Year end arrives. Taking stock of how far we have come

The going has been great so far, as planned. With around 6 months of association, here is where we are and need to go.

Highlights of 2014 (6 months): 

• Good funding of more than Rs. 1.1 lakh in 6 months. Translating to an average donation of around Rs. 19,000 per month! 
• Almost 90% of this donation is from individuals! I strongly believe the involvement makes a bigger difference than the money itself. 
• Big ticket item: Fixed around 35-50 benches which were unusable. A 'functional' classroom makes the kids feel better too
• Laptop!! My dear friend Praba from the US sponsored a laptop for the school. This will help in school administration, focussed planning/improvement  and arranging for E-learnings
• Pratik Bhabad trained the staff in Email and Whatsapp.
• An actual attendance tracker excel has been created and provided to Gaikwad sir
• Deloitte did a fantastic impact day on 11/28/2014. Re-organized the school, fixed 4 big cupboards, set up a cool library. 
• Multiple discussions, ideas, events happened in the school and online which provide direction for the future. 

With the basics almost in place, it's time to shift the focus the core issue: Academic performance.

Looking ahead:

• Attendance improvement is a major focus area. Need to track it. Have created a detailed Excel to automate tracking and generate reports. Gaiwad Sir will be helping us here
• Revision related activities will be planned using Deloitte volunteers to help the 10th standard students
• The younger kids need the most nurturing. We should see a major boost here with help coming in from my friend Nikhil Karkare's The Wise Buddha project. 
• Train entire staff in basic computer skills and then actually LEVERAGE them for the school
• Take steps to USE the library. Maybe by having story reading hours, buying intersting books, structuring the usage
• Leverage existing talent. Have the students participate in inter-school contests. Need to plug them in the Town school network. Because they do not get the invites in the first place. This produces and idea for leveraging technology.

Let's see how it goes. We would need all the help we can get from a TIME and EFFORT perspective. If you are interested in sparing 1-2 hours every week or month or at any frequency, please let me know.

Funding crosses Rs. 1 Lakh (100K) mark!!

This is a major milestone from a contribution and motivation perspective!

It was a roller coaster ride of depression and elation since July 2014. We stand at  Rs. 114, 239 today on 12/29/2014. That's an average of Rs. 19,000 per month - absolutely amazing considering it's all INDIVIDUAL donations, except for a 12K institutional(Deloitte) donation.

The genuine involvement of so many people makes the real difference.

Drawing contest at school

Was a joy to see the kids seriously at work with a plethora of colors and imagination!!

Photo session for the students!!

A friend, Rahul Dhepe got in a professional photographer friend of his...named Rahul again to click photos of the kids

These are the kids for whom we are looking for donors to sponsor their annual tuition fees, stationery etc. This amount is often as small as Rs. 450 (Yes, it's a pity kids lose out on education due to such meagre amounts!!)

The plan is to give a 'thank you card' back to the donors with  a personal note from and photo of the kid. To serve as a memento of the noble deed!!

Will share a sample card format soon!!

Pratik creates email experts!!!

The staff was excited when Pratik Bhabad came in to teach them email (and Whatsapp ;) ) basics

The plan was to teach the headmistress only, but then other teachers and staff members poured in to learn.

Their expression shows that they were indeed good students. And their appreciative comments after the session proved that Pratik did an amazing job!!!

Thanks to Pratik for volunteering his time and effort to teach the teachers!! :)

Deloitte steps into the school!!

Deloitte volunteers visited the school on Nov 8, 2014. This is a build up towards the impact day activities on Nov 28. The 7-8 volunteers that visited, are part of an ongoing community thread called 'Aadhaar' running since the past 3-4 years at Deloitte Mumbai! It caters to the children in the Anugraha orphanage in Ambernath.

The school kids had an amazing time. Sant Sir(school founder) was very appreciative  of this spirit of service shown by the group. Looking forward to great work together!!

Major updates: Let the works begin!!

- A big ticket item has begun. Major repairs to around 35 unusable benches in the school. This is around a Rs. 23K activity. and will make a big difference to the kids
- Deloitte has planned an Impact day at the school on Nov 28. Possibility of fixing up some cupboards and setting up a library on that day.

Giant step forward - The laptop is arriving!!!!

My friend Praba and his colleagues have made a dream come true for the school. They have donated the funds to buy  a brand new sturdy laptop!!!!!!

The laptop means the ability to communicate faster, digitize administrative data, analyse it, determine areas of focus, watch educational videos and a lot more!!

Sulbha Ma'm has bought a smart phone as well.

So we are on our way to become all Tech savvy! ;)

The next steps are to arrange training courses(my Mom will help out there) and arrange for the laptop procurement.

Huge Diwali gift, and an irony

Diwali does bring you unexpectedly large gifts sometimes!! We get a single donation of Rs.15,000. This will help a lot  

Rs 51K on Diwali!

