People for Change- India

Annual Report for the year

2013-14 (April- March)

RegistrationNo. 3524/2996

Registered address: 604, Radhika Towers, Radhika Garden,

Ghorabandha, P.O Indranagar, Jamshedpur 831008Jharkhand, India

Office address :House No.28,Radhika

Garden.Ghorabandha.Jamshedpur-831004Cell Phone: 91- 9386819379, 91- 9386370778E-Mail: ssouviksaha@gmail.comWeb: www.peopleforchange.in

Editors: Souvik Saha, Bhaskar Chaudhary

Photographs: © People for Change except where noted otherwise.

About Us

People for Change is a

youth led and run non-

profit organization in

India that works with

children and young

people in Jharkhand. We

work towards

empowering youth and

providing platforms to

enable them to explore

understand and express themselves and also their communities and

begin the journey from self to society through citizenship action.

People for Change was registered as a trust in May 2009.We strive to

provide a platform to young people which enables them to understand

and fully express themselves and become effective agents of change.

Our work reaches the community through performing and visual

arts,workshops ,awareness and skill building initiatives.

We develop and support young people’s initiatives in the following

areas;

• Essential Life Skills

• Supporting child education( through our program DEEPSHIKHA

and through non formal study centres)

• Gender, Sexuality ,Rights and Health

• Citizenship

• Leadership initiatives

• Rights and responsibilities

• Environment

• Performing and Visual Arts

• Peacebuilding initiatives and culture.

·

THE IMPLEMENTING TEAM

Mr. Souvik Saha FounderTrusteeMr. Bhaskar Chaudhary FounderTrusteeMr. B Vijay Murty Trustee

Mr.Kalyanbrata Patra Project Coordinator (Fundraising)Mrs.Tuli Sengupta Project CoordinatorMrs. Rima Basak Youth FacilitatorMrs. Rituparna Roy Youth FacilitatorMrs. Papiya Chakraborty Youth Facilitaor

Projects Team

Mr. Sayan Bhattacharjee Mr.siddharth DesaiMr.Sourav Agarwal

College Connect teamPriya Mishra

Project volunteers

ShubhraPraneet MishraGopalDibyenduJayanti Sinha

Office in charge

Vicky Rajak

Message from the board of trustees

It is our pleasure to introduce the annual report of People for change for the financial year 2013-2014.

This year, we started and ran 3 major projects in two districts of Jharkhand. (East & West Singhbhum)

1. Our program( Nayi Rahein)is now run permanently in 10 schools in Jamshedpur with an achieved direct outreach of around 4000 youth and young adolescents .This program is now part of the school calendar in these schools.

2. The rural exposure camps have now been expanded to three schools and two more in the pipeline.The response to the program has been phenomenal and around two hundred fifty students have been part of the program this year.

3. MAUJ camps have now widened their scope to eight schools and saw a participation of over nine hundred kids and young people

4. SPEAK UP a campaign on gender based discrimination achieved an outreach of over 1200 students with an active participation of 15 schools in the city.

5. We initiated the young leaders club in two schools in Jamshedpur with plans for six more in the future. The clubs membership grew from forty five to one hundred twenty within three months of incepton.

6. Comics for Change expanded to ten schools this year and empowered over a thousand children with skills to make grassroot comics.

7. Business enterprises was started by three schools under our school entrepreneurs programs and MNPS won the best enterprise award from Tata Steel excellence and also the British council award and were rewarded with a trip to London for the same.

8. We managed to raise and connect 12 volunteers to various projects with organizations in and around Jamshedpur.

9. We have been successful in building a new library building and hall for our school in Bhalopahar,Purulia.

All the projects are running successfully and it is a real pleasure to see People for Change spread its involvement in empowering young people with skills to develop themselves and initiate changes in the lives of thecommunities that they live in.

While thementors,team and volunteers at People for change have done an excellent work on all these tangible projects , perhaps our greatest achievement for the first year would be our development of a deeper understanding of the on the ground situation. We had our own share offailures and learning. We initiated a slum school project that could not see the light of the day because of several reasons. Nevertheless these

failures, these relative successes and these first hand experience resulted in us building an overall perspective that will surely go a long way in making our projects even more effective in times to come.

Our Volunteers participated in several collective learning events organized as a part of the youth development exercises and every time returned back with newer perspectives and more refined pearls of wisdom.

Our Programs

Nayi Rahein

The program is called Nayi Rahein and it is an intensive forty eight hour workshopsto be held in the school premises.

This is our first engagement with theseyoung people and there are further structured programmes which are aimed

at helping youth understand themselves and their communities better and emerge as leaders who have the ability to understand and initiate action on

matters of social justice.

A brief about the organization is attached. More details are available on www.peopleforchange.in.

In the first year of its operations, ‘People for Change’ did arapid assessment of existing youth programmes in the region todiscover a dearth of serious, structured interventions with youngpeople in the area. The team from ‘People for Change’ visited morethan 50 schools and several NGO functionaries operating in the area tolearn about the involvement of youth in Social initiatives in thearea. In these visits, most of the principals, teachers and socialworkers voiced a need to build leadership among young people onpersonal and social issues and motivate them to take up social actioninitiatives.We realized that our education system was not equippingstudents to act out of their concerns for the real world perhapsbecause the education system did not provide a a system to let thereal world in.

In order to throw them open and have the students engage withthe real world we decided to move away from the traditional "teacher"paradigm, and for a change let the students have a turn to talk.

Our methodology includes a wide range of interactive medialike art,sports,comics,outdoor residential camps,exposuretrips,community action projects and other human resource techniques.It has been our experience that this methodology creates a vibrant space for interactive learning through self expression and experiencesharing.

We conduct a workshop called Nayi Rahein with students of classes VIII to XII in schools to help them discover their selves andpotentials and to equip them with an understanding of real world issues to help them take personally and socially responsibledecisions.

This program aims to develop in the student;

The ability to discover and understand their strengths Personal and Social responsibility. Creative problem solving skills. Positive Attitudes and values Conflict handling skills Appreciation of diversity and tolerance Leadership and team skills An understanding of social issues A desire to engage with personal and social issues.

MAUJ CAMPS

MAUJ CAMPS- Two day fun camps in school

MAUJ is a two day camp in school for students to learn with fun.This camp aims at equipping young children with a set of life skillswhich is most needed by them at their stage in life.The methdology of the camp is games,theatre,creative art,JAM,extempore and a host ofother activities which are both entertaining and stimulating .

The camp has been conceptualized with an aim to initiate the process of self exploration in urban school children which would lead to a better understanding of themselves,their peers and the community they live in. The camp also aims to provide a safe space where these children can engage in this process and freely express themselvesthrough exposure to various creative performing and visual forms

Objectives of the camp

To help children begin to understand their strengths andweaknesses and to engage them in a process of self exploration. To help improve urban children open up and expressthemselves through the use of creative media. To improve communication skills of children by helpingthem to articulate their thoughts. To help them understand leadership skills and initiateleadership action. To help increase their self confidence.

To sensitize them towards issues affecting the communityand in turn their lives as well. To help them understand and initiate action against issuesof social injustice.

Content of the camp

Interactive sessions Nukkad Natak(street theatre) Movie screenings Creative Visual art and Performing art workshops Theatre Sessions. Collage,face painting,t shirt painting Kabaad se jugaad Crate your meal ………..

and other creative activities to help children explore themselves and provide voice to understanding on the world around them through these creative activities.

COMICS FOR CHANGE( one day/two day/three day)

Comics for change is a skill development workshop which aims atusing comics to help children voice their innermost concerns,emotions and fears and articulate it to bring it to the fore. The workshop aims at teaching every student how to make awall poster comic from scratch and to effectively use this skill throughout their lives to give voice to their innermost concerns.

This program is conducted with the expertisetrainers trained in comics.

We have already conducted this workshop across various school in Jharkhand. The vision is to bring this medium within reach of all children .We assure you that this skill once learnt has and can be used by students to give voice to topics that are closest to them and concern them most.

Grassroots Comics as a medium stands outdistinctly from mainstream comics. These comics are created by “You and Me”, common masses themselves. Individuals from diverse have used this powerful medium to express their own self. This has served as one of the most popular communication tool for several organizations,schools and even people’s movement. Comics have given a new directionto representation of silences thereby creating a revolution in itself.These comics are easy–to-make, reproduced by simple photocopier and distributed in a limited demarcated area, which

invites local debates and refection among people from different socio-economic stratum of the society.

The simplicity of its approach lies in the fact that it just requires a pen, paper and something to say or in otherwords, requires the lines to speak for themselves.

What makes these comics different from a professional creation is the ownership on the content as well as local settings and drama.

The comics are pasted up in all possible locations inyour school for visibility and exhibitions can also be arranged to solely exhibit the work done by students.

One more important thing in these comics creates an awesome string between the creator of the communication and the readers and helps parents and teachers know in depth about the views and perceptions of students on topics that affect them deeply.

YOUNG LEADER CLUBS

The club is aimed at creating real life leaders from among students by empowering them with skills to help them understand their strengths and weaknesses and develop self confidence , interpersonal and communication skillsin them. It also aims to provide real life leadership opportunities to these students to be able to exercise and bring into practice skills learnt during the program.

The intervention program aims at working with a group of fifty students from classes VIII to XII who will for the club. The program is an ongoing engagement with the students and will continue till the time the students pass out of the school

The period of intervention is 36 hours annually broken intotwo hour sessions twice in a month.(the other three months are left for holidays n exams).

Apart from the regular intervention the club will have to initiate and execute a minimum of two community action projects in a year and will also have to set up a sustainableenterprise to fund the activities if the club.

The purpose of this model program is to develop the knowledge, skills, and understanding youth need to become effective leaders within culturally diverse communities. Goals include the following:

Increase participants understanding of the concept of leadership

and how the

concept is culturally-based;

Increase participants understanding of and appreciation for

cultural diversity;

Assist participants in developing specific skills needed for

effective leadership;

Provide participants with a process for examining pertinent

issues facing their

communities and knowledge of those issues;

Increase participants awareness of themselves and how they

relate to others;

Provide opportunities for participants to apply the knowledge,

skills, and

understandings through meaningful services to the community.

Rural Exposure Camps

The rural exposure camp program at People for Change is athree day long rural exposure camp. The camp is organizedfor students studying mostly in high income schools that do not have any exposure to the realities of rural Indian life. We believe that these students are our future leaders and thus anexposure to rural life and its problems and possibilities will give them a wider perspective willenable them to take more informed and sensitive stances and thus lead the change that they wish to see.

Currently we are running the rural exposure camp program with variousschools in Jamshedpur and some in other cities as well. The camps started with schools in 2010 and since then are trying to integraterural exposure Camps to their school curriculum. We aim to make it mandatory for all students of classes that we work with to attend these camps. Each year we work with agroup of around 300 students .The program is now a part of the annual calendar for two schools in Jamshedpur.

Rural exposure Camp is also a program that is funder independent. The cost of the camp is raised from the school itself. Thus it is financially sustainable. The payment made by the students not only covers the camp cost but also raises an income for the host organization that supports and rural funder their projects with lesser privileged children.

From the feedback received from the school, teachers and the students it is evident that the program has a strong impact on the students that we work with.

The key vision is to create leadership skills in students

and to help them understand and appreciate

differences and diversity.

Other Programs

Apart from the programs mentioned in the previous mails,we conduct trainings and workshops for parents and teachers on various topics dealing with their interactions with children both inside and outside the classroom.All programs are aimed at equipping students,teachers and parents with a set of skills to enable them to effectively deal with the issues relating to adolescent and to help them devise strategies to effectively deal with these and make correct and informed choice in life.

Some topics on which we conduct sessions are;

1. CYBER SAFETY

Making students,parents and teachers aware of the types and dangersof cyber crime and suggesting standard rules of online communication and internet use.

2. LIFE BEYOND IITs

Helping parents,teachers and students understand the most essential points to be taken into consideration while deciding a future career andgiving them a detailed list of the varied opportunities for higher education and career choices available to them today.

3. EXAM READY PARENTS

stress management for parents of board examinees.

4.INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION FOR TEACHERS

Two day workshop for teachers for using interpersonal communication to increase productivity in professional and personal spaces.

