meeting or conference call at which the project was approved by the chapter: (Please see attached file).