Piyu takes us to the Rs. 51,000 funding mark!!!
Happy Diwali indeed! 

Important findings....and its not about the money!

One thing I have learnt for sure, what our small institutions need is basic skills, much more than money. Sure, money opens up new opportunities, and is the first step - but exploiting those opportunities is the bigger need. This means they need our time more than our money. This means a big difference can be made within the current situations everywhere, by people like you and me, without having any great level of skills.

Here are my observations on what has helped the most, and its not just the money:

• They are so caught up in daily challenges that it becomes difficult to stand aside and look at the bigger picture. Life is difficult and they are already trying their best. 
• Setting up processes helps. Setting up and enforcing simple processes around meeting, capturing MoMs, setting deadlines, owners helps
• Distributing tasks amongst other teachers, students too helps. Lightens the head's workload, and increases involvement
• People are ready to contribute, but usually are waiting for an opportunity
• People are afraid of making mistakes, especially when doing something new. So need to be made comfortable with it
• Talking about prioritizing when there are too many things, planning a schedule for the chosen things helps
• Just talking about 3 solutions to a perceived challenge helps. Showing that we can solve 50% if not 100% of a problem helps. Shows that we can keep moving forward
• Hierarchical structure is a challenge that makes opening up difficult. Need to have people open up with their difficulties before we can discuss solutions. Everybody needs to know that its ok to talk about challenges, as long as we can work together towards a solution
• Some things need to be shown by example(eg. Talking to a difficult, aggressive parent) This instills confidence that the problem is not as difficult as we think
• Helping to separate out issues from people. Basic stuff in corporate, a very big thing in normal Indian community. Blame games are the norm. 
• There is a LOT of heart that's waiting to be tapped. Something we 'corporate' animals would think as 'too nice'. 
• Talking freely and coming up with ideas on the spot often is a first time experience for many. Shows that the same things can be done differently. This opens up dusty doors. 
• Involving all stake holders helps create a sense of community and responsibility. 
• Simple things like clarity in vendor negotiations that cost unnecessary delays, money disputes....and of course blame games
• The pace of work improves more by action and example, than by talk. The difference a single laptop can make is huge - and am still waiting for one. 
• More about instilling a 'How we can move ahead' mindset as compared to 'Why we are stuck' mindset. And this is not possible unless there is access to an outsider perspective. 

Small things, big difference. 

And let there be (Tube)light!! Small things, big impact!

This one is special, because this requirement was pointed out and requested by the kids themselves in a students meeting 2 weeks ago.

The school quickly bought 6 tubelights, installed an electric school bell, and are also working on repairing the wiring for the public address system so that they can start using it again.

These are small things with big impact, because:
a) The students asked for it themselves
b) It is motivating to see 'things moving' after you have asked for them, as compared to empty promises. Visionary speeches do not carry weight, if you cannot install 6 tube lights.
c) The public address system makes a big psychological difference. It's 'cool' for them

Thanks to Patil Sir for getting this quickly done!!!! 

And the shopping begins!!

The first item was bought out of the donation amount: A rocking, abundant black board!

Thanks to all the donors, till now. And the Giant's Group of Kalyan Metro for helping route the finances.

Expense details, receipts to be uploaded to the website on the weekend.

Time to focus on the next step

Was down with a very bad viral the entire week. Called up Sulbha madam for some quick action items:

- Share wesbite details with Chavhan sir - Vijayraj. done
- Initiate purchase for 2 blackboards - Sulbha Madam.
- Put in order for bench repairs. Finalize timelines - Sulbha Madam.
- Implement the homework tracking process by Sep 9 - Sulbha Madam

With the funding process starting to reach the 'expense' point, its time to start consciously focusing on phase 2: operational improvements. Going beyond the homework tracking process.

Will be discussing with Vinod and Anis and a few other Deloitte folks for next steps, activities we can do with the kids. I think we need to start a serious discussion soon on:
- Teaching methodologies with low resources
- Teacher training programs
- Attendance/engagement improvement
- Effective progressive evaluation minus the pressure
- Leveraging the good student/teacher ratio optimally

Have gotten in touch with Nirali Vashisht, an amazingly inspiring teacher from the TFI organisation. Turns out she is ex-Deloitte! Hopefully she responds and we have a fruitful conversation.  

Homework Tracking

This was an action item from the parents' meeting.

Created a sample table to help the kids, parents and teachers track homework.

Irfan and Hasan came over to my house today to collect the sample sheet. I explained the process to them, and they in turn will explain it to the teachers.

Let's hope this works. It has to. By Sep 5. Gotto show the parents that we mean action. Only then can we hope for the same from them

Meet the parents!! From Blaming to Acting

Today was an open day at the school. Parents of about 25 out of around 125 turned up. 