5.SPEAK UP

A campaign on gender discrimination and awareness about body and identities for adolescents in schools.WENLIDO a form martial art of selfdefense for girls is an integral part of the program and aims to empowergirls to protect themselves in situations of physical violence.

Apart from this we run a program called DEEPSHIKHA where we work on sponsoring the education for children belonging to both rural and urban areas.

As part of this initiative we run a school in Purulia(West Bengal) for 265tribal and vulnerable children and sponsor the education and life skills training development of 125 kids in Jamshedpur .

Our Outreach

Name of

the

program

Name of the school

&location

Number of children

participated(direct

outreach)----Approx.

Number of

children

( indirect

outreach)-----

Approx.

No. of

Teach

ers

Nayi

Rahein

Sant Nandlal Smriti Vidyalaya,Ghatsila

200 4

KSMS,Jamshedpur 800 15

Motilal Nehru Public 500 5

School,Jamshedpur

J.H.Tarapore School,Jamshedpur

800 5

Gulmohar High School,Jamshedpur

250 3

Tarapore School,Jamshedpur

650 2

JuscoKadma,Jamshedpur

200 1

DBMS Kadma High School,Jamshedpur

250 1

Jamshedpur Public School,Jamshedpur

400 1

Hill Top School,Jamshedpur

550 1

Sidhu Kanhu High school

150 3

Rural

exposure

camps

Little flower school 70 2

J.H.Tarapore school,Jamshedpur

80 4

Tarapore School,Jamshedpur

60 4

MAUJ

Camps

Gulmohar High School,Jamshedpur

70 5

Little Flower Schoo,Jamshedpur

240 6

Jamshedpur Public School,Jamshedpur

150 5

Carmel Junior School,Jamshedpur

60 4

Hill Top School 100 5

JH Tarapore School 120 6

MNPS 150 6

Tarapore School 200 4

SPEAK UP 15 schools in Jamshedpur

1200 4000 120

Comics for

Change

10 schools in Jamshedpur

1000 7000 35

Young

Leaders

clubs

Motilal Nehru Publicschool

50 150 4

JH Tarapore School 160 300 7

Other

Programs

Across 30 other schools in Jamshedpur

4500

Total

Outreach

The way forward

We have already begun our year with a bang. April to date has almost been jam packed with events and our programs have been increasingly popular and appreciated in Jamshedpur schools.We plan to work permanently with 10 more schools the coming year.Films have long been a tremendous medium for dialogue and development and we aim to introduce filmmaking as a skill in a wseriesof workshops specially designed for this event.We also plan to spread our base of work in Ranchi and Bokaro in Jharkhand this year.We have so far been working with schools and this year we have plans to tie up and begin our work with college youth in two leading colleges in the city.Our engagement with youth in the community will continue by creatingtwo Youth resource Centers in Ghorabandha and Mango.

We now have a base of more than 6000 students that are known to us and vice versa. It’s now time to consolidate our presence. We intend to consolidate our work this year by preparing a formal bound curriculumof our Nayi Rahein program. Investing in training of our team members and providing them with clear leadership avenues inside the organization will also be the top priority for us this year.

Chronological Project Update

April, 2013 –

June, 2013

Nayi rahein,Comics for Change,Speak Up all gain momentum.We also organize trainings for teachers of two schools on Interperonal communication skills in the classroom.The idea was to create a non threatening space for students within the school where they could freely voicetheir concerns.

Trainings got headway for our new youth volunteers.

Equipped with a brief training and exposure to life skill programs, our volunteers conducted their first life skill program for two batches of 30 students each from two sections of class IX of Gulmohur High school.

This was followed by the first exposure trip involving these 60 students who were taken to a Government run middleschool to sensitize them of the wide gap

that exists in terms of educational facilities in these two schools. An information exchange program was organized for students from both these schools.

Our facilitators then conducted a one day essential life skill training foraround 40 juvenile delinquents at Juvenile home, Jamshedpur. This session was co facilitated by Dr. Jaya Moitra from the Juvenile justice board.

At the month end, People for changelaunched the life skill programin Sidhu kanhu High school. The students who comprised mostly of

1 st generation school goers were taken through the entire model over the rest of the year.

July, 2013----------

MAUJ,Comics for Change,Speak UP,SCOOP(youth magazines),trainings,new people joining…This was a real busy month.

As part of their citizenship action project,Jamshedpur public schoolconducted a one day health awareness camp organized inGhorabandha village. Basic cleanliness issues discussed with around30 housewives in the village.

August, 2013-----------

Highlights of August

• Hill Top School and Jusco School Kadma officially introduce Nayi

Rahein as part of their calendar Programs.

• Speak UP finishes touching base with 10 schools.

• The first YOUNG LEADERS camp is initiated in Motilal Nehru

public school.

• MAUJ camp sees a phenomenol response in Hill Top School and

the concept of Leadership is Fun begins to be understood by schools and students alike.

• A unique social action project cum business enterprise rolls out

inMotilal Nehru Public school,where they collect and convert waste food from eateries and tiffins of children into compost.

• The work on the library room and hall begins in our school in

Bhalopahar,Purulia.

• The enterprise is awarded the best school business enterprise in

India and the winners go to London and Cambridge university.

September , 2013------------------

Highlights of October

• DEEPSHIKHA sponsors thirty five more children from across two

other schools in Jamshedpur.

• A life skill workshop for seven

days was held in Gulmohar High school,for eight days in Little Flower school and for three consecutive days in Shiksha Niketan school.

• Remedial English classes

conducted by Tarapore school students as part of their

citizenship project bear fruit as the pass percentage of students in English goes up to 55%.

• WENLIDO workshops goes underway in

JH Tarapore School.

• A two day Collective Learning Event

held by us on facilitation skillsorganized by us is attended by twentyvolunteers from different NGOs in thecity and the shared learning enricheseveryone with newer experiences toenrich their organization.

October, November and December 2013------------------

January, 2014----------

Highlights in January Nayi Rahein extended to new schools. Schools where these workshops were conducted included

Name of School Classes Approximate number of attending students

Hill Top School (8 days)

Class 8-12 650 students

Jamshedpur Public School(2 days)

Class 8-11 400 students

Kaagaz Ki Kasti program conducted in Tagore academy with children from class V to Class VIIIparticipating in newspaper, toys and old clothes collection drive. This three classes with around12 different sections saw a collective participation of more than 500 students in this event.The funds collected were used to buy books,school supplies for the students of theafternoon school.

Deepshikha extended its financial aid to 9 more students from differentschools.

February and March 2014-------------

The month of February and March was one where the calendar of People for Change was filled with conducting life skills workshops in various schools in Jamshedpur. A seven day fun camp was also organized by us with the students of class 7 of Shiksha Niketan School.The aim of this workshop was mainly to help the students analyze themselves better andto help them know their strengths and

weaknesses and then to initiate a process of self discovery in them.It concluded in the students putting up a program for the school on what they learned from the camp.

Highlights in February and March

• DEEPSHIKHA takes on another two children in J.H.Tarapore

school in Jamshedpur.

• Speak Up completes 15 schools and continues from June 2014.

• MAUJ organized in Shiksha

Niketan school.60 children from clss 7 participate in the camp

• Young Leaders clubs gains

momentum and recognition from other schools.

The last month of the current financial year was one of non stop work and excitement. The team of People for Change had grown and now we had regular volunteers to handle our various events. Our library building in Bhalopahar gets completed while work on the hall carries on.The children from our rural visit are brought over for their maiden visit to a zoo and theme park in Jamshedpur.One of the city schools acts as

the host.

We begin our maiden rural entrepreneurship venture by initiating training on Sabai grass and date palm leaves items to the older children in our school in Purulia.

Word of Thanks

‘People for change’ extends a big thank you to all its sponsors,friendsand well wishers for supporting us not only with money,materials andtimeand guidance but also for always being there whenever we turnedto them for help .You strengthen our belief that any small effort withthe right intention and passion is sure to bear fruit.Thank You .

Our deepest gratitude to principals,teachers,support staff and studentsof all schools and institutions that put their trust on us and supportedus in our work.

Special Thank you to all schools that helped raise funds for our work sothat we could continue our efforts.

Finally Thank you to the entire team of People for Change.Yourpassion,dedication,commitment and love to your work has been thebiggest strength to enable us to continue our journey through all oddsfor these years.Thank you Guys.You Rock.