12A and 80G forms accepted

This is a quick post to update everyone on our progress in receiving permission from the government of India to receive funds from within India and from foreign sources.

We have been working on this for quite some time, and it has begun to bear fruit. In August we received the necessary permissions to receive funds from within India when the government accepted our 12A and 80G forms. Here is the letter from the government for the 80G form:

 

If you can read Hindi, it says we've been given the necessary permissions!

This is great news, and the field workers are currently talking with local government officials and other sources to figure out what sort of grants they will apply for in the coming year. We will keep you updated about progress in this direction as we know.

We have filled out an application for to receive permission to get foreign funds, but so far we have not heard back from the government. We expect that we will also receive this permission in the coming 6 months or so. It is a bit of a lengthy process because the government comes to inspect the site, verify details of the application, etc. We'll also keep you updated on this.

Anyways, more signs of progress that we're excited about.

2013 Summer program data and photos

Hi all,
     Been quite a long time since my last post, but I'm hoping to put out a few posts during this holiday season. LSS's work has continued to go quite well, with progress in both our computer education work and in our microcredit groups (more on the latter in a later post). We have also made progress in getting approval to receive funds from the government and sources within India (all done), and to receive funds from abroad (in progress). This will be detailed later as well.

      Let's first start off with the raw data on how many students reached proficiency with the range of programs we taught them during our program. This was determined via a hands-on examination by the teacher, during which the teacher asked the students to perform various tasks with the programs under consideration and gauged their capability. Here is the data table:

Data for 2013 summer youth computer program. Across the top are the various programs the students were taught throughout the program, while along the side are the different villages.

     What do we learn from this table? We learned that most of the students reached proficiency with the basic MS Office products, as well as Paint and Notepad. The internet was something that was taught at the end, and clearly most of the students were not able to master that material. This suggests that perhaps in the future we can offer a program just on the internet and how to use it professionally, socially, etc. We could do a whole summer course, or maybe something shorter, like a couple weeks. I would say that, overall, the data is very heartening. For our students, learning the basic MS Office programs is very important for their career prospects, and so their reaching proficiency is a critical accomplishment. This is all for students who basically had never touched a computer before our course, so this kind of progress and accomplishment is going a long ways towards achieving our goal of equalizing access to computers and the corresponding opportunity for the rural communities in which we work. We will continue to work to expand the exposure to computers in our field area.

       Alright, well that was the data, now here are some pictures showing the students working, as well as a neat map of Rajasthan created through their work with the computer. I hope you enjoy these.

Students filling out forms to gain admission to the computer education class in Chechawala.

Young boy and older boy in Shyampura work on the computer.

Students ask questions about the computer during a class session.

Students take notes on theory part of the computer instruction during class.

Students in class in Shyampura.

Girl working on the computer in Chechawala.

Young boy pauses while trying to find shift key!

Female in Dantli ki Dhani working on computer.

 

A student practices during the open session, during which we allow the students to practice on the computer in an unstructured environment.

Girls in Dantli ki Dhani working on the computer.

A bit hard to see, but this is a colored map of Rajasthan, the Indian state in which we work. The different parts are the different districts in the state, which are basically equivalent to counties in the US. Pretty neat little map!

     Notice that the kids in Shyampura are quite young. They were very excited about the computers, and many students were at or below the age of 13. This group could form a strong nucleus of computer-savvy youth in the area for years to come. They show the promise of our program, and they could also serve as future instructors and helpers in our program. Their enthusiasm excites us!

    Have a Happy Holidays!

Visit to India

Hi all,
        It's been a while since I've had a time to post, so I thought I'd try to get back into the habit. A lot has been going on with LSS since my last post, so I'll just hit a few relevant points here, and come to the other things in later posts. I'm also going to try writing shorter, but more frequent posts for digestibility and practicality. 

I am sitting in the village information and education center in Kukrela during the evening. The students are showing me their skills in typing and on MS word.

                                                                                                                                          
         First of all, I had the pleasure of visiting India at the end of December and beginning of January to see the work and strategize with Rohitash, Shyam, and Gopal on how to grow the organization, fundraise, become better administrators, etc. We came up with a list of organizations within and outside of India from whom we will solicit funds in the future. We also committed ourselves to developing proposals for 2-3 projects during the upcoming year, and we will submit these proposals to the relevant funding organizations.  We are particularly keen to expand our computer education program, as the program has been very popular and the participants are demanding further programs to get certifications that they need to get many desirable jobs. We are currently developing a proposal to meet this need and hope to submit it to some funding agencies in the coming months. 

         I saw many exciting things in the work while I was in India as well. I could clearly see that the computer program is generating considerable excitement, especially amongst the youth and their parents. In the evening at Kukrela, where we have a permanent center, the students were practicing typing and using MS Word while I was there. They would take turns using the computer and teaching each other different tricks and functionality when someone was struggling to perform a given task. I could tell that many of the student were developing considerable ability with the computer, which is pretty amazing considering that basically no one in this village had access to a computer before our program. I think we need to follow up and make sure that these students continue to have access to computers, but I find the progress already to be very encouraging. Even better, in the many discussions I had with adults, especially in our microcredit meetings, the parents would always bring up technology and computers and how they wanted to make sure their kids had access to them so that they could partake in the modern economy. I think our program addresses these needs very well and we will continue to look for opportunities to help the rural youth have an equal opportunity at attaining success. 

A student from our computer education group who has computerized the record-keeping for his family dairy! I think this is a very exciting output of our computer education program. It is a practical use of computers that gives economic benefit and keeps the benefit in the village area. Great stuff.

          

  A couple of examples of the outputs from this program, besides the general progress in computer literacy mentioned above,  is one students who decided to go to engineering school after working with the computers, and another student who computerized the records in the his family's dairy. Obviously, in the former case the student probably already had the means and ability, but I think our program definitely has the potential to inspire students to consider programs and field that they would not have previously because of fear or because it had not occurred to them. The case of the student computerizing his family dairy's records is a great example of our program imparting skills that then allow practical and economic gain for the village families. Our over-arching vision is to give villagers the same economic and educational activities as their urban counterparts, and, to the extent possible, allow them to stay in the village in this process. In this sense, this dairy computerization is a perfect output of our program: it gives economic opportunity, and allows the money and skills to stay in the village area. Inspiring stuff.

          Finally, since I said I'd keep things short, we are applying to be able to receive foreign funds directly, under the so-called Foreign Contributions  Regulation Act (FCRA). During the first three years of an NGO's existence, the government of India does not allow it to receive funds from abroad directly, but instead those funds must be channeled through an intermediary organization that is established (has FCRA registration) and oversees the work to make sure it is being carried out efficiently and transparently. Our overseeing organization, NSS, has been great, but the cost of their oversight is about 17.5% of our annual budget, so it will be nice to have this money freed up for our own operations. Additionally, we did not see it fit to fundraise during this initial three-year period since so much of the money would go to the oversight organization. We also wanted to focus on building our programs with a strong and sustainable foundation, without worrying about fundraising during the first three years. I think we have accomplished this and are now ready to move into another phase for our organization. With FCRA registration, we will start to fundraise and hopefully build up LSS's work, both in terms of the depth and breadth of our projects. We are excited for this next phase to begin. I will keep you updated on this process as it proceeds.

         Hope you're having a great week!