Help 1100 Students affected by Flood in Kerala

Dear friends ,

We are delighted to report on the activities held during last quarter under this project . We all are happy to see how our children stood shining even though they are continuously affected by natural calamities like flood or the Pandemic . 

1. Academic excellence !

We are partnering with two High schools in the project location - SNDP HS Kuttamangalam and Govt HS, Kuppappuram. Both these schools recorded 100 % pass when the result of  school final exam result held in the state was declared . Out of the 62 students appeared from SNDP HS Kuttamangalam, 32 Students scored A+ grade for all subjects !

The result was also very encouraging in Govt HS, Kuppappuram where majority of the  students are from extremely poor families – out of the 19 students who have appeared for the exam , all of them successfully passed the exam while 5 students scored  A+ grade for all subjects

We felicitated the students on the Merit Day organized by the schools . Honoring the top scorers at the Merit day function is indeed an inspiration to all the students to achieve the best. Gifts and Certificates were given to them.

 2. Partnership with BYJUs App

Underprivileged children are most affected  during flood or COVID or any other calamities, because they lack technology enabled educational facilities. IDEA partnered with BYJUs App – a renowned interactive educational App provider in India. Around 1000 underprivileged students received free licenses for this App in the Smart phone available in the family . Learning is informative and interesting by using this App and we are glad that we could take some ‘ baby steps’ towards bridging the technology gap among the rich and poor .  

BYJUs App license is given to  58 students from SNDP HS , Kuttamangalam, 33 students from Govt HS Kuppappuram, 9 students from Kuttamangalam Govt LP School, and 9 students from Ponga Govt LP School in Kerala 9 under this project)  and the remaining children are from Maharashtra .  

Students started using this E learning app and find it very useful and interesting . They are using the app in the streaming mode.

3.Smart phones given to more students

Provided Smart phones for attending online classes for 4 more financially weaker students of KVLP School, Parumala near Chengannur ( Pathanamthitta District). These Students were unable to attend online classes since they were not having smartphones and their families are financially weak and unable to purchase phones. Now the students are attending classes regularly. And the school has reported availability of smart phones to all children in the school.

 4. Financial support to flood affected families

The low lying areas of Kuttanadu is affected by flood during heavy rains as well as when water bunds rupture . We provided financial assistance to many families at Kainakary Panchayat in Alappuzha district who were severely affected by the flood caused as a result of Cyclone Tauktae in May 2021. The paddy fields and residential areas of Kainakary Panchayath were flooded and several people were affected by the flood. Many such families were shifted a local school and they were staying there for more than 3 months. The Govt authorities and local residents provided food and clothes to the people in the camp .  We provided financial assistance to the most needy families of daily wage earners who were working in agriculture and fishing sector to purchase utensils and other household items when they returned home.

 5. Financial support to COVID  affected families

Provided financial assistance to the Covid affected families of  students of Govt UP School, Thottuvathala and SNDP school in Kuttamangalam ,Alappuzha district. These families headed by daily wage earners suffered very critical financial crisis at that time and the financial aid from IDEA Foundation helped them to meet food and medicine expenses. Now the condition is better as they have recovered from illness and doing their job. 

INITIATIVES BY SCHOOLS

Apart from the above activities, our partner schools engaged the children in many activities such as ;-

a.Zero Carbon Project: Collecting plastic waste, sorting out and sending the money obtained on selling it, to the Vaccine fund of Chief Minister. Done by career guidance club of higher secondary section at SNDP HSS, Kuttamangalam. Higher secondary section teacher who was in-charge of this activity won prize from Hon Alappuzha District Collector for the best activity in the district.

b.Talents Shore activity

To empower youth through communication and life skills.

c.Leadership training

 Online Leadership training Camp for ‘ Bharat Scouts & Guides’  Students were held.

 On behalf of the needy students and their parents, we express our heart felt thanks for your support and still counting you to support more such people.  

Links:

• IDEA Website

Dear friends ,

As you are aware , it is a testing time for India . Crisis after crisis are coming but people are facing all the challenges without losing hope .

Here is an update on the project activities during the past three months……    

Smart phone brought smiles on children’s face ..

With the outbreak of COVID -19 Pandemic , our schools in rural and urban areas have switched to virtual learning or blended learning mode for children . People have understood the value of smart phones not only for using Social media or using various useful Apps . Availability of a Smart phone at home is like ‘the school coming to the doorstep of children’ . However, there are many children who don’t have access to a basic phone at home , leave alone a smart phone. In our project areas too we have many such children who have been deprived of education altogether for more than a year now . Some school teachers have taken some effort to pay home visits to such children to hand over some study material.

Providing smart phones to all needy families is not possible due to funding limitation but we have provided smart phones to some extremely poor children in one of our remote locations- the Govt Upper Primary School in Thottuvathala in Rural Kerala . The children were overjoyed and the parents expressed their heartfelt thanks to all the donors like YOU who have made it possible .

Arrival of new library books in the school library .

Another initiative to enliven interest of children in school is adding many more story books in the school library . Two schools- Government High School in Kuppapuram & SNDP High School in Kuttamangalam – were supported to add more than 300 books in the library and children who stay near the school come to the school to read or take books home. The Schools are exploring some ways to reach out to more students. 

School material support to needy children    

98 needy students from the above schools were supported for school materials . Though we used to purchase books and stationary and distribute, this year we have changed the mode of support for maintaining COVID Protocol . We have transferred cash to their bank account so that the children can purchase school material as per their need from the local vendor .

Bonding with children through phone calls and ‘ Google meet’

The Pandemic has made it difficult for us to meet children at school or home but our social workers continued to engage with children through ‘ Google meet’. Some time it is for conducting some informative session while some ‘meets’ were simply to have fun activities . This helped our team to bond with children even though they are not meeting them personally .

Our sincere thanks to YOU for your support. Requesting you to promote our project amongst your friends and relatives so that we can raise more funds to help many more needy children.