REPORT FOR NOVEMBER, DECEMBER – 07
FROM THE ADMINISTRATIVE DESK
An agreement was signedwith ConcernIndiaFoundation (CIF). They are providing a small support to the education programme from Oct-07 upto March -08.
The members (Branch manager-Sanchita Ghosh & Program Officer- Tina Roy) of Concern India Foundation– Kolkata have paid a visit to education project. They interact with the teachers, members and the children. We hope to build up a close bond with this Foundation and can work together for the benefit of the children. The members have gone through our works and expressed satisfaction over TF’s performance.
The representatives from the “Railway Children – UK”, Ms. Joanna Pakrashi (programme officer) and Ms. Reema Patel came to visit our programmes. They are conducting a study on
“Livelihood Programmes in Indiafor Children and Youth at Risk on the
Streets in India”.They meet our students from the “Development of Adolescents
Through Skill Development (VT Program) and interviewed them.
Mr. Baranton Claude, international French photographer, has visited Tomorrow’s Foundation to catch the glimpses of the real condition of the children and their family in his camera frame. He had come on a request by the Calcutta De L Rue A L Ecole team, the French associates of TF.He extensively visited the community areas for this purpose.
Children’s Day was observed in the School Project on 14th November-07.
Tomorrow’s Foundation is slowly gearing itself for projects in rural districts. Mapping of the districts (Purulia and Birbhum) has began.
The Jacques Leman Card Workshop has executed an order of gift items to Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL - Government of India undertaking).
Core Committee Meeting was held on 17th November & 7th December to discuss various issues at the admin office. Professor Tathagata Dutta came to share his ideas with the governing body members.
Dr. Sukhamoy Kundu one of the star members of “Asha for Education” has presented a Laptop for Sudip Mondol, who is now in fifth year of his medical course MBBS). Sudip is completing his medial course through the sponsorship programme of Tomorrow’s Foundation.
A site was selectedat Budge Budge near Kolkata for a picnic for the Foundation’s members.
Concern India Foundation’s Annual Sports event was held at Maddox Square, Kolkata on Saturday (15th Dec-07). Different NGO’s and students from Kolkata Municipal Corporation schools participated in the programme. Our children have participated in the event in various disciplines. The children have won 11 prizes and a special prize for over all cleanness.
The Christmas program was held in the Evening remedial Tutorial on 22 nd Dec. The children participated in it with usual enthusiasm and vigour.The members from Ladies Circle 65 of Kolkata also visited the programme and gifted cakes, pencil boxes, biscuits to the children.
On the 19th Dec, the members from children council took part in a state level programme on Child Rights and Protection, organised by Jabala Action Research Organisation with CLOPA (NGO-networking body) and Govt. of West Bengal at Hotel Hindustan International. Rakesh Kamat & Ranajit Pramanik, who are the members of Children Council of TF, presented Tomorrow’s Foundation for the occasion.
Our school project had remained closed from 25th Dec to 1st Jan and our office had remained closed from 28th to 1st Jan.
ON SEMINERS, WORKSHOPS & TRAININGS
Debashis visit New Delhi, on a conference on “Right to Education: Action Now” organised by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on 19 Dec-07. It’s a national level programme where Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen presided over the conference. Heads form various NGOs throughout the country and other educational institutes attended the programme. Various issues were discussed relating to the education in India.
Different workshops on different trades are arranged at the seminar hall for the trainees of the “Development of Adolescents through Skill Development”
Teacher’s training was organised for the teachers of Community Based Education Project.
CHILDEN COUNCIL- Children’s Council members decided to make arrangements for the Christmas programme and other cultural programmes.
PLACEMENT STUDENTS
The students from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (MBA) have visited the organisation for internship on project work from Corporate Social Responsibility point of view. They will start their training from February-08.
They are Nikita Paswal, Smita Saran, Ashwini Varma and Dipendra Tulsiyan.