Discussions for the most part centered around  "The fact that only 25 out of 120 turned up. and how that showed lack of responsibility from the parents side","Why parents should do more...", "Believe me, I even beat him a lot, it tears my heart. But it still doesn't work!!", "Why the school is not doing enough",  "How parents somehow send the kid to school, but teachers don't seem to give any homework", "How kids lie about the homework even if teachers give it". The blames were evidence of a lot of good intentions, but no solutions. But that's normal. Arnab Goswami does the same on Indian prime time after all!! The sad thing is not that we do it, but that we think its enough. 

When I got the chance to speak after about half an hour, tried to convey the following points:

- I do not care about the 100 parents who did not turn up. But a big thanks to the 25 parents who DID. 

- We have to focus on these 25 kids for now. Rest will happen when the parents want to. 

- So far, our discussion were centered around the question: "Why this kid CANNOT move ahead. And how its not MY fault". We can keep doing that for the next 50 years. Or turn the question to "HOW CAN this kid move ahead? Is there anything WE can do?" 

When we tried to get specific, it boiled down to just 2 top points:

1. Kids coming in late to classes: So even the extra classes effort gets wasted. One parent said that she makes sure she sends her kid out at the right time, but he goes elsewhere. His dad screams, beats him too - but it doesnt work. We suggested that for 7 days next week, can she personally drop her kid to school(she does not work). And then we can see what happens. (My feeling is when the kid sees his mom really cares, he will start too.)

2. Inability of the parents to check homework: Most of them are illiterate. I said maybe they cannot check the correctness of the homework, but they can check WHETHER they have done the homework. A simple homework table at the end of each book will help. PArents can tick it if the homework is done.

I repeated that if they have any more problems, NOW is the chance to speak up. 

Action items:

- The school will implement this homework system by 5th septemeber. 

- Nominated one of the parents to check back with us if we don't. Hold me, the school accountable (The underlying aim is to make everybody part of the solution than the problem)

Hope we are able to take small but sure steps ahead. The potential these kids have is just too much to waste!!

Rupees 25K Milestone...And a song!!

We have collected Rupees 25 Thousand!!! Awesome to see people's helpfulness adding up slowly..Huge thanks to the donors. 

This Independence day week was good on many fronts.

Great celebrations at the school, recorded some video footage of the childrens' ambitions and teacher's challenges. 

The children came to know that I was going to sing at a function in the evening. So they forced me to sing. I had a song that I have been obsessed with recently - which was waiting to get out. So I happy to comply ;) Sang "Phir mohabbat" from Murder 2. It was fun. The best part was when a girl innocently asked "He song tumhi gaayilaaat ka???" ("Have you sung this song??[in the movie]") :) :)

Details of the fund collection are provided on the "Cashflow details" page

I-Day celebrations at the School!

Post by School building on Weekends.

The first donation!!!

It's an awesome feeling to have the first donation coming in. And that too from an old school friend, purely based on email publicity.

A reason to keep hope alive and keep chugging on. I hope more people follow.

Felt amazing to update the Cashflow Details page. The account has opened!!! :) :)

Share/donate - Help slum children learn!!

Calling for donations in cash or kind to support a slum-school striving since 30 years. The kids' parents are usually rag-pickers, daily wage construction workers, housemaids. Problems like alcoholic fathers, parent desertions are common. Their needs are as basic as blackboards, window grills, and money to buy books/stationery.

• The entire process is extremely transparent. The best way to  know the entire background of the school, the people behind it and the funding needs in 10 minutes is to Download this presentation
• The funding needs page summarizes the school's needs and also provides a link to the detailed presentation
• The story so far section tells you what's going on, at an almost weekly basis.
• Click here to DONATE NOW

You can also help by sharing this post, and liking the Facebook page as well

06 - Ready to go!!!

The fund collection issue has finally been sorted out!!!

Giant's group of Kalyan Metro kindly agreed to help in letting me use their account to collect the funds. This has multiple advantages. Giant's group is a world-famous organisation, so it grants much more credibility to the initiative. The Kalyan city chapter has had a working relationship with the school since the past 4-5 years. Infact, I came in touch with the school through them. So its a great partnership.

All needed instructions, information are updated on the website.

Have sent funding request mails to some friends. Will start spreading the news on Facebook, Linked in etc.

Fingers crossed, hoping for the best!!! I hope people donate for this good cause, and/or help spread the news!!

05 - The hard part begins now

Read Quote of 05 - The hard part begins now on Quora

04 - A very productive meeting!!

Read Quote of 04 - A very productive meeting!! on Quora

03 - Meeting the children..and some more specifics

Read Quote of 03 - Meeting the children..and some more specifics on Quora

02 - Facing ground realities

Read Quote of 02 - Facing ground realities on Quora

01 - Discovering the school

Read Quote of 01 - Discovering the school on Quora