Duvva -

April 1, 2001

Past Project Discussion

Melli A.

 

 

Duvva High School in West Godavari district caters to 10 villages nearby with about 400 students from classes 6 to 10. The project was referred by Dr. K.V.Rao of the India Network Foundation who visited this school and was impressed with the work and co-operation of the villagers in the development of the school.

 

Funding from Asha-MIT in 1997 was used to purchase benches in the classrooms which were essential for the school. Children now have a proper place to keep their books and take exams.

 

This project was brought to the attention of ASHA by Mr. K.V. Rao, president of the Indian Network Foundation.  He was impressed by the project, and realized the need for some infrastructure, thus asked funding from ASHA-MIT.  Amount requested was Rs. 55000 for benches.

 

There was no site visit prior to funding Duvva.  Mr. K.V. Rao is a dependable person, and his report was considered as a site report.  Villagers were asked to help the school in kind, thus infrastructure construction of walls & toilets was done by the villagers. 

 

$1500 was spent on 30 benches, i.e. $50 per bench, i.e. ~Rs. 2100 per bench.  The original proposal quoted a part of the Rs. 55000 towards benches, the rest for the construction.  As the construction effort was provided by the villagers, maybe they bought more desks, or spent part of the money elsewhere.  Rs. 2000 per bench does sound a bit expensive.

 

Mr. Rao had billed ASHA for the travel expenses, ~$100, despite having informed him that ASHA does not support administrative costs.

 

The benches allowed the children to sit, i.e. these were not desks for sitting and keeping books on.  Further, the benches had the name of India Network Foundation on them as the donating organization. 

 

Mr. Subba Rao is the headmaster of the school.  His brother had some control of the donations, and Melli mentioned he may not be a very trustworthy person. 

 

Mr. Subba Rao has been upset with ASHA also, as ASHA did not fund the additional Rs. 10,000 Duvva had asked for.  They were somewhat short on the money for desks, and thus asked for some more funding.  ASHA did not provide that amount.

 

Mr. K.V. Rao was the middle man in getting this project to ASHA.  ASHA did not know Mr. Rao, but trusted him nevertheless.  Some administration problems had an impact on this funding.

 

We (ASHA-Boston) do not know how the money was invested, as no report was received from Duvva. 

 

Can benches be considered as a significant value add?

 

If a proposal singularly requests funding for infrastructure, would ASHA-Boston fund them?

 

What can we learn from this experience?  What do we want to find out?

 

Prashanth's family may be in the area, and may be able to find out a bit more about the school.  If this is a government school, controlled by the local community, it would be good to get some detailed information about its functioning / performance etc. If it is just another government school, we may not be able to learn anything new from them.

 

Melli / Anu will contact Prashanth.