Malleswaram Shishu Vihar school OPEN began partnering with this school starting this year. The school has never been run on a commercial basis since its inception in 1953. The philosophy of the founder has been “Quality Service at Budget Cost” for children from weaker sections of society. The annual operational deficit of Rs. 1,35000/- is made up with OPEN donation. This mainly goes towards teacher’s salary. The school was initially run in Kannada medium receiving support from the Government. However, popular demand for English medium instruction led to loss of government aid. There are a total of about 150 students in classes up to 10th standard.

OPEN is partnering with Santosh Charity in Bangalore to support destitute and orphaned children in a home environment where they are nurtured and educated, equipping them for the future. The Santosh Children's Home houses about thirty children between 4 and 15 years from various cultural backgrounds. Currently, with the help of 3 sponsors(Rajesh Swaminathan, Malathi Anand, Krishnan Ganapathy) and 1-1 matching from OPEN funds, we support 6 students.  We are donating Rs 45000/- per Quarter for sponsoring 6 children’s education/boarding/lodging.

Our flagship program EAC (educate-a-child) with the support of IGNITE trust continue to support more students in Polytechnic, Engineering, and Degree colleges. Total number of polytechnic/Engineering and degree students supported by this program for year 2010 is 99. OPEN-IGNITE disbursed Rs 3.13L  in March 2011 for 65 existing students in the program. Following that, we had a counseling and payment session in Chennai on Sep 4, 2011. More than 80 students (old and new) attended the session. 72 new students were enrolled in the 2011 batch (5 in Engg, 57 in Polytechnic and 10 in Degree programs). A total of Rs. 6,71,124 was provided in tuition reimbursements to 84 students across all batches.

The Pudiyador center at General Cariappa school, Saligram, Chennai is being successfully run with about 25 students(I to VI) visiting the center on a daily basis. The center employs two teachers and a coordinator. On weekdays the students are taught using the Montessori system of activity based learning and on weekends, the students take part in extracurricular activities such as Arts, Music, Drama and Games.  . OPEN supports the centre with operational expenses and infrastructure development. OPEN funded the reconstruction of the computer room(Cost is Rs 43000/-)  and it is used by a group called Bhoomi to offer computer classes on Sundays.  Also we got them a projector which will help students watch educational videos, web presentations and power point presentations (Cost :$400)

Somasundaram school, located at Siravayal,  Kallal Taluk, Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu, has classes from I – VIII. They have about 90 students and currently have 4 teachers who are paid by the government. Earlier in year 2010, we supported this school for some infrastructure and Operational needs. OPEN funded Rs 38000/- for:

• One Computer and Printer.
• Annual Salary for an additional staff member to teach English and Computer Classes.

A Spoken English class conducted by “Uma Infotech College” was introduced as part of the curriculum at General Cariappa School, Saligramam. Currently it is conducted for all classes in middle and high school. Cost – Rs. 65000/- year and OPEN funded this project.

We continue to provide infrastructure support to our long standing partner, the Jaigopal Garodia Foundation schools. In the past we were supporting their schools in urban and rural Chennai. Now we have added one of their Bangalore schools, Jaigopal Garodia Rashtrotthana Vidya Kendra in Ramamurthy Nagar, Bangalore. This English medium private school caters to kids from low income families with quality education. We contributed $6,602.00 last year for completing the flooring and tiles for 9 class rooms.  We  also sponsored school fees/notebooks/uniforms for  24 students. Cost -$3000. We get periodic progress reports regarding these children.  We continue the quarterly contribution of $3000 for benches and desks to various Garodia schools in Chennai.

The Hope Foundation runs a school at Kannagi Nagar slum area near OMR, Chennai. The slum area predominantly consists of people from the fishing community and others who are economically backward. The school operates up to Class V and does not collect fees from students. The medium of instruction is English. OPEN funded the construction of two class rooms for this school this year. Phase I Construction is complete and the school is operational in this new building.

Siragu – We are continuing our funding of $2200 per month to Siragu. They provide monthly updates on their operational expenses and we do a periodic educational audit. Here is an update…

• Appointment of a new Principal for the school
• Obtained NOC from State Government to get affiliation from ICSE Board
• Three Siragu students appeared for IGSCE exams
• 2 Slow learners from Siragu home appeared for 10th Std. State Board exams
• 105 children wrote Olympiad Examinations and more than half of them secured over 90%
• 26 children came in the top 500 All India rank holders and were awarded cash prize

OPEN also funded two sets of uniforms for 392 kids at a cost of Rs.3 lakhs. About 120 children are given residential care. Activity based learning system is used in teaching. The school continues to operate two buses to pick up and drop off children who come from nearby villages.

Single Teacher School - “If children cannot go to school, then the school goes to the children” claims Swami Vivekananda. Rural Development Society is the implementing agency of this unique project in several villages of Thiruvallur District, TN, benefiting the children in education and health.  In a country that rightfully aspires to be a shining star in the comity of nations, it is unthinkable to achieve that goal by leaving a section of its own people way behind. Yet for thousands of children living in far-flung areas – in forests, hills and coastal fishing villages in India, basic education remains a distant dream. Educating these children is not just a wonderfully humane cause but a national necessity.  OPEN supports single teacher program in two villages starting this year.  Cost of the program is INR 36000/classroom/year. The following is the list of Single teacher villages supported by OPEN

• Melakondaiyar Village  - 31 students
• Kizhanur Village - 30 students

Ganapathy Iyer Girls’ High School, located in Gopalapuram, Chennai, is a Government-aided School run by the Gopalapuram Educational Society. This school provides high-quality education for economically backward girls living in the area. OPEN funded scholarship for 100 underprivileged students for books/Fees/Uniform. Cost of this program is $4000/-.