GlobalGiving.org: A Silent Revolution - Helping the helpless

"Site Visit Report"

Joanna Stone — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 07:24:49 GMT

This summer I had the privilege of volunteering at Shoshit Samadhan Kendra for six weeks. The school serves the Musahar, a group of "untouchables", whose traditional job was to clear the rice fields of rodents, earning them the nickname of "Rat Eaters." They live in extreme poverty, with literacy levels below 6% and land ownership around 2%. They are squatters who live in mud huts and often eat only one meal per day. Many of the reforms we've heard about in India over the past few decades have not improved the lives of the Musahar due to corruption and their lack of political power.

The school is located in Patna, Bihar, and was founded by Mr. J.K. Sinha to provide a quality education to students ages 4-14 so that they can go on to higher education and be advocates for their people. I lived at the school, working directly with the students, helping them to improve their English and basic math skills and conducted a short series of workshops for the faculty.

The school takes up two cement buildings that are joined by narrow walkways on each of the four floors. It is located in the city of Patna, but the students come from the surrounding agricultural villages and urban slums. The top floor is known as the terrace, and it contains the kitchen/cafeteria (which doubles as an auditorium) as well as spigots where the boys wash their own clothing and dishes, and a vacant area where they play during the rainy season when the nearby fields are flooded. The other three floors contain a mix of dormitory space and the classrooms along with a laboratory, computer lab, and library.

The school has about 250 students in grades Kindergarten through 8th plus a 10th grade class. Each of the grades has a classroom where they are based, and the teachers move between them. Students spend a lot of time each day in the classroom, with classes from 7 to 1:20, then self-study from 3-4 and again from 7-8:30. They have assigned time in the library, the computer lab, and for recreation. The dormitories contain students from each class so that the older boys can look after the younger ones.

I was overwhelmed throughout my stay at the hospitality of my Indian hosts. They had constructed a small suite for visiting guests on the ground floor with a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a sitting room. They kept the fridge well-stocked with American food and provided a computer with internet access and a printer. The guards asked me multiple times a day if there was anything they could do to make me more comfortable, and the boys hustled to get me a chair every time I entered a room and memorably fanned me by hand one evening when the electricity went out. The teachers immediately made me feel at home, inviting me to share their breakfast daily and taking me on small day trips to visit sites in Patna. They were extremely eager to hear about teaching practices in the U.S. and anxious to implement feedback from my observations. During the workshops, they were model participants: reading beforehand and coming prepared with questions and concerns for the day’s topic. All in all, I was made to feel like an honored guest at every moment of my stay.

By far the highlight of my trip was the amazing children I had the privilege to get to know this summer. I had planned to spend only 4 weeks at the school and use the rest of my trip to travel around the exotic country. When it came time to plan my trips, however, I found that I couldn’t bring myself to leave the children. There’s the student who built a functioning lamp out of recycled parts and serves as tech support for the whole school despite growing up in a village with no electricity. There’s the child who collects abbreviations in his notebook and overcame his intense shyness to ask me to help him decipher U.S.S.R. There’s the geniuses in Class IV who solved just about every brainteaser I could throw at them. Then there’s Chandan, a 10 year old who has been at the school for 3 years and like all the boys spoke no English prior to his arrival. Although he is generally a quiet and shy boy, one day he got up the courage to ask me for four vocabulary words. I gave him glisten, shimmer, mature and opaque. Within a few hours, he came back. He had looked them up in the dictionary and then written a short paragraph for each one. He asked me to correct his writing and then quietly demanded four new words. Throughout my stay, he came to my door at least three times a day to receive his next assignment. Eventually he moved on to using all four words in one story, then asking for a topic to write a story about. All of this was done for his own pleasure, just to improve his English. By the time I left, he had written the equivalent of 20 pages of single-spaced, type-written English. He wants to be a writer or a cricket player when he grows up. Of course I am hoping for the first.

