Education NGOs in India - Segmentation / Big Picture

A few weeks ago, i had met Dr.Balaji Sampath , to understand the 'Big Picture' in the Education NGO space in India. It helped me get a lot of clarity on the way forward for Deepam

According to him there are 3 models working well in India, presently

1. Asha / Aid ( US Chapter) - Fundraising organisations - they primarily raise money. their impact measured by the number of organisations they support - For example : 200 orgs supported in India in 2009 etc
2. Pudiyador / Sukrupa - Centre running orgs - They ensure Kids come to class. They hire teachers or invite volunteer orgs to teach. They are supported by fundraising orgs. Measure of impact - no of kids reached out, improvement in their standards
3. Content Orgs - Eureka books / Pratham books - These orgs primarily focus on curriculum . They research on the best content / curriculum and provide this for free / at a low cost to NGO's

• The 4th type of Organisation - he says are slowly emerging - Deepam is one such. They go out and teach the kids in a focussed way. They can take content from 'content orgs' , go teach at 'centre running orgs' , which are funded byFundraising orgs

According to him, the value that Deepam has created is enormous - So far, the NGO space has been missing "consistency" and "focus" among the volunteer teachers. Someone going to a centre at the alloted time and teach the kids, a specific subject. He says this is quite rare and wanted us to build on what we have created so far.

He says when all 4 of the above is done by 1 organisation in the social sector, everything goes for a toss. Balaji has tried doing all of this in his initial days and failed. Finally, he decided to focus on content and content development.

Anyone here has a better way to segment the Education NGOs in India ? Would love to hear from you.

Kimba, the Tigerrr

The spirit of the childrens day celebrations is captured very well in this video !! Srini, our creative guy, has made an awesome video . The spring in the step....

( if you zoom in to 'bridge the divide', you will find a collage of Deepam Childrens day Celebration pics )

Check out www.deepam.org.in

India Today - Newsmakers 2009

India Today has an anniversary 'Youth Special' this week on 'Newsmakers 2009' - They had chosen Archana and me, on behalf of Deepam. The group is shaping up pretty well, with contributions from a number of volunteers. They, truly, are our strength. Expect more to come out of Deepam, in the coming days / months / years... check out www.deepam.org.in

Curiosity , 2nd year at Deepam and 1st mail

The first mail to Deepam ( bridgethedivide) , sent about a year ago. 

'Imparting Curiosity' will be the big theme at Deepam, for 09 / 10.

cheers

kk

Hello Friends,

I look at the last 10 months of my life , since i decided to throw away my "comfortable" job and start-up on my own, and i realise all i that i required was just a few thousand rupees and a dependable computer . I would like to add that i would have bet on my computer more than the few thousand rupees i had, for the few thousands vanished quickly . But my computer stayed with me, ON all days and a lot of nights. And surely, it helped me make much more than the few thousands i had initially. 

On every single day, the last thing i do is to walk away to the bed shutting off the laptop and the first thing i do is, not difficult to guess, run to the computer. ( Most of us .. am sure all of us in this group , probably follow the same routine. )

When i went to school ( now seems ages ago, 8 years ago ), the single most important gift my teachers ( Dad was the best and some teachers in school ) gave me and my school buddies was the imparting of CURIOSITY. They made us dream. They made us curious about object around us. They made us ask questions. I wasn't the smartest guy in my class . But i was always curious about things around me. When i heard about BITS ( and the stories my school principal told us about my school seniors who went to BITS and their success ), it inspired me to work for the entry into the great insitution. There were some amazing teachers during my school days without whom i would've got stuck in a much smaller world.. the dream-less world.

I live quite close to a Govt. school and i pass by that school quite often. A hundred + smiling innocent faces spend the crucial initial years of their life in that institution. With due respects to the teachers in that school ( and other Govt. Schools ), i wonder how many of these energetic kids are transformed into a curious, inspired student.. for a lifetime. 

What did these kids do to deserve this "moulding" ( if you can call it that ) ? What did i do to receive such close attention and care from my teachers ? We talk of earning/deserving what we want / get . But when i was young, as a kid , what did i do to earn the great education i had in school ? Nothing. We talk of equality but where is equality when it is needed the most - at the begining of the life of these kids. They need someone to bring curiousity to them. They need someone to teach them to dream. They need someone to open their minds. They need some great teachers and the great teachers.. as i realise, are great friends.

Now put all these together... and we start this initiative - bridge the divide ( DEEPAM ) - An initiative that will help the kids in Govt. schools / kids who are under-priveleged ( living in slums ) to become curious about computers.

The idea / impetus came out of a discussion between Ram Viswanathan ( someone i look up to ), who is the founder of chennairunners ( a group that helps spread fitness and specially running in chennai ), and me after a morning run. Ram had been a great mentor ( in other words, a great friend ) from whom i walk away having learnt something new, everytime i meet with him. His passion to do good things, his vision and his mentorship will be really valuable to all of us as we begin this journey.

In the next few days, we can try to get as many passionate people to help us get started on this initiative. We need a lot of helping hands. Volunteers can help in a number of ways - teach / inspire the kids , talk to corporates and get computers that are discarded, talk to schools and organise classes and many many more.

If you know someone who will be interested, i request you to bring them into this google group ( http://groups.google.com/group/bridgethedivide ).

If you have ideas ( be it on corp funding / getting computers from Corps, teaching or anything at all ) , just mail in.

Stay Curious

kk

Deepam - The Journey Begins

Archana has made a video , capturing the 'start' of the Deepam Journey. Please take a look and spread word

Deepam 1st Anniversary Celebrations

"I have not seen a bunch of kids as happy and contented as these kids are " mentioned Rahul Nayar, as he observed the kids at the Deepam 1st anniversary celebrations. The life of Deepam, these kids made the anniversay a very special day for all of us, who were present at the celebrations. The Nalamdana centre at the olcott kuppam , venue for the event, was charged with enthusiasm and energy - thanks to the kids, the chief guests and the volunteers.

The MC's for the event, Basu and Meera, keeping the kids engaged..

We had a special person talking to these kids on Saturday - Sarath Babu - He was truly 'one of them' . As he stood in front , sharing his rags to riches story, one could see the kids getting inspired. The room went silent , as the kids and the volunteers were in rapt attention.

Sarath interacting with the kids

Kiruba, the other chief guest, in his usual way , engaged the kids with an interesting story and conveyed a nice 'life-lesson' across.

It was a year ago, when Ram , our mentor, suggested we go to govt schools and teach kids there. His point was simple - 'Lets start small , 2 or 3 of us can go teach at a local school but the focus should be on making an impact ' . Since then, he not only taught the kids, but the volunteers as well.

Kids presenting a memento to Ram

Ram announced a scholarship program for kids - 5 deserving kids ( Deepam Stars ) will get all their education expense covered for 2009-2010.

The anniversary cake , cut by the kids

We also had performances from kids - Nalamdana Centre girls mellifluously sang a popular tamil song

These kids can sure shake a leg..

All the winners of the cultural events were awarded medals. Kids got participation certificates as well.

Its the volunteers , who work tirelessly, who have helped Deepam make an impact. They were awarded certificates as well. Anupama's commitment to pudhiyador center is outstanding.
Meera who comes to Chennai every weekend, from Bangalore - She and her husband Vijay, teach on saturdays and sundays, every weekend

Archana, who puts in a lot of energy and helped build Deepam, gets the certificate from Ram

The start has been good - The 1st year flew by. It can only get better !

A big thanks to all the kids and the volunteers !

P.S More photos can be found here http://picasaweb.google.co.in/chauhanarchu/DeepamFirstAnniversary#

Support Education - Vote for Deepam

An Essay and a Film on Deepam is in the running for the National Knowledge Commission Prize. Essay / Film talks about how Deepam is solving some of the problems in Indian Education System.

Your vote will make a BIG difference - Support Deepam / Support Education

Apart from the quality of the essay / Film, the judging criterion for

• Essay - No of Votes / Rating of the essay
• Film - No of views / Rating of the Video

How can you support :

• Please vote / rate the essay here ( please create a login for knowledge portal )

http://knowledgeportal.in/contests/node/290

• Please View / Rate the video here ( to rate, please sign-in to youtube ) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imvkeqnfaXI

Please spread word ( twitter / facebook / gtalk ) - request all your friends to support Deepam and help spread education. Please vote ASAP.

Thanks

Friends of Deepam

Idea # 7 - Flash Visuals of Concepts to aid Teaching

Problem : I was teaching the kids at Deepam , the concept of 'Force' , some months ago. I had prepared 4 simple examples t0 help students understand , better. I used the blackboard , 'told' them examples - Didn't help them much to 'visualize'. 

I got a couple of kids to 'enact' what i was 'saying' - the kids were able to understand easily. So, clearly, the problem is with 'teaching methods'.

Solution : Develop flash visuals for all concepts from the LKG to Class 12 and beyond.

If someone is aware of any free content on the web, please do let me know.

Harvard Model and Deepam

How does Harvard attract the best of the best students to study there ? Most of us ( definitely, i thought ) would think the big boys at Harvard would have it easy - the best students fight to get in there ( similar to the IIT situation ).

