Netbooks at Deepam West Mambalam Centre!! Thanks to OPEN India

We had our first class at the Deepam WM center on Sept 5th 2009 with a dream of introducing computers to the kids and teaching English by using them as a tool and one year later we have realized this dream. It is more than a dream come true for these less privileged kids who are enjoying the english lessons taught using the netbooks.

The Deepam West Mamblam center currently has 6 Dell Mini Netbooks and from the class on Sept 4th we have integrated it as a part of our curriculum. We are sure that the children will cherish learning english from the Hi Tech tool. The WM team is very happy and grateful to the sponsors for not only nurturing the enthusiasm in the kids but also helping the center take one step closer to being GREEN by helping us reduce the number of worksheets used in the class.

All the 6 netbooks at the west mambalam centre were sponsored by OPEN India. Just over a call , OPEN team decided to support Deepam and followed through with it. We are grateful and thankful to OPEN , IGNITE trust and Sriram Gopalaswamy and Bala from DELL for making this happen. We look forward for your continued support. Also thanks to Saye for his initiative - he came across OPEN and wrote to them requesting for support... and here it is :)

Deepam Financials 2009-10

Though we had these numbers in our newsletter issue of july 2010, financials required a seperate post.

Highlights

• All the monies raised / donated were used to directly benefit the children
• There is no admin expense - no money spent on activities that didn't directly benefit children . For example : No salaries were paid to 'volunteers' / no cost of operating an office etc
• The netbook fundraiser organised by Srini / Balaji / Meera and Vijay
• Many small contributions that added up quite well, to end the year with a surplus
• We bought 6 netbooks with the monies , to support the UK / KC centre

Thanks to our treasurer Bhargav, for patiently working through this one. Quietly, he works away in the background, to ensure all the activities go smooth without the glitches. Thanks buddy!

Thanks Round Table / TeamUSA (Indiateam.org)!!

When noble and munificent organizations or individuals come up with donations to strengthen and support Deepam in its continuous endeavour to light the spark in the child’s mind – and keep it glowing – it is with wide open arms and lot of gratitude that such gestures are received.

A sizeable fund was given to WM Center out of the donation received from Roundtable ( Madras Knights Round Table 181 ) / TeamUSA (Indiateam.org), and the co-ordinators wasted no time in inviting suggestions from volunteers on how best to utilize it. Equally quickly, mails were exchanged, needs discussed and the Center’s immediate requirements finalized.

The first was a 5.5’ steel almirah – a long-felt need at the Center. This was ordered, delivered and was in place at the Center and one set of keys was handed over to the School Head Mistress on 31/07/2010. The storage space in the cupboard will be shared between Deepam and the School.

Another immediate need was augmentation of WM Center’s Library. As many as 55 books, hand-picked with utmost care to suit WM Center children’s aptitude, were added. With this addition, the Center will now be able to fulfill its desire to give children more books to choose from, for reading in the class or at home.

15 learning-based games (e.g, Spell-O-Chess, Origami, Number Puzzles, Jigsaw Puzzles) were added to the Center for use under volunteer guidance. It is the Center’s idea to utilize these as occasional diversions to the children without, at the same time, straying much away from learning.

Deepam would like to thank Round Table (Madras Knights Round Table 181 ) and TEAM USA for its generous contribution and we look forward to their continued support to help improve infrastructure at other Deepam centers.

Internet & Stars - Our Way of Celebrating Independence day at Deepam :)

Since the 'inception' of Deepam, Internet access has been a dreamy 'reality' at Deepam. Internet access was hoped for / dreamt of / wished for in most of the meetings / discussions but we were 'kick'ed back to reality, everytime. We came close to having the internet available in the centres last year, but we woke up to reality, again.

So, when Balaji of AIDIndia 'formally' launched internet access at Deepam West Mambalam centre this morning, it was a sense of 'dream come true'. Hopes & Dreams were now 'strengthened' by DOing :)

All of us at Deepam always dreamt of a 'Deepam World' where children had access to Information / Knowledge. So, watching the children revel in the excitement of 'playing' with the computers / Internet was euphoric for all of us , at the centre today.

Internet was now available at 5 of the 6 Deepam centres :)

Clearly, these are children who are 'hungry' to learn and one can only wonder about the possibilities that Internet has to offer. But for all of us at Deepam, we have just begun what we set out for, 3 years ago - introduce the children to the world of internet :)

Another significant progress is the launch of 'STARS' project at Deepam - Stars project shoots for the possibility of a deserving child not losing out on education because of lack of monies. That is the core belief that makes Deepam reach out to such students every year and help them do what they do well… excel in their studies and expand their knowledge. Stars project made a small beginning today, by awarding a 'full' scholarship for 2 deserving kids

Deepam would like to thank a few folks for making the 2 projects possible

Jayanthi - She leads the 'Stars' program for Deepam. She stands out through the sheer intensity / commitment she brings to any activity she does. My respect for her, just seemed to go higher, as i worked more , with her. She simply does things :) - thats it. Always ahead of time and always to a degree of perfection. A real DOer :)

NIA : An awesome organisation that supports education of girl children in India. They have supported education of girl children for over 10 years. Over a 100 girls have benefitted from support for school & college education. Deepam is happy to work with NIA to support girls in Deepam :) . Thanks Priya / Vallabhi / Munish, for coming over.

Another donor who wishes to be anonymous - thanks a lot :)

Balaji : The CTO of Deepam !! He was the 'internet access' evangelist at Deepam , never missing an opportunity to highlight the possibilities of internet access for children. He got the infrastructure up and running in no time at all, when we had the datacards. Thanks Balaji !!

And always, the energetic volunteers at the Deepam WM centre - thanks for the awesome time :)

When people want to make something truly happen, the whole world conspires to make it happen.. I was rushing to the centre this morning and missed picking up an envelope, to keep the cash/cheque in, when handing over the prize to the 'STARS' . I hurriedly rang up Saye to get an envelope, but he seemed to be in control of things and asked me to just come over to the centre - When i went over to the center, i was told that one of the children at West Mambalam had made envelopes out of old newspapers and handed them to Saye , just this morning :)

And this was our way of celebrating the Independence Day at Deepam :)

STARS & Internet - New Possibilities

Hello Friends,

This saturday, we will be launching 2 projects that open up huge possibilities for children. The 2 ideas quite literally opens the 'whole world' for the kids.

STARS :

A deserving child should not lose out on education because of lack of funds. That is the core belief that makes Deepam reach out to such students every year and help them do what they do well… excel in their studies and expand their knowledge.

We are making a small beginning by awarding 2 children, a full scholarship for the academic year 2010-11. All their fees ( school fee / books / uniform / transport etc ) will be covered by this scholarship.

Internet :

The big idea at Deepam was always to expose the children to a world of opportunities through Internet. This is becoming a reality now. Beginning this saturday, Internet will be available at 5 of the 6 Deepam centres :)

The 2 projects will be launched at our Deepam West Mambalam Centre .

Venue : Deepam West Mambalam Centre. Sri Venkata Nivasam Primary School, Thambiah Road, West Mambalam.

Time : 9:30 am

Date : 21st August , Saturday

Look forward to meeting you all, there.

thanks

karthik

Oli - Deepam Newsletter

Hello Friends,

To keep our supporters / Deepam Family informed about Deepam, our newsletter 'OLI' is launched. This will be a quarterly newsletter that brings out news about the Deepam world. Newsletter would the place to share the best practises in different centres , the behind-the-scenes stories , any interesting incident at Deepam or.. just about anything that requires the attention of all the Deepam supporters.

Please feel free to share this link with your friends / family and more importantly... strangers :)

OLI could be launched mainly due to the efforts of Swapnil Lodha and Abhinav Sher. Both, despite living in a different country, spend time to work on Deepam. Thanks to Ajay John , for coming up with a brilliant logo concept & design !! Also, thanks to Meera Sundar, Meera Sivakumar , Srini for helping put together the content earlier.

Deepam Newsletter July 2010

Uniforms for kids at Deepam WM center

All of us understand the importance of having a good environment at schools and am sure that most of you would agree that it has a direct impact on the child's motivation to go to school and eagerness to learn. A good environment not only means having good teachers, having good group of friends but also having good infrastructure at school.

We at Deepam have been teaching at community centers/ schools for morethan 2 years now and along with our efforts to improve our teaching methods we have been looking out for opportunities to improve the infrastructure at our various centers. For a start we got an opportunity to sponsor uniforms for the children at our West Mambalam center.

Deepam classes at WM happen at Sri Venkata Nivasam Primary School. The school,which has classes till 5th std, is one of the oldest schools in WM and has around 120 children . The children come from an under privileged background with the average family income of less than 50k a year. The school is a government aided school and the infrastructure is very modest. In fact two of the three classrooms in the school don't have electricity. More than electricity the kids were in need of uniforms and we volunteered to sponsor uniforms for all the kids in the school.

Fortunately we got acquainted with Madras Knights Round Table 181 and TEAM USA , who were more than willing to fund the project. The total cost of the uniforms was 20k . The teachers, parents and kids expressed their happiness and vocally thanked us for sponsoring the uniforms. The teachers also mentioned that this was the first time that all the children were wearing new uniforms on the opening day.

Deepam would like to thank Round Table (Madras Knights Round Table 181 ) and TEAM USA for its generous contribution and we look forward to their continued support to help improve infrastructure at other Deepam centers. Also, a big thanks to the volunteer team at West Mambalam for coming up with the idea of distributing uniforms and enthusiastically going about ensuring the uniforms were given to the students, on time

Pudiyador - Next Steps

Dear all,

The heat is on! and while the children are cooling off in their summer vacatio/native places, this is the perfect time to set the curriculum and plan for the next year. June 2010 - March 2011.

The Adyar-Pudiyador center has varied needs. Some
1) We have two desktop computers there, and we have access to three (yes three!) more laptops that the UK center is going to hand over.
2) We have children across the age group- from 4-5 standard students to 11-12th standard! We also have some toddlers looking at the screen in curiosity
3) The children there are fairly confident in all the MS office suite.
4) Sessions every weekend on a sunday 11am-1pm. Time slot may change.

Request all volunteers and interested people to please lend a hand to set the curriculum for the year.

Plan of Action for the next year
1) Prepare a bunch of confident english speakers
2) Exposure to the internet and making presentations, gathering data from the internet.
3) Activities (once every quarter)
4) Divide the class into 2-3 batches and cater specifically to their needs.

This year, we aim to build a strong curriculum and a stronger volunteer team.
Please get in touch with me if you can contribute in any manner. Suggestions most welcome!

thanks,
Anupama
anupama[dot]s3[at]gmail[dot]com