Atasi Das (reported earlier)is continuing her placement ship in the organisation.
REGINATION:
Subrata Kundu has resigned from the Card Project at the end of December.
Biplabi Das (Cell in charge of Health cell) has resigned from the organisation as she is carrying.
Somashree, teacher of school project has resigned.
NEW APPOINTMENTS- Mouha Dey has joined the foundation as teacher in School Project and is under probationary period.
VISITORS
Member from Kolkata Urban Slum Development Project (KUSP, Government of West Bengal) Geeta Sinha has visited our admin office.
Selene Noseda, one of our great friends has visited the programs of Tomorrow’s Foundation.
Nancy Xing, a friend of Atasi Das (Placement student) has visited us form U.S.A.
Fanny Delannoy from France visited the Jacques Leman Card Workshop for knowledge of the works that are carried out from the workshop.
Visitor from Goal-India, Arnold, came to visit our projects.
Indranil Biswas came to visit the Tomorrow’s Foundation Projects on 20th Dec. He visited admin office, school, and the computer school. He took keen interest in the Computer Literacy Programme.
Satarupa from ASHA FOR EDUCATION has paid a visit to the Tomorrow’s Foundation. She visited the School project and had an elaborate discussion on the programme.
COMMUNITY BASED EDUCATION PROJECT
Project Coordinator: Pranabesh Maiti, Arpan Bhattacharjee
Fourteen Community Based Teachers in Tomorrow’s Foundation’s Community Based Education Project.
All the Community Based Education Project centers have opened after the Durga Puja. Regular monitoring of the centers is going on. Parents are now slowly getting motivated to arrange the tiffin for their wards at the centers. The authorities are providing the required money for the tiffin, but the parents are requested to arrange the food with different menus each day. This is a step in making the community to work along with us in the participatory method of approach.
Monthly teacher’s meeting was conducted with the teachers of the Community Based Education Project. The problems faced by the teachers are discussed. The CBEP team tried to find out the reasons for these problems and the necessary solutions to eradicate them.
Teacher’s training programme was conducted in the seminar hall of the Admin office with the 14 teachers of the Community Based education project. New issues which arises recently, class room management and students tracking system were discussed with the teachers.
The closing meeting of the Reach Project was held at Peerless Inn- Kolkata on 26th December 07,which ran from 2005 July to 2007 August. Ashis, Pranbesh, Shiela and Koustuv from Tomorrow’s Foundation have attended the meeting along with the members from other NGO’s. The Reach Project which aims at schooling the non school going children of the age 5 to 9 years through this program. Tomorrow’s Foundation is on the 1st position, able to mainstreamed 529 children. 10 centers were used to run in Kalighat & Tangra area under this project. The end line survey showed us that there are many children who still need this project to enable themselves to attain the formal school system. With the support from Calcutta De La Rue A L Ecole & Asha for Education we have able to restart 14 centers. Beside regular activities like, teaching, regular home visits, monitoring, evaluation; we aim to enlist the differently abled children to give them priority. The work has already started in this direction.
HOSTEL CELL
Cell in charge: Swapna Banerji
Assisted by: Ranju Ghosh
The authorities of the hostel cell are planning a parents meeting to make the guardians aware of the hostel rules and regulations. This has become essential due to some incidents at the hostels in recent past.
The children are started to return back in the hostels after their Puja vacation. Some of them are now staying at the Half Way Home
before leaving for their hostels.
The letter exchange programme with the French students was coordinated. The children write messages of love and friendship for their peers in France. It is hoped this programme will help the students to know each other, to exchange their ideas and will build up close bonds between them.
Purnima Dey of All Bengal Women’s Union is staying at the HWH for her Higher Secondary Exam.
SPONSORSHIP CELL
Cell in charge: Swapna Banerjee
Assisted by; Ranju Ghosh
The cell sent Christmas & New year Greetings card for the sponsors to Calcutta De La Rue A L Ecoleand Asha for Education.
