Greetings to the OPEN community. We wish everyone a happy holiday season and a happy new year. In this festive season, there are some sad notes. We hope friends and family made it unscathed through the floods in Chennai; many of our partner schools and schoolchildren did not. We are also deeply sorry to announce the passing away of Mr. V. Ranganathan, Founder of Vidyarambam Trust, on Christmas day in India; we hope he rests in peace after a decade of working to educate Tamil Nadu's underprivileged children. This is a good time to remember the neediest, and to reflect on our blessings.
Chennai floods update
OPEN's Sriram Sankaran visited several partner schools late Dec 2015. He is sorry to report that they suffered significant damage due to the floods, and post-flood aftermath. Ground floor classrooms at Cariappa Vocational High School in Saligramam were flooded, and toilet fixtures and the kitchen were damaged. 30 students lost everything and are being provided counseling by the Government. The Jaigopal Garodia Girls' school at Saidapet didn't suffer directly from the floods, but was used as a refugee shelter for the flood-hit people of Saidapet, and the toilets, kitchen, and class furniture suffered significant damage at that time. The Jaigopal Garodia Girls' school at Virugambakkam, with 2000 students, is one of the 10 most affected schools in Chennai. It needs help to rebuild toilets and to construct a shelter for the assembly area. Ganapathy Iyer Girls' school at Gopalapuram didn't suffer flood damage directly, but many students were personally affected and the school has requested replacement uniforms.
Students' status will become clearer as they return to school in the New Year. The government is replacing books and notebooks but quantities may not be sufficient.
We will continue to collect and prioritize schools' requests. Cariappa school has already asked for emergency funds to raise the ground level by a few feet, whereas the Jaigopal Garodia schools have asked for replacement benches and desks and rebuilding of toilets. We estimate total cost of relief already requested at USD 30,000.
OPEN will focus on post-flood education support, consistent with our mission, and will also provide some financial assistance to NGOs that are doing post-flood rebuilding and rehabilitation.
Post-secondary education: Ignite Scholarship Program
The OPEN community supports 140 students’ post-secondary education in this academic year. Students are predominantly in college for B.Com., B.Sc., 2/3 year Polytechnic, or 4-year Engineering degrees. We are supporting 54 new students this year, with about 60% of them being women. On average, the monthly family incomes of new students are about Rs. 6000, and the students entering Polytechnic average 75% in the 12th exam; students entering B.Com/B.Sc average 85%, and Engineering students average about 95% in the 12th standard board exam. Our budget for the 2015-2016 academic year is $23,000.
It is clear from the marks that the students are good academically, with some students potentially needing help to move from Tamil medium to English medium. In our interactions, we observe that students need help with communications skills for campus interviews, and with career goals setting. We are exploring communications workshops and soft skills improvement for all students, and internship opportunities for junior students, and will keep our community updated on this program.
Results-based education: Supplemental Classes by Vidyarambam
The passing of Mr. Ranganathan is a great loss to Vidyarambam and to OPEN. Many of us remember Mr. Ranganathan's simplicity and passion to educate, that he conveyed during his presentation at the Innisai Mazhai concert in Northern Virginia, 2012. We continue working with Vidyarambam Trust to bring their Easy Learning English and Easy Learning Mathematics supplemental programs to 6 partner schools in Chennai. Over 1700 students are being coached in English (classes 6-8) and Math (classes 1-5) during academic year 2015-2016. Our budget for the 2015-2016 academic year is $21,000.
As a reminder, the Tamil Nadu government has mandated that any child that goes to a Govt school must be taught in English medium if the child so desires, and this unfunded mandate has led to a large switch in education from Tamil to English medium. Another challenge for schools is a large itinerant student population from the families of migrant workers, which means that Govt schools may get children who are far behind the normal education level - children that they are mandated to educate.
These children need an immersion program in English and Math - an immersion that existing teachers are not trained to provide. This need for introductory/remedial education is fulfilled admirably by Vidyarambam.
Results-based education: Ashraya libraries
The Ashraya Foundation runs libraries and Science and Arts clubs at 6 schools in rural Karnataka. With OPEN's support, Ashraya completed library construction at 3 more schools in 2014, and is running a Reading program for students at these schools. Each book has a GROWBY rating that shows the reading level for that book. Ashraya monitors the number of books checked out by each student, and the GROWBY reading proficiency that is demonstrated by the student as the academic year progresses, with 4 reading ability tests. High-level program dashboards are shared with Block Education Officers. On average, a student checks out a book every two weeks. Our budget for academic year 2015-2016 is $6500, and we support 600 children in 3 schools. Ashraya are hoping to publish a book of the best paintings from the children in the Arts clubs; and are providing supplies and training for the children in the Science clubs to learn through experimentation. Over the next year, we aim to add Science and Arts clubs at the 3 OPEN schools as well, and will continue to support Ashraya in the great work that they are doing.
Rural Education: Single Teacher Schools
We continue funding the Single Teacher program, run by the Swami Vivekananda Rural Development Society, for operating expenses for 5 schools (~160 students) in Tiruvallur district in rural Tamil Nadu. One person teaches all children in the school, who study together though they may be in different grades. After completing Class 5, students are expected to continue education at regular schools.
Ongoing Projects
We continue our support of Ganapathy Iyer Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Gopalapuram, Chennai, with tuition scholarships for poor children, and operating expenses for after-school classes (chess, karate) and breakfast/evening snacks. We have been requested to provide replacement uniforms for many of these children post- the Chennai floods.
The Turning Point Trust aims to improve life skills for the children of slum dwellers in Rotary Nagar, Chennai. Spoken and written English and computer skills are taught daily from 4.30-8pm to children and youth to better prepare them for life and employment. We provide the operating expenses for these centers.
We are sponsoring 10 children from the Malleswaram Shishu Vihar, Bangalore, with scholarships for school. We are funding Math and English classes for standards 6-8 in 3 schools in Bangalore, in collaboration with the Adarsh Colony CSRFoundation. We continue to fund teacher salaries at Somasundaram School in rural Tamil Nadu. We continue to fund the Samriddhi Foundation in Bangalore for supporting 10 children of migrant workers for bridge education and subsequent placement into government schools. We continue to monitor scholarship grants for poor children at Jaigopal Garodia Rashtrotthana Vidyalaya in Bangalore.
OPEN key statistics, 2003 - Dec 2015
The OPEN community has supported over 23,000 students in the past 12 years. A breakdown of grants is shown in the chart above. We wish to point out that for infrastructure projects such as classrooms, only the students benefited in the year of the grant have been included in the student count. The actual student count is likely much higher, as a typical classroom can be used for 5+ years, and typical furniture for 3+ years.
OPEN Needs You
OPEN has been registered as a non-profit charitable foundation in India and in the U.S. Contributions in both countries are tax-deductible. As always, our ability to fund these projects depends on your generosity. Please use the year-end opportunity to contribute to the children of India, and save on your taxes. Checks payable to OPEN Inc. may be sent to Kumar or Rajesh at:
Kumar Thiagarajan, 25470 Gimbel Dr, South Riding, VA 20152
Rajesh Ramadoss, 38 Ocean St, Millburn, NJ 07041
Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to Sriram in India in favor of OPEN India Charitable Trust: