August 17, 2009

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for all your help during Alive and Learning Challenge. The challenge ended on 14th August and our project 'Send a child in India to school for a year' has won the first prize of raising most donations. We are very grateful for your generous contribution and help to Seva Mandir.

We raised a total of £ 5,605 with 28 donors. Since we raised the biggest amount of donations among all the other participants our project has won the bonus prize of £ 1000 too.

So the total raise is £ 6,605. This money will be helpful to ensure schooling for over 275 children for a year. Thank you so very much for your valuable support. It would have been not possible without your support.

In addition, our project has been selected for other promotional programs by Global Giving. It means, our project has a better chance to raise more support and awareness about children's education. The following link would be of some interest to you - http://www.globalgiving.com/dy/fundraiser/prevfund/gg.html?regid=2218

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks from all of us here at Seva Mandir. It has been your generous support and deep faith that we are able to work with these children and for their education. I will be posting more stories and updates on this program. Many thanks once again. We would be very happy to hear any feedback from you.

With kindest regards,

Deepti
deepti@sevamandir.org

August 13, 2009

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continuing support to our programs. I am writing to share with you a bit of news.

Seva Mandir has recently won a Development Marketplace Grant Competition, organized by the Word Bank. The competition was exclusively for grassroots initiatives in South Asia to address the problem of undernutrition.

The Seva Mandir's project on 'Addressing Iron Deficiency Anemia in Rural Rajasthan through Iron Fortification of Flour at Village Level' was one of the 21 projects that won the competition in Development Marketplace.

We are all very excited at this achievement. If you have any queries on this project then please do write to me.

We are very happy to share this news with you. Thank you for all your support and contributions. We really appreciate it.

With warm regards,


Deepti
deepti@sevamandir.org

July 30, 2009

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you very much for your huge support during Alive & Learning Challenge. As you might have noticed that we are at the top position with £ 2,477 and a total of 14 donors.

The challenge will be ending on 14th August and we hope that we will be able to receive the bonus prize too. Many many thanks once again.

My colleague Megha who is closely associated with Non Formal Education Centers program has given a brief update, which she wants to share with you. “We run 202 NFE centers in which now we have 17 women teachers. It is a quite encouraging because in our region women literacy rates are considerably low. The centers are run in village houses which are mud-houses and the roofs are covered with mud tiles. Hence these houses are very dark. In some centers we have provided the fiber-roofs that are good for providing enough light and are rain-proof. Children are excited to have such roofs.”

During one of the parents-teachers bimonthly meeting one parent said – “For us to come to the center sit and talk to teacher and to see that our kids study is a really amazing opportunity." Another parent said – “We thank Maar Saab (teacher) for calling us here and teaching us at our village. In the past we could avail of these opportunities, as it was not close to my house. I really wished for a teacher in my village for me when I was small.”

Megha and her team is also working on developing new Flash Cards, Resource Material for English and improving teachers-parents meetings

I hope you find this feedback useful. We would like to communicate our heartfelt thanks to all of you for your kind support.

With warm regards,

Deepti
deepti@sevamandir.org

July 16, 2009

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you very much for your continuing support. It is encouraging to see all of our friends and well wishers to support children’s education. I was reading somewhere in our annual reports of last year that about 30% 6-14 years of children in the areas where Seva Mandir works are out of school. It is very heartbreaking. The census of 2001 shows that the literacy rates of Udaipur is merely 59%.

What education means in today’s time, we all know but there are certain areas in the world where children do not have access to quality education for various reasons. Poverty, social constraints, physical access and quality of services are some of the reasons.

Recently, our first Seasonal Residential Learning Camp finished. The camp is another Education effort of Seva Mandir for children who are deprived of education. The camps cater to working children between 7-15 years old age group. Often these children have either never been to schools or have dropped out at a very early stage due to non-comprehension or bad experience in the schools.

I have come across to an interesting piece of writing, written by a boy who has simply learnt how to express his feelings in writing. It is amazing to note that he learnt to write with comprehension only in 50 days. The teacher asked students to complete a story with the help of a picture and two introductory lines.

I am quoting here his (Vahta Ram) story. I hope you will enjoy reading what he has imagined in this story.

“Once upon there was a mango tree. There was one mango on it. A boy was also thinking of eating the mango. He was thinking of dropping the mango. A boy threw a stone and mango was dropped on the ground and a crow picked it up and flew away. The boy hit the crow with a stone and the crow crashed to the ground. A girl picked it and while she was washing her face and the mango sat on her plate. A squirrel picked it up and went to a tree and dropped it into a nest and the eggs of the crow were broken and little babies came out and started crying. The crow followed the squirrel and took away the mango from her. The mango fell down on an old man’s turban who was sitting down the tree. Two rabbits and two boys and the crow came to the old man. The girl took the mango away, so the crow and rabbits and squirrel were very sad. The girl ran away with the mango and everyone was very sad. So the boy and crow followed her to fight with her but she ate away the mango, all right!”

With such sparkling little progress, it enforces our faith in our work. And when we receive support for our programs from people like you it further help deepen our faith and increases the chances of bright future for these children.

Thank you for all your support and helping thousands of children’s education. We very much hope that we will be able to raise huge support in Alive and Learning Challenge too.

We would be very happy if you have any feedback or suggestions to share.

Thank you once again.

With warm regards,

Deepti
deepti@sevamandir.org

July 15, 2009

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

First of all, a very big thank you for your continued support to our rural school project.

As you may all know Seva Mandir is participating in Alive & Learning Challenge this July starting from 15th. We are participating with your favorite project ‘Send a child in India to school’. If we raise £ 2000 until the 15th of August 2009 then this project will be a featured project on Global Giving home page. If we could raise the most donations, we will have a bonus prize of £ 1000. If we get most number of donors then we will have an additional £ 250. That means we have to raise a minimum of £ 2000.

This challenge will help us to reach out to more donors who wish to contribute towards children’s education. It will also allow us to spread awareness of education scenario in our region.

The literacy rate of our region is much lower about 59% but together we can help improve this figure by sending more children to schools. It takes only £ 24 to send one child to school for one year. With this programme we are reaching to 5000 out-of-school children in rural areas of our region every year. Most of them are girl children. Your support will ensure their regular schooling.

Please tell all you family and friends to help promote education of the out of school tribal children.

Thank once again for your time and support. I will be posting updates on this project regularly. For questions, please do contact me at deepti@sevamandir.org

With warm regards and we all look forward to your support.

Deepti

Namaste
I am priyanka from seva mandir. I have been with seva mandir for 11 years now. I have headed health and education programs of seva mandir. Non formal education program is the largest and the most successful part of our education program.
Seva mandir attempts to ensure quality education to very poor children of remote areas. Precisely because these are very disadvantaged children the learning experience must be one which the children enjoy and find meaningful. Else they will very easily stop studying. The process of learning is made enjoyable and meaningful by making sure that children have plenty of opportunity to read, think, question and argue. The focus is to allowing children to undertake a task in groups and individually. Where they have to apply their minds and not just repeat what the teacher has said. It is ensured that the children are actually learning and not memorizing. After all real knowledge and understanding leads to a happier childhood; satisfy teachers and empower citizens. All this has been possible because of your support and the confidence you proposed in us. A very warm and heartfelt thank you on behalf of Seva Mandir and the numerous children whose lives you have influenced.
Thank you once again.

The video is available on the following link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtXETqw3CdY

May 19, 2009

Dear friends,

First of all, thank you for supporting us ever!

I have some quick news to share. In April end (22nd and 23rd) Margaret and John from Global Giving visited Seva Mandir Projects. We took them around and showed them our work in four villages. We exchanged a lot of ideas and learnt a lot about each other.

During their time here we visited our Pre School Center, Rural School, Immunization Camp, Dal Mill Project (Profit for poor), Village Library and Pastureland Development. They both found these programs very interesting but our meeting with one of the Fellows (Fellowship Project) – Jawan Singh in Barawa village was a special highlight for all of us.

We had lunch with Jawan Singh. It was a very hot day but we all were very happy to be able to wash our feet by a dug-well which still has lots of water. The water in this well is a result of our soil and water conservation work in this village. Margaret and John were very impressed to see our efforts and the strong leadership that has emerged over the years. Jawan Singh is a one such leaders. He is currently a Vikas Mitra Fellow (Fellowship Program). He took us around and showed all the activities that took place over the years. He also explained the caste struggle of his village to Margaret and John.

There were two more striking episodes occurred.

One is – when we visited the village library in Medi village – we met the teacher – Ram Lal who runs the library. He told us that he has 6 kids whose names are after countries like – America, Japan, India, and England etc. We were amused to note that ‘America is married now’.

Another incident – when we were interacting with children in our Rural School in Ushan village, the villagers came to meet the guests. The villagers asked several questions to John and Margaret including – what crops do they grow in America, if they also have a hilly terrain, if the rains are frequent and adequate in their country, what is the mean age of marriage in America etc.

Then, an old man asked if they knew – where the Sun goes in the night and that why sometimes the moon is full and sometimes not???

The people in villages were so happy to have guests. But they were so happy to be able to interact with them. Their innocent questions indicate that they have a desire to learn things and that, they are confident to ask questions.

John and Margaret answered to all these questions very patiently and they both appreciated the fact that they were able to interact with villagers other than development issues.

A very big thank you Margaret and John – it was very nice meeting you and learning all the innovating ways of raising funds, you are trying. We all are very happy meeting you and we appreciate all your support and help that you and your entire team provide us time to time.

I am also taking the opportunity to thank all our friends who have been supporting us through Global Giving. The appreciation we received from Margaret and John for our work is also a result of support from people like you. Thank you once again for all your support.

Do let us know if you like this feedback.

Thank you,

With warm regards,

Deepti

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you for your continuing support to our programs. I am writing to share with you some good news. On 27th March 2009 Seva Mandir was awarded the first prize ‘The CSO partner’s Outstanding Annual Report Award 2009’ for our Annual Report 07-08 in the category of Large Organizations. The criterion to win the prize was to have transparent accounts, its disclosures in the report and its ability to communicate well (i.e. readable and understandable for readers).

Such awards and appreciation of our work is the result of many people’s contribution towards our work and mission. Therefore, your support and guidance is one of main attributes of this appreciation. You can find more details about this our website www.sevamandir.org and to view our annual report please visit the following link - http://www.sevamandir.org/publications.htm

Many thanks once again for all your support and love. I will be soon in touch with updates on programs you are supporting.

With warm regards,


Deepti

January 17, 2009

Dear Friend,

New Year Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you very much for your continued supported. I am Deepti and I look after the Reporting and Communication Program in Seva Mandir. I will be staying in touch with you regularly to keep you updated about the program that you have been supporting.

We feel immense pleasure to inform you that our project ‘Send a child in India to School for 1 year’ was the top 5 most active projects last week on GlobalGiving!

This has only been possible because of the support from people like you. Thank You very much for keeping your faith in our work and encouraging us every time. We are indeed very fortunate to have you as our friend.

With this great news, I would also like to share with you an interesting episode that took place in December 2008. I was taking a group of visitors from St. Christopher School, England. We share a very special relationship with them. They have been supporting some of our program for past many years and have contributed in designing the pedagogy we use in schools.

The visit to Sagwada village was planned particularly because a couple of years ago we bought a few reading/writing tables with a donation from St. Christopher School for children in school of Sagwada village. We thought it would be great for them to see how the tables are being used by children in that school. The children sit in a group while studying and together use the table for reading, writing, drawing etc.

When we arrived the teacher was teaching English to his students. He picked up a bunch of flash cards and started asking each child to name the picture on flash card in English. Every child was able to name the picture in English but to our surprise they were also able to spell each name in English correctly.

It is very impressing as it has only been a few months last year that we have provided the teachers with trainings to teach English in schools. Many of these teachers have not been to University but their ability to learn and teach with great dedication is amazing. Likewise, the dedication with which the children have learnt their lessons is also incredible. We were all very impressed at this.

I very much hope that you find this feedback and photos in Photo Gallery useful.

Thank you to all of you for making it possible for us to share these incredible stories with you. Please feel free to contact me in case of any query or information.

With warm regards,


Deepti Ameta,
In Charge Reporting and Communications
deepti@sevamandir.org

The Non Formal Education Program (NFE center) of Seva Mandir, India ensures the quality education to the tribal children in remote rural areas. While doing so, it also helps create capacities in communities to demand meaningful education for children. Thank you for your continuing support which helps ensure education to 5000 such children. Without your support most of such children would have lost their childhood and be out and earning a livelihood for their family.

Most of the children in rural areas have no access to education because of various reasons as the other schooling facilities are either very far or dysfunctional and many children are very poor which makes schooling even more difficult. They are either engaged in wage-labor work to provide supplementary income to their families or tend to their goats or look after their younger siblings while their parents are gone for work. Some who go to the schools often drop out because of non-comprehension or bad experiences with their teachers.

The Non formal Education Centers hence provide 6-14 years old children with an access to education within their reach. These centers also serve as a site for practicing meaningful pedagogy, trusteeship and more respectful ownership between children and teachers. The Program also promotes the children to get admissions in Government Schools after graduating from the NFE centers. This year more than 450 children got enrolled in the Government Schools after graduating from our NFE centers.

Once again many thanks from all of us here.

Dear Friend,

Greetings form Seva Mandir!

We would like to communicate our heartfelt thanks to all our donors for their continuing support and faith in our work.

The children in rural Udaipur are not able to access education due to social and economical constraints. The Non Formal Education Program (NFE) of Seva Mandir is providing more than 5000 children with an access to education within their reach. The Non Formal Education centers also help strengthen the understanding for education among the community members.

The children graduating from NFEs are promoted to attend Government School so that they can be associated with the mainstream education. This year in July-August more than 450 children have been enrolled in Government Schools after graduating from NFEs.

In the month of August the children were engaged in plantation and Celebration of Independence Day (26th August). Some children attending the NFEs participated in the celebrations of Independence Day of the nearby Government Schools. They performed dramas, recited poems and sang songs, taught to them by their NFE teachers. The parents of these children were so happy to see them perform. Many of these children have also won prizes in various competitions during the celebrations. The Program hence is also contributing a lot to the overall development of these children.

We have been thinking of some other name for ‘The Non Formal Education Program’. Since the core idea of the Non Formal Education Program is not limited to a four-wall classroom. It is rather to provide a space where children can participate in Education more freely and creatively, where children are allowed to express their opinions, ask questions and where learning is fun than the obligation. There have been several rounds of discussion within in the organization and we have a few suggestions to choose from. We would be very happy to share the new name with you once we have selected one.

I very much hope that you find this feedback useful. My team is continuously thinking of innovative ideas for the program in order to make it more rich and useful for the children. Your support therefore, is very critical in the program. It is always encouraging for us to hear from you and receive your suggestions. Thank you once again for your support and encouragement.

Kindly write to me at info@sevamandir.org for any queries or for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.

With regards,

Sincerely,

Angela Jacob
In Charge Education Program
Seva Mandir, India

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you very much for keeping your faith in our work. It is because of the valuable support of people like you that we at Seva Mandir are able to work with our communities. I also would like to thank my entire team at this point for working hard and believing in the wonderful work of Seva Mandir.

I have an interesting story to share with you. I enjoyed it thoroughly when I visited village Futangarh a couple of days ago. Education, which is the right of every child, is still a far-fetched dream for many children in our region. Some people may think that neither children nor parents from poor economic backgrounds have interest in schooling because earning daily bread is what more matter to them but it is probably not the case. The children can perform well if the quality of Education is better, if they are given the chance and also if the access to Education is easy for them. This is what the following story transales. I am sure you will enjoy reading it.

Thanks once again for your valuable donation and I look forward to your continued support in future too. Do write to us if you have any query or doubts at info@sevamandir.org

With regards,

Sincerely,

Angela Jacob,
In Charge Education Program,
Seva Mandir


The Non Formal Education Center (NFE) of Futangarh was set up in July 2003 after a survey that was conducted to explore the number of out-of-school children (school going aged). In the beginning there were 25 children got enrolled including 12 girls. However gradually the number increased so much that in 2004 the village had to appoint one more Instructor to cater to the needs of increased number of children at the NFE.

Currenly there are 39 children including 19 girls. Both the instructors Kanhiyalal and Babulal enjoy teaching their village children. One of the remarkable qualities of both of these instructors is that they keep encouraging parents in the village to get their children enrolled in Government School when their children graduate from NFE. In this light, it is encouraging to note that ever since the NFE was opened there were as many as 40 children have been enrolled in the Government School after graduating from the Futangarh NFE. One of the ex-students namely Durga who is now in the 8th Standard is currently studying in the Government School and is doing very well in her studies. Durga says – “I stood first in the class when I was there in the NFE a couple of years ago. It was all possible because of the dedicated efforts put in by my teacher. I am happy that the NFE was there, otherwise I could never think beyond tending to my goats”.

The instructors say – “The children who have been admitted in Government School after passing out from our NFEs are doing very well in comparison to the children who never attended our NFEs. When the teachers at the Government School informs us the performance of the ex-students of our NFE, we feel immense pleasure and proud”.

The parents are extremely happy with the instructors and they often wonder on the fact that their children are so good at studying. Some parents believe that in the Government Schools the teachers do not pay much attention on younger children and often these teachers are not regular so the children get de-motivated and as a result drop out.

The NFE of Futangarh is playing a significant role in shaping up the dreams of many children in this village.

Village Kotla phala:
Somly is 8 years old and lives with her two elder brothers and parents. Everyday she walks 2 kms to attend her lessons in the NFE. When Somly first came to the NFE she did not know reading and writing. But soon with the support of the instructor Dashrath and her determination she picked up the reading-writing skills. Currently she is in the level, ‘A’ which is the highest level in an NFE.

One of Somly’s older brothers Jivath started working as wage-laborer after finishing 8th standard to provide supplementary income to the family. Her other brother Naresh is currently in the 7th Standard in the Government School of Sagwada village. Naresh had attended NFE for few years before studying in the Government School.

Somly regrets the fact that her brother Jivath who wanted to continue his studies could not do so due to their poor economic conditions. Somly produdly says that Jivath always encourages her and Naresh to keep studying with full determination. Jivath also helps both of her siblings in their studies with his limited knowledge.

Somly has been able to read and write simple sentences with comprehension as well as is able to execute simple addition, subtraction and multiplication. Somly aspires to be a teacher when she is an adult. However for now she simply enjoys learning in the NFE and she thinks that she will be able to continue further studies if her economic conditions allow her to chase her dreams.

Seva Mandir helps village communities run Non Formal Education Centers (NFEs) to ensure quality education to out of school children. These NFEs also act as sites of providing experience of quality education to communities. These centers are often single-teacher schools offering education to out of school children up to class 3.

The total number of NFE’ s currently functioning for current financial year is 176 with an enrolment of 4714 students.

Every year there are 2 rounds of evaluations of the students –
·   An yearly evaluation in March- April and
·   Half yearly examination in Oct – Nov

To identify the progress of a child we have categorized four levels of their learning from 0 to 4. The levels are roughly equivalent to government classes. Level 0 is when a child enters the NFE and can barely read or write.

Level 1 is where s/he can read write small words and does simple counting; identify some numbers.

When a child can start reading writing and understanding simple texts, in Mathematics can do basic counting and simple operations like addition and subtraction with small numbers, she is placed in Level 2.

At level 3 a child can read, write and understand texts in language and in Mathematics understands concepts of multiplication, division, etc.

In the few months – (Jan – April 2008) – The yearly Evaluation of the children attending NFE centers was conducted for which the data entry is being under process. Around 3000 children had participated in this evaluation. We will keep our donors posted once the entry of the data is done.