Mritunjoy Ghosh did excellent in CA entrance examination. He got 61% which is quite high as per the standard of examination. He is now doing his articleship i.e. practical exposure to accounts work with Nag & Associates.
Swapna Mallick is doing her professional nursing course at Bangalore. She did a good result in the examination.
HALF WAY HOME (HWH)
Cell in charge: Ranju Ghosh
Assisted by: Swapna Banerji
House Parent: Dilip Biswas, Bijoli Biswas.
Assisted by: Ganesh Das, Dilip Gocchayat
Swapna Mallick one of our students, who is now engaged in a nursing training in Bangalore, has come back to the Half Way Home for the winter vacation. She is enjoying her holiday.
Mritunjay Ghosh, who graduated in commerce, has qualified for the professional course of Chartered Accountancy has started staying at the HWH.
The Open school students who stayed at the HWH for the secondary examination for December wereAnita Samanta, Shipra Polley, Shibani Bose, Rumpa Das, Sangeeta Halder, Madhumita Santera, Tanushree Das, Bandana Roy, Debika Samanta, Rakhi Mondal, Tamal Mukherjee,, Mihir Maity, Sagari Pailan, Raju Das, Ganesh Rao.
The other student who stayed for the winter vacation were Mamoni Sarkar, PurnimaDey (staying for class Higher Secondary exam), Swapna Dey & Jonny Ghosh.
OPENSCHOOL
Cell in charge: Munmun Dey
Assisted by: Sarmistha Chakraborty, Mrittca Dey
In the Open School Project new batch of students for Higher Secondary Examination-2008, is formed (process going on). The previous batch is now waiting for the results to be announced.
A Guardian's meeting for the Open School students was held at the school for the students who will be at the Half Way Home for their Board examination on 4thJanuary -08. 19 students were staying at the half Way Home for the preparation for the secondary examination to be held on 4th Jan-08. They return back to their homes on 22nd Dec after their final preparation.
The admission procedure of the new batch for the secondary level is completed. Altogether 17 candidates are enrolled for the coming year
A meeting was held on Open School Programme at the DharmadasTrustModelSchool. New initiatives are discussed in the meeting for the betterment of the project.
CARD PROJECT
Cell in charge- Subrata Kundu
Assisted by: Arun De, & Shibani Bardhan.
Assistant- Dipankar Swarnakar, Goutam Maity.
Four Trainees - Moumita Shee, Kartick Dey, Raju Das, Susanta Mondol, Mamoni Sarkar
Tomorrow’s Foundation is helping Prerana, an NGO in Sikkim in building up their capacity in hand made paper products. Incharge Subrata has visitedSikkim along with Dipankar to give training to the adolescents of Prerana in paper products.
The work in the card project is going on to complete the orders for the Christmas.
VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROJECT
TITLE- DEVELOPMENT OF ADOLESCENTS THROUGH SKILL DEVELPOMENT
SUPPORTED BY GOAL –INDIA
Project Coordinator – Tanushree Roy
Project Associates- Alokesh Sengupta (part time accountant), Subhankar Dutta (office assistant,) Sourov Das, Chiranjib Samanta & Mousumi Dutta
Support Teachers- Santwana Saha, Pratik Banerjee
Vocational Trainer- Subrata Kundu (hand made paper item), Somnath Sardar (computer Literacy) & Shibani Bardhan (Stitching)
In the vocational training project supported by GOAL-India, 3 adolescents, Munmun Paul (financial accounting), Jasmin Ara(Software), Basudev Mondol (Financial accounting) have drawn their first salary after placing in job (last month) in this week.
The work on the GOAL-India’s proposal development for the coming year (‘08) is going on. The GOAL India team of TF is busy on it. The work will continue in the coming year and the Goal-India will give their feed backs by 15th Jan-08.
15 candidates under the project who are in the graduation level are promoted to the next higher level of the graduation course.
The Job placement target is 35 for ’07. But TF put 37 candidates in job after their vocational training. The remaining 65 candidates will be placed in the job in the next year-08. It’s a achievement for TF.
All the targeted activities of the “Development of the Adolescents through Training & Development” supported by GOAL India is completed. 39 candidates under this vocational training project is already placed in job. The project proposal for the year 2008 along with budget is submitted. The team is now busy with the aim to mainstream the rest of the 61 candidates. Training is arranged on specific trades.
PRE-VOCATIONAL CELL
Cell in charge: Shiela Chatterjee (Bulbul), Prabhas Jana (Free Hand), Sudeep Sengupta (Drawing), Shibani Bhardhan (Stitching), Biplab Burman (Yoga).
The classes are going on regularly.
COMMUNITY COUNSELLING CELL (HOME & WORKING AREA)
Cell in charge- Shiela Chatterjee.
Assisted by – Biplabi Das, Rita Swarnakar, Prabhas Jana, Dipak Mondol, Subrata Mondol, Mrittika Dey.
All the field areas were visited to motivate the guardians, children and the students to inspire them to go regularly in the schools. The other necessary aspects of their life also get importance for holistic approach to development.
The cell visited the candidates’homes for –
TF absentee list follow up,KMC absentee list followed up, Hostel parents meeting, Health purpose visit, Computer class purpose visit, Adulteducation purpose visit, Cultural class purpose visit, Parents meeting for Open school,Spoken English class purpose visit, Drop out student purpose visit.
ADULT EDUCATION CELL
Cell in charge – Shiela Chatterjee, Aparna Ghosh
The classes are going on regularly. But due to Durga Puja quite a number of them became irregular. Home visits are conducted regularly to bring them back to the class. Two of the beneficiaries have babies during the period.
HEALTH CELL
Cell in Charge- Biplabi Das
IT IS DESIDEDSHEILA WILL HELP THE MEDICAL CELL.
Rabi Banik was admitted at Bandhan a rehabitational center. His case was followed up regularly.
Rita Swarnakar was treated for her eye problem by Dr. Agarwal.
Purnima Halder, Ponam Tanti has suffered from fever.
Regular Check up of the students were done at Urban Health Clinic.
Ashima Naiya’s treatment is going on under Dr. Narayan.
Follow up by Medical cell help in recovery of the children who were suffering from fever, jaundice and other alignments. They are well now.
FORMALSCHOOL
Cell in charge: Rita Mitra.
Assisted by: Dipak Mondol, Subrata Mondol, Mrittika Dey
All the students of class X are allowed to sit for the Secondary (Madhyamik) exam.
The 5th unit tests in the different formal schools were completed. The results will be declared in Januar’08. The Model School & Deshopran Biendranath Institution for Boy’s will conduct their 5th unit test in January.
The overall attendance to the school was regular.
EDUCATION PROJECT (Day & Evening)
School Administrator – Rita Mitra
Assisted by: Jaya Majumder, Biplabi Das, Mira Das, Sangita Dey, Smritikana Biswas, Swarnali Patitundi, Madhab Sarkar & Munmun Dey. Soma Chakraborty,Subrata Mondol, Mrittika Dey, Urmi Bhattacharya, Deepak Mondol, Rita Swarnakar, , Basanti Debnath, Astom Das, Prabhas Jana.
The class Xstudents, who will appear for the secondary exam on February-08, will be sent to Half Way home on January08.
Regular teacher’s meetings were arranged on every Thursday along with in-house teacher’s meeting to discuss the various issues. “Children’s Day” was celebrated on 14th November. Class wiseparents –teacher meeting arranged on 20.11.07
The Concern India Foundation team visited the school project on 6th November.
KMC second term Test was conducted from 13th Nov at DharmadasTrustModelSchool.
Children Council has arranged the Christmas programme in the school with much fanfare.
Cases of drop out students were taken care of with repeated meeting with the students along with their guardians.