Every child has a dream: to be educated and be equipped with the basic skills to take charge of his or her life to be able to live a life of dignity and progress that their earlier generations did not have. It is a dream that can be turned into reality with everybody's support; Yours' and mine.
India Literacy Project (ILP), an NGO that I volunteer with, has been helping children chase this dream. ILP has been able to increase awareness about literacy, support NGOs who work in the areas of child education and self employment, raise government support, build a knowledge base, solicit corporate support for specific projects and build a vibrant, purely volunteer based organization that takes these tasks seriously and continue to make fresh progress. At ILP, we believe that every child today must have a chance to make a future. An optimistic future that they can carve out with the skills they are taught today.
We thank you for the continued support to ILP in this endeavour. I am happy share to some updates on our scholarship programme.
Under the scholarship programme, PURASKARA, this academic year 2007‐08, ILP is supporting 186 children from 5 districts – Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Raichur, Davangere in Karnataka and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh.
* In the last academic year, 32 children who completed their 10th standard exams received partial support towards continuing their education. Thirteen of them passed with a first class.
* All the children are continuing their education either in local polytechnics, pre-university colleges or technical institutes.
In the coming academic year, we plan to expand the Programme to 250 children.
Realizing some of the gaps during house visits by volunteers and experiences from our earlier scholarship recipients, ILP undertook certain initiatives to address them. Among them were Spoken English Classes and Workshop on Life Coping Skills.
Spoken English Classes: It was found out that most of our students lacked adequate exposure to comprehend and communicate in English. This was more evident for those who had to experience the transition from Class X to Plus-II, where the medium of instruction changed from Kannada to English. In this context, the spoken English classes were conducted for students from Paraspara and Chiguru in Bangalore Urban and Bangalore Rural districts respectively.
Life Coping Skills: Another area of concern was how these students given their exposure and background would be able to cope in real life scenarios going forward. This also meant to equip them with social, emotional and cognitive skills. To this end, ILP has started the Life Coping Skills workshop for Bangalore Urban (Paraspara) students for a period of 14 weeks partnering with Unnati. The current mail is an invite to conclude this workshop.
However, the challenge remains for taking these programs to other places, Bangalore Rural, Raichur, Davanagere and Chitoor. We solicit your support and funds towards realising these.
ILP's goal of making India 100% literate depends on raising sufficient funds. Every contribution counts in this race for literacy, as does every kilometer in a marathon. Please do respond to this mail indicating your support. All proceeds are sent to fund literacy projects in India and the operating expenses or administrative costs are absorbed by the volunteers themselves. Contributions made to "ILP" are tax-exempt to the fullest extent allowed by law.
To donate, kindly make the cheques payable to "India Literacy Project" and mail them to India Literacy Project, 27, 3rd Floor, Narayani Apartments, 2nd Cross, Ramakrishnappa Layout Geddalahalli, Sanjaynagar,Bangalore - 560 094 . Donations in India are 50% deductible under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
To make a contribution in USA, make a tax deductible cheque or draw Money order in favour of "India Literacy Project" and mail to India Literacy Project, P. O. Box 361143, Milpitas, CA 95035-9998. All donations to ILP in the USA are tax-deductible under Section 501(c)3 of the IRS Code(tax id 36-3779020).
I will be happy to share any information regarding our programs. Please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward for your presence in the Valedictory Function on Saturday, 19th January 2008.
Thanking you,
Sincerely,
Sudhira
Monday, January 21, 2008
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