Another encouraging news to share with our donors is that the NFE teachers (instructors) were given training in October 2007 to teach English language to the children attending NFE centers. A team of Seva Mandir has recently reported that these instructors have been able to successfully introduce English to these children at NFE.
The language English has been introduced because there has been a constant demand from the community and the Government Schools (where the children seek admissions after graduating from these NFE centers).

WE THANK ALL OUR RESOURCE PARTNERS FOR MAKING THE SCHOOLING POSSIBLE FOR THESE CHILDREN

There are several stories about children like Radhulal who have managed to get adimitted into Government Schools for further education. This has been possible for them because of the confidence and competence gained in these Non Formal Education Centers.

Attachments:

• Radhulal gets into Govt. School... (PDF)
  

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

The results of the Giving Challenge - after the final audit for unique donations - have come in. Seva Mandir was ranked number 5, and therefore did not get the award of $ 50,000 (which went to the top 4 organizations only).

However, we did raise over $ 40,000 for our Children's Education Programme, due to the support of over 1500 friends like you. This will translate into roughly 1000 children being able to attend a non-formal education centre for one year.

Equally important to all of us at Seva Mandir has been the support itself - the Challenge helped us reconnect with hundreds of old friends and to be connected to several new well wishers - who donated without even knowing us well! Your vote of confidence means a great deal to us, and we hope to continue to do work worthy of all this trust and support.

So, a very big thank you to each one of you who contributed and helped us reach where we did. All of us at Seva Mandir are deeply touched and also re-energized.

We also hope that some of you may stay in touch. We will be grateful for any advice from you. And should any of you have occasion to visit Udaipur / us, we will be honoured to show you the work that you have helped happen.

With warm regards,          
Yours sincerely,
(Neelima Khetan)
Chief Executive.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Seva Mandir,
Udaipur - 313004,
Rajasthan (India).
Tel: +91-294-2450960 / 2451041 / 2452001
Fax: +91-294-2450947
e-mail: info@sevamandir.org; smandir@vsnl.com
website: www.sevamandir.org

Pictures:

• A_Big_Thank_you.jpg (JPG)

On the 18th January 2008 three visitors from Netherlands visited the NFE Center of Kanpur village. The children were so enthusiastic to see them and read them a story written on the black-board.

Pictures:

• See I can read it.... (JPG)
• Take my photo too... (JPG)

The America's Giving Challenge has helped made a difference in the lives of over 5000 rural school-going-age children of tribal communities. We are thankful to all of our donors and supporters for putting their faith in our work and in our mission.

Attachments:

• visit_to_NFE_by_Global_Giving_Donors.pdf (PDF)
  

Kishan enjoys teaching and makes learning interesting. See how does he does it....

Attachments:

• The monkey and the crocodile (PDF)
  

Dariya had passed class five from the Govenment School in village Chali but she was not able to read and write. Find out how she learns to read and write and do simple calculations in just few months...

Attachments:

• Dariya doing calculations (PDF)
  

Kishan the instructor of the Non Formal Education Center of village Dulawaton Ka Guda makes learning easier for children. The Government School is very far for little children to walk to. Find out how the village found an alternative option for their children's schooling.

Attachments:

• Drama Played in NFE (PDF)
  

The story of NFE of village Jamun is very interesting. As the Government School is far and the teachers there were not teaching, many enrolled students had dropped out. How the village leaders and youth have looked for other alternative options for these children's schooling and encouraged the parents to send back to them to the NFE run by Seva Mandir.

Attachments:

• nfe_jamun.pdf (PDF)
  

The story of Non Formal Education Center (NFE) of village Ushan in an interesting one. The Village has undergone a rigorous struggle with the teacher at Government School in village Ushan. Nither the teacher shows up in the school regularly nor does she teach. The villagers confronted her but she accused the parents for not sending their children to the School. The problem continues but to cater to the needs of children being out-of-school an NFE was set up in January 2007.

Attachments:

• nfe_story_kesar_ushan_village.pdf (PDF)