Greetings to all in the OPEN community, and we wish everyone a happy holiday season. We are happy to report on our activities in the second half of 2014.
Post-secondary education: IGNITE Program
The OPEN community supports 120 students’ post-secondary education at this time. Students are predominantly in college for B.Com, 2-3 year Polytechnic, or 4-year Engineering degrees. The seniors have started the final semester and are attending campus interviews and/or planning for further higher education. Since a majority of children in the program are the first in their family to attend college and cannot count on their parents to offer much guidance, we are mentoring them closely, and offering guidance on writing resumes, obtaining CA articleships, internships etc. A common theme that emerges is that students are not confident in English and want more practice in spoken English in an interview format, so we are planning to add that component to our spoken English classes. We have scheduled a mentoring/counseling session on 3 Jan 2015 for the graduating students. We hope to provide some success stories at our 2015 first update.
Headline Project: Supplemental Classes by Vidyarambam
We continue working with the Vidyarambam Trust to bring their Easy Learning English and Easy Learning Mathematics supplemental programs to four partner schools in Chennai. 809 students from classes 6-8 have already taken the diagnostic and mid-program tests for this program. An end-program test will capture final metrics on the efficacy of the program.
Headline Project: Libraries by Ashraya
The Ashraya Foundation has completed library construction at three schools in rural Karnataka, and are running the Reading program for all students at these schools; together with Arts and Science clubs for motivated top students. Every book in the libraries has a GROWBY rating that shows reading levels. Ashraya monitors the number of books checked out by each student, and the GROWBY level reading proficiency that is demonstrated by the student as the academic year progresses. High-level program dashboards are shared with the Block Education Officers, since they have to approve these extra-curricular programs.
On-going Projects
We continue our support of Ganapathy Iyer Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Gopalapuram, Chennai, with tuition scholarships for poor children, and operating expenses for after-school classes (chess, karate) and breakfast/evening snacks. The bulk of the expenses are borne by Mr. Nat Kumar, a long-standing OPEN contributor. 150 students are benefited.
The Turning Point Trust aims to improve life skills for the children of slum dwellers and sanitary workers in Rotary Nagar, Chennai. Spoken and written English and computer skills are taught daily from 4.30-8pm to children and youth to better prepare them for life and employment. A Children's Parliament was held recently to enhance children's public speaking skills. We provide the operating expenses for these centers.
The Pudiyador center in Saligramam, Chennai, conducts after-school classes for the children of the Gen. Cariappa Elementary School. There is an Arts and Painting session every week.
We are sponsoring 10 children from the Malleswaram Shishu Vihar, Bangalore, with scholarships for school. We are also funding the Single Teacher program for operating expenses for 6 schools (180 students) in rural Tamil Nadu. We are funding Math and English classes for standards 6-8 in 3 schools in Bangalore, in collaboration with the Adarsh Colony CSRFoundation. We continue to fund teacher salaries and operational expenses at Somasundaram School in rural Tamil Nadu. We continue to fund the Samridhi Foundation in Bangalore for supporting 10 children of migrant workers for bridge education and subsequent placement into government schools. We continue to monitor scholarship grants for poor children at Jaigopal Garodia Rashtrotthana Vidyalaya in Bangalore.
OPEN Needs You
OPEN has been registered as a non-profit charitable foundation in India and in the U.S. Contributions in both countries are tax-deductible. As always, our ability to fund these projects depends on your generosity. Please use the year-end opportunity to contribute to the children of India, and save on your taxes. We request that tax-deductible contributions payable to OPEN Inc. be sent to Kumar or Rajesh at:
Kumar Thiagarajan, 25470 Gimbel Dr, South Riding, VA 20152
Rajesh Ramadoss, 38 Ocean St, Millburn, NJ 07041
Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to Sriram in India in favor of OPEN India Charitable Trust:
Please consider investing in India's future. To delay may mean to forget.
Sincerely,
The OPEN Team
2014 H1 Update
Greetings from OPEN, and we wish everyone a happy start to the school year. This newsletter is intended as an update on our activities in the first half of 2014.
