Greetings to all in the OPEN community, and we wish everyone a happy holiday season.
We had quoted Dr. Mandela in our last newsletter. Unfortunately, he is with us no more but his vision, like many others’, will continue to guide us.
We have a ton of activities to report on. The increased scale of our activities translates into increased opportunities that we are able to provide to the not-so-privileged kids in India. Your generous donations make this happen.
We started working with a new partner, the Turning Point Trust. This trust aims to improve life skills for the children of slum dwellers and sanitary workers 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. 80 children are benefited by OPEN’s funding of $2,250.
We continue working with our existing partners on our on-going projects.
The HOPE Foundation runs a school to educate the slum children of Kannagi Nagar, Chennai. The school operates Classes I through IV and does not collect fees from students.OPEN funded staff salaries and maintenance costs at this school with $2,300; this amount was matched by Isha Homes Foundation.
We continue our sponsorship of 6 students at the Santosh Charity home in Bangalore, and disbursed $1,500 for this quarter. Dichube Zanme (pictured below) is one of these students. He is in the 2nd semester of a Polytechnic Diploma in Civil Engineering. His scores place him in the first class. The perseverance and strength of character shown by these children is amazing.
Mr. Nat Kumar, one of the long-standing supporters of OPEN, along with OPEN’s Sriram Sankaran, visited our partner, the Ganapathy Iyer Girls’ school in Gopalapuram, Chennai. Mr. Kumar approved a breakfast program for 210 children, and an after-school program for chess, aerobics and the Arts, for $1,500 every month.
We sponsored tuition fees for 20 students at the Jaigopal Rastrotthana Vidyalaya, Bangalore, at a cost of $3,200. The children at this school tend to be the children of migrant laborers.
We provided $150 a month for a supplementary Math teacher for the 8thclass to the APR Charitable Trust, which sends teachers to schools in the Devarabisanahalli area of Bangalore. The extra attention has led to better test scores for the students at this school. A total of 190 students, 20 of whom are in grades 8 to 10, have benefited from this program.
The Pudiyador center in Saligramam, Chennai, continues to conduct after-school classes for the children of the Gen. Cariappa Vocational High School. There is an Arts and Painting session every week.
We continued our support for Vidyarambam during the 3rd and 4th quarters of this year. As mentioned in our earlier newsletter, they have entered the Chennai area now and are working with 8 schools in the region. We have disbursed $8,350 in these two quarters. We have supported 40 centers 690 students) this year.
OPEN has started to execute the IGNITE Program directly, with the absorption of the IGNITE Trust into OPEN India Charitable Trust. This program has seen new enrollees in Engineering (5 boys and 7 girls), 2 & 3 year diplomas (15 boys and 3 girls) and degree courses (3 boys and 27 girls). We are really proud to announce that Ms. R. Alamelu, a final year engineering student has been placed with a top IT organization. During his visit, OPEN’s Kumar Thiagarajan interacted with the children in this program to provide encouragement and guidance. We have disbursed $13,850 for 60 new students and 36 existing students.
On another note, it is said that planned / regular giving, is the best form of giving. Nothing gives us more pleasure than to note that one of our past beneficiaries is a planned giver now. Mr. Manickam, employed by Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, donates $10 every month. We had mentioned in our earlier newsletter that there are other donors like Mr. Manickam.
We have received a proposal from Samridhdhi Trust (http://samridhdhi.org). They have set up 3 no-fee Bridge Schools to give basic education to children of migrant laborers in a multi-level and multi-lingual environment. Children are given basic education and prepared for subsequent admission to mainstream English medium schools. These students are sponsored with half their tuition fees and provided with supplementary evening classes. These schools have been operating in Bangalore with more than 280 children. OPEN has decided to sponsor 10 kids (approx $3,000).
We also continued our support for Malleswaram Sishu Vihar, wherein 10 students were supported. We disbursed about $2,200. More information on their activities can be found at http://www.msvschool.org/.
We will send out another update shortly on our proposed activities in 2014. These projects that benefit underprivileged children in India, and their tireless educators, need your generous financial contributions. With your support, we are confident they will do well.
OPEN Needs You
OPEN has been registered as a non-profit charitable foundation in India and the U.S. Contributions in both countries are tax-deductible. As always, our ability to fund these projects depends on your generosity. We request that tax-deductible contributions payable to OPEN Inc. be sent to Kumar or Rajesh at:
Kumar Thiagarajan, 25470 Gimbel Dr, South Riding, VA 20547
Rajesh Ramadoss, 38 Ocean St, Millburn, NJ 07041
Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to Sriram or Arvind in India in favor of OPEN India Charitable Trust: