Asha for Education July Monthly Meeting Akkarapettai Project Proposal Asha AZ Project Champions – Susan and Mukund Asha Chennai Contacts – Lakshmi and Rajaraman

Following individuals and their friends have pledged their support and following chapters had expressed interest previously when the very preliminary project details came up around April Pledge support 1. Chandra Sekhar Chennupati and Vasundhara of Hyderabad Rs100,000 nearly. Individuals/ Chapters express interest 1. Arun ( from Netherlands for funds from USA) (for any school rebuilding projects) 2. Asha Arizona 3. Asha Stanford 4. Asha St.Louis 5. Sriram (The Akanksha Foundation Mumbai)

Following documents for the project are on the projects webpage. 1) Letter from the head of the school to Asha.(page-1) 2) The plan and details of construction at the school (page 1, 2 & 3) 3) The request from the school for materials etc. (page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6) 4) Photos taken at Sinthanai Sirpi School 5) Site visit report 6) Project Proposal After due diligence and site visits and estimates from volunteers with the help of the experts in this field Asha Chennai has come up with a proposal and fairly clear estimate of the costs involved for the following: 1) Reconstruction of buildings, 2) Furniture, 3) Learning-teaching and sports materials, 4) Teacher salaries

Rebuilding Tsunami Affected School at Akkarapettai Sinthanai Sirpi Nursery and Primary School (School Recognition No 1725/98) No: 32A, Amman Koil Back Side, Akkarapettai , Nagapattinam Dist. Brought to Asha Chennai notice by Dr. Aruna Rathnam working with Unicef. District Education Officer recommended that Asha Chennai take up the school. It was a good and flourishing school and could not get any support from the government as it was a private school. The school had a strength of 319 before the Tsunami The school was charging a nominal fee and some special fees.

28 children of the school have died during the Tsunami (in their homes). The school relocated siblings to other schools to help reduce trauma. The school now has 278 children Children are in classes 1 through5 and medium of instruction is English. The school is now running with reduced staff due to financial constraints. The children need bags, books, notebooks, uniforms and materials for the next academic year beginning June The school cannot charge any fees from Jan 2005 to May 2006 as the children are from families affected by the Tsunami.

The site visit was on April by the following four people: 1) Mr. Kamakoti – Asha Chennai Volunteer 2) Mr. Seetharaman - Currently managing the ASHA projects at Tiruvarur and Vishnupuram. 3) Mr. Ramanathan – Civil Engineer 4) Nagapattinam-based photographer The school has damaged buildings, lost all teaching learning materials. Please refer the site visit for more details and photos on the project proposal website.

The school is a privately managed one, recognized by the Government. A trust has been formed to manage the school and the copies of the trust deed were provided to Asha Chennai. Asha Chennai also has the Xerox copy of the Government approval. The school occupies the land that belongs to the Village Panchayat. The latter has given the land to the Trust for a lease duration (~30 years). The copy of this lease deed was also given to Asha Chennai. Asha Chennai submitted a formal project proposal to Asha Tsunami Group on June Refer the detailed project proposal on the project website.

Refer Item 3 on Slide 3 and following pages for the project proposal. Page 1 - Text books and Page 2 – Notebooks Have already been received as also school bags for the children (not mentioned here) from another NGO (in June 2005). Page 6 - Some of it seems to have happened at the right time. Asha Chennai is in the process of getting 267 student kits for all the children (2 sets uniforms, shoes, 2 pairs of socks and a tie, a tiffin box, pencil boxes, crayons and drawing notebooks) - through their back to School project at a cost of nearly Rs 110,000. These should reach the children by 10th July 2005 at the latest. Asha Chennai is looking at help with pages 3,4,5 besides construction and may be teacher support. Since it ia big project it will need support from as many people/chapters, Asha Tsunami Projects to ensure completion and success.

Project Details and Estimates Work DescriptionTotal Cost for Asha Estimate for Option 1 – 1100 Sq Ft each in the ground floor first floor. Earth Work 70 m 3 Rs 12,000 Well Ring 32 NumbersRs 33,120 Sand Filling 70 m 3 Rs 32,200 1:4:8 40 mm 12.5 m 3 Rs 28,750 C C 1:1.5:3 42 m 3 Rs 144,490 Brick work 1:5 35 m 3 Rs 76,500 Steel (Treated) 4 tonsRs. 139,000 Plastering 1:3 ceiling 145 m 2 Rs 11,650 Plastering 1:3 wall 175 m 2 Rs 14,000 Rough cast over 1:3 135 m 2 Rs 31,000 Doors 7 m 2 Rs 16,000 Ventilators 0.7 m 2 Rs 2,000 Painting 40 m 2 Rs 8,750 Colour Washing 455 m 2 Rs. 20,900 Shuttering 250 m 2 Rs 43,000 Electrical & Sundry ExpensesRs 20,000 TOTAL for the Ground Floor (1100 Sq. Ft)Rs 659,670 TOTAL for the first floor (800 sq ft) – projected from the above minus the foundation expenses. Rs 345,000 Grand Total Option 1Rs 10,04,670

Option 2 – Construction of 1700 Sq Ft first floor above the existing ground floor constructed by Thiruppur Textile Workers Association. C C 1:1.5:3 36 m 3 Rs 140,000 Brick work 1:5 35 m 3 Rs 84,000 Steel (Treated) 3.3 tonsRs. 114,675 Plastering 1:3 ceiling 218 m 2 Rs 20,930 Plastering 1:3 wall 200 m 2 Rs 19,200 Rough cast over 1:3 280 m 2 Rs 67,200 Doors 7.56 m 2 Rs 18,100 Windows 21.6 m 2 Rs 64,800 Painting 76 m 2 Rs 17,300 Colour Washing 480 m 2 Rs. 23,000 Weathering Course 212 m 2 Rs 71,230 Shuttering 340 m 2 Rs 6,1200 Electrical & Sundry ExpensesRs 20,000 Grand Total for Option-2Rs 721,635

Furnitures Floor bench and floor bench matching desks 15x1 Plinth 341 Sq ft x1 plinth 270 Sq ft x2 size x1 reeper x1 reeper 2 cubic feet Rs. 45,290 Tables 6mm plywood 8x4 1 no x1.5 size 1 cubic ft x1.25 bench 3 no x1 reeper 10.5 cubic feet Rs 10,160 Desk 2x1 size 5 cubic ft x1 size frame 2 nos Rs Cup board 3x1 size 1.75 cubic feet Rs. 980 Black Board Stands 3x1.25 size 1.50 cubic feet Rs 840 Book shelf Chairs & Partition work 2x2 size 3 cubic ft x1 reeper 3 cubic ft x1 reeper x1 plinth 60 Sq ft mm plywood 6x3 6 nos mm plywood 7x3 4 nos x cubic ft mm cardboard sheet 8x4 13 no Rs 20,790 Labour for all of the aboveRs 35,000 Transportation CostRs 3,000 7Fans and 13 tubelightsRs Total cost for all Furnitures and FixingsRs 129,980.

Teaching/Learning Materials Maps, charts, science modelsRs 10,000 Projection equipment- Computer+ Averkey+ 29’ TV (instead of the OHP and slides) and educational CDs Rs 55,000 Tape recorder of good quality and cassettesRs 5000 Public address systemRs 20,000 Games and sports materials- balls (footballs, plastic balls, skipping ropes, tennikoits, kolattams ( coloured wooden sticks used in dances- 20 pairs) trunks/racks to store materials Rs 10,000 Library books including multiple copies of books (Rs10,000) and store spaces- cupboards (2) ( rs5000)- open racks (2) Rs4000 Rs 19,000 Total for Teaching/Learning MaterialsRs. 119,000 Miscellaneous Expenses Teacher Salaries for one year (10 teachers * Rs 1000 per teacher per month * 12) Rs. 120,000 Volunteer/Intern Travel (10 trips * Rs 1000 per trip)Rs 10,000 Accounting, Documentation, etc.Rs 10,000 Minor maintenance of building after construction.Rs 10,000 Total Miscellaneous ExpensesRs 150,000

Fund Requirement Information/Summary Under Option 1, Asha Chennai would be building the ground and first floor of a new building. Under option 2 Ashe Chennai will be building the second floor of the new building that has been built by the Thiruppur Textile Association. It has been verified that this building is built with foundation sufficient to support one more floor. And Asha Chennai is happy with the quality of the building. Since Option 1 required foundation work, it should start before the end of July. Otherwise the ground would have very high water content and would make foundation work impossible. Further a high tension cable is currently running over the ground where this building would come. All these make Option 1 more complex. Therefore Asha Chennai recommends Option 2.

Fund Requirement Information/Summary Note – The costs of the furniture is given with country wood. This is sufficient for the school furnitures. Use of Vengai wood would the cost 60% higher. Asha Chennai recommends country wood furniture as listed. With these assumptions the total cost is as follows. Building 1700 Sq Ft of first floor – Rs 7.2 Lakhs Furniture for the classrooms etc. – Rs 1.3 Lakhs Teaching/Learning materials – Rs 1.2 Lakhs Teacher Salaries and Miscellaneous Expenses – Rs 1.5 Lakhs Total Cost for the project – Rs 11.2 Lakhs – USD $1= Rs 42 (This is what we get after bank charges)

Proposed Asha Arizona Funding Furniture for the classrooms etc. – Rs 1.3 Lakhs (~ USD 3,100.00) Teaching/Learning materials – Rs 1.2 Lakhs (~ USD 2,900.00) Teacher Salaries and Miscellaneous Expenses – Rs 1.5 Lakhs (~ USD 3,600.00) Total Cost for the Asha AZ part of the funding: ~ USD 9, Rs 4.0 Lakhs – USD $1= Rs 42 (This is what they get after bank charges) Current balance of Asha AZ Tsunami funds = USD 13,613.41

Asha St. Louis has ed Asha Chennai back stating that they will come back with the areas they will fund by July 10 th Asha Arizona has ed Asha Chennai back stating that they will come back with the areas they would fund (if approved) by July 09th The project goes through ARC (Asha Representative Committee) for voting. The ARC is the only body for making decisions at the Asha-wide level. ARC has one representative from each chapter. Chapters discuss at the chapter-level before coming to the ARC. Proposals for ARC discussion has to be brought forth by a chapter. There are three kinds: Executive: Ratified by ARC. Tactical: Chapter representative can vote on ARC. Strategic: Chapter ARC representative to take it back to the chapter and vote. Areas that remain unfunded (after funding by individual chapters) will be funded from Tsunami Asha-wide funds.

List of Questions (Have already ed Asha Chennai with list): 1) What is the assurance that the Trust will not use the buildings for some other purpose once the funding has been provided? 2) What if the lease is terminated early by the Village Panchayat? 3) What happens to the kids after the primary education is complete? Where do they go? Does the school help in anyway? 4) Who will own the furniture and the teaching supplies? Asha or the trustee or the village Panchayat? 5) Does the Trust have interests other than education? 6) What is the source of income for Trust to pay for the yearly lease? 7) What are the current sources of income to pay for salary, materials, etc. 8) What is the Girls versus Boys ratio? 9) How many class rooms are currently and how many are going to be built? 10) Volunteer/Intern Travel (10 trips * Rs 1000 per trip)? Who is this person and what is their role? 11) How long has this school been in existence? 12) How will Asha Chennai ensure that the proposers really have the ability and intention to execute the project with good quality? 13) What are the mechanisms in place to ensure accountability of the money given? i.e. it should not be used for anything other than the purpose for which it is sent. Akkarapetai Project