Prayaas

Projects

SOSVA School for Tribal children

SOSVA, an organization focused on providing support services to NGOs, is engaged in education for tribal children in interior Maharashtra, who otherwise have no access to any form of education, being either too far from any school, or being children of migrant labourers, who move from place to place.

Last year, they set-up two schools in association with the Savarkar Education Trust, in interior Maharashtra:

One at Waki (10 km from Dahanu Road), which has 62 students, and caters to 13 remote villages that have no access to any school
One at Dhabon (33 km from Dahanu Road), which has 155 students, and is a residential school where migrant labourers can leave their children for the entire year while they work on far off fields

Progress so far
Waki School:

Over 80% of children cleared their exams (this school caters to Class I through IV)
A health camp was conducted
The school building was constructed
Books, bags, raincoats and stationery were provided to all students
2 additional teachers were hired (now there are 3 teachers)

Dhabon School:

Construction in progress at
Dhabon

Over 70% of students cleared their exams (this school caters to Class I through IV)
School building construction was completed (primarily funded by Cognizant Technologies)
Toilet construction has commenced
Tube well has been dug to provide water
2 additional teachers have been recruited
Teaching material provided by the NASSCOM foundation has been deployed
All students have been provided with books, stationery, raincoats, school bags and uniforms

A school bus (received as a donation) has been maintained and is used to drop and pick students of Class V through X to the municipal school 13 km away, so they can complete their education.

Plans for forthcoming year
Waki:

Students in class outside
Waki school

Students are expected to fall to 55 from 62 (several have moved to the Dhabon school, some have left the area with their parents)
Continue existing level of activities
Provide uniforms and shoes to students
Provide additional meals to students, to augment the mid-day meal program of the government, which is not adequate in terms of nutrients and calorie intake
Conduct a health and hygiene camp

Dhabon:

Students are expected to increase from 155 to 225
Continue the existing level of education and care facilities
Increase the daily meals from 3 to 4 (to include an evening snack)
Get uniforms and shoes for all existing and new students
Complete construction of toilets and build kitchens
Provide medical insurance cover to students; improve in-house medical facilities (the nearest hospital is at Dahanu Road)
Install basic furniture – right now there is none – for storage and sleeping, education

Prayaas involvement
The net funding requirements for the following year, after sponsorship already received is INR 92,000 for Waki and INR 21,33,000 for Dabhon (inclusive of capex outlays). Prayaas is currently partially funding this amount and is looking to increase the support.

Following ppt gives some more information about the school: Dhabon School