Hi Harish, Yes. We discussed about it and there was no 'no' on this from our groups. Whenever there is any serious requirement shared members are trying to offer help.
Mostly the requests are like..... organizing a event, participate. We can help by attending it We can help in the organizing efforts We can help in spreading the word This is also not being done for various reasons: week days, clash in office hours, out of station visits, group-specific compulsions, personal work etc., 1. I feel that we(BosF) move one step ahead from where we stand if everyone of us seriously and consciously send one to five volunteers for the events organized by other groups. Mere attendance....leave alone support. Thats when I feel the feeling has been inculcated. It should be something like a principle. 2. Collective action and convergence of our regular work I have been thinking about it and got this idea. Most of us say we are interested in Education and specially govt. schools. Why not we consider setting up an Environment Club, RTI Club, Education Club, Health Club, Cultural Club etc., in each school? We should achieve the following things with less money from our end and leveraging the policies of govt.: *Health:* 1. Medical checkup of all students, the complete health report must be in the school itself and a copy of their report should be given to each student. 2. Blood Grouping also has to be done. 3. Providing health drink (like in anganwadi or the one advocated by Arogyadhatri) 4. Awareness about Health and Hygiene Sources: We should get this done with the help of RedCross, District Health Board/Department, Arogyabharathi and other such organizations that we know. We will take the help of SEVA group in providing counselling to these children. *Education* 1. Standard of students in each class 2. Their requirements. text books, note books and other study material 3. Special classes for students in each subject depending on the interest and the standard Source: For teaching students, we should visit the community near by the school and request the youth, house wives or retired persons to take classes. This way we can avoid the problem of less no. of volunteers and also if the local community can own up the school, many or some of the other requirements also are likely to be met. We will encourage new teaching methods and activity based learning through which children can grasp quickly. *RTI:* There is no age restriction to file an RTI. 1. Every student in the school should know about RTI 2. They should be able to explain others .. the basics 3. Higher class students should be able to write an application. We will ask them to send through post Source: For this, volunteers from all groups who are interested in RTI, should take training so that they can take sessions in each school. At least 25 members should opt for training. Only then I will request Rakesh for training. There should not be any last minute backouts. *Environment Club:* 1. Every student should understand what Environment is all about. 2. Every student should use cloth bags (we will give them), they should carry all the time 3. Every student should understand what is recycling all about Source: We will talk to ITC, EarthSense to let children visit their place and understand the recycling process. We will take the help of APEC for organizing lake visits, zoo visits etc., and any other innovative programs by which children can understand nature. We can take Sandeep's help in creating awareness on Wildlife *Cultural Club:* This is to encourage the innate talent in the children and provide them the scope to learn art. Source: We will take the help of Lead India in teaching moral classes. We will approach Kalakshetra and various cultural societies to request their support in training these children. *Sports Club:* 1. Sports items must be in each school. 2. Conduct various competitions Source: Do not have much idea in this regard as SAP may consider only serious players. The idea of school clubs here is to provide them physical activity, basics in team building and for fun. Each club should consist of one teacher, two boy students and two girl students from 8th and 9th standard. We should conduct quarterly competitions and provide them opportunities to learn by practice. This way we can continue to work in the schools where we have been working or taken up and also can implement our theories in practise and can anallyze the results. Would help in research too. This can be our regular work and BosF work too. Say, for example, each group have volunteers from different places. For a school in particular area, all the volunteers from different groups who stay near by will take up the school. If this is not convincing, let us apply this for all the new schools that we identify. Priority would be govt. schools with exception to institutions like Divine school. > > Thank you. > > with regards, > PRASANTHI. > http://groups.google.com/group/birdsofsamefeathers > ---- > When you want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you to > achieve it. >
