“Thebestway to predict thefuture is to create it.”AbrahamLincoln
Wings of Doon is an after school program that reinforces education. It raises the bar.
Presently, Aasraa, with the support of all friends and donors, has 1879 children across 14 after school support projects under Wings of Doon program for mainstreamed students in Dehradun.
Wings program aims to provide conceptual and curriculum support to children who live in slums where they have no desks to study at, no lamps to read under and no one to answer their questions when they don’t understand something. No child can study when he is sick or hungry. Nutrition and medical care are integral parts of the proposed program. We provide adequate nutrition ranging from a fruit, a glass of milk to hot meals. Our dedicated medical team ensures that all children in our programs are healthy and are given necessary healthcare support.
Eight out of the fourteen Wings projects run in government schools. In two government schools we run the program through a mutual agreement with the school management and other six schools comes under an MOU between Aasraa Trust and Department of Education – Uttarakhand to improve the quality of education and resources available in a select group of 6 Government schools in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Program is called School Quality Enhancement Program (SQEP). The incredible potential of improving Government school’s infrastructure, training teachers to use updated teaching methodology, improving TLM and using Computer Aided learning to impact the learning levels of these underprivileged children is enormous.
The aim of this program is to show, using a sample selection of schools, how this intervention can seriously impact and improve the enrolment, attendance and learning level of children by providing additional resources including additional teachers and outreach staff, capacity building, Teaching and Learning Materials TLM), Computers & Computer Aided Learning (CAL).
Recently, an impact assessment format has also been designed and implemented to measure the difference between school class room learning and the Wings after school support programs. It measures both conceptual understanding and retention.
We see the positive impact every day as school results continue to improve and our children have started to excel at their studies.
Thank you for your incredible support which is helping our children soar towards excellence.
Aasraa aims to empower the most vulnerable children in Dehradun to help shape their lives and give them a meaningful existence. These children have always been treated like liabilities, we hope to help them become assets, for themselves and for the society. We bring them in, with the help of our Outreach team and help them achieve basic literacy through our Street Smart centers. With dedicated help from our teachers and relentless hard work from the children, we help them mainstream into regular schools.
Our children come from some of the most poverty ridden areas of the city which makes it hard for them to have an environment at home that is conducive to learning. They live in cramped quarters with no electricity or a desk. They lack adult guidance for academics, at home. All this essentially leads to poor understanding of concepts which take a toll on their performance in classrooms. That’s where Aasraa’s program Wings comes in. We give them teachers, proper nutrition, love and encouragement to learn to their heart’s content. With the right environment, a child can thrive and that’s what we aspire to provide these children with.
The most exciting among the recent developments at Aasraa is the triumvirate partnership between Aasraa Trust, The Education Alliance and the Government of Uttarakhand. This gives us the opportunity to convert these under-performing government schools in centers of quality education. This project, School Quality Enhancement Program(SQEP) has helped us enhance the quality of education for the students already enrolled in these schools, as well as the out of school children that Aasraa have mainstreamed to them. The six government schools that come under this particular project are all running our program Wings after the school hours. With over 700 students enrolled under the wings program in these schools, -- have been mainstreamed from Aasraa. We are brimming with pride for our students who are showing constant improvement every day.
Wings program is mandatory for all mainstreamed slum and street children to attend, so we at Aasraa can make sure that they don’t lose track of their progress with their curriculum. This block of time after school provides them with guidance and support for homework and conceptual understanding.
With the amalgamation of technology with traditional forms of learning, we aim to improve computer literacy. The children are eager to use android tablets and computers in our Computer Aided Learning(CAL) classes, that we have been able to provide them for the classes because of our generous donors.
Annual examinations are just around the corner. Every student begins to stress out at this time of the year. Course completion and multiple revisions become the utmost priorities. Aasraa children are no different than others. They also reel under the pressure of examination, especially the board class papers.
Every year, we see how our children struggle to cope with the fast-paced learning environment of regular schools. Promoting them to a higher class is not our only objective; we want our children to have a clear understanding of the subject matter. We want to see them growing into confident individuals who dare to dream and are determined to reach greater heights in life.
