Jaher
-----
June 20th, 2004
Alka
Provided an
overview of the project, and current funding status.
Discussed current proposal request for renewal of
funding.
New set of teachers have been invited to begin
teaching, as of mid-June.
Cost request for hostel maintainence, salaries,
tube-well and other expenses.
Some objections were raised, suggesting that we do
not know what and how
the children have benefitted previously. Further, how do we know that
the new set of teachers and new methodologies would
do well. There is some
uncertainty in this process.
At the same time, following earlier discussion on
'strategy' regarding mails
by Ananth, these are challenging times for Jaher,
and it would not be appropriate for Asha to pull out. The potential is significant, and Jahermuni is working with
dedication to ensure success of the project.
Following some discussion, it was decided that we
will fund Jaher for the requested amount, and divide the funds into two
installments. The project will be
followed closely to better comprehend the activities and benefits.
Alka is the project steward for Jaher.
Jaher
Jharkhand
Health & Education
April
25th, 2004.
Harish.
Jaher -
Project in Jharkhand. Was approved for general
funds
last year, but Jaher doesn't have FCRA clearance. $???? allotted for fisheries.
Funds will be sent through Aviram.
Questions:
Himanshu:
Plan was to have them self-sufficient by May-June of 2004.
Himanshu:
Funds were supposed to be used for fisheries, but borewell was dug.
Harish
visited this year. He is satisfied with their progress.
Himanshu:
Why are we funding Jaher if its for fisheries?
Harish:
Its a case where Asha is getting involved in a more holistic way than just
funding education.
Himanshu:
Seems like its too ambitious. They don't seem to have managerial skills for
starting and running fisheries. Needs a fair bit of technical
skills,
its a fairly substantial project. 12 ponds is too ambitious.
Harish:
The plan is to start with 2 ponds. Start small and see how it goes. Aviram was
successful with fisheries, willing to provide expertise. Jaher has put in their
own money in this, so that motivation is also
there.
Himanshu:
Have we reduced risk of the project going bust?
Harish:
Yes, we're trying to train the
Alpna:
How far is Aviram from Jaher?
Harish:
5-6 hours.
Alpna:
Does Aviram's fisheries' have positive impact on the school?
Harish:
Aviram's fisheries are separate from their school projects. We've funded them
before through "Fr. Gabriel's"... but now Jaher has distanced itself
from
them,
hence the difficulty in getting the funding through.
Discussion
followed.
Harish:
Jaher is in a more backward region than Aviram.
Tina:
Will it be hard to communicate with Jaher, can Aviram's knowledge be shared
with Jaher?
Harish:
They'll have to give it a shot. Jaher has done things on their own initiative
before, so we shouldn't underestimate them.
------------------------------------------------------
Jaher
Proposal - General Funds
Oct.
13th, 2002
Ananth
C.
Asha is
going to disburse $100,000 from genral funds
to the
top ranked projects from a shortlist of 15. Anurag to create a
poll
for getting the Asha-MIT votes. Vijay, Siddhartha, Aswin and Ananth to
help
summarize the 15 projects for posting on strategy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Jaher
Project Review
Sept.
9th '01
Ananth
C.
Jaher is a project that we received about
2 years
ago. It
was a school in the Jarkand area for tribal
children
and literally sat in the middle of a jungle.
The
uniqueness of the school was two fold. One is that
it
served a large area of surrounding tribal villages
with
very active parent participation (for instance,
the
parents helped build part of the school). The
second
is that the school is situated in an area that
is
surrounded by many missionary schools. In fact, the
Jaher
school was started by Ms. Alphanso who used to
part of
a school (Brothers of St. Gabriel) and to
which
she still has strong ties. For example, although
Jaher
doesn't have FCRA clearance, funds are routed
through
the Brothers of St. Gabriel.
The first check was sent out to the Jaher
in the
spring
of 2000 but there were delays for the funds to
reach
the school. One such being that the check was
written
to a wrong payee and needed to be re-done. In
addition,
mail services are typically slow to the
region.
For the half yearly review, Ananth had
requested
receipts and such from Jaher. He received
this
information from Jaher two weeks back although
the
letter was dated April 20, 2001.
Break-up
of Funds:
The
total amount of the project for the first 6 months
was
98,106 of which 69,595 was funded by AB and the
rest
(28,507) was raised with local contributions as
well as
those from the Brothers of St. Gabriel. AB
sent
out $1500 (Rs. 69,595@ approx. 45/1) for 6 months
of
expenditure. The estimated and actual costs are
given
below:
Monthly
Expenditure - (all amounts in Rs.)
Item Initial Actual
Grains
and Vegetables 17,250 9441
Salaries 4,500 5236
Misc.
(such as kitchen utensils)1,000 1674
TOTAL 22,750 16,351
16,351
X 6 = 98,106 (69,595 + 28,507 = 98,102)
Site
Visits:
Site
Visits were conducted by a couple of people
including
Shanmuga who had only good things to say
about
the project. We still await his written report
but in
essence, he felt that the project was doing
wonderful
things for the children and was also very
involved
with the local community. They keep local
traditions
such as the 'Festival of New Flowers' very
much
alive among the children thereby keeping true to
the
local culture.
The
school has 169 students attending kindergarten
through
the 5th grade. Fifty of these children are
hostilities
(residents) who come from villages not
within
daily commutable distances. There are 3
teachers
and as mentioned a very strong bond with the
parents.
The latter have helped repair the mud
buildings
of the school, plow the land to grow
vegetables,
etc.
Along
with the receipts and half-yearly report, the
Jaher
project also sent along an outline for future
development.
This is with the aim to becoming
self-sustaining.
i. Fishery Project - Shanmuga reports that
this
project
was tried by the local before but as it was
not
well maintained, didn't amount to much. One fifth
of the
money of the new fishery project would be given
to the
school with the other profits distributed to a
women's
group as well as the landowner.
ii. Well for drinking water - Right now there is
only
one
well and the need to have another was essential.
iii. Health program for the children.
iv. Government approval for a hostel.
v. Build more classrooms - trying to get
government
aid to
accomplish this goal as well. If need be, the
parents
would also build mud buildings.
In
addition, the school would like to decrease their
dropout
rates.
Discussions:
A
number of issues were bought up by the group with
respect
to the Jaher project. Among these were
questions
relating to the future self-sustaining plans
for the
school. For instance, some of the questions
that
came up were who the women's group was, is there
just
one landlord on which the fishery was planned, is
the
well for drinking water part of the proposal for
the
next 6 months.
There
was also a concern not to take away from the
people's
initiative. Lists of questions that were
raised
and that Ananth will be looking into are:
i. How are the local contributions collected?
ii. The issue of the middle person (Brothers of
St.
Gabriel's)
to deliver the funds.
iii. The need to open up better channels of
communication.
iv. Is there any other way of delivering the
money to
the
Jaher project such as sending it to a family of a
volunteer
who would then deliver it to Jaher.
Based
on the current information we have as well as
the
entirely positive site visit report (we still
await
the written report) from Shanmuga (he visited
them in
May), the group was unanimous in sending the
next
installment of $1500 to Jaher.
If
there are any questions regarding this project, please do
get in
touch with Ananth.