Greetings to the OPEN community. We are glad to bring you this update on our activities for the second half of 2017.
Post-secondary education: Ignite Scholarship Program
We support 110 students through this scholarship program for academic year 2017-18. Students are predominantly in college for B.Com., B.Sc., 3 year Polytechnic, or 4-year Engineering degrees. Most students in this program are poor, with average family income of Rs. 8000 per month. Our budget for the 2017-2018 academic year is $18,000.
We held career coaching classes for the students at Ganapathy Iyer School in Chennai. The aim is to prepare the students for interviews - by making them practice public speaking and participating in group discussions, and writing professional resumes.
Results-based education: Supplemental Classes by Vidyarambam
We continue working with Vidyarambam Trust to bring their Easy Learning English and Easy Learning Mathematics supplemental programs to 6 partner schools in Chennai. Vidyarambam have now integrated their curriculum with the Samacheer State Board Curriculum and have been requested to run their program for the entire school year, up from the 5 months that they were running their programs previously. Our budget for the 2017-2018 academic year is $27,000, for 1350 students in 8 Chennai schools, at an annual cost/student of $21.
For English testing, Vidyarambam have made their methodology consistent with that of ASER. They now look at ability to recognize letters, words, sentences and paragraphs.
The Easy Learning English coaching pre-post comparisons for 7th standard below show the great improvement in performance of the children from the diagnostic phase to the mid-year test phase for 2017-18. The vast majority of children progress from C grade (red bar) to A and B grades (green and blue bars).
Results-based education: Ashraya libraries, Arts and Science Clubs
The Ashraya Trust runs libraries and Science and Arts clubs at 9 schools in rural Karnataka. We support librarian salaries and salaries for Arts and Science teachers at 5 of these schools. The reading program is open to all students in classes 4-8, and the Arts and Science clubs are open to the best 20 students in classes 6-8 from each school. The reading level of all students is monitored, and remedial instructions are provided to the bottom 20% of each batch. The best 20 students are enrolled in a Book of the Month Club, and get to pick the best books and do book reports. The top 20 students at each school participate in the Arts and Science clubs. Ashraya are focusing their intervention on approximately the top 10%, and bottom 20%, of students. Our budget for academic year 2017-2018 is $7400, and we support 700 children in 5 schools, at an annual cost/student of approx $10.
Infrastructure: Jaigopal Garodia Girls' School, Chennai
Many of you will recall that OPEN's first project was the construction of the noon meal kitchen for Jaigopal Garodia Girls' High School, Saidapet, Chennai. We provided $935 towards repair and renovation of the kitchen.
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Other 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. This program benefits 170 children. This school reported 100% pass rate in the 10th standard board exams.
The Turning Point Trust aims to improve life skills for the children of slum dwellers in Rotary Nagar, Chennai. A Children's parliament, personality development classes, and first aid training classes are conducted on weekends to coach children on public speaking, and help is provided to perform homework. We are looking to fund expansion of this program to two centers in order to keep kids in school.
We are sponsoring 10 children from the Malleswaram Shishu Vihar, Bangalore, with scholarships for school. We are funding after-school Math tuition classes for standards 6-8 in 3 schools in Bangalore, in collaboration with the Adarsh Colony CSRFoundation. We continue to fund computer teacher salaries at Somasundaram School in rural Tamil Nadu.
OPEN key statistics, 2003 - December 2017
The OPEN community has supported over 30,800 students in the past 15 years. A breakdown of grants is shown in the chart above.
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:
