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December 2009 TMIA
Newsletters - December 2009 TMIA Articles
Association for
India's Development

Courage | Commitment | Change
December
2009
 
 
  In this issue
Eureka! perspective on education
Bhasha's Adivasi Academy - a unique university
Alternative rural secondary schooling in West Bengal
Science is fun
Integrating education with empowerment
Apna Skool
Children's libraries
Wow! What's that sound?
Support peaceful Padyatra in Dantewada
What will your ONE be?
 
  Videos
Makaan - A Place called Home. Order yours today!
 
  Visit AID
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Read this edition online
 

Dear Well-wisher,

Can you recall an "aha!" moment from your school days?   A discovery during a science experiment?  A book read in stealth with friends before class?  Solving a theorem during an exam?  Given the opportunity, children can connect such moments with their lives and draw lessons that can change their lives.  Unfortunately whether in school or not, few children get that opportunity.  AID is working with hundreds of schools, libraries, and community organizations throughout India aiming to change just that.  Through the mobile library program, in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, AID India makes  stories and nonfictional texts written in simple Tamil and Telugu available for children to read in their free time.  For those who attend school, AID India's Eureka Child! program uses interactive techniques that rapidly build children's confidence and competence in learning reading, math and science.  Children and teachers love the materials and methods.  Students have shown marked improvement and we are excited to share the results with you.

People facing poverty and oppression often find schools inaccessible, irrelevant, or insensitive to their culture and experiences. AID India and partners are helping people to question education that does not meet their needs and to make the system work for them. Holding services accountable,  demanding quality, and integrating community empowerment with academic skills, people are applying knowledge to question authority and the causes of poverty and oppression.

Association for India's Development (AID) is a volunteer movement that joins hands with the poor and the marginalized in India, through projects in empowerment, education, livelihood, health, and sustainable, just, equitable development in all regions of India. AID has 40 volunteer-run chapters across the US, supporting more than 100 projects and long-term programs in India. AID has received a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America's largest independent evaluator of charities.

We value the time that you take to read about AID's efforts, and we hope that you share your ideas and suggestions with us.  We invite you to make a tax-deductible donation and receive the AID 2010 calendar Makaan: A Place Called Home as a token of our common cause throughout the coming year.


Warm regards,
Volunteers, Association for India's Development


 

Eureka! perspective on education

 At AID-INDIA, we believe that schools can be places where children learn to think and to observe. Where children develop confidence in themselves, learn to respect themselves, their knowledge and their cultural heritage. Where children learn to question authority. Such schools can inspire social change - that is the kind of education we are working towards through our programs. One such program is Eureka Child.
[Read more...]

 

 

Bhasha's Adivasi Academy - a unique university

 Although meant primarily for the local communities, the Tejgadh Adivasi Academy provides the rest of the world with an exposure to the Adivasi cultures and their struggles. Academy graduates who return to their villages help realize the goals of promoting the values of Adivasi culture, leading to its preservation.
[Read more...]

 

 

Alternative rural secondary schooling in West Bengal

 More than 20 million children drop out of schools every year, and are seen as "failures".  Swanirvar's Kishor Kishori Bahini program is an attempt to develop an alternative rural secondary school curriculum. The goal is to make learning real, fun, contextual and relevant to the children’s lives. Children gain useful social and livelihood skills rooted in their locality, and socially useful work is integrated into various subjects.  [Read more...]

 

 

Science is fun

 Most school children do not see science as real or relevant, let alone interesting. Ariviyal Anandnam  means Science is Fun in Tamizh. AID India has developed kits containing dozens of low-cost visually stunning science experiments to invoke excitement and curiousity in the children. The goal is to make learning science more activity-based, locally relevant, and built on hands-on experimentation and dialogues. [Read more...]

 
 

Integrating education with empowerment
 
 Apart from learning standard subjects like the alphabet and arithmetic, the students, and the community as a whole, must build the capacity to use the skills of modern knowledge to question authority and the causes of poverty and oppression.   Read about efforts in two districts of West Bengal to integrate education with community empowerment.
[Read more...]

 
 
 

Apna Skool

 Kanpur sees an influx of migrant laborers who come to work at brick kilns and construction sites. Children of these laborers get left behind in the education system. Jagriti realized these children need access to free education, in a non-formal and hands-on way to make it interesting and understandable. Thus was born the Apna Skool, literally, 'our school'.
[Read more...]

 
 
 

Children's Libraries
 
An education system that fails to engage its most critical partners, the children, and a lack of good quality supplemental materials have been identified as primary reasons for illiteracy in India. Find out how AID volunteers in the U.S, along with their local community are working with the Eureka Initiative to come up with innovative educational material for schools in India.
[Read more...]

 
 
 

Wow! What's that sound?
 
 Functional knowledge of English, necessary for many forms of employment in India's growing global economy, remains inaccessible to the urban and rural poor. Eureka Child's Ready to Read program uses phonics to improve the English comprehension and reading skills in Tamil-medium primary schools.  The program taps into the innate acting skills of local primary schoolers cast as funny fairy tale characters introducing English sounds, reading activities, new vocabulary and original songs. [Read more...]

 
 
 

Support peaceful Padyatra in Dantewada
 
Please join hundreds in signing the letter requesting the Dantewada district administration to allow and not scuttle the peaceful padyatra in the Gandhian tradition planned by the Vanavasi Chetana Ashram to bring normalcy back to the region. [Read more...]

 
 
 

What will be your ONE be?
 

Its the season for giving! With the goal of raising $250,000 to support AID's initiatives in 2010, the One For India campaign goes live with a brand new campaign website and the promise of making your ONE donation count.
[Read more...]

 

 
Conferences | Issue/Region Cells | Poems | Project reports | Press releases
 
 
November 2009 TMIA
Newsletters - November 2009 TMIA Articles
Association for
India's Development

Courage | Commitment | Change
November
2009

 
  In this issue
Meet The Saathi: Shweta Narayan
Saathi Revathi Shares Organic Techniques with Survivors of Cyclone Aila
AID volunteers learn about Non-Violent Direct Action
Volunteer recounts visit to Purulia, West Bengal
Boise chapter hosts India Nite
Running for a cause
Recently Approved Projects
Order your calendar today!
 
  Videos
Makaan - A Place called Home. Order your 2010 calendar today!
 
 
 

Dear Well-wisher,

Association for India's Development (AID) is a volunteer movement that joins hands with the poor and the marginalized in India, through projects in empowerment, education, livelihood, health, and sustainable, just, equitable development in all regions of India. AID has 40 volunteer-run chapters across the US, supporting more than 100 projects and long-term programs in India. AID has received a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America's largest independent evaluator of charities.

This month, we share with you the brave efforts of communities in Tamil Nadu and throughout India defending their land, air and water from industrial toxins; people of rural West Bengal using the Right to Information Act to cut through corruption and make government services function; and an inspiring success story of how the farmers of the cyclone-affected Sunderbans revived their lands using organic techniques that they learned from AID Saathi M. Revathi.   


AID volunteers work hard to identify effective projects and partners.  Together we envision and practice the solutions; your support empowers these efforts.  In this issue, volunteers from Boise share highlights of their annual India Nite; from Philadelphia, volunteers probe the meaning of nonviolence,  and from Dallas, Deepak, one of the many marathoners of AID, writes about the determination required to go the distance.   We value the time that you take to read about AID's efforts, and we hope that you share your ideas and suggestions with us.  We invite you to make a tax-deductible donation and receive the AID 2010 calendar Makaan: A Place Called Home as a token of our common cause throughout the coming year.


Warm regards,
Volunteers, Association for India's Development


 
 
 
 

Meet the Saathi: Shweta Narayan
 

 As part of the Meet the Saathi series, AID volunteers participated in a telephone conversation with Saathi Shweta Narayan, who works with pollution-impacted communities primarily in Cuddalore and also in Mettur, Kodaikanal and Trichy, in Tamil Nadu. Linking with pollution-affected communities in Bhopal, Jadugoda, Cuddalore, Mettur, Shweta facilitates discussions and action with communities throughout India.
[Read more...]

 
 
 

Saathi Revathy Shares Organic Techniques with Survivors of Cyclone Aila
 
 In the days following Aila, there had been many speculations by people and institutions that agriculture would not be possible in the Sunderbans for at least 3 years. With her modest yet  powerful techniques, Revathy has quietly proven them to be wrong.
[Read more...]

 
 
 

AID volunteers learn about Non-Violent Direct Action
 

Day two began with a practical demonstration where we observed how it was difficult to force a palm into a bowl full of corn dough when full thrust was applied, but if laid gently on the dough, the hand just sinks in. This was a very innovative way of demonstrating that brute force doesn't always work.
[Read more...]

 
 
 

Volunteer recounts visit to Purulia, West Bengal
 
 My visit to Purulia opened my eyes to the life and struggles of people facing exploitation, deprivation, and prejudice.  One tool which people are using to break through the exploitative system is the Right to Information Act.
[Read more...]

 
 
 

Boise chapter hosts India Nite!

  AID Boise successfully hosted a year-end fundraiser that mirrored two equally significant faces of India, driving home the unavoidable fact that alongside the culturally diverse and prosperous face of India lies the face of India that is still creased with the worry-lines of poverty, illiteracy, poor healthcare, and human rights violations. 
[Read more...]

 
 
 

Running for a cause

Ideally on a Saturday morning at 6:00, running 15 to 20 miles for three hours is not what I would have wanted to do.   Determination, patience and persistence - this is what long distance running is about.
[Read more...]

 
 
 

Order your calendar today!
 
Want a beautiful, effective calendar that also triples up as  a means to stay in touch with social initiatives in India, and support sustainable, just development in India?

Here is your chance to take home Makaan - A Place called Home, the third in AID's calendar trilogy series!
[Read more...]

 

 
Conferences | Issue/Region Cells | Poems | Project reports | Press releases
 
 
Oct 2009 Dishaa
Newsletters - Dishaa
Dishaa, Issue 57, October 2009.

In This Issue:
  •         Floods in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh: Saving Lives, Restoring Livelihoods
  •         Touched by Bhopal
  •         Dump your Dow:  Campaign for Bhopal
  •         Welcome our New Saathi, Pankti
  •         Three Interns in Mumbai
  •         Inspiring Youth:  On the Ground and Online
  •         Recently Approved Projects

Download the pdf version here .



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