I was WRONG - This business week article shows why .

Harvard admin / professors / alumni go all out and scout for the best talent to study at Harvard. Machine ( computer) involvement is so minimal. Its this personal touch to the whole effort, that brings the best of the best to study at Harvard. Am quoting Mr.Fitzsimmons, the Dean , here "What we aim to do is to get the very best faculty together with the very best students," he says. "Our hope is that these synergies will develop the talents of these students to a much greater degree and that they will then give back a lot more to America and the world." 

Am thinking Deepam should aim to ' Bring the best volunteer effort , with a good infrastructure / technology and enable the underprivileged kids become the best students '

Its possible... with a personal touch :)

Deepam - Collaborative Painting

 Deepam 1st Anniversary celebrations kicked off with a ‘Collaborative Painting Workshop’ on Saturday and Sunday. Students at 3 of our centres – Olcott School , Pudiyathor and Besant Nagar Community center had a lot of fun splashing the colors on the canvas. Over 40 students participated in this activity. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely - their creativity and team work was on display as they turned the blank canvas into a piece of art .

A big thanks to Archana and Balaji - They helped take this concept from an 'Idea on Paper' to 'Painting on Canvas' !! They planned this event well, from buying the right materials / coming up with a 'workable theme' to coordinating with the other volunteers and kids, to ensure the event was a success. Thanks to all the volunteers, who worked along with the kids , got their hands dirty with the paint and brought shape to the painting. 

Here are some of the pictures 

2 for 4 ( Continued )

I wrote about 2 for 4 here http://karthikeyan-kk.blogspot.com/2008/08/2-for-4.html

I had planned to run the Chennai Marathon in Sep 08 and Singapore Marathon in Dec 08, to raise money for Deepam. Chennai Marathon was DONE -http://karthikeyan-kk.blogspot.com/2008/09/chennai-marathon-2008.html. But couldn't practise / run the Singapore in Dec 08. 

Am running the Auroville Half Marathon ( 21 km ) on Feb 15 2009, to complete the 2 for 4 project. 2 weeks ago, running even a 2 km was proving to be difficult, because of a knee injury. Some resting / stretching has helped me recover . This morning, i did a 21 km and i should be able to do the 21 km at Auroville, comfortably.

Here is the appeal again -

2 for 4 : Through these 2 runs, i wish to raise 4 lakh rupees - this money will be utilised to get computers, Internet connection and reading material for the kids. We wish to place the computers permanently at the locations we teach - Govt. Schools, Slums and orphanages.

I request you to support me in this effort - If you can donate / spread word about the program, i would really appreciate it.

Please do get in touch with me, if you can support in some way.

A Short Movie on 'Deepam'

Archana and Vidya had made a short movie on Deepam. This was presented at a conference in Chennai last week. Can be found here as well http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=bUdVOjJc1lI

My Best 26th B'day Gift

The greatest satisfaction and happiness comes out of making some real impact with the things we do - Ever since i quit my regular job, the need to make a real impact is what drives me largely, to do things that i do now.

So, when Meera , an active volunteer at Deepam, e-mailed this on our e-group, it was a huge boost to the small effort a bunch of us had made thus far at Deepam ( Despite, me knowing that Meera was being a bit nice to us :), given her talents )

Here is the mail

Subject : How Deepam landed me ( Meera ) a scholarship

" The interview went well, but there were a couple of determining factors. Here's how - 

Interviewer- So Meera, your work ex all seems ok. Also, we sometimes need to use complex software which is unknown to us. Right from our faculty, to the staff and students, we might need some instructing to use the software.

Have you ever had a chance where you taught people to use new software or technologies? 

Meera -This is really exciting. I, in fact really love teaching, especially computers/software. 

' I gave them a brief gist of Deepam and what we do here. I told her that we are a small group working to make literacy for lesser privileged children a reality. That we, apart from teaching them to use computers,also try to work on so many concurrent things like building their english, trying to get materials ready,and setting up a system for them, give certificates, encourage them to questions, read up on news.. etc '' 

She ( Interviewer ) was very impressed. 

Finally, this is what she ( Interviewer ) said - These kids, am sure are smart, and catch these software and concepts real quick. If you can teach lesser privileged kids, you surely need to stretch a bit more and be patient with our faculty and students here, and I'm sure you can teach them too. This is a really good job you are doing here. 

This came from the head of the department! Considering that this department is a behavioral science department, they were all the more impressed, and knew the impact of such voluntary work in the society. They told me they'd keep me informed about the position after the weekend. But, they gave me a call 30 minutes after the interview and told me I got the position. I was elated. 

