Literacy Focus – August 2016

 Asha Kiran … a ray of hope

On August 15, just like last year, we will launch our Asha Kiran … a ray of hope programme. Last year, we fought to free children from illiteracy. Because of the tremendous efforts from Rotarians, Inner Whe el members and their friends we have been able to reach around 33,000 children. This year let us double the number because added to our own power, we have the power of Kailash Satyarthi Foundation, with whom we have an understanding to send 200,000 children back to school.

On the eve of India’s 70th ­Independence Day, Rashi and I will share a photograph of our ­lighting up a candle for Asha Kiran … a ray of hope on the social media. We do hope that you too will do the same. This time let us also try to get non-Rotarians, our friends and ­family involved as we will be circulating the link of online donation when we run the campaign.

Visit the T-E-A-C-H website, www.rotaryteach.org, to see the number of children who have been adopted under this programme. If you are one of the sponsors, you will be tagged to a child/children whose regular progress will be available to you under the ‘My Asha Kiran Child’ tab on the website. Each child has been selected after a careful process, which include the following steps:

• Advertisements calling for proposals from NGOs are placed.
• Due diligence is done by the RILM Office, against set criteria and based on documents sent by the organisations. RILM conducts onsite field visits on the shortlisted NGOs.
• These are sent to the Child Development National Committee for approval.
• RILM then enters into a MoU with the partnering NGO.
• It organises a child screening process with support from the local Rotary clubs on the scheduled dates. Rotarians/IW members interview the identified children.
• Asha Kiran children are those in the age group 7-14; have never been to school or dropped out or not attended school for more than 45 days without informing the school; they could be laggard in their reading and writing abilities.
• The NGO sends the list of approved children for fund dispersal and upload data of the profiles of these children on the website.
• The local Rotary clubs near the NGO will monitor performance of the child by visiting the centres.
• The NGO has to conduct daily classes for these children and provide them with a bridge-course and maintain progress report of every child in specified format.
• Donors can track progress of the child by logging into www.­rotaryteach.org.

Rotary clubs can graduate from Star Clubs to Superstar to Megastar to Supreme Star status. Let us reach out to 50,000 children a month. Rotary clubs have a huge role to play. Like last year the campaign has to spread like wildfire. Let us encourage every Rotarian to light a ray of hope in at least one child’s life.

Honouring dedicated teachers
Outstanding teachers are honoured by RILM with Nation Builder Awards on Teachers’ Day (September 5). Under-performing teachers are helped to enhance their skills through specialised teacher training workshops/courses.

Last year, more than 4,700 teachers were felicitated by various Rotary clubs. This year too RILM will recognise the efforts put in by them.

Guidelines to implement Nation Builder Award (NBA)

•  Study the three forms: T1.1, T2.1 and T3.1 (available on the website)
•  Identify the schools and get consent from the school authorities.
• Conduct the evaluation of the teachers — by the students (T1.1) and the Head Teacher (T2.1)
• Compile and analyse the data (T3.1)
• Arrange for teachers’ training for teachers with low score
• For high scoring teachers, collect the NBA certificate and cover ­letter from District Governor or District Literacy Committee Chair
• Organise an event, preferably on Teachers Day or Literacy Day (September 8) to hand over the certificates to them
• Upload report on RILM website along with good quality pictures.

T-E-A-C-H Activity Snapshots Teacher Training
In July, 120 teachers from 57 government schools underwent a 3-day training on Critical Thinking & Problem Solving & Student Leadership. The same batch of teachers will attend another session on a reflective course on the same modules in November.

RC Kodaikanal, D 3000, organised a workshop for 28 teachers to highlight the needs of children who require special care.

School Survey
Rotary clubs are expected to ­conduct a survey of five schools each. The ­participating clubs will receive a ­certificate acknowledging the survey conducted by them, from the respective National Committee Members of T-E-A-C-H. The survey forms to be submitted by the clubs will be verified and approved by the NCMs.

Association of Inner Wheel Clubs in India
Inner Wheel clubs of Districts 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 325, 302, 329, 324, 326, 315 and 316 completed implementation of 298 Happy Schools last Rotary Year. They also started 295 Adult Literacy Centres and trained 2,507 teachers under Teacher Support Programme.