Post-secondary education and Success stories
Our support for post-high school education continues through the IGNITE program. Counseling was conducted in Chennai on 27 July, and a total of 112 students were given scholarships for 2- and 3-year polytechnic, 3-yr degree programs and 4-yr Engineering programs. Graduates of this program - Thareek, Kumaravel and Vinodhini - addressed the incoming students of the 2014 batch, and encouraged them to aim high and support new students with their success. A total amount of $19,500 was granted. It is to be noted that this program supports the current topper of the B.E. ECE program at CIT, Coimbatore, and other deserving students. Another item to be noted is that the demographic of applicants has changed over the years from predominantly polytechnic to predominantly B.Com and B.Sc, potentially pointing to the Indian economy shifting to be more services-based.
Lakshmi Krishnan, a recent graduate of this program, completed her B.E. in Elec. and Comm. Engineering from SSN College of Engg, Chennai, and has been placed with Ford at an annual salary of Rs. 4 lakhs. S. Chiranjeevi, a graduate from CNPT, has found a job with Technip Ltd at a salary of Rs. 12,000 per month. R. Alamelu found a job paying Rs. 25,000 from Cognizant Tech. Several other polytechnic students found jobs paying Rs. 8,000 - 13,000 per month. Their success is due to their hard work, and support from the OPEN community.
Projects Central
We continue with our support of the Ganapathy Iyer Girls' Higher Secondary School in Gopalapuram, Chennai, with scholarships for 100 girls, and after-school programs for Karate, Arts, Computer Science etc. It was our pleasure to have Karate added to the after-school program.
We also continue with our support of the Easy Learning English and Easy Learning Mathematics classes conducted by Vidyarambam. These classes are after-school classes conducted at Government schools with the cooperation of the school authorities. The Tamil Nadu government has requested Vidyarambam to conduct classes at more urban schools, and OPEN will fund Vidyarambam this year and the next.
We are glad to announce a new partnership with the Ashraya Foundation, an NGO that builds libraries, operates Science and Arts clubs, and conducts other extra-curricular activities at rural Karnataka schools. With an OPEN grant of $7,500, Ashraya has built libraries and hired librarians at three schools in Hanur Taluk, with the support of the Block Education Officer; and will also run Science clubs at these schools. The aim is to improve the reading ability and Math and Science skills of the children, especially at primary level, through activity-based learning. Diagnostic tests are done in order to quantify the improvement in reading ability. More information is available at Ashraya's web site, www.ashraya-usa.org.
We continue our support of the Somasundaram school in rural Tamil Nadu. We are funding Computer Science teaching, and have been requested to provide replacement windows and doors, and a water filter. These infrastructure items appear basic but are essential towards ensuring a comfortable environment for children to focus on learning.
We have also been requested to continue our support of the bridge school program run by Samriddhi in Bangalore; the Jaigopal Rashtrotthana at Bangalore; the Single Teacher program at various schools in rural Tamil Nadu; the Turning Point after-school program at Rotary Nagar in Chennai; and the Pudiyador after-school programs in Chennai.
Donor Central
Many of our supporters from Northern Virginia will remember Srivatsa Srinivasan, who emceed several OPEN-Rasika concerts. With his own pledges and matching contributions for every stroke of golf in 40 states, he has already raised over $1.8K. Please write to us at [email protected] if you wish to match Vatsa in his support of underprivileged children. You can follow his progress at zenshree.blogspot.com.
We would also like to thank longstanding contributors Mr. Nat Kumar, Mr. Suresh Kalyanaraman, Mr. Selvamohan Neethiraj, and Mr. Ramprasad Ramalingam.
OPEN Needs You
OPEN has been registered as a non-profit charitable foundation in India and in the U.S. Contributions in both countries are tax-deductible. As always, our ability to fund these projects depends on your generosity. We request that tax-deductible contributions payable to OPEN Inc. be sent to Kumar or Rajesh at:
Kumar Thiagarajan, 25470 Gimbel Dr, South Riding, VA 20152
Rajesh Ramadoss, 38 Ocean St, Millburn, NJ 07041
Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to Sriram in India in favor of OPEN India Charitable Trust:
