Deb Kukreja & Garima Bangard

September 5, 2012

Muskaan

Mission

Muskaan’s Mission

“Promotion of education that is enabling and liberating for the individual and historically marginalized social groups. We believe that education cannot be seen as an isolated package of skills, and is very much linked with a sense of positive self-esteem, a faith in the freedom to explore oneself. This mandates a basic living standard of physical conditions for people.”

History

In 1997, Muskaan started out as an effort to provide meaningful education to 20 children from deprived backgrounds in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Muskaan officially registered with the government nine months later in December of 1998. 20 children initially partook in the educational programs; now more than 500 children and their families work with Muskaan! Daily interactions with children and constant exposure to the hardships of the slum community at the onset of their work convinced Muskaan to start community and health care initiatives for families of the children living in the slum areas of Bhopal.

Location

Bhopal, India (Urban)

Organizational Structure & Activities

Organization Structure

Educational Programs

28 Teachers:5 – part-time & 1 full-time balwadi teachers              8 – full-time teachers at Muskaan’s teaching center      10 –full-time teachers involved in improving the government school system   3 – camp team members

Organization Structure

Community Programs

7 Staff:1—Director (Shivani Tineja)1 – office assistant   & 1 accountant1 – Income Generation (Jitendra)2 – Health Workers (Seema & her assistant, Anjali)1 – Savings Groups (Preema)3 – Health (with government agencies and near slums) + 5 community health workers (women from slums) • 1 – cook in the centre and 1 in the camp    

Activities

Muskaan

Education Program

Jeevan Shishka Pahel (a total of 10 tuition centers spread across the slums with ~300 children: 1-5 grades)

Balwadis (7 preschools) Residential Camps Government School Strengthening Program

Asha Involvement

• Asha Seattle has been funding Muskaan since October 2005 (we are funding an overall of 14% of Muskaan’s total budget)

• Asha Stanford is funding some of the residential camps (since 2010)

• Asha Frankfurt is partially funding the baldwadis (since 2010: 3000 euros thus far. Funding the early education for the 3-5 year olds)

Asha, Seattle Involvement

Balwadis• 7 centers with 168 children• Ages 2.5 – 6• 3 hours a day• Language, cognitive, social, and physical development, hand control on

writing & creativity, games, storytelling, reciting poems

Asha, Seattle Involvement

Jeevan Shiksha Pahel• 10 centers with 324 children• 1st – 5th standards

Adolescents• Separate center for adolescents: 23 children (14 boys & 9 girls) • For National Open Exams:

o In 12th Standard: 5 girls, 1 boyo 10th Standard: ~ 5 boys, 2 girls

Asha, Seattle Involvement

Adolescents Continued…

• Separate center for adolescents: 23 children (14 boys & 9 girls) • Meeting adolescents in the bastis to discuss: violence, personality, &

other issues related to this age group• Involved in ongoing Muskaan tasks

o Writing meeting minutes for workshops, conducting activities with camp children, participating in research studies

• One boy, Ritesh, has taken is upon himself to clean up and ensure limited consumption of alcohol in one of the bastis

Asha, Seattle Involvement

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Asha, Seattle Involvement

Government Schools• Muskaan works in 35 government schools • Trying to improve the quality of education• Trying to show teachers that teaching is possible without physical

punishment• Increase knowledge of practical learning for children

Asha, Seattle Involvement

“Mr. Arun Pandey, the headmaster of Barkhedi Kala School complained that the children with whom we are working are not able to solve the mathematics of 5th standard. When the maths questions were asked by the Muskaan teacher, students answered them correctly. The reason why children didn’t reply to the principal was that he was focusing on the traditional and difficult methods. In Government schools, teachers want students to cram and focus on the theory part, but we believe in practicing that theory through a simple approach. The pressure of exam and the fear of teacher create problems for thechildren.”

Asha, Seattle Involvement

Residential CampsChildren who do not regularly attend school come to the residential camps. Most of these children earn money for their families, so it is difficult for them to find the time to attend Jeevan Shiksha Patel.In 2012, camp was held for 3 months: June-August. (This is the 3rd residential camp.)The camp was held at Ratibad High School.36 children regularly attendedOf the three camps over the last several years, Muskaan has reached 93 children.24 joined have regularly joined Muskaan’s teaching centers

Asha, Seattle Involvement

Residential Camps Continued Clay making, puppetry, creative use of waste material, yoga, meditation, exercise

Asha, Seattle Involvement

Workshops

Women• Cover Right to Education Act• Caste Certificate Issues of Constitution, Law Government• Motivate women to try and get ration cards, deal with water-clogging

issues, etc.• During basti meetings, cover discussions on hygiene, food, savings,

immunizations for children, etc.

Asha, Seattle Involvement

Workshops

Children• Scrap-picking• Reviewing Information about Muskaan’s program• Wenlindo workshop for adolescent girls for self-defense and handling

teasing• Identity and gender issues

Asha, Seattle Involvement

LibraryGautam Nagar Basti has a library. The library is run by kids The books are supplied by Muskaan. The kids who know how to read, read the books among the other kids. Children feel very proud when reading books infront of the parents.

Basti MeetingsInclude discussions with parents on hygiene and health, irregularity and absenteeism of children in school, and drug-use.

Asha, Seattle Involvement

Muskaan performs a base-line assessment several times of year for children with learning challenges.• Base-line assessment in July• December & March assessments

Muskaan teachers work with children 2 hours each school day. The children are with their class the remainder of the time.

Finances

• Give an overall picture of the finances of the organization. At the minimum include the following information. o Annual expenditures- Rs 56,09,982o Annual income- Rs 58,34,959 o Sources of income-Individual donations, grants, interest

income form Bank deposits, consultancy income, sale of books and education aids

o Net Income- 224,977o Who are the biggest donors? Mostly individual donationso Other non-profits who support the partner-Navaj Bai Ratan

Tata Trust, Asha Frankfurt support Balwadi programs and Stanford also support residential camps

o Savings in Bank-Rs 23,23,538

BUDGET                                 Focus of the Program - 1. Education and Basti development activities for one basti          2. Improving quality of education in 2 government schools                           

  Budget for 2011-2012     Budget for 2012-2013                       Community Worker - 1 person @ Rs. 10000 p.m. 120,000.00   Community Worker - 1 person @ Rs. 10000 p.m. 120,000.00

  Jeevan Shiksha Pahal Teachers - 2 persons @ Rs. 9000 p.m. 216,000.00   Teachers - 2 persons @ Rs. 9000 p.m. 216,000.00

  Government School Volunteers - 1 person @ Rs. 9000 p.m. 108,000.00   Government School Volunteers - 1 person @ Rs. 9200 p.m. 110,400.00

          Management and Guidance Costs - part salaries @ Rs. 5000 p.m. 60,000.00                    Workshops with children and women     Workshops with children and women  

  4 workshops for 3 days each for 30 persons     4 one-day workshops for 30 persons @ Rs. 180 per participant 21,600.00   @ Rs. 225 per person per day 81,000.00   2 workshops for 3 days each for 30 persons            @ Rs. 250 per person per day 41,400.00                    Nutrition Costs at the centre     Nutrition Costs at the centre    @ Rs. 15 per day per child for 50 children for 250 days 187,500.00   @ Rs. 16 per day per child for 50 children for 200 days 160,000.00                    Travel Costs for children     Travel Costs for children    @ Rs. 7 per day per child for 50 children for 220 days 77,000.00   @ Rs. 8 per day per child for 50 children for 220 days 88,000.00                    Materials       Materials        Stationery @ Rs. 200 per child for 50 basti children 10,000.00   Stationery @ Rs. 225 per child for 50 basti children 11,250.00   Library Books @ average cost of Rs. 70 for 200 books 14,000.00   Library Books @ average cost of Rs. 65 for 190 books 13,300.00

 Teaching Aids @ Rs. 500 p.m. for 2 government schools for 10 months 10,000.00          

                   Working with Adolescents     Working with Adolescents    (exposure trips, admissions to boarding, work component) 50,000.00   (exposure trips)   8,000.00                    Sub-total   873,500.00   Sub-total     849,950.00                    Administrative Costs @ 7% of the total 61,145.00   Administrative Costs @ 7% of the total 59,496.50   (incl. of communications, rental, accounts, etc.)     (incl. of communications, rental, accounts, etc.)                     Total Requested 934,645.00   Total Requested (874,597.00+4%) 909,446.50                    Total Funding approved 874,597.00          

Muskaan Land

In Nov 2010 Muskaan bought the land to have a permanent place of work. Funds were raised through individual donations, earnings of Muskaan through consultancy, interest on Corpus funds deposits in bank and from a house that was purchased in 2008 and appreciated in value and was sold in 2012. Some individual donations from US are routed through Asha Seattle in order to make use of matching contribution and tax benefits. Here’s the poll that was created to approve the routing of donor specific funds for the land & building program from Asha. It has the link for the Land and Building budget as wellhttp://www.ashanet.org/projects-new/documents/267/Muskaan_ApprovalPoll_DonationsForLand.JPG

Process Checks

Item Status

Approved Budget 909,447.00

Approval Type Recurring

Amount(s) disbursed last fiscal year 874,597.00

Amount Utilized by the project last fiscal year

<Amount>

Last Site Visit Nov 2011 by Asha Stanford

Current Primary Steward Garima Bangard

Current Secondary Stewards Deb Kukreja

Status of the web page Not Up to Date

Status of the yahoo databases Up to Date

Site Visit Report from Asha Stanford

• November 2011 by Sonal Gupta of Stanford