Pratham Delhi Community Service

Welcome to all to Pratham delhi community service. On request, this thread is started to discuss the events in Pratham and how we can contribute towards it. A brief history of PG association with Pratham. We (Saurabh - Septemberthe22nd, Ni…

Welcome to all to Pratham delhi community service.

On request, this thread is started to discuss the events in Pratham and how we can contribute towards it.
A brief history of PG association with Pratham. We (Saurabh - Septemberthe22nd, Nidhi - getmeonit and myself) participated in a Read delhi program organised by Pratham last May. That was a 21 days program. I will attach a document which talks about Read delhi program in details in subsequent posts.

The most intriguing aspects of Pratham which i found are:-
- Their quest for numbers because they believe that they can influnece government only if they have numbers.
- They have very professional and scientific way of doing things.
- And above all, is that i had very good experiance with Pratham staff including Pratham delhi head, as they are very receptive of any ideas.

Before you guys get wrong impression that i am speaking on behalf of Pratham, i will sign off. I request you all to atleast have an experiance of the work they are doing. 😃

All the best,
Nitin

First and foremost,
i would like to congratulate Nitin for his time and effort in community service and Pratham.

Nitin will be recieving a certificate at the Pratham meet somehwere late this month or early Feb (Nitin will confirm the dates soon.)..
Well done Nitin. Proud of you man!

regards,
r.

I am attaching a post for the Pratham Volunteers meet on 5th Feb.
--------------------

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)




P.S.

In case you are interested in volunteering/ know of individuals interested in the same, please contact me at [email protected], 9871397478; colleagues and fellow coordinators Shailendra at [email protected] 9871397465 and Ranajit at [email protected], 9810444189.

Visit us at www.pratham.org.


1)External validations of the assessment conducted as part of Pratham programs
2)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.
3)Help in conducting surveys (including dipsticks) for Pratham
4)Help create citizens groups in the underprivileged communities to persuade the government towards providing better quality education for the children of these communities
5)Volunteer to spend time with children in Prathams libraries (being run in underprivileged communities across the Pratham network)
6)Organize events/seminars in collaboration with Pratham on developmental issues linked to education
7)Help raise funds for the Pratham network


Hi Nitin,

Number 3 & 6 look interesting to me. I am not sure of attending the meeting on 5th Feb. Do you have any idea about the activities numbered 3/6 ?

Point number 3 was the one we discussed earlier. You remember i asked you to go to Pratham on Sunday? That was part of dipstick survey which Pratham did for UNESCO.
I am not sure of Point number 6. Will let know soon.

Why dont you guys come on Feb 5. I think that would be great opportunity to get to know about Pratham instead of me passing the info.

Cheers,
Nitin

Why dont you guys come on Feb 5. I think that would be great opportunity to get to know about Pratham instead of me passing the info.


Sure Nitin. But I cant really confirm now. Will ping you sometime next wee.

PS: Correct the thread's topic: serive --> service. 😁

Hi.

1. This is a reminder about the Pratham meet scheduled to happen on the 5th of February 2005, 2:30 pm at the Pratham Delhi Office.A-38, West Laxmi market, Khureji Khas, near Petrol Pump, Delhi-110092, Phone numbers- 22507721,22460251

2. I would request people attending the meet to look for volunteers for Pankaj as well, who can help him with the studying part.

3. Please spend a moment to go through the document attached with this post. It was written by sadaa very own Nitin, and has gotten an honurary mention at Pratham. It gives an insight to the activities taken up by Pratham and more. Well, now we know that Nitin is not just a good samaritan, but a great writer as well. Keep it up nitin.

Cheers,
r.

Hi all,

Well, i have attended Pratham volunteers meet yesterday. And i know you guys missed the great oppotunity to meet such dedicated people. It was glad to see Mr Madhav chauvan, founder of Pratham, to give a short speach. I could not stay there till end as i had to run for the exam (which was cancelled later on :-x )
I met Harpreet. The best part is that i met her during Read delhi program also last year. so i was quite surprise to me. To give a brief about her, she left her MNC job and opened up a school in west delhi. Harpreet, why dont you share your experiances with us....It would be a good motivation for all of us. 😃
Nidhi, Saurabh my read delhi partners......please post....

Ciao
Nitin

Good work Nitin. Keep the thread posted of the upcoming activities planned at Pratham..

I remember Amit was asking about Dipstick survey. Well, the results of the
survey were published in yesterday's newspaper. Go through the following link:

http://www.business-standard.com/search/storypage_new.php?leftnm=lmnu5&leftindx;=5&lselect;=1&autono;=180332


Ciao 😃
Nitin

Interesting things to read there for me Nitin. Point put across rather well that in a hurry to achieve our set goals of universalising primary education, not much feedback systems are in place. Quality isnt the agenda here.

but can a 'rapid assessment survey' reveal the true picture. I mean 15k children .. do they represent the entire set of children here.

Anyways.. keep this thread updated of any activities you plan to take part in there.

Well, you are right in saying that rapid assessment may not depict the real picture. But i have worked myself as social volunteer for pratham. It was shocking to find that guys even in Standard 5th-6th did not know how to read a SIMPLE word.
Although, you cannot say this for all. I found out some brilliant guys also but the number was very very less.
I beleive if any NGO or any other organisation has to create any impact on elementary education, it has to work first with government/MCD schools. We should impart "proper" education to those who are atleast in school rather than looking out to those who are not in school. First. they should help in improving the quality of these schools.

Nitin

Here i am pasting a mail from Radhika (Pratham Staff)

-----------
Hi All,

I am looking for some people who could read out stories to children
on the 2nd of April, saturday. The venue would be Trilokpuri(details
given later). There will be library books available for you to
choose your stories from (either english or Hindi) but if you want,
you can bring your own stories also.

----------

Interested?? please let me know so that i can pass your names to Radhika. Trilok puri is in East Delhi near Mayur Vihar phase -1.

Nitin

hello everyone,

i am new to this thread..and havent done any community work till now...

would like to contribute in any way....

if someone could tell when dya people plan to meet again...

am in hostel throughout the week so can only come on weekends....

Naveen

I think its high time !
Please count me in too for the community service in delhi ! 😃

I would also like to help, anything for a good cause...

Cheers,
Nikhil

hey saurab hre, i jst beame d member of pg nd was jst goi thru forum in search of ngos,nd found pratham an interesting concept.i m doin mi bba frm skyline business school nd would like 2 kno more abt prataham so it will b gr8 if nybudy can mail me d more information about pratham mi id is [email protected]

hi everyone..
i am a final year student..jst joined pagalguy community n really interested in social servic.. pratham delhi community service seems 2 b doing fabulous job n i hope 2 join it.

h i and my team of friends have started a NGO Aashayein in Mumbai to help street children .This year we are planning to encourage them to learn various computer technologies like ADOBE,TALLY,POWERPOINT etc so that it can open new avenues for them, show them what is the impact of computers in todays world and if they wish they make an earning by learning these skills , most of them have basic computer knowledge as in to start and shut down computer ,browsing internet etc . The children are of age group 8-16 years.they go to school foe education , we also organise workshop to teach them skills like carpentery, wielding,bike workshop etc to make their own earning.


I need some powerpoint presentaions and videos which could help me make these children to computers and i have plans to nake the children join the courses in nearby computer centers. Also i need ideas and views to be used in order to encourage other peope and friends to join my cause .

can anyone help me in getting these ppts and videos? u can mail me ur views and stuffs that u have on [email protected]