Jaher

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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.

 

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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.

 

 

 

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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.