As an urban educator in Philadelphia, I thought I knew a lot about devastating poverty and children growing up in hopeless situations. Without downplaying the severity of what my north Philly students live every day, I have to say that my trip to visit the home villages of the students from SSK opened my eyes to a new level of what it means to be "under privileged." While in the urban U.S. utilities might be cut off for non-payment or not serviced as often as we might like, in the Musahar villages, no one has electricity or running water or sewage service. I am convinced after this life-changing trip that the only hope for the Musahar is in their children. You can see it in their faces. Faced with such devastating conditions, they nevertheless glow from the inside. They smile easily and seem convinced that good is just around the corner. For the boys who have made it to SSK, at least, I believe this is true. Although the transition from village to dormitory must be intense and difficult, ultimately, they have been given such an amazing opportunity. They are able to learn and study, to eat nutritious food, to stay healthy, and eventually to compete with students from much more privileged backgrounds for college admissions and ultimately steady and fulfilling employment. Mr. Sinha talks about the boys being catalysts for change for their community, and I have to hope that this is indeed possible. These boys must succeed. For the Musahar, there really is no other option.

Shoshit Seva Sangh - A Project Report

J.K. Sinha — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:43:58 GMT

The mid-term examinations were held in September 2011 at Shoshit Samadhan Kendra, the fully free English medium residential school run by SSS for the children of the poorest of the poor, the musahar community of Bihar. The overall performance of the children was indeed very good. Over 65% of the children were graded ‘A’ (75% and above) in various subjects including Maths, Science, English, Social Studies and Hindi. Care was taken to ensure that the standard of questions set and evaluations were of the required level. The important problem faced at the school is improving the standard of spoken English among the students. The library has improved markedly and there are now over 5000 books. Library classes are held regularly and students are encouraged to read and write a brief review of what they have read. A large number of books with attractive illustrations have been purchased for the primary school students including the pre-school with the hope that these children will be attracted to browse through the books and acquire the reading habit.

ii) A leading English Television Channel CNN IBN carried a feature on Shoshit Seva Sangh which was telecast at prime-time under a segment entitled ‘India Positive’. It included a live interview of the Founder-Chairman and Prem Kumar, a class X student of the school. The link to the telecast is http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/199065/bihar-retd-ips-officer-educates-backward-tribe.html.

iii) Audio-visual facility has been established in the school. The software provides lessons in all the subjects in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) course from class I to class X. The audio is in English and the visuals shall surely help the students to grasp the subject. The teachers have been trained to handle the audio-visual facility.

iv) As a very special gesture Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, visited the school on November 15, 2011. He addressed the students and the faculty and held a long interactive session with the children of the school. He was also taken round the school and he showed special interest in the science laboratory, library and the audio-visual facility. Dr. Kalam’s visit to the school was covered widely in the print media as well as the electronic media. Some photographs and press clippings of the visit are attached.

J.K. Sinha

Founder-Chairaman

Links:

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/199065/bihar-retd-ips-officer-educates-backward-tribe.html

Shoshit Seva Sangh - A Project Report

J.K. Sinha — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 05:09:36 GMT

You may kindly recall that Shoshit Seva Sangh has acquired approximately 2 acres of land for building a residential school to accommodate 500 children of the musahar community. As per the architectural and civil engineering blue-prints of the proposed school building the total built up area is 67000 sqft. which includes hostel space, auditorium to accommodate 500 children, dining hall, libraries, laboratories etc. apart from classrooms and the administrative block. The total cost of construction is estimated to be Rs. 7 crores. The challenge facing SSS is to raise funds to cover the construct cost.

The 5th Foundation Day function of Shoshit Seva Sangh was held on 16th July, 2011. As in the past the students of the school gave an impressive cultural performance. Some photographs of the function along with a newspaper article in the national daily Hindustan Times (July 17), covering the function are attached. Ms. Joanna Stone who is from Philadelphia, USA, has been working as a volunteer at the school since June 28, 2011. She is living into the school premises and shall return to US on August 04, 2011. Joanna has been taking classes and has taken great interest in the performance of the children. Prior to her departure she has agreed to conduct a four day workshop for the faculty of the school.

