 click here for financial report SRI
RAM GOBURDHUN CHARITABLE TRUST ANNUAL
REPORT 2007
- 2008 Director?Äôs Message For a year that began placidly,
2007 turned out to be a very eventful and exciting one. April 2007 saw us well
ensconced in our new centre, basking in what we felt was a comfortable pattern
and not expecting any upheaval of sorts. How wrong we were. This year turned
out to be one of the most eventful years of Project Why! In May 2007 a crises, an
encounter and a series of unpredictable events led us to seriously think about
the need of setting up a women residential centre. On October 15th
our women and children centre was set up in Madanpur Khader and within the span
of few weeks it was throbbing with life: A precursor of Planet Why our distant
dream. Not so distant as we were soon
to learn. In January 2008 another set of
unforeseeable events made the impossible, possible. A promise made then
recanted left us with the indomitable task of raising a whopping figure to
purchase a piece of land for which we had paid an advance. This was to seed
Planet Why that would one day make our work self sustaining and autonomous. March 2008 saw us very close to
seeing the dawn of this project. But this is only the beginning
of a long journey if we truly want to see Project Why live beyond individual
efforts. The dream will on
ly become reality when Planet Why – a
guesthouse and residential care centre – will be built and operational. For me personally it is a rite
of passage, as it sees what began as a simple effort to repay a debt I owed,
become a structured and somewhat impersonal entity. But all things must change
and grow if they are to live. Once you find your feet, you
need to find your wings! Project Why is all set to learn
to fly! Anouradha Goburdhun Bakshi New Delhi, May 2008 OVERVIEW
The Sri Ram Goburdhun Charitable
Trust using the name ?ÄòProject Why?Äô is a non-governmental
not-for-profit organisation engaged in education support and life-skills
enhancement. The projects current focus is primarily on the slum and basti
children of South Delhi. Project Why began as a spontaneous reaction
to help an unfortunate few, and has grown organically over eight years to
become an extraordinary life-line that offers many children hope instead of
despondency. The initial few were kids born
into the slums of South Delhi, but they were the unluckiest of the unlucky;
born with special needs into a place where even able children stand little
chance. Project
Why created both classes and teachers from resources in the slums and
they quickly became full. So more had to be done, more money found, more
teachers trained, more class-rooms formed from the rubble. Today Project Why teaches 600 kids, provides
employment to more than 30 local staff More than this, Project Why comes
to the aid of the communities?Äô desperate cases, those that have nowhere to go,
and those who are in despair. This is Project Why?Äôs spirit: to do what it can
where it?Äôs most wanted no matter what the circumstance. Project Why?Äôs reach is limited by
expenditure, which of course is limited by income. It r
eactively spends what it
receives and there has never been the possibility of a period of consolidation
and saving – there are always desperate cases here. Hence this year saw the setting up
of two new centres: a women and child centre in Manadpur Khader and foster care
centre. Project
Why is a hand to mouth type of organisation; desperation connects the
income received from donors with the investment in its resources. RATIONALE AND
OBJECTIVES The year saw our
education programme continue in what has by now become a well-set model. Our
children once again performed extremely well, and our programme remained
dynamic and flexible, something that we feel is in great part the reason of the
success of our work and has become a well-established and tested model to
replicate. Project Why?Äôs reach is
limited by expenditure, which of course is limited by income. It reactively
spends what it receives and there has never been the possibility of a period of
consolidation and saving – there are always desperate cases here. Our sustainability
efforts had however to be reviewed and though the first half of the year saw us
once again groping for ideas, we slowly but surely veered towards the idea of
setting up Planet Why: it is Project Why?Äôs long-term investment in itself: a
guest house dovetailed with a residential children centre. The income of the
former would generate income to sustain project Why activities. For our entire
education programme our approach remained the same: a judicious combination of
education and life skill activities. Required course corrections were made as
and when needed without disturbing the on-going work. During this
financial year we had the following education programmes: 1 early education at
Govindpuri (80 children) 1 prep class (20) 1 early education at
Manav Kalyan camp (20 children) 4 primary extensions
at Sanjay Colony, Govindpuri, Okhla and Madanpur Khader (150 children) 1 day care for
children with special needs (20 children) 1 secondary programme
(150 children) 1 computer centre 1 community outreach
and awareness programme 1 women centre (110) Our other
activities included: 2 open-heart surgeries
2 other surgerieW Nutrition for people
with special needs (pregnant and lactating mothers, post operative cases) Several awareness
workshops DETAILED
ACTIVITIES Educational
Activities Overall
Situation – infrastructure The Special
Section and the cr?®che are now located in our own premises Our Manav
Kalyan cr?®che remained unchanged (rented premise) Our Prep
Class that is just about a year off functions from a room across our main
centre (rented) One Tilak
Khand centre was closed and moved to Sanjay Colony (rented premise) Our Okhla
(no rent as in reclaimed garbage dump) and Nehru Nagar primary (rented premise) centres remained
unchanged A new
primary centre was opened at the women centre in Madanpur Khader (rented
premise) The Senior
Secondary section remained in Giri Nagar, as did the computer centre (rented
premise) The Junior
Secondary is in a small rented room opposite our centre (rented premise) The Women
Centre is located in Madanpur Khader (rented premise) Overall situation
-staff Our staff strength is
around 40 as we had to get some new staff for the women centre. Overall
situation - content As usual most of the
time was spent on finishing curriculum and preparing for the far too numerous
examinations that exist in the present education system. We however felt the
need to add on environment programmes as well as introduce the children to
civic responsibilities. Mainstreaming
children This year
we were successful in getting over 25 children admitted to regular schools.
This is in keeping with the main objective of our organisation. In spite of
existing Government policies claiming easy access to primary schools, the
reality is often very different. Parents often become weary of the attitude and
administrative demands and give up.
It has been our constant effort to convince parents on the necessity of
educating their children and thought its is a difficult battle we believe that
even one family convinced is a step in the right direction. Curriculum
Support Driven by the dual
objective of containing and arresting school drop out rates and enhancing
performance, our main stress was once more on our curriculum support programme.
As in the past, the programme was flexible and adapted to the specific needs of
the students. Primary school
intervention This year our primary
programmes ran well, and once again all our children passed their school examinations.
We ran extensions in
the following places: Sanjay Colony, Nehru Nagar, Okhla and Madanpur Khader Secondary school
intervention Our consistent results
increased the number of students and we decided to separate the secondary into
two sections (class VI to VIII and class IX to XII). Our teachers took extra
classes enabling us to take students of the science and commerce streams. Once again we had a
100% result. Early intervention
programme Our early intervention
programme has been a great success with new children replacing the 25 who got
promoted to primary school. This section is
particularly important as toddlers are still not part of the free education
programme and do not get pre-school learning. Our decision to add a
small prep class with a desk and chair format was taken to ensure that children
will not feel lost when they enter class I. A small curriculum was
evolved keeping in mind the requirements of class I. Intervention for
children with special needs Here again we have
achieved great success. Our programme aimed at making these children as
independent as possible is showing promising results. This year also saw a more
organized approach to our vocational activities. We laid emphasis on
vocational activities such as cooking, beauty skills and stitching. One of our hearing
impaired students completed her beauty training and is now gainfully employed
in local beauty parlour. Our
teachers attended several workshops. A
physiotherapist visited the centre regularly. Children went
on an outing to Delhi Hath Other
activities Women
related activities: Our women
and children centre opened its gates on October 15th 2007. This
centre has a dual purpose. Its
residential programme is based on a simple idea: find your feet and their
your wings. It is open to women who have suffered major problems that
has marginalised them (substance abuse, domestic violence, social abuse ) and
offers them a refuge where they can heal and acquire skills to make them
economically autonomous. The centre offers temporary and permanent shelter
options. Activities
were also launched for local women: beauty skills, tailoring, adult literacy
and English conversation. Weekly
women meetings are held and address a wide range of issues: gender equality,
girl child, saving, insurance, health, hygiene etc Life
skills and problem solving Like skills is
according to us an intrinsic part of any self respecting education intervention
programme. We also began civics
as a subject, where the emphasis was on defining duties and the role of the
citizen. Issues like water,
environment and right to information were touched upon at all levels as it is
felt that without such awareness education is incomplete. Cyber
WHY Our
computer programme ran smoothly. Internet and hardware classes continued with
success. The
inverter installed last year ensured that classes could go on uninterrupted. Cyber Why
is opened to all at a small fee to ensure maintenance cost. Our hope of making
it an income generating activity did not however meet with the success we had
hoped for. Nutrition This year the
nutrition programme once again extended only to special cases on a need basis.
This is because of shortage of funds. Some of the children
in the special section and the cr?®che are given regular lunches as their
families do not give it to them Recreational
activities Slum children are
rarely taken out. However outings are expensive and they are only possible with
the help of friends. Thanks to Enfances
Indiennes the following outings were organised: Okhla centre to the
zoo Nehru camp to India
gate and the Children?Äôs Park Special section to
Delhi Haat Staff for a viewing of
Taare Zameen Par as we felt it would sensitise them to the needs of children
with learning difficulties. Crisis
Intervention This past year a few
the emergency situations were dealt with. Open-heart
surgeries Shubham (11) and
Mehajabi (1). Anil who had been
operated on and required more surgeries passed away. Other medical
intervention: We sponsored the hip
replacement surgery of N, an HIV+ person in need of help. She later joined our
women centre. Jhunnu was diagnosed
with bipolar syndrome and had to be hospitalised for 4 weeks. Whistle
blowing Last year
Project Why had donned the new
mantle of whistle blowers. Our most
rewarding moment had been the release of the orphan girls abused by their
caretaker in the Ghaziabad Swami case. However we were all left with a sense of
hopelessness, as we could get no news about the girls who were shifted to other
orphanages and heard that the Swami was out on bail. This made
us review the wisdom of undertaking such efforts. Networking
This year again it was
our endeavour to try and extend our interaction with other organisations. SUSTAINABILITY Sustainability
has been a major concern of Project Why since its very inception as we are all
aware of the extreme fragility of the project which is based on donations
obtained almost on a day to day basis and requiring extensive efforts. Our past
sustainability efforts did not meet with any result. Hopes had been pitched on our
rupee a day idea, but it failed to take off. This was because of the
attitude of donors and the plethora of organisations some having doubtful
antecedents. Moreover the success of a rupee a day depended
on the motivation, commitment and initiative of the donor something we failed
to raise.<
o:p> For a long
time we have been trying to find the one idea that would meet all requirements
of a sound sustainability programme. Planet
why The idea of
Planet Why was seeded when one came across the Ninos Hotel in Cusco: a guest
house for travellers the profits of which help sustain development activities
in the area. The paucity
of safe and low budget accommodation in Delhi and our need for a residential
centre for the children we know have no future made us veer towards this idea.
Much brainstorming convinced us of its viability and the idea was shared
extensively. Moreover
the new trend worldwide of Tourism with a Heart or Volontourism made us confident
of our ability to fill a small 10 room guest hosue. The main
problem was to find land that would be suitable for a guesthouse. We located an
area close to the airport but were well aware of the prohibitive costs of land
in Delhi. In January
2008 a potential donor came our way and promised us an interest free loan for
the required 80 lacs to purchase the land. He let us believe that he would also
be able to help us raise the building funds. This
infused us with the much needed hope and will to take on the project. Though
the donor later retracted, we had paid an advance and were in a do or die
situation. We managed
to get some time from the seller and are in the process of garnering the
missing amounts. We are confident
that we will be able to meet our April 20th deadline WEB
PRESENCE The
greatest achievement of the year was once again our increased web presence both
as a well visited website and a blog that now has a group of supporters. The
blog enables one to share the everyday realities of our work and thus became a
great diary of the trials and tribulations of working in an urban slum. It now
has many regular readers. Our blog
and site are updated as regularly as possible and have been linked by many
other sites. A photo
gallery is also present so that people can get a feel of the project. LEGAL
AID Monica
Anand a young and dynamic High Court lawyer is our legal consultant. She
advises us pro-bono. FUNDING As
Project Why is above all a project from the heart, it grows organically as and
when a new challenge has to be met or a new ?Äòwhy?Äô answered. This of course
leads to an ever increasing budget that needs to be met on a crisis footing. We
are extremely lucky and blessed to have supporters who understand us and come
to our rescue each and every time. Over
and above the need for regular funds to sustain or day-to-day activities we had
in February 2007 to find ways of saving our piece of land and raising over 70
lacs of rupees. Many
came to the rescue. Abhigyan
Jha of Unercoverpro Publications launched a book sale campaign for us. Enfances
Indiennes and other friends have promised support. The
following people help us sustain our old and new activities: Asha
Seattle has now ?Äòadopted?Äô us and meets over 50% of our ever increasing budget. Asha
Canada adopted our prep class Medi
Plus reisen a travel agency based in K??ln became a regular donor Enfances Indiennes is
of course ever present as usual. Akshay Kumar sponsored
two more heart surgeries. NDTV gave us our
yearly grant of rs 3 lacs We again received a
grant from the Foreign Service Spouse Association! Sabrina and Chris two
friends from Germany raised funds for us with a concert in Germany Isabelle and friends
one again organised a music show in France for Project Why Organisations Omprakash Foundation, 3rd eye solutions, Asia Bike Yours , Asha Seattle, Chemical Construction Company, Enfances Indiennes, Leila Fodil, Chopra
Foundation, Asha Canada, Mediplus Reisen, Delhi Network, Individual donors Loreta Penna, Ines
Barozzi, Elena Parenti, Umberto Nannini, Roberto Giorgi, Rosella Massimi,
Daniela Di Mario ,Andreea Moniica Briciu,
Ana Terenzi, Federico Valente
Silvana Bruno, suma sivan, damyanti ghosh, manisah bajpai, eliazbeth grigg,
meera and vikram seth, amanda jellin,damyanti, dev bhojwani, avni santani, heinrich wegenstein, savit tewari, libu
balki, rajshree vasanthiamma, damyanti, dev bhojwani,andy jellin, abhigyan jha,
anu agarwal, effi jono, rahul batra, shankar narayan, avantika malhotra, Vijay Kiran Kaliravapu, ak, andy jellin,
abhigyan ha, anu agarwal, effi jono, rahul batra, shankar narayan, avantika
malhotra, Vijay Kiran Kaliravapu, jean ellis, ian jones, phil and wendy
young, bev hart, velayutham subbia, vel dhingaravel, swarup biswas,velayutham
Subbia, malavika srivastava, lopamudra, vijay kiran, rakshanda malik,balaji
muralikrishnan, sreeja raj, libu balakrishnan, subhash nanda, arpitha
mahareddy, ganesh padiyar, chatal khoueiry, suresh sangaiah, deepak mittal,
rajashree vasantiamma, harcharan rajagopal, avni snatani, naveen kashyap,
gaurav shah, navjet singh, sarmishta parida, kasushik parthasarthy, rekha das,
ravi srinivas, heirich wegentsein Guest
and visitors We had a number of
visitors this year and many became friends of project WHY and great supporters: Stonefeld (Stephane
malleret) Group from Bull Europe Japanese Women?Äôs
Association Rita Chopra Hand Emde (Medi Plus
Reisen) Satish Gupta Mallika Chopra Sophie Lottefer (Delhi
Accueil) Dorothea Ruesch (Delhi
network) Special Kids from
France Kim Wong Hoh and Hui
Fen Mrs Poddar Catherine Young GMR group Dominique Lasserre Shankar Narayan (Gaia
energy) Volunteers Many volunteers came
to help project WHY this year: Lucy, Xiong, Firdaush,
Cyril, Elise, Barbara, Timma, Lucy, Shawn, Mathilde, Adrian, Andy, Mira, Brian,
Sophie, Laetitia?Ķ Press Lokh Sabha Channel
(hoslon ki udan) NDTV India for a ive
and interactive programme Pragya TV (ek aur
eklavya) Indian express (real
page 3) To all who helped,
and stood by us we would like to say: Thank You If you want to know
more about project why visit http://projectwhy.blogspot.com |
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