Youth Computer Program, US visitor, FCRA registration

Hi all,
     It's been a bit since my last post and much has occurred, so I shall not delay in getting to the progress of the last month or so.

     First of all, we had a visitor from the US, Brianna Balke, who came to see our work during a trip to India. We have many photos from that visit, which you will see below as I discuss our work. Thanks for coming Brianna!

     First and foremost, we have had lots of progress in our youth leadership and technology groups. Building on the progress and enthusiasm from the last year, the students have been learning MS paint, word and excel, as well as working on their typing speed. Excitement is high and they are rapidly learning these programs, which are, as we all know, essential programs to know for jobs and for college. Turnout is excellent, with 15-20 students per group, which is basically the capacity of each group given the space and number of computers available. So, all in all we are very happy with the results this year. Here are some photos before I delve into details about metrics we plan on using for measuring progress.

 Brianna participating in the discussion with the YLTG in Mohan Gujar ki Dhani.

Brianna amongst the group in Mohan Gujar ki Dhani.

Brianna, Rohitash, and Gopal with the YLTG at Mohan Gujar ki Dhani. Good group photo.

Youth practicing on the computer in Mohan Gujar ki Dhani

Brianna participating in discussion in Kukrella YTLG.

YTLG in Kukrella working with the computer teacher

YTLG member getting Brianna's email. I assume this was not under duress!

Brianna observing the YLTG in Amloda.

Rohitash discussing with male members of the YLTG. Notice the goats on the right. Very typical setting for our work in rural RJ. We're trying to bring computer education to these very rural areas.

A very good photo of Rohitash's niece Priyanka working on the computer at home. Shows how our program is building interest in computers in many ways. Just the presence of the computers for all to use in the village area is a huge step. We are working to make sure the villagers get the maximum usage out of the computers.

    Alright, well, as I mentioned before we are very happy with the progress our computer work is experiencing. Excitement and interest are high, with all the villages buying into our program, which is very crucial. Additionally, the students are progressing rapidly in learning the key programs mentioned previously. They will also start learning about using the internet starting in June, which is obviously a crucial component of the program, since we want to the villagers to have access to things via the internet that they wouldn't normally have, e.g. agricultural and other information, job and college applications, etc. The question now becomes, how do we measure our progress in bringing computers to the village area? We think we have developed the means to do this, though we are of course always open for input and our approach will evolves as experience teaches us what works and what does not.

      Let's start with the short-term part of measuring progress. The first thing we will do is give a short exam at the end of the course that tests what the students learned during the program. This will give us valuable information about how much they learned, what they didn't learn, and what we can improve in our instruction and program generally. We are additionally going to give a survey to the students to assess their opinion of the program and how they think we might improve it. It will include questions such as: what did you know before the class? what did you learn during the class? Was the class useful? Was the class exciting? Do you want to continue learning about the computer? Is there any thing you would change about the class? We are going to try to see how much they knew coming into the class (probably just what they learned in last year's class), how much they learned during the class, and how we can improve the class to make it more exciting, engaging, and educational. After this we'll assess the situation and adjust our plans for the coming year with the new supply of data. We will keep you updated on this process!

      Ok, well that's the short-term, but we also want to be able to measure the progress of our work over the long-term after our students get jobs and go to college. This may be a bit difficult as the students move around, but I don't think it will be too big of an obstacle because it is unlikely their families will go anywhere so we should be able to contact them to get the necessary information. To this end, we will also survey the students after they leave the program, asking questions such as: why did you know before the program? What did you learn during your years in the program? How were those skills useful for you in your job/school? Did our program give you the ability and comfort with the computer so you could learn new programs? If so, what new programs have you learned? Would you participate in the program again knowing what you know now? From this we will ascertain the efficacy of the program. Obviously many other questions are possible and we will develop this aspect as time goes on. We will track the number of people our groups have trained and what sort of benefits were reaped by those former members. This will give us a good idea of how to shape our programs in the future. We are all excited and interested to see how this all goes! We'll keep you updated on all this.