This is where our after school support program “Wings of Doon” has played a crucial role. The remedial classes have done wonders for our children by adding immense value to their learning abilities. During examinations, these classes help us to reduce the stress that hover around our children’s minds. The education team at Aasraa prepares them to write their papers with full concentration and commitment.
Students are supported to-
We also counsel and encourage them to stay positive. It is important that they believe in themselves and their potential to perform well in exams.
To keep our students’ passing percentage high, Aasraa has recently introduced the concept of “Rising Stars”. We have created separate sections for students who are lagging behind and need extra attention. Counselling, guidance and motivational talks are the main pillars of this concept. Teachers dedicate special time and efforts to improve the performance of our Rising Stars. The increasing number of students successfully passing the exams every year are portraying our success story.
This year, 1,015 Aasraa students will appear for their annual examination. Thirty and twelve students will write their 10th and 12th board exams respectively.
We really appreciate your generosity in supporting Aasraa and her children. Your unwavering support strengthens our capacity to hand-hold more marginalized street and slum students.
Aasraa combines traditional teaching with modern technology. Our Computer Aided Learning program improvises and enhances the learning methodologies that we adopt for our slum and street children. We have noticed that access to easy, audio and visual learning tools has resulted in better retention of concepts and improved levels of understanding among children.
The relentless support from our donors like you have only strengthened the roots of our mission. As we step up for bigger goals in the coming new year, we consider it equally vital to review the impact of some of our recent introductions in our projects.
Unnayan Shiksha Kendra (USK), a school with limited resources, is located in the heart of one of Dehradun’s oldest and most crowded slum areas. Aasraa has been using the school premises to run one of its after school ‘Wings of Doon’ projects for the last 4 years.
The USK Wings project currently has an enrolment of 224 children (105 girls, 119 boys).
In April 2018, we set up a New Computer Centre at USK. Equipped with 15 computers, the centre has become an important medium to expose our children to technology and advanced learning tools. The classes in computer education are conducted every day. Basic concepts and applications of computer system are covered for classes 1-8.
In September 2018, we introduced the Tablets-based learning program at USK with 20 android tablets. The availability of affordable tablets has made it easier to use high quality e-learning materials with students while promoting self-paced learning. It brings about a transition towards a classroom being student-centric, with the teacher as a guide-by-the-side, in addition to his traditional roles.
The tablets are currently being used by students of class 5 and 6 for 1 hour every day. Hello English! App provides a simple lesson-based progress model where students solve various questions/quizzes that help them with everyday conversational English.
The impact of digital learning has undoubtedly added enormous value to our program. Children are grasping new concepts better through this audio-visual mode. Learning has become fun for them. Their grades are improving and we’re delighted to see our children, confident and smiling as they flaunt their wings of independence.
All is owed to our generous donors and well-wishers like you who have always rendered their valuable support to us. The unending encouragement we receive from you helps us strengthen our programs for our lovely children.
Aasraa continues to spread its wings across Dehradun. We have now 9 after school support projects impacting almost 1,300 children.
As excited as we are to benefit a greater number of children, we understand that it is equally important to do regular impact assessment of our programs. The Wings of Doon program at Aasraa combines the traditional teaching methodology and modern technology. Our implementation of Computer Aided Learning (CAL) is simple – interactive, colourful and high-quality teaching programs and e-learning materials used on large TV Screens, individual computers and hand-held tablets. This type of education instantly captures the imagination of the children, making learning fun.
Our constant endeavor is to offer quality education to our children. The difference in their learning levels significantly influence our teaching strategies and how we can improve to maximize our impact.
In May 2018, we initiated our first impact assessment study to:
Sample of students selected for this analysis is based on following parameters:
The results of the study, expected to come out by the end of September 2018, will enable us to gauge the grasp of children at the Wings program and improvise our teaching methods to ensure that they have clear understanding of the subject matter.
In 2018, 10 children sat their 12th Board Exams out of which 4 boys have cleared the State Polytechnic exam with ranking in the top 1000 and are now enrolled at polytechnic colleges. 4 of tomorrow’s leaders; shaped by Wings of Doon.
We attribute our progress and achievements to the valuable support of our donors and well wishers like you. Your kind contributions and encouragement have enabled us to continue building our programs for the betterment of all marginalized children under Aasraa’s umbrella.
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