Stories that Inspire

Celebrating three years of enrichment...  

We are three years old today, 3rd April 2019. Still a small kid, but now can walk and talk. We are in the process of exploring the world of Social work. As a group of friends and like-minded people, we have more active E1E1 ambassadors and are more focused. However, we know that we are still taking baby steps. The journey is arduous, but exciting – more so because it is undertaken by a group of adventurous friends…

Let us talk about our third year…

Year three started with a lot of activities on hand.

• A village school needed help to set up its new facility for enabling their first batch of SSC students
• A publicity campaign to spread knowledge about menstrual hygiene and promote low-cost sanitary napkin with village enterprise as a bye-product.

Village school project

The objective of the project was to provide facilities for the village school to impart education till 10^th standard, which was then running classes till 9^th standard.

The requirements were analysed and classified:

1. Classroom facility was available, but Science Laboratory was not available. The Computer lab was not available.
2. Teaching capability needed substantial augmentation.
3. Students were lacking in basic fundamental knowledge to cope up with SSC syllabus

Obviously, the solution was the requirement of funds and manpower, considering the time constraint.

The first phase of the project was to understand the learning requirements for SSC students. The project team visited Bal Mohan School at Shivaji Park. The teachers at Bal Mohan were extremely co-operative. They showed and explained all the facilities required, especially the Science lab – how experiments were conducted, the type of Experiment equipment, furniture and raw material required. They explained expectations of the SSC board related to Activities and Science Practical. Additionally, they promised handholding during the academic year. Team E1E1 would like to thank them for being our friend, philosopher and guide.

It was time to set the financial budget and get funds. Two CSR projects were floated, one to set up the laboratory and the other to set up the Computer lab. Two corporates came forward and sanctioned the funds. The setup of Science laboratory was a challenge. The experiment tables had to be specifically made with wash-basins, electrical points, gas pipe-line. Then the laboratory equipment had a no. of devices, so the logistics and the inventory storage needed management. By the time, funds were available, and the entire thing was set up, the final examination came knocking on the door. We could just about manage to conduct 75% of the required experiments. The company which sanctioned computer labs, delivered the computers when the actual final examination started. However, anticipating the delay, we managed to gather a few personal laptops and completed the computer-related activities.

The second challenge was related to teaching Maths, Science and English to the students. Almost 80%, students had problems understanding the Maths fundamentals, like fractions, decimals, percentage and even doing basic arithmetic operations like subtraction, multiplication and division. Same was the case with Geometry and Science. For English, some students had to be taught from basic alphabets, spellings of simple words, basic grammar. This was an unexpected challenge, we had thought of teaching the teacher and that he or she would take things forward. But because the school was unaided, teaching capacity and capability was limited. So the project team decided to take up this activity. We made weekly visits from Mumbai to teach the students. However, we realised that this problem was going to spill over to the next few years and weekly visits may not be regularly possible – especially during the rainy season. So we decided to set up e-teaching facility to take care of the near future. The e-teaching facility would allow the teacher sitting in comfort of her home and teach students in their classroom using internet and computer.

The third challenge was setting up of the e-teaching facility. First of all, it was not budgeted for. We did the budget and got donors to pay for this facility. After the setup, during the pilot, we found out that electrical power outage and internet bandwidth will cause a problem to this facility. We experimented with the e-teaching sessions and have conducted a successful pilot. However, we are aware that the problem is not fully resolved. We will need to budget for solar electricity to sort out the power outage. We managed to get a good internet connection, but its reliability is still an issue. At this point in time, we need to be flexible in allotting time to e-teaching sessions.

The fourth challenge – food and medical aid for the students. The students are in their teenage, and during the school hours for around six to eight hours, most of them do not eat at all. In the afternoon session, students complain about headache, are restless, and some of them just decide to go home early. It is essential to provide them with nourishing food. They also need eye-checkup. Some of them cannot see what is written on the board clearly. This challenge is not yet addressed. 

We thought that it would be a good idea to consolidate the entire experience and use it in similar projects.  So Project Vidya was launched, and we have been talking about it.

Menstrual Hygiene awareness campaign

We worked on a publicity campaign to spread knowledge about menstrual hygiene and promote low-cost sanitary napkin with village enterprise as a bye-product.

This campaign was done for Sakhi Sanitary napkins, a Vatsalya Foundation Vadodra, initiative. Swati Bedekar is one of the Key persons in this initiative.

Team E1E1 helped Sakhi to set up a website with online e-commerce facility.  There was a Hygiene bucket challenge (Padathon) sponsored by Zee Cinema to premiere the movie Padman. Hygiene Bucket is a paperbag containing packs of low-cost Sakhi Sanitary Napkins (made using the organic indigenous materials like banana and wood bark) which provides adequate stock to deal with Menstruation for about a year. Anybody can participate in Hygiene Bucket Challenge! One or more Hygiene Buckets can be purchased online and given as a gift to a girl or a woman from lower economic strata of the society. However, while giving these, the recipients should be made aware of Menstrual Hygiene and the benefits of using the Sakhi Sanitary Pads, so that it becomes a habit with these women.

These pads are manufactured by Self-Help Groups run by underprivileged women, so they get an economic benefit as well. Swati has helped set up 122 such units to date across India, benefiting over thousands of women. Team E1E1 helped her to apply for Limca Book of Records. We are pleased to state that Swati Bedekar has now entered Limca Book of records.  

If you wish to donate a Hygiene Bucket, click here.