Our donated laptops are beginning to wear out and could use replacement. Please donate your old laptops, or get friends to donate them. They are invaluable to our work. Email me at derek.vigil@gmail.com if you are interested in donating your laptop.

We would like to make a plea for old laptop donations again. We are very thankful to Denny Vigil, James Arnott, and David Quan for their generous donations of their used laptops a year back. However, we all know these things wear out, and this is especially true of used laptops in a place as hot and dusty as RJ, where additionally there is no AC to speak of and all places are pretty much open, even if they are "inside." So please, if you have any laptops please email me at derek.vigil@gmail.com if you would care to donate them. Please also check with friends who are looking to upgrade from/replace their old laptops. This would help us so much in continuing the progress of these youth groups. I will be going to India in December, so any time before that would be fine. Let me know.

Let's transition and talk a bit about our microcredit groups (SEGs). They continue to be a linchpin in our work and to work excellently, as was shown a few posts back with the data table detailing the level of activity in the groups. They are important to our functioning as an organization because we rely on constant input from the group members to improve all of our programs. There's a neat photo below showing where the SEG group members are interacting with the computer. As mentioned previously, the talking with the SEG members has given us invaluable insight in how to structure our computer program so as to achieve success. The importance of these groups cannot be overemphasized. 

Brianna participating in group discussion in SEG at Kukrella

Brianna with SEG members and their children in Kukrella

Again in Kukrella. Notice the surroundings here. You see the livestock and the fields that are staples of the livelihood here.

SEG members interacting with the laptop

Brianna during some free time with the SEG members.

Alright, well this has been a long post so let me finish up with a few details. Rohitash and Gopal will be meeting with a man from Delhi who is very knowledgeable about applying for our registration to receive directly foreign funds (FCRA registration, in Indian government lingo). As I've mentioned before, all Indian NGO's go through a three-year period where they cannot directly receive foreign funds and must have an oversight organization monitor their work. We are nearing the end of that period and so will be applying to receive foreign funds directly. Once this is done we will be able to receive the funds directly and, more importantly, avoid the sizeable fee (17.5%) charged by such oversight organizations. This will allow us to fundraise much more effectively since we will get rid of this overhead, which donors do not like to see (and neither do we, but there is no choice during this three-year period unfortunately). We are very happy to have the aid of knowledgeable people during this process so it can go as smoothly and as easily as possible. We will keep you updated on this.

Finally, a note about the weather and crops in India right now. It is the blistering hot time in the summer before the monsoon. Temperatures range from 40-50 C, or 100-118 F, so it's pretty scorching. Farmers - which means nearly everyone, including our workers, where we work - are starting to plant tomatoes, chillies, and eggplant, all very tasty parts of the Indian diet.

Chillies, tomatoes, and eggplant are all crucial summer crops in RJ, although the growth of chillies is not ideal because they take up so much water and RJ is very water scarce. Nonetheless, people like to eat them, so the farmer's grow them.

Well, that's it for now. Have a great memorial day weekend!

Newpaper scan

Hi everyone, I just wanted to follow up and post the news articles from Rajasthan Patrika and Dainik Bhaskar here. The scan of the articles is given below, followed by my translations:

Upper one (from April 9th version of Rajasthan Patrika)
 The Start of a Computer Literacy Center
       On Wednesday in the village of Kukrela in Gram Panchayat (village cluster) the sarpanch (village mayor) Dholaram Khatik ceremonially opened the a computer literacy center. The sarpanch said that computer knowledge is very important for today's youth. He said that Lok Sahabhagi Santha is a volunteer organization. In the Viratnagar block (county) LSS is starting a pilot computer literacy center.  NGO worker Rohitash Kumarmeena said that during the summer vacation the students will be taught basic information about the computer. NGO workers Gopal Singh, Shyam Singh, and others were also present at the ceremony.

Lower one (from April 9th version of Dainik Bhaskar)
 Students to Learn About Computers
     In the village of Kukrela in Gram Panchayat Bhamod on Wednesday the sarpanch  Dholaram Khatik ceremonially opened the computer center of Lok Sahabhagi Sanstha (LSS).  Sarpanch Karthik said that computer education is of great importance for today's youth. During the summer vacation students will learn about computers at the center.    