The Deepam factor sure gave me a definite edge over the others.

I know working in Deepam gives immense satisfaction, but additionally for me, it helped in landing me a job + assistantship :) :)  "

Thanks Meera !!

That was the best b'day gift i got , this year ! ( Yes, i turned 26 last week :) )

2 for 4

"If you want to run, run the 100 metre race. If you want to experience something, run the marathon" - Emil Zatopek

Can't agree more with this great Czech runner's words. The marathon experience , when contrasted with my 100 metre experience, has so much more to offer to life - the friendships, the lessons, the 'collective' high's , the opportunity to run and raise money for a cause and many more. The last aspect of Marathon running is something am mailing on here -

A bunch of us are working on 'Deepam' - A program to take computers to underprivileged kids in Govt. Schools , Slums and Orphanages. More about the group can be found here www.deepam.in . It has been a fascinating journey for us in the last 7 months - Taking 'Deepam' from just an idea to teaching 40 kids every weekend in Chennai, right now. Personally, the class is something i look forward to - 2 hours of being friends with the little kids, answering their questions , learning from them and experiencing a high - to witness 'Deepam' connect with the kids and seeing them take to computers with curiosity !

Am running the Chennai Half - Marathon on Aug 31st 2008 and the Singapore Marathon in Dec 2008 . In addition to finishing these runs in less than 2 hours & 10 mins and 5 hours, i wish to raise money for the Deepam activities through these runs.

2 for 4 : Through these 2 runs, i wish to raise 4 lakh rupees - this money will be utilised to get computers, Internet connection and reading material for the kids. We wish to place the computers permanently at the locations we teach - Govt. Schools, Slums and orphanages.

I request you to support me in this effort - If you can donate / spread word about the program, i would really appreciate it.

Please do get in touch with me, if you can support in some way.

Thanks
kk

( karthikeyan dot vijayakumar at gmail dot com )
+91 9884217276

The Connect !

The Connect is a 'high' - Like the dancing the right moves to the beat , timing the ball perfectly well with the cricket bat , Pacing a 15 km run well over the course and sprinting to the finish, picking the right song for that car drive at night, packing the right "to-do's" in a day - never too much or little , business meetings going the way we'd prepared for and many more.

Yesterday i found a few more connects and high's during the Deepam class at Olcott School.

• The kid we taught at the school trying to reply in English - His Tamil response and the sentence being translated and formulated in English by him ( and the joy on his face when we said he was right !! )
  
• This other kid ( after being "talked to " by me ) going back to his computer and working along with his team mates and helping them with tricks of using Word processor
• The class listening to Basu teach them and stopping him to ask questions !

The little joys on saturday afternoon !

Deepam on Times of India !!!

It was nice to see Deepam featured in the Times of India paper on 14th July 08. The big goal for our group is to positively affect 1000 kids by 2010. Media mentions such as this will surely help us gather more support in the goal chase !

Here is the online article. If you want to know more about Deepam, please go to www.deepam.in

Deepam Starts off the 2nd program

Friends,

Please check www.deepam.in , for the post on the latest program.

Am also posting here...

Deepam started off its 2nd computer program at Besant Nagar. Thanks to Nalamdana, we have a clean place (with a great view of the sea ) where we teach the kids, at the Olcott Kuppam area.

Start Date : May 24 , 2008
Place : Olcott Kuppam, Besant Nagar
Class : Saturdays - 2 PM to 4 PM
Duration : 4 Months

Ram lead the class, taking the kids through an interesting path, trying to get the kids to open up and ask questions. He began by getting the kids to talk about the dreams and openly encouraging the kids to go after the dreams.


In a subtle way, he was making the kids think , leading them into areas they have never been before - the master at work ! It was a lesson for not just the kids - for us volunteers as well !! From thirukural to tamil movies, civil engineering to animation, input / output devices to MS Paint, the kids were taken through an interesting session.

The kids then had their "hands-on" session - they let their creativity free on MS Paint. It sure was a happy feeling to see the kids hooked on to the laptop, exploring MS Paint - they probably know more tricks with the tool than many of us do !!!



Personally, the class is a source of great joy . The times spent with the happy kids just whizz past ! Every time in the last 2 weeks, i had gone on near empty gas ( late night work .. ) but came out of the session charged up. The kids' energy levels rub off on us !! Their smartness keeps us on our toes . The class' also serve as a way to discover myself as a person - it teaches me to be patient all the time . This is a class where learnings happen both sides - both the volunteers and the kids learn :)

If you guys have the time, just feel free to drop in during the class / volunteer to teach .

thanks

kk