Akanksha Update December 2006

The Akanksha Foundation is a non-profit organization that educates less privileged children from slum areas. Over the past 16 years, Akanksha has managed to create opportunities for over  2400 children who study in 54 Akanksha centres (32 in Mumbai and 22 in Pune) and another 2000 children through the School Project (3 schools in Mumbai and 6 in Pune).

Akanksha Mumbai

The Mumbai Marathon:

Join the Akanksha team and children on 21^st January. For a bright green Akanksha tshirt, please contact the Akanksha office.

Join the ‘Be the Change’ walk for all beyond school students on the 28th of January. This will be led by the SLP & ATF students. The objective of this walk is to inspire each individual to be the change they wish to see in the world.

Human Resources

In a massive recruitment drive, we will be targeting D.Ed, B.Ed Colleges in our search for teachers. The month of January will be focused on making presentations at multiple locations.

Akanksha is looking for the following exemplary people -

1. Teachers willing to work late evenings and holidays with our group of high achievement kids, who have been integrated into private schools and who serve as role models for their communities.

2. Social Workers who are inspired to bring about change in the lives of our kids and communities.

3. Managers who can spearhead our different programs and take Akanksha forward.

4. Counsellors

Please contact Deepti Gubbi at hr@akanksha.org

Education

This month we were very lucky to have Sue Das, a teacher at Brunswick School in Connecticut, visit our centers during the last week in December.  She observed several of our centers as well as conducted a training session for all our teachers. The focus of the session was the strategies teachers could use to improve the reading, writing, and speaking skills of their students.  Sue noted that we were doing an excellent job of incorporating fun and sports into our learning and our teachers were really enthusiastic and have a good rapport with students.

The teachers' meeting for December focused on assessing student' reading levels by using running records.  Teachers were asked to implement this strategy during the upcoming month and bring the results to the next teachers' meeting.  We really want to focus on each individual student and help them improve their reading fluency and comprehension.

Teachers were also asked to create a wish list for their centers.  Some of their wishes were:

        "I wish that all my kids are financially independent one day and attain a respectful position wherever they work in life."   --Fatema didi (Alexandra Center)

        "I want all my kids to be happy."   --Archana didi (Xavier's Center)

        "To see happy faces...to be able to give them jam sandwiches at least once a week."

                ----Mandira (Yuvathi Sharan)

We hope to make all our teachers' and students' wishes come true.  As the year closes, we are all really proud of the accomplishments of our teachers and students.  We know that we will achieve much more in the upcoming year.

 Beyond School

The special Mentor evening emphasized the importance of one-on- one sessions and also discussed the challenges and positives of each program so that the program becomes valuable to both the mentor and the mentee.

The career session of the Year 2 group has come to an end with extensive sessions on CV writing, Group Discussions and Interview practice.

Space for Study Classes: We URGENTLY need a space in South Mumbai near Cuff Parade for classes on Sundays from 2 pm to 5 Pm. We also need volunteers who will teach Marathi, Hindi and Social studies.

Kanhima and Sunita from Worli 1 have successfully completed their beautician course in UCDC (Urban Community Development Centre, Bandra) under the Rotary sponsored project.

The Leadership Program

Learning to Lead

Selection for the 3^rd batch of LTL has begun!! The preliminary research from a dozen centres has been done and assessments will be held in January.

Some of the LTL students performed well in their terminal exams. From LTL1, Priyanka (Std. X) got a 3^rd rank with 69% and Kanhaiya got 65%. From LTL 2, Azim got 73% overall and 91/100 in Science.

Social Leadership Program

SLP 2 & 3 completed the module on communal harmony. They learnt about different countries and regions facing communal tension and how that has affected lives.

The Pragati group hosted the Christmas party at the Bombay hospital. It was a 2 day event. They showed ‘Stuart Little’ on the 24^th and had a big bash on the 25^th. They children were thrilled. They played danced, sang and just celebrated. We also had Santa come in and distribute gifts to all the children. Parents as well as hospital staff were thrilled to participate. The efforts made by the Pragati group were tremendous from raising the funds to the decoration of the ward and the thought given to every little detail.

“I really liked the program. First, I used to be scared to come here but later on when didis and my friends pushed me to come, then I realized what was the difference. I hope the program will continue forever. I hope after my 10^th std, I’ll visit every weekend.”  Priyanka,. LTL

The School Project

Supari Tank School:  We have completed the mid year academic assessments in the school. The work in our school is showing measurable results. The overall attendance of the school has gone up from an average of 65% in 2005-06 to 75% in term 1 of 2006-07. Class 4 attendance has reached 88% in Oct 2006.

The last day of the month saw a fabulous X’mas party at the school. Every child in the school was part of the show that was put up. Every member of the team played an active role. It was wonderful to see the belief and determination they had in what they were doing.

Our Lady of Dolours School: This is the next school where Akanksha has initiated the School Project. The detailed project study is underway and the project design will be completed.

Akanksha Teacher Fellowship

Many thanks to everyone who joined us for our Celebration of India on December 22nd. We were thrilled to share our learnings with Akanksha students, mentors, teachers, and staff, as well as with our families and friends. We'd especially like to thank all of the project mentors who gave their time and knowledge (and recipes, clothes and jewels!) so generously. We appreciate all of your support and feedback, and hope to host more events like this one in 2007. Happy New Year!

Finance

We welcome a new centre sponsor Arisaig Partners into our fold. They are sponsoring the Supari Tank centre and we look forward to interacting with them in the year ahead.

Mumbai Marathon: We look forward to seeing all the people running on behalf of Akanksha raising many pledges for us. We aim to use the funds raised towards enhancing our sports program and scholarships for further studies as well as keeping a fund aside for medical emergencies for the children in our program. We are also adding new centres and adopting one more school later this year and will require funds for the initial set up and running of these for the first few months until we get an ongoing sponsor/donor for them.

In addition, we’d like to thank

Rahul Basu - Corpus donation

Amit Patel - Donation

One Contact Point - Donation

Zarine Richmond - Donation

Marshal Bouton - Donation

RPG - for vouchers to be used at Spencers Hypermarket

WNS Global Services - Continuing sponsor for St Crispins centre

Ugam Solutions- Donation by employees

Sports

We have the big sports day on 7^th Jan. One event which sees the entire Akanksha team together. Beginning at 7.30 am with a Military relay and the lemon and spoon race, it ends at 6pm with a mini marathon.

Art

Our x’mas exhibition saw many new products, new confidence, new talents, new people that we reached out to. We brought the year to a close on a high note and hope that the energy level remains the same for 2007. We thank everyone who came in to support us and for the large number of orders for furniture that we are trying hard to complete!

Akanksha Pune

Education

December has been another eventful month for the Pune Education Department!

Our last teachers' meeting focused on team building. We played a variety of games which we applied to being part of the bigger Akanksha Team. The teachers had the opportunity to share ideas, work together and get to know each other better. We spent the last part of the meeting exchanging ideas in level-wise groups. The teachers collaborated on issues concerning planning and effective delivery. The teachers have also participated in a “Secret Angel” exchange this month.

We have held a teachers' induction this month for 9 new teachers including our 4 ATF fellows, who are working as assistant teachers in the centres. We are working to challenge them to implement new teaching and behaviour management strategies.

Our weekly teachers' literature circles were a big success! Sixteen teachers joined the optional sessions to participate in discussions on Wise and Otherwise by Sudha Murty. They learned how to effectively teach a variety of reading comprehension strategies such as visualization, asking questions and reading unknown words.

The topics for our monthly teachers' trainings included math games and sight words. The teachers brainstormed on strategies for ensuring they involve all children in all activities and also meet the needs of their diverse learners by individualising the games for different groups. The sight word activities included the successful implementation of a word wall and a variety of strategies for our students to become more independent spellers. We have already seen some of the games and teaching strategies successfully implemented in the centres!

Special Events

1.   27^th of this month was a really special day for about 90 of our older kids and the Pune team.  Children from our Wakadewadi centre, Forbes Marshall1 centre and Sunshine Centre spread the messages of love, hope, peace, forgiveness, faith, respect and joy by holding placards and candles and handing out bookmarks made by them to different people at M.G. Road, a busy shopping area. We were proud of the confidence and self respect displayed by our kids. 

2.   Our sponsors, Kirloskar Oil Engines Limited had arranged a special New Year’s party  for 60 kids from our Kirloskars 1 & 2 centres. To the amazement of our little kids, they  were greeted on their arrival by a giant size Mickey Mouse. :) The kids were all charged  up for the march along the perimeter of the ground with Mickey Mouse. Our kids then    had fun watching a magic show and playing games. The day ended with the kids  enjoying a great snack and taking home colourful lunch boxes. 

3.    Sunshine Over the World. Centres have completed the first stage and the childrens’  feedback has ranged from “It’s alright” to daily begging their didis to “Do sunshine   today, please.” With the completion of this the centres have now been matched with  schools/N.G.Os overseas and excitement is even higher. From now on communication  will focus on the partner country and preparing for events in March.

Social Work

The parent meeting topic this month was Savings. Mr. Borawade, from the LIC who us also a social worker, as resource person gave information on a new policy called New jana Raksha which is specially for people from less privileged backgrounds. Many parents have already come forward to get the policy done for themselves and their children.

Programs

We had our 4th Annual Sports Day on the 17^th of December 2006. About 400 kids from 15 different centres were a part of the programme.  Two sets of games were conducted- the first for the children who have been a part of the Akanksha Sports Classes and the second – a barrage of fun games. The kids played with a true spirit of sportsmanship and made us proud of them. Thanks to the SIBM volunteers who in spite of their busy schedule helped us to organise the fun games. It was really a fun filled day for the kids, teachers and everyone else who were a part of it.

Mumbai: The Akanksha Foundation,
Voltas House ‘C’, T.B. Kadam Marg, Chinchpokli,
Mumbai 400 033.
Telefax: 23700253 Tel: 23729880

admin@akanksha.org

Pune: The Akanksha Foundation,
102, HEMOPAL, Next to Joshi Wadawala,
Wakadewadi, Bombay Pune Road, Pune 411 005.

Tel: 020- 25821000/25821001

akanksha_pune@vsnl.net

Visit us at www.akanksha.org