Anyways, no photos made it, but I still think this is exciting stuff. We will work to continue our progress. Have a great day!

LSS makes the newspaper, starting of summer work, and lots of photos!

Hi all,
    So, super exciting news here. The opening of our village information center in Kukrella attracted two of the bigger regional newspapers, Dainik Baskar (http://www.bhaskar.com/) and Rajasthan Patrika (http://www.rajasthanpatrika.com/). Rohitash tells me that stories and photos about our work have appeared in both newspapers and that he will have scanned photos to post on the blog soon. This is another important step in building our program, since getting this type of name recognition will make fund raising in India much easier. We have had the mantra that in our first three years of operation we just wanted to build strong programs, and then we'd focus on fundraising after that. I think this choice is working nicely for us and the support we are seeing reflects the strength of our programs. We will work to ensure this remains the case!

    Alright, we have started our second year of computer work in earnest. The youth leadership and technology groups (YLTGs) have started up in three villages (the other villages' students are still in their examination period, so we cannot start there yet). We have also opened our village information center in Kukrella in a ceremony attended by the sarpanch (village mayor, in India's system) and the newspapers. As detailed in previous posts we will begin by reviewing what we learned last year (basics of the computer) and then will go on to MS Word and typing skills. There will definitely be a good stream of posts as this work develops. For now, enjoy the photos below.

The poster for our village information center

Gopal with the village sarpanch (mayor) at the village information center opening  ceremony

Gopal with student at opening ceremony

Teacher with students in Kukrella

Same as above

Students on computer in Mohan Gujar ki Dhani

Students working on laptop

    Finally, our microfinance work continues unabated, with the women and their families enjoying the benefits they have to offer. These are a cornerstone of our work/operational philosophy, so we always work to keep them strong. Below are some photos.

Woman filling out documentation in Mohan Gujar ki Dhani

Meeting in Barwara

    Stayed tuned for some scans of the newspaper articles. Have a great day!

Microcredit group and website updates

I'm back at it again quickly after my previous long hiatus. This will be a short post, however.

I just wanted to have a post updating you about the current size of our micro-credit program, since it's recently expanded. Here is a table summarizing all of the groups we are currently operating and the amount of loans that have been taken out in each group:

There is a lot of information in this table, so I'll point out a few features. We have the total number of loans given, which for some of our older groups you can see is quite large. We also have the total amount loaned in the last column (in Rupees), which is also significant for our older groups. For reference, it takes a few thousand rupees to buy each of fertilizer, specialized seeds, and goats. So, this table really tells you that our program is working very well, with many people taking loans, most likely for the aforementioned agricultural purposes. Also, you can see that the majority of our groups are for women. As is well-documented in this blog and on our website, we believe that these groups are crucial for women as a vehicle of social change, empowering them as economic actors and decision-makers in their households. So, we are happy with the progress shown in the above table. Note that we do allow the groups for men as well because that can provide concrete economic benefit as well. Our main focus is on women, however. I'm very happy with this table! We will continue to work to expand and develop this work, improving our services in whatever ways we can. We also plan on passing control of these groups over to the women within a few years, once they are comfortable with the administration. All in due time.

In case you forgot, here's some of the women who have taken loans from us, along with the product of their loans:

A women in Kukrella who has taken a loan to buy a goat. The milk will be used in the family or sold.

A women in Barwara who has taken a loan to buy fertilizer for her millet, or bajra, crops. They grew nicely. The millet harvest was harvested in October. Villagers use millet to make bread and as a feed for livestock. It is a crucial crop in rural Rajasthan. Notice in her left hand the pink booklet. It is the booklet where they record their monthly contributions to the group's central fund as well as details about loans they take and pay back. 

A women in Barwara, also in her millet field. Notice the pink booklet here as well. 

While we are on numbers, I would just like to mention that we will again be operating summer computer education groups in 5 villages, with 1 village also serving as a pilot for our village information center model. If last year is an indication, then the groups will have at least 20-25 students in the classes. We look forward to seeing all of our students progress this summer.

For those interested in India, right now is the time of the harvest of mustard, wheat, and chickpeas (or surso, gehu, and chana in hindi) in Rajasthan. These are all critical crops in the area for eating, for giving to livestock, for selling, etc. I always mention things like this because this is one reason why our staff is so good at what they do: they are farmers like the people they work with, so they understand all the relevant issues. Some photos:

 A mustard field behind a meeting of a male microfinance group. Beautiful, I think.

Chickpeas are eaten whole in India, as well as used for flour and to make pre-made foods like mungori. They are also very tasty when roasted.

Wheat is commonly used to make chappatis, which are like tortillas and are used to scoop up the main dish that is being eaten.


Finally, I would like to mention that I updated the website, so that I think it contains much more information and has a better layout than previously. We will continue to put more information on here with time. Please give feedback on this, we really need it! We want to attract people to our work using the site, so it's very helpful to get feedback to make it better.

Thanks so much for your attention again. Have a great day and keep India in your heart!

Youth Technology Education Round II, and another visitor

All,
    It's been far too long since I've written anything here. What can I say, my research has kept me extremely busy over the last several months so that all I could do with respect to my work in India was maintain contact with the field workers and plan our coming work. I'll be posting more in the coming months.

A female in Mohan Gujar ki Dhani practices the computer during winter break

   Alright, so the big news is that we're going to be entering our second year of youth technology education. We've learned a lot in the last year about what will it takes to make such a program work in terms of meeting places and locations, with the cooperation and input of the villagers in the villages in which we work. It seems that we've got even more buy-in this year, as the students and their parents are already starting to see the benefits of having computer skills. Indeed, over their winter break they were using the computers and re-hashing the skills they learned last summer, while also learning about Google and the information you can get from the internet. This is heady stuff for people who had never touched a computer prior to our program.

     The most important period is coming up now, because the students' summer break is coming up (April 15th-July15th). We will again be bringing in a computer teacher to teach the students specific skills on the computer. We have a timeline laid our for our work: in April we will review the skills learned last year, in May we will learn word and practice typing to get good speed on this, in June we will introduce Excel and the internet, and in July we will review everything and give an exam over what was taught over the summer. We think this subset of skills contains the most important things for these students to learn in order to be able to function on the computers, be ready to learn more, and to have useful skills for an employer or for going to college. We are very excited to see how the students progress in the coming months. More details to come as they develop!

Me at one of the computer centers last year. On my right is the computer teacher and field worker Gopal Singh. We will be bringing in a computer teacher again this summer.

       Also, for this summer we will also be introducing our village information center in Kukrella, which we view as a natural way to integrate the whole village into our computer program. As I said in an earlier blog post, the purpose of this center will be to provide a center for various types of literature on agriculture, government policy, etc.; to provide newspapers for people to read; and to allow for better usage of the computers we currently have for the YLTGs when the students are in school. The idea for this latter point is that the computers will be available for the wider village to use for job applications, school applications, looking up information, or whatever use for which they need it (that will surely develop with time!). Larger towns in the area have such centers, but thus far the villages where we work do not have them and that puts the villagers at a disadvantage in terms of jobs and educational prospects, as well as information needed for their livelihood. We will be working to expand access to information through technology and traditional means. This combines one of our core missions of spreading technological literacy in village areas with the key goal of equalizing access to information and resources for villagers. We will continue to refine this idea and I will keep you updated as this progresses!

Our previous visitor James at a microcredit group meeting in Berki. A friend of his will be visiting LSS in April

     I am happy to announce also that we will be having another visitor to LSS, and she is a friend of James Arnott, a previous visitor. He liked his visit so much that this friend decided she wanted to come see it as well during her trip to India and Nepal. I encourage anyone else who wants to come visit to please do. I think you will find our work fascinating and inspiring. That more people are wanting to see it is a testament, I think, to the sound fundamentals we have been working on building over the last couple years. We will continue to work hard to improve our programs. We will be very happy to have our new visitor. I will give her name as soon as I confirm that she's ok with that. 

    A few odds and ends to tie up here. We now have three field workers. In addition to Gopal Singh and Rohitash Kumar Meena, who have been the steady hands in the field for the last couple years, we also have Shyam Singh, a very experienced field worker as well. We are lucky to have Shyam on with us as we expand our computer program and our microcredit program.

Rohitash and I talking about the future of LSS. Once we have our FCRA registration and can directly receive foreign funds, we think things will be looking very bright.


     Also, we will be applying for our registration to receive foreign funds directly soon since we are approaching three years as an organization. This is the period mandated before you can receive funds directly under India's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). This will be nice because no longer will a portion of the funds go to the organization that currently provides oversight on our work (NSS). NSS has done an excellent job, but since we have yearly external audits this is not really necessary. Anyways, once we get this registration, it will be much easier to fundraise since we have very little overhead in our programs so all our overhead is currently in our interface with NSS. So we are very excited for this registration.

    Finally, I will have another post soon with some updates on our microcredit work (hint: we are expanding it :) ).

    Hope you all are well. Have a great day and consider coming to India to see LSS!

Heartening update, India audit and strategy for next year

Hi all, I hope you had a most enjoyable holiday season and are starting to get back in the swing of things at the beginning of this year.

I am writing this post as a bit of an update on past things I have said, especially with regards to your Youth Leadership and Techology Groups (YTLGs).


First of all, in December we held some informal computer classes in the villages where we set up computer centers last summer. This was during students' winter vacation, hence why they had the time to come. The results were very encouraging! When I spoke to Rohitash he said they had good turnout for the meetings and that the students had retained nearly everything they had learned over the summer. Moreover, they were very excited for the winter classes and were enthusiastic about our plan for further work during the summer. I have to say I found this quite gratifying, because sometimes you are uncertain as to how well your work is going. To get this kind of positive feedback really gives us a boost and lets us know we are heading in the right direction. We will keep working to make sure this program is a success, but we are quite heartened by the winter break results. Enjoy the photos below with the students working on the computers. A fun game for my computer donors: can you recognize which village your computer is being used in?

The two above pictures are from our computer group Mohan Gurjar ki Dhani.

 The top picture is from Pando and the bottom picture is from Amloda. We also have groups in Kukrella and Barwara (not pictured).

As for our strategy this upcoming year with the YLTGs, it is exactly how I outlined in my last substantive post (not the one on donations): we are going to have an intensive period in April-August when the students will come very frequently and will learn about the computer from our workers and a hired computer teacher. We will be setting the curriculum soon, but it will most likely consist of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and perhaps doing research on the internet. We hope with the skills from this established, we can get weekly meetings with the students set up after this time during which they can work on their skills. I will keep you updated on this.

The above two photos are from our two new men's groups established in Barwara (top) and Mohan Gurjar ki Dhani (bottom). The beautiful yellow fields in the Mohan Gurjar ki Dhani photo are mustard fields. One of the best parts of being in Rajasthan during January.

 

One of our women's microcredit groups from Barwara. These groups are our standby. The work done in these groups is so critical, in so many ways.

 

Our work with the microfinance groups (or self-empowerment groups, SEGs) continues to go very well. We have added some groups in the last month or so, including a few for men. Although we strongly stress the social and economic importance of these groups for women, and hence make women's groups our primary focus, there are also time when it is appropriate to have them for men as well. Below are some pictures.


I'll finish off with some technical details. We had our books in India audited by an outside party for our first year of operation. The audit is posted below for all to see. I hope this will give confidence to anyone considering donating to us and those who have donated to us. I am proud of our organization and how it is run, and I hope you will agree. Finally, I have not quite finished the analysis of our village survey data, but I will try to do so shortly, and make a post about it. The results will surely be interesting.

 Our audit report from our book in India. Feel free to peruse. Sorry for the weird layout. That's the issue of the website.

My best wishes for a great start to 2012!