May I conclude by appealing to all the supporter of Shoshit Seva Sangh to help raise the funds necessary for the construction of the school building supremely important to construct the school building by 2014 as the present rented premises of the school will not be able to accommodate more than 350 children. There are presently 250 children in the school and as we must take 50 children annually to build a chain from pre-school to class XII, it is critical that we succeed constructing in our own building by 2014. You are well aware that cannot take children laterally in higher classes because of lack of education in the musahar community. J.K. Sinha Founder-Chairman Shoshit Seva Sangh

Links:

Shoshit Seva Sangh

Shoshit Seva Sangh - A Project Report

J.K. Sinha — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:56:11 GMT

Shoshit Seva Sangh was able to acquire in January, 2011, another one acre of land adjoining the one acre of plot which had been acquired in 2010. It presently has approximately 2 acres of land and the challenge now is to raise funds to construct a residential school building with all the necessary facilities for 500 children of the musahar community. The total cost of two acres of land was approximately Rs.2.50 crores. The architectural and civil engineering blue-prints of the school building have been prepared by a renowned local architect. The estimated cost of construction of the proposed building of approximately 67000 sqft. is Rs. 7 crores.

B. In November, 2010, admission tests were held at the school for 50 seats in the pre-school class. More than 1000 musahar children appeared at the tests. Many of them accompanied by their parents / guardians had come from remote villages. 50 students have been admitted and joined the school in the 1^st week of April 2011. A new dormitory has been built in the existing rented accommodation and this can house upto 100 students. The total number of students in the school now is 250.

C. It is expected that Indicorps and American India Foundation (AIF) will send volunteers to SSS for a period of 11 months each year. Indicorps have confirmed that they shall let us have the name of the volunteers assigned to SSS by end April. Indicorps draws its volunteers from the Indian diaspora in the US.

The annual examinations in the school were held in March 2011. The overall performance of the children was indeed very good. Over 60% of the children were graded ‘A’ (75% and above) in various subjects including Maths, Science, English, Social Studies and Hindi. Care was taken to ensure that the standard of questions set and evaluations were of the required level. The highest and the lowest marks obtained in each of the classes in the school and the over all class average are indicated below –

Class English Maths Science Hindi Soc. Studies

H/L/Avg. H/L/Avg. H/L/Avg. H/L/Avg. H/L/Avg.

UKG 99/49/83 98/72/85 N.A. 96/50/83 N.A.

I 100/69/88 98/63/87 100/68/88 98/56/83 99/71/88

II 92/53/73 98/50/78 99/58/81 98/55/80 98/66/83

III 79/56/68 95/63/78 99/67/83 89/62/75 97/59/78

IV 67/46/67 99/57/80 96/43/77 92/54/73 99/39/76

V 82/57/70 96/68/82 95/68/82 93/66/80 94/61/77

VI 85/60/72 88/61/74 88/59/73 92/73/82 87/59/73

VII 70/62/76 77/52/85 78/60/68 77/68/73 81/56/68

IX 90/79/85 99/86/94 99/75/90 94/91/93 96/85/92

H – Highest, L – Lowest, Avg. - Average

E. Shoshit Seva Sangh has been able to obtain the support of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, perhaps, the most well known and the biggest foundation supporting grassroots NGOs in India. The EdelGive Foundation a subsidiary of well established financial company, Edelweiss, has also agreed to extend support to SSS. Both these organizations carried out a thorough due-diligence including site visits by their representatives. An NGO called ‘Caring Friends’ comprising highly dedicated and motivated social activists have also come forward to extend support to SSS. HSBC under the second phase of its ‘Future First’ programme has also decided to continue to support SSS. The budget for the financial year 2011-12 is Rs.77,42,000/- (Rupees Seventy Seven Lakhs Forty Two Thousand Only).

J.K. Sinha

Founder-Chairman

Shoshit Seva Sangh

Shoshit Seva Sangh - A Project Report

J.K. Sinha — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 07:28:05 GMT

Shoshit Samadhan Kendra, the fully free English medium residential school for the children of the poorest of the poor, the musahar community of Bihar, run by Shoshit Seva Sangh held the half yearly examination in September 2010. The final exam for the academic year 2010-11 shall be held in March 2011. Given below is the average of marks obtained by the children in all the classes in each subject -

Class English Maths Science Soc. Studies

H / L/Avg. H/L/Avg. H/L/Avg. H/L/Avg.

