I am attaching a post for the Pratham Volunteers meet on 5th Feb.
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Dear All,
Pratham Delhi Education Initiative is a part of the larger ‘Pratham’ network that reaches out to some 200,000 children across India through its programs in remedial and pre-primary education in less privileged localities.
We were trying to set up a data base of individuals in and around Delhi who are interested in elementary education and in helping out as volunteers in Pratham Delhi’s programs (as social auditors, teachers, librarians and so on and so forth….depending on the number of hours , level of commitment, interest, ideas, the concerned person has). We intend to have a volunteers’ get-together on 5th February, 2:30 pm at the Pratham Delhi Office (A-38, West Laxmi market, Khureji Khas, near Petrol Pump, Delhi-110092, Phone numbers- 22507721,22460251). It is intended as an introduction to all those interested in volunteering for Pratham and also an occasion to laud those who had volunteered with us last summer.
q Who are these part-time volunteers?
Drawn from various different professions and backgrounds some 183 unpaid volunteers, had participated in the ‘summer camps’ organized by Pratham Delhi (the ‘summer camps’ use the school infrastructure available during the summer vacation to organize remedial/ bridge course sessions for in-school/ out –of school children. 104 Delhi schools, mainly MCD schools near urban slums were used in May-June 2004 to reach out to 15992 children) as external auditors. Another twenty -five volunteers have been involved with us in various other capacities. There are 18 people in the Pratham Delhi volunteers’ e-group.
q Why a ‘get-together’?
Through this meet we hope to get our old volunteers as well as those interested in us together, discuss about their work, our work- ways in which we can work together (depending on the nature of work one would like to put in and the number of hours one can devote to the same) and try improve the status of elementary education in the city.
Further, this occasion has indeed, presented itself as an opportunity to thank our volunteers for the efforts made. Those associated with the summer camps would also collect the concerned certificates.
Moreover, many others have expressed a desire to join the Movement. This meet may also serve as an introduction for them.
This is of much significance to us in the context that the concept of Pratham envisages a tripartite relationship between the government, the corporate, and the citizens.
q Why a volunteers’ group? A citizens’ group????
While the government and the corporate have been well represented in this relationship across the Pratham network, the role of “citizens” has largely been restricted to the Pratham workers who have a full-time commitment to Pratham. Over the last few years, offers from external volunteers – people outside of Pratham volunteering work for a specific period – have been increasing but there has not been any organized effort till now to optimize the utilization of such voluntary offers. A large number of citizens have evinced an interest to participate in the Pratham movement but do not know where to begin. We visualize the formation of a citizens’ group in the city with active interest in elementary education and related issues, a group that not just debates and discuses such issues but which wherever possible helps out Pratham in its initiatives by way of time and effort.
There have been several indicators in the recent past that validate the formation of such a group:
Rapid geographical expansion of Pratham’s programs across the country has ensured greater awareness about the movement among citizens. The spread of this awareness, however, has almost entirely been through word-of-mouth
More and more people are now looking at avenues by which they could contribute towards the betterment of the society. For most people, such opportunities are restricted to doing voluntary work in small initiatives in their immediate surroundings (often leading to disillusionment) or providing monetary contributions to charitable causes.
The simplicity and replicability of the Pratham model makes it a very attractive proposition for the common citizen to get involved. It does not require any specialized knowledge or qualifications to be an active participant in the Pratham movement.
An increasing number of external volunteers are already participating in the movement. The Read India campaign of Pratham has afforded the opportunity for the common man to get involved by being an external auditor in the learning process of children. The enthusiastic response from a large number of people – specially students – to Pratham Delhi’s call to work as social auditors during the summer camps (May-June ’04) is the most recent example of this.
Last but not least, the Union Budget for 2004 has imposed an education cess (of 2% of the total Income Tax payable) on all tax-paying citizens. The amount collected through this cess is planned to be exclusively utilized for government educational programs throughout the country. The levy of this cess makes the educational delivery mechanism of the country directly accountable to the citizens.
q Help how?
Specifically, the tasks that can be performed by the volunteers are:
External validations of the assessment conducted as part of Pratham programs
Tracking the progress of children in specific classes or cluster of classes. A group of volunteers can be linked to a cluster of classes, and would be expected to make regular and random visits to the classes.
Help in conducting surveys (including dipsticks) for Pratham
Help create citizens’ groups in the underprivileged communities to persuade the government towards providing better quality education for the children of these communities
Volunteer to spend time with children in Pratham’s libraries (being run in underprivileged communities across the Pratham network)
Organize events/seminars in collaboration with Pratham on developmental issues linked to education
Help raise funds for the Pratham network
Though full time members of Pratham take the initial efforts in this direction, we hope the group would soon develop a steering and momentum of its own.
Apart from such a citizens’ group which may be mostly middle class led, we have been trying to develop a mass-based community mobilization model in which volunteers (from the same community in which we work) are mobilized, trained and guided as they work with slum children (in or outside schools), raise the level of learning in the area, and help school committees and slum communities to improve school functioning.
Kindly forward this mail and the file to others possibly interested in volunteering for us.
Also, we would urge you to pay a visit to Pratham programs at the field level (on the same date or some other date). It would help to put the context in better perspective.
In the meanwhile, if you or someone you know of a. can volunteer to teach English / computers to our field level employees in Nangloi/ Shahadara on a weekly basis; b can volunteer on Sundays as librarian for our libraries in Shahdara/ Nangloi, do let us know.
Please try and confirm your presence at the meet. We would be delighted to have you there.
Regards,
Prathibha
Program Coordinator
West Delhi
(On behalf of Pratham Delhi)
[9871397478(m)
011-26163503, 9313308211(R)]
P.S.
In case you are interested in volunteering/ know of individuals interested in the same, please contact me at
prathibhanair82@rediffmail.com, 9871397478; colleagues and fellow coordinators Shailendra at
shail2010@rediffmail.com 9871397465 and Ranajit at
ranajit@pratham.org, 9810444189.
Visit us at
www.pratham.org.
I request you all to atleast have an experiance of the work they are doing. 
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