ANNUAL REPORT 2014 1 OUR MISSION EVERY CHILD IN SCHOOL AND LEARNING WELL This annual report covers the activities of Pratham USA during the period of January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014. However, Pratham’s program statistics reflect data from the 2014 - 2015 Indian school year. 2 3 FROM OUR EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN LEADERSHIP Dear Friends of Pratham, Twenty years ago, with support from UNICEF and the Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Dr. Madhav Chavan and Farida Lambay set out to transform the USA BOARD* INDIA BOARD education landscape in Mumbai. What started with a single preschool has evolved Avinash Ahuja Jaideep Khanna Dr. Rukmini Banerji Rohiqa Mistry into a national network that has reached 40 million children and youth through a Sudesh Arora Sunil Kumar Neerja Birla Sanjay Nayar broad spectrum of learning, literacy and vocational programs in 21 Indian states. Navneet Chugh Paul Pandian Dr. Madhav Chavan Vibha Rishi Paul Pratham’s success is a tribute to the philanthropic support of donors and partners Dinyar Devitre Deepak Raj Dinyar Devitre Ajay G. Piramal whose investment has allowed Pratham to replicate its success across the country. Hemant Goradia Arvind Sanger Vilas Gadkari Arvind Sanger We are honored by the trust and confidence US donors have shown in us. We are humbled to report that in 2014, for the fifth consecutive year, we earned a Suren Gupta Adarsh Sarma Vijay Goradia Narayanan Vaghul 4-star rating—the highest possible—from Charity Navigator for our “sound fiscal Swatantra Jain Fareed Zakaria Pramit Jhaveri Dr. Atul Varadhachary management” and “commitment to accountability and transparency.” It is with great *Vijay Goradia, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Pratham USA Ramesh Mangaleswaran pride that we recognize our donors in this report. DINYAR (DINNY) DEVITRE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF In recent years, Pratham’s contributions to driving education reforms have been PRATHAM USA internationally acknowledged, with several major awards being bestowed on the organization and its leadership—the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP, USA Dr. Marie Goradia, Houston Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, the WISE Prize for Education, and more Dinyar Devitre, Executive Chairman Rajen Dhami, Los Angeles recently the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) Foundation’s Frontiers Swatantra Jain, Chief Financial Officer Deepak Raj, New York Tri-State of Knowledge Award. Bala Venkatachalam, Executive Director Dr. Priya Radhakrishnan, Phoenix But in celebrating these remarkable achievements, it is important not to lose sight Chaya Rao, Raleigh-RTP of our mission of “every child in school and learning well,” and to remember the NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, USA AGK Karunakaran, San Francisco Bay Area importance literacy can have in transforming a child’s prospects for the future. A Vