Vol 6, No 3 | March 2010       »www.vibha.org » info@vibha.org  

Project: Door Step School, Pune, India
If you’re reading this, then you must be someone who has fond memories of going to school as a young kid. But life isn’t the same for millions of under privileged children in India. Many of them can’t go to school, and many don’t even have a school in their neighborhood. To bridge this gap between the child and the school, one of the organizations in India, Door Step School, introduced a unique concept of bringing the school at the doorsteps of such children.

Door Step School (DSS) - Non-Formal Education (NFE) program is a program aimed at educating kids of construction workers. It provides an educational platform to those who do not have the privilege of attending a regular school.

These programs are custom fit for children who cannot attend school because of the migratory nature of their parents’ work. DSS conducts classes close to where these children live or work. These flexible programs cater to their special needs. DSS identifies communities, like migrant workers’ children, street children, fishermen’s’ children etc, and tries to establish Non Formal Education classes for them. The aim is to get them to an educational level at which they are prepared to enroll at a regular school.

Vibha has been supporting DSS since 2006, and the project funding from Vibha covers staff salaries, program expenses & administrative expenses of 20 centers and 20 new centers. In the year 2009 only, around 4168 children enrolled in DSS.

Here is a highlight of how DSS has been highly successful in incorporating its mission:
On January 31, 2010, 148 NFE children appeared for the Grade I and Grade II external exams offered by the government. Out of 148, 122 children (83%) passed the exams and now they are eligible to become a part of the mainstream education, starting from June, 2010. Out of these 122, 57 children are above the age of 8 years and have scored more than 70%.

Many of thousands of these children have the caliber and the will to build a good future for themseleves, and all they need is that “ONE OPPORTUNITY”. Once this opportunity reaches out to them, then only can one see progress and development in the real sense.

Let’s work towards being able to provide that opportunity, and enabling those hands who are relentlessly building an entire nation.

On March 6th, the new Alpha Math center on Hwy 6 was bustling with activity. The scene on the Saturday morning included eager parents and enthusiastic kids, who gathered to participate in the second annual Vibha - Alpha Math: Math contest.

The contest was open for children from Grade 2 to Grade 6. The questions were devised as fun word problems. Fifty two happy children faced a battle with a few math problems and emerged as winners.  After 30 minutes of employing their critical thinking abilities, the participants were also given an opportunity to have fun, while waiting for the results. Thanks to thoughtful Vibha volunteers – the organizers who gave the participants whistles and balls.

The test was held in two batches - Batch A for Grade 5 and Grade 6 students and Batch B for students from Grade 2 to Grade 4. The highest scorer (list below) in each batch received grand prizes that included a gift pack, medal and a certificate. The two runners up in each batch also received medals along with Certificate of Merit during the prize distribution ceremony. As the names of the winners were announced, there was a round of applause for the kids from one and all. Every participant was awarded a participation certificate.

This is the second time Vibha has collaborated with Alpha Math Station, Houston’s leading Math learning center. This event provided an opportunity for kids to participate in a fun filled learning activity, while they also learned about the plight of the less privileged children. Some children donated books, some others even pledged to raise funds on their own by collecting Vibha donation boxes. “This probably is one of the very few contests in the Houston area, that allows us to gauge the abilities of our kids with respect to other kids, we would like to see this event happen more often than once a year” says Mr. Rao, parent of a third grader.

Vibha India is a dream turning into reality. Recently, Vibha Hyderabad conducted its first event, a fun-filled awareness drive, at a small community event in Gachibowli, a suburb of Hyderabad.  The event, a drawing competition for kids from Nursery to Grade 7, was advertised within the main community and in a smaller scale at two local schools – Meridian and Future Kids.  Thanks to the efforts of Vibha volunteers, the community room where the event was held was arranged for free and that allowed Vibha to make this a free entry event for the children.

The drawing competition was divided into three categories - Sub-Junior (Nursery, Kindergarten), Junior (Grade 1 and 2) and Senior (Grade 3 and above).  Kids were given three topics to choose from - I can help another child, Life on the streets and Education for all.

More than sixty children turned up to participate on the day of the event. After a short introduction about Vibha, the children were excited and got engrossed in painting while the judges looked over.  For over two hours, all the kids enjoyed this form of creative expression.  Nonetheless, it was very hard to declare winners and choose from an array of fantastic and amazing drawings. Vibha hopes that more such events will kick start across different cities in India and patrons in India would also join us in this movement.

March 13, 2010 saw over 200 chess and table tennis (ping-pong) enthusiasts queuing up at the Alpharetta High School to compete in the 8th consecutive edition of Khel-Mela, an annual chess and table tennis fundraiser tournament organized by Vibha’s Atlanta chapter.

The tournament was a grand success with the number of participants increasing to almost 3 times as compared to that in the previous year. Over $6000 was raised and these funds would directly translate to a year’s support for almost 350 underprivileged children.

The tournament also paved the way for a new generation of leaders in Vibha. For the first time, Vibha Youth, the high school wing of Vibha, took complete ownership of the end to end organization of the event. Kishore Vedala, one of the lead coordinators for the event said, “It was great to see the youth take the lead in this event to bring Khel-Mela the greatest success it has ever had.  Everyone was determined and worked very hard to make this event successful. We had a goal in mind and used that as an impetus to keep us going.  Best of all, all the funds we raised with Khel-Mela will go to help underprivileged children.” Devesh Dalmia, another coordinator for the event, said, “Definitely it is nice to see that there are so many people who care about supporting a nonprofit group such as Vibha. People showed up to help and to play, both of which benefitted the event.”

The chess tournament received participation from recreational as well as competitive players. Steve Schneider and Dennis Jones from the Championship Chess organized the chess tournament. The Table Tennis tournament also received overwhelming participation. The Alpharetta High School auxiliary gym provided the venue for this year’s event. Vibha extends a special thanks to the teacher sponsors Mrs. Meredith Drummond and Mrs. Allison Tubiak of Alpharetta High School for helping Vibha to organize Khel-Mela.

Your feedback is important to us. Vibha welcomes any comments, suggestions or questions you may have about our projects, programs, products, monitoring etc. If you are particularly interested in a topic and would like to see Vibha showcase it please let us know.

Together, we can do much more!

Dream a Little! Do a Little!

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Phone: 408-997-9992 | Fax: 775-593-1061

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Vibha is a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit, non-religious, non-political organization that seeks to restore; underprivileged children, their basic rights to food, shelter, health and education - in short, a future. All donations to Vibha are tax exempt in the US.