UKG 99/45/83 99/54/85 NA NA

I 100/66/88 100/45/86 100/68/89 99/63/84

II 93/48/74 99/48/82 99/56/80 96/50/78

III 91/52/73 99/46/75 99/64/90 96/48/83

IV 91/46/67 99/33/67 94/51/74 99/46/78

V 83/50/67 98/55/80 97/73/84 92/56/76

VI 89/54/68 90/68/86 89/54/70 86/57/70

VII 79/66/72 73/40/53 76/56/64 83/60/69

IX 76/62/68 87/44/64 75/51/66 87/73/82

H – Highest, L – Lowest, Avg. – Average

The standard of question set as well as the standard of correction of answer books by the teachers were evaluated by the Mr. B.C. Verma, IPS (Retd.), a very senior retired government servant who is also in the Board of Trustees and is Director of Shoshit Samadhan Kendra. The overall performance is indeed satisfying.

(b) The NDTV, the leading English news channel did a video clip of three and half minutes on our project and this was telecast at prime time on their channel. It is a powerful presentation of the abysmal conditions in which the musahar families live and how the prospects of quality education can really bring hope to the hopeless. The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0IuLQseut.

(c) Admission test were conducted at the school on November 26 / 27. More than 1000 musahar children were brought by their parents and guardians to appear at this test for 50 seats. As there is no education in this community, the tests were for admission in pre-school class and class I. Children in the age group of 7-10 appeared for the test. Some photographs are attached as these may be of interest. With the admission of these 50 children at the commencement of the next academic year 2011-12, the total number of students at SSK would be 250. It is significant that SSK has no school drop-out and the fact that over 1000 appeared at the test completely contradicts a popular perception that the poorest of the poor are not interested in sending their children to school and would preferred that the children work along side them and earn some money. One is convinced that dropouts are there because the parents as well as the children feel that the school in which they go to provides little or no education and that going to school is therefore a waste of time.

J.K. Sinha

Founder-Chairman

Links:

Video-clip

Shoshit Seva Sangh - A project report

J.K. Sinha — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:59:06 GMT

A Silent Revolution - Helping the Helpless

The fully free English medium residential school for the poorest of the poor, the children of the musahar community held its 4th Foundation Day on July 16, 2010. The Governor of the state of Bihar was the Chief Guest. The function was attended by special invitees and the parents of the children of the school. A cultural programme was put-up by the students, the highlight being an English play - ‘The Monkey King’. The headline of the report covering the event in the National daily ‘Hindustan Times’ was - ‘A School With A Difference - Shoshit Samadhan Kendra : An effort to bring musahars into the mainstream’.

A leading 7-star hotel in Delhi, Trident Oberoi, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiative held an auction of two paintings by renowned artists on September 19, 2010. The proceeds from the auction of these paintings were given to Shoshit Seva Sangh.

202 musahar children of the school appeared at their half yearly examination in the 2nd week of September. The school will hold an entrance exam for new admissions in December.

An impact story

The parents of Kundan Kumar live in really sub-human conditions in a slum in the out-skirts of Patna, the capital city of Bihar. Their hut in the background tells the story of their miserable life. The father is a casual labourer and is also addicted to country liquor. This bad habit of his takes away a significant percentage of what he earns as a labourer.

Kundan Kumar is presently in class III and has been at the school for two years now. He is a bright student and for him life has a completely new meaning now. The marks obtained by him in class I and class II are given below -

Year English Hindi Maths Science Social Studies Remarks of director Class I 2008 90% 95% 92% 88% 99% Excellent work Class II 2009 90% 87% 100% 94% 98% Congratulations

Links:

www.sssfoundation.org

Attachments:

Shoshit_Seva_Sangh_Project_Report.doc (DOC)

“Catalyst for Change” Site Visit

Bill Brower — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:04:37 GMT

Reciting in front of the class

Bill Brower is a Field Program Officer with GlobalGiving who is visiting our partners’ projects throughout South and Southeast Asia. On June 6th, 2010 he visited Shoshit Seva Sangh’s school in Patna in the Indian state of Bihar. His “Postcard” from the visit:

As a form of affirmative action, universities and vocational training schools in India set aside a percentage of places for students from historically disadvantaged communities. However, in many places they don’t even receive enough applications to cover the available spots. Shoshit Seva Sangh aims to change that for the musahar community in the area around Patna.

JK Sinha, founder and chairman of the organization, believes that providing high quality education to the highest desired level to promising musahar students will enable them to be catalysts for change for their community—one that has lived figuratively and literally on the tattered fringes of society for thousands of years. From my visit to their boarding school, I would say the 200+ current students are receiving just that.

From the youngest grades the children appeared highly disciplined. While I do not think the rote learning approach typically practiced in India is the most effective, the students seemed to have the fundamental skills appropriate for their grade level. I asked a boy in 9th grade how he would solve a basic geometry problem on the board and he didn’t hesitate in getting up and very precisely working it out on the board. The school has basic classroom, sleeping and eating facilities, as well as an expanding library and a computer lab.

I was surprised to see only one girl in the school (the daughter of one of the teachers). JK Sinha said they had a scare with a boy and girl running off together. Though the children were found unharmed, he was so concerned with the scandal that could ensue from one of their girl students getting abducted that he decided to make the school only for boys. The girls currently enrolled were sent home. JK Sinha said that there were others providing very basic levels of education in the musahar communities and that such programs would still help the girls receive skills to help her as a housewife. He said they may take girls again once they have their own fully secure facilities, but this sounded far from certain. I hope that it will in fact be the case when they build their own school complex in the coming years as women and girls are an integral part of transformational change.

When the school recently expanded, JK Sinha says 750 parents came to apply for 50 open spots (and video and pictures from the event seemed to confirm this claim). In a community where formal education has not been traditionally valued, this would seem to signal the beginnings of what could be a significant transformation.

The computer lab

Links:

A student solving a math problem on the board

Shoshit Seva Sangh - A project report

J.K. Sinha — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:57:08 GMT

Musahar children with guardians

A Silent Revolution – Helping the Helpless

This project aims to provide quality education to the children of the musahar (rat-eaters) the most deprived and exploited community in India. The project runs a fully free English medium residential school for them. Thanks to the understanding and generosity of the donors, this project received the second largest donations and won a bonus of $2000 at the Global Open Challenge Round in December 2009. Since then the school has admitted 58 children in January 2010. The school hired extra floor area adding one more dormitory and two more classrooms to accommodate the new admissions. Presently the school has 204 students. All the new admissions were in pre-school class and a few in class I.

The school augmented its library by adding a few hundred more books in English and Hindi. These include encyclopedia for children. Room to Read an NGO founded by Mr. John Wood, generously donated 970 books to the school library. The school has also established a laboratory for chemistry and physics but lot more needs to be done to improve the laboratory facilities and bring it to acceptable standards. The school also purchased one acre of land for the proposed school building another acre adjoining the land purchased will be bought this year. The plan is to have a residential school to accommodate 1000 children eventually.

An Impact Story

14 year old Papu and his his parents live in a musahar ghetto called Pakhur-Pali in the Patna district. His father is a landless laborer who makes very little money. In the two years that Pappu has been at Shoshit Samadhan Kendra, he has shown remarkable aptitude and progress. He has been appointed the captain of Dr. Ambedkar House. He was one of the few musahar children who improved his academics through self study. His academic performance is excellent.

• Class VI 2007 English – 66% Hindi – 77% Maths – 91% Science – 89 % Social Studies – 78% • Class VII 2008 English – 73% Hindi – 73% Maths – 95% Science – 70% Social Studies - 70%

Pappu as well as the others at Shoshit Samadhan Kendra shall undoubtedly make a quantum jump in life when they pass-out from the school. They will act as catalysts of change for their deprived and unfortunate community. Your donation and support for Pappu will ensure a bright future for him and give new meaning to the lives of his parents!

Musahar children taking admission test

Pappu of the impact story with parents.

Links:

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