Providing Functional Literacy to Women in India

DHANPATMAL VIRMANI EDUCATION TRUST AND MANAGEMENT SOCIET, ROOP NAGAR, DELHI-07

                  "Providing Functional Literacy to women in India(1784)"

                           Quarterly Progress Report ending December 2010.           Date:15.01.2011

            It has been considered and simultaneously proved that literacy has always enhanced any regions human capital. Our Adult literacy project started in 2004 with five centers and old donated computer in slum cluster around Delhi through computer based functional literacy program (CBFL) Developed by TCS, CBFL is animated software which provides basic knowledge of Alphabets, numerals and language. An educated lady from the community it self is identified as the center in charge for the cluster and her home serves as the classroom for women beneficiaries.                                                   

 The trust runs 43 Adult Literacy centers in and around Delhi. Since its inception, So far 4467 women, 44 men and 596 children have already studied. Presently 865 women and 24 young men are regularly attending learning centers as well as vocational training centers. 697 women have successfully completed their program in November 2010. Only Five women dropped out from the program. Presently forty eights women are learning alphabets, one sixty three are on words formation, one ninety four are in sentence reading & writing position, one sixty one are in paragraph and one twenty one in story reading and writing label. This is a great achievement for us because during the base line test they were at Zero level. After joining our program within six months they had become literate.

  We have organized eight training programs for staff members. We have a in house resource person (Dheerendra Sharma) to deliver the training component. 53 staff members attended the same. Monthly cluster training program on specific issues related to subject hard spots, women and girls counseling, community sensitization & other issues’ was organized in our adult literacy/ vocation training centers.

Celebration: We celebrated all the festivals at our learning centers. During the period we celebrated Independence day ( 15th August ) Raksha bandhan ( Festival for brother & sister ) in which sister ties a knot called Raksha sutra on the wrist of her brother for his welfare, world literacy day,Idu,l Fitr Durgapuja, Dussehra,Deepavali,Idul Zuha(Bakrid),Gurunanak Birthday,Muharram, Gandhi jayanti & Cristmas Day.

Case Study:  Pooja (17 year old) belongs to a very poor family. She lives in saraifoos  Mohalla near Tis hazari. She is orphan & lives with her Uncle. Her family does not have faith in educating the girl child .So she was never gone to school .But trust intervention, regular home visit and counseling   by center in charge changed her family’s approach about the girl education. Adult literacy project have changed the mindset of the family .They understood the importance of education in life as not just being a means of earning but as a tool to regulate an individual’s life effectively. The family agreed to enroll Pooja in our center at tis hazari centre .Gradually, she has turned into a regular and bright student of the center. A most motivating fact is that Jyoti & pooja has not only done very well, but has also motivated many other girls to join the E-Literacy Programme.

We would also like  to be in  tune with larger outreach efforts so that we become a part of global charitable  funding initiatives and plug in mainline organization that manage  these initiatives from across the world. We are looking for contribution for all these efforts and would be grateful for your support to enable us to carry them forward. We express our gratitude to the donors for making change in the society.

We envisioned expanding our centers, so that illiteracy from India is eradicated.

We have received Rs.20661/ as donation throught globale givenduring period from 01/04/2010 to 31/12/2010 

We thank you for your cooperation & donation.

With Regards-

Dheerendra Sharma

Email: dheerendra.dvet@ yahoo.com

  Dhanpatmal Virmani Education Trust and Management Society , Roop Nagar, Delhi-07 

                  Providing Functional Literacy to women in India (1784)" 

             A Quarterly Progress Report ending September 2010.

   The trust runs 50 Adult Literacy centers in and around Delhi. Since its inception, So far 3587 women, 32 men and 596 children have already studied. Presently 880 women and 12 young men are regularly attending learning centers as well as vocational training centers. 364 women have successfully completed their program in June 2010. Only eight women dropped out from the program. Presently twelve women are learning alphabets, one forty fives are on words formation, one ninety nine are in sentence reading & writing position, one sixty six are in paragraph and twenty five in story reading and writing label. This is a great achievement for us because during the base line test they were at Zero level. After joining our program within six months they had become literate.                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  We have organized three training programs for staff members. We have an in house resource person to deliver the training component. 53 staff members attended the same. Monthly cluster training program on specific issues related to subject hard spots, women and girls counseling, community sensitization & other issues’ was organized   in our adult literacy centers.

Celebration: We celebrated all the festivals at our learning centers. During the period we celebrated Independence day ( 15^th August )  Raksha bandhan ( Festival for brother & sister ) in which sister ties a knot called Raksha sutra on the wrist of her brother for his welfare , world literacy day &  Hindi weeks."

Jyoti, A Motivation for others

Case Study:  Jyoti (16 year old) belongs to a very poor family. She lives in 38F saraifoos  Mohalla near Tis hazari. She is orphan & lives with her Grandparents. Her family does not have faith in educating the girl child .So she was never gone to school .But DVET intervention, regular home visit and counseling   by center in charge changed her family’s approach about the girl education. Adult literacy project have changed the mindset of the family .They understood the importance of education in life as not just being a means of earning but as a tool to regulate an individual’s life effectively. The family agreed to enroll jyoti in our center at tis hazari centre .Gradually, she has turned into a regular and bright student of the center. She was very excited about her enrollment in class III in government Sarvodaya School, which happened in the month of July 2010. A most motivating fact is that Jyoti has not only done very well, but has also motivated three other girls to join the E-Literacy Programme.

  We would also like  to receive a feed back from you about what you think about our Adult Literacy Program, and how we might improve on it. We value your concerns and insight on how the benefits of literacy might be disseminated further.

We thank you for your co operation!

Report : Adult Literacy Project: 2009- 2010

It has been considered and simultaneously proved that literacy has always enhanced any regions human capital. Our Adult literacy project for illiterate women to teach them Hindi language started in 2003 with five centers and old donated computers in slums cluster in and around Delhi through computer based functional literacy program (CBFL) Developed by Tata Consultancy Services, CBFL is animated software which provides basic knowledge of Alphabets, numerals and language. An educated lady from the community it self is identified as the center in charge for the cluster and her home serves as the classroom for women beneficiaries. We are running 50 centers for teaching illiterate women on how to read and write Hindi. Each centre has 15 to 20 women studying at one time. So far 3587 women, 32 men and 596 children have studied .At present 880 women and 12 young men are studying in our centers. There have been many success stories of beneficiaries who passed out from our centers. Some of the beneficiaries have excelled in their studies and how conveniently they teach their kids at home .To facilitate their studies in better way study material kit and community activist (CA) training has also been provided. Our target is to increase the number of centers to 60 this year and be able to teach more than 1000 women during this year. Vocational training program was introduced last year by installation eight embroidery machines and introducing training in tailoring .Now this year it is proposed to add a pilot project trades of beauty culture, art & craft etc. The prospect of earning an extra small income has also motivated women to ensure their regular attendance at their centers. Our goal is to expand our Vocational training centers. You would also like to share a success story in our work.

Uremia (50 year old) stature of her age where her grandchildren were going to school it was very difficult for her to step out& start studying from the scratch. When asked by her family members & neighbors she replied with a smile that since .she wants to engage herself. On completion of course she was asked what her motivation has been for joining the center. She replied that since she was illiterate she wanted to read out the Hindi mantras while worshiping and had to ask her grand children for the same. Now after course she can read out mantras on her own. In her words- “now after reading shlokas & mantras (sermon) by my self I feel connected to my god”. We would also like to be in tune with larger outreach efforts so that we become a part of global charitable funding initiatives and plug in mainline organization that manage these initiatives from across the world. Our plans include starting a website to increase our visibility and attract donors. We are looking for contribution for all these efforts and would be grateful for your support to enable us to carry them forward. we express our gratitude to the donors. The donors have the option to continue their donation through Global Giving. So far, we have received donations of Rs.2, 70,949/- approximately US$ 6,022.00. To meet the expanses of our project. we need more funds to run the present as well as future Adult literacy centers. Thanks for your support and we look forward to your feedback.