Amma Social Welfare Association

Issue

I. SCHOOL EDUCATION Problem: A report says, “Nationally,29 percent of children drop out before completing five years of primary school, and 43 percent before finishing upper primary school. High school completion is only 42 percent. Majority of the students from Govt. Schools and rural villages are unable to Communicate, Express, Mingle, Think, Act, and Take decisions. They are also unable to participate meaningfully in the current society, and this Individual problem becoming a systemic issue. As children disconnect from the learning process either they are becoming dropouts or becoming irregular, inactive, and not interested in schooling. Reasons may be one or many • formal Schooling starts with reading and writing irrespective of students’ print exposure. • children are not able to connect sounds and symbols. • focus is only on decoding at schools not on comprehension. • not allowing children to use their home language or dialect or experiences at school or vice versa: • no space for communication and expression. • most of all lack of teacher-student relationships and • teachers’ lack of understanding of each child based on their cultural, and socio-economical backdrops. Solution It’s evident and different research confirmed that “Foundational language, Literacy, and Numeracy competencies” play a crucial role and basic need for every child to continue secondary & higher education in a meaningful manner, lack of these competencies leading to the present generation’s not able to think critically and act independently. So, quality primary school education is the right age and fundamental and foundational to developing active, productive, responsible citizens, hence a happy and healthy society. We started working on Strengthening and improving school and community interventions with a specific focus on literacy and numeracy learning in under-resourced schools and underprivileged communities. Work towards enabling underserved children to access quality learning opportunities that would aid their foundational literacy and numeracy skills and learning. Our approach and its Merits When a child enters school at the age of five or six, she already has a basic grasp of her first language. She has a vocabulary of at least 4000 words and a mastery of basic grammar. This means she can interact with others and carry on conversations. Once she goes to school, her major task is to become literate, that is, to learn to read and write what she already knows on an oral basis (From the book “Threading Texts within Contexts” by Maxine). The current approach which is used in teaching language in schools has its drawbacks. It's a long time before students can reach the satisfaction of using any but the rare consonants - only words, let alone full sentences. Due to these, children are not able to connect with learning. To overcome this, we use the “Balanced Approach” developed by Maxine Bernstein as a base and use different discourses to use language effectively along with Rhymes, Stories, and Songs. This approach teaches consonants and vowels together, giving students the satisfaction of using what they're learning almost immediately. It also gets students reading and writing about their own experiences as soon as possible. The best part of this approach is that it allows children to bring their day-to-day experiences into the learning and they start learning words that are emotionally connected to their daily living . Our guiding principles are 1. Teacher-child relationship as central to any educational processes and 2. Using children’s experiences to make the curriculum. Our interventions under School Education 1) Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN): Aims to strengthen and improve under-resourced schools and underprivileged communities with a specific focus on literacy and numeracy competencies in children using innovative teaching and learning methods. To achieve higher levels of efficiency in FLN delivery we are using Maxine Bernstein's "Balanced Approach". That would entail working on enabling classroom strategies, library programs, teacher practices, comprehensive literacy framework on principles of balanced bilingualism among others. We inculcate individualistic factors that a child brings along - be it cultural, social, economic, or behavioral. We allow children to express themselves in their language by creating an accessible, friendly, playful, and safe learning environment. The work in education in the schools would include direct engagement with 6 teachers and 219 students of the primary grades on literacy and numeracy instruction 2) Children Learning Center (CLC): CLC started as a pandemic pet project in October 2020, for the children of the Ram Nagar Slum of Shadnagar. It served the purpose of an afterschool learning center so that children did not lose the flow of schooling & education post-pandemic. Presently, CLC helps me engage children even when school is not running, prevents dropouts, generates curiosity, and facilitates their learning process. At CLC, we encourage them to express their ideas and thoughts and learn the language using stories, rhymes, games, drawing, and other activities. We teach them language and literacy using their day-to-day life experiences. Around 60+ children are benefiting from CLC. 3) Children’s Library: Problem: Books are the source of not just information but also inspiration and contribute to the wholesome development of children. But how will children in government schools, who are normally from poor backgrounds, get access to inspiring knowledge, as there are no libraries in government schools? 95% of primary schools don’t have libraries. Students suffer due to the lack of libraries in government schools. It’s not just the problem with Govt. Schools and/or underprivileged children. It’s the problem for all the children as well as their parents. Generally, the goal of school libraries is confined to supporting the curriculum and attempting to meet educational needs. Good children’s libraries always focused on promoting the joy of reading as well as fostering the emerging literacy skills of children. Solution The children’s Libraries project commenced with the motive to inculcate the value of storytelling in first-generation school-goers. The objective is to create a love for book reading and to introduce creative & critical thinking, expression, narration, visualization, and reading, questioning, and improving communication skills, and providing exposure to varied perspectives to children coming from marginalized communities. The salient features of our Children’s Library are (1200+) carefully curated and selected books in Telugu, English, and Bilingual from different publishers (like Manchipustakam, Tulika, NBT, Eklavya, Pratham, and Paraag) available and displayed attractively. They are easily accessible to children of all ages and their parents. Through various library activities, we introduce, connect, and develop curiosity about books and their reading. Around 60+ children benefit from this library and borrowed 3000+ storybooks for reading in just a year. Our Library could attract many Govt. School Teachers and local officials. Along with the above, we also have other initiatives like a. Storytime in Schools and b. Children Story Time - Online Storytelling 4) Career Guidance Sessions (Project Vikas): Our Career Guidance program was launched to spread awareness about the career options available after class 10th to secondary school students. Volunteers conduct sessions on personality, goal setting, and career options available after the 10th class. Post the sessions, every attendee gets a unique guide designed by ASWA that offers clarity on choosing a career path for the next 6-7 years. Our booklets reached around 1.25 Lakhs children over the last 10 years. We also provide need-based online support and guidance to these children over the phone. 5) Project Cheyutha: Project Cheyutha was launched to offer scholarships to meritorious students coming from poor families. Students who aim to pursue higher education (beyond Grade 10) are eligible for the scholarship. Through Project Cheyutha, we generally extend support for hostel, mess, tuition & stationery fees. We have extended support to over 65+ students. II. HIGHER AND ADULT EDUCATION: Centre For Holistic Development & Human Consciousness (CHDHC) * Need for CHDHC We all want to live a happy and comfortable life, realizing one's full potential. However, some so many confusions and unsolved issues in our being, relationships, and work Although the average material standard of living for humans is higher than it has ever been, we are still struggling with issues within, and at various levels like loneliness, depression, anxiety, lack of clarity on what to do, why to do it, purposelessness, lack of trust, jealousy, hatred, disrespect, poverty, hunger, malnutrition, inequality, polarization, extremism, violence, pollution, resource depletion, climate change, species extinction, etc. There is an immediate need to work on enabling individuals to discover their true potential of being humans. The root of all issues is the lack of right understanding in individuals and the development of human consciousness we propose a sustainable solution to the problems mentioned above. *Our Approach and the Solution CHDHC envisions taking Jeevan Vidya’s (Universal Human Values) knowledge to every individual in the Telugu states. CHDHC was started to inculcate value education and human consciousness among citizens of every age. The primary focus is to help individuals from all walks of life recognize the happiness within and encourage value-based living resulting in a harmony of family, society, nature, and within oneself through the Universal Human Values / Jeevan Vidya framework. CHDHC would like to promote this knowledge in individuals at various stages of life irrespective of their background, country, culture, age, gender, financial status, etc. who are driven by a passion to understand reality and live with meaning and harmony. Universal Human Values / Jeevan Vidya is the philosophy propounded by the late Sri A. Nagaraj. This philosophy postulates that Existence (reality) is co-existence. It is a proposal for an Undivided Society & Balance in Nature. *Our interventions under CHDHC Our goal is to draw the attention of our participants from looking outside to looking inwards. For this, various forms of workshops have been designed to cater to a wide variety of audiences. The core purpose of the workshops remains the same, only the form, the presentation, and the approach may change. Since 2018, we have been organizing face-to-face workshops, online workshops, and webinars for teachers, faculty, parents, students, and people from different walks of life. We have also created and shared freely available resources for the participants to facilitate their transformational journey. We offer workshops both online and face to face modes in Telugu and English Languages duration ranging from 2 hours to 7 days through different sessions/workshops: 1. Faculty Development (FDP): AICTE and UGC introduced Student Induction Program to their Undergraduate programs where universal human values are discussed. To conduct this program all the faculty from AICTE-affiliated colleges need to train in Universal Human Values, in turn, they help their colleges to conduct Student Induction Program. This initiative aims to prepare facilitators to teach Universal Human values components in the Student Induction Program. 2. Teacher Professional Development (TDP): An effective teacher can make a significant impact on generations of students, and we all have seen growing up, how our teachers have inspired and impacted us. Teachers’ development is critical to society and this program aims to provide holistic perspectives and skills required to enable teachers to take up the responsibility of nurturing students and fostering relationships with children, colleagues, and the school community. This program aims to provide perspectives and skills regarding teachers’ personal and interpersonal well-being. Also aims to enable teachers to take responsibility for nurturing relationships with students, other teachers, and the school community and to contribute to healthy school culture. 3. Student Development (SDP): Interacting with younger generations provides a lot of hope and energy to our team. This initiative aims to motivate and encourage students of higher education to have a holistic vision in life and work towards excellence. The reception from students is significant and reinforces the relevance of value education to all age groups. 4. Jeevan Vidya Workshops (Introductory): We aim to work for Individual and societal well-being. We support individuals to achieve harmony through the self-exploration process and universal human values. Workshops aim to build perspectives and skills related to holistic individual well-being and develop holistic perspectives about self, relationships, society, and nature so that individuals begin to see new possibilities for living a harmonious life. This experience empowers people to reduce the level of conflict in one’s life and enhance fulfillment and satisfaction in their relationships. These workshops could attract diverse Participants from teaching communities (Schools, colleges, and universities), NGOs, community-based organizations, corporates, Students, Parents, Professionals, and the public. 5. Weekly Refreshers: Weekly refreshers aim to help participants dive deep into the concepts introduced during the 7 to 10-day introductory workshop and to assist them in their daily practice. Participants of our introductory workshops often wished that they are reminded of the core proposals repeatedly so that they relate to them as they face life. Also, the proposals being at a very fundamental level need continuous reflection to be able to see their magnanimity. 90 minutes session Every Sunday from 7 am to 8.30 am. It is for those who have attended our well-being workshops at least once. 6. Issue-Based Special Sessions: What is immediately important to us is where our attention goes, and this initiative aims to develop awareness in society about critical and pressing issues that are prevalent and needs immediate attention and to help bring some resolution to them. Often, these resolutions initiate inquiry toward larger questions. 7. Holistic Living Programs: This program aims to provide personal coaching and hand-holding support to work on Individual well-being practices. Knowledge has its true value only when it comes to living. The Holistic Living Program (HLP) is aimed at helping contextualize the Jeevan Vidya knowledge and enabling individuals to make changes in life to experience real transformation. Intense, sincere, and serious participants join a six-month program. Every alternate Sunday a group of eight participants (including a Resource Person) spends two hours. Using non-cognitive methods like sharing and engaging with generative and reflective dialogue. Each participant takes up one practice to work on for two weeks and updates their progress about it. 8. Customized Workshops for Corporate NGOs: Values are universal, but issues can be contextual. Organizations have their own set of challenges that they deal with regularly. This initiative aims to develop a holistic outlook toward professional and personal life among the employees of the organizations and to appreciate the importance of healthy relationships in their functional teams. Please find the booklet released for the 3 years 2018- March 2022. https://www.chdhc.org/3rd-annnual-report III. Community Services 1. Relief Activities: Natural disasters or pandemics are colossal tragedies. People need most of the help at that time. ASWA extends its hands to give immediate support to people in trouble. We conduct relief camps and provide them with the necessities. The work we do is phenomenal. We have extended help to more than 2000 families in AP, Telangana, and Tamilnadu. 2. Save Life Project: a. Blood Donation& Thalassemia Awareness: This project aims to create awareness and promote Blood Donation & Thalassemia. We conducted blood donation camps and 2K awareness walks under this project every quarter. We have conducted 42+ Blood Camps collecting 100 units of blood on average in each camp and connecting at least 2-3 donors daily to patients in emergencies for 8 years. We have created awareness in many through TV and Film actors and other celebrity's support. b. Blood Connect: To make our efforts more organized in arranging blood donors for patients in emergencies, we started “Blood Connect”. We aim to make emergency connections through Blood Connect. When there is a patient in emergency need of blood, Blood Connect tries to find a donor. It tries to reduce difficulties in searching for and finding a blood donor on virtual portals / online platforms by adding human intervention and interaction. This also reduces the pressure on patient attendees and allows them to focus on the patient. Blood Connect team members will call the patient attendee who requests blood to verify details, and then we search for concerned group blood donors in our database and connect the interested donor to the patient attendee. We continue to run our earlier WhatsApp group to cater to these needs along with our new initiation of blood connect. More info at https://www.aswa4u.org/bloodconnect/ 3. Project Save Earth: Our objective is to save Mother Earth from Global Warming. Saving the environment is our duty. The highly increasing air pollution, rise in temperatures, and depletion of rain tell us that we should take utmost care to save the next generations. ASWA understood its importance and created awareness in urban areas. We have conducted many plantation drives, methods to grow and plants easily, and explained different methods of reducing plastic usage. We create awareness about the environment and plant trees and assign the task of caring for those in common cities. 4. Project Annam Parabrahmam: The objective is to the objective at least one nutritious meal. We see many destitute in our society who lacks food. It’s not just about food. It’s about proper nutrition needed for all ages of people. We conduct food distribution drives in hospitals and underprivileged communities. Around 35000 people benefitted from this. 5. Project Share & Care: Our objective is to Visit, Support, and Promote good practices in the children found founders of orphan homes. There are hopeless in this society who need love and affection. We care for them and give time every month to share happiness and joy. Activities include organizing Visits to Orphan, Old age, and differently aged homes, Spending quality time with the inmates, developing competencies in inmates and the home founders to run with ideal practices, extending financial and in-kind Support; Promote volunteerism in individuals. We have visited more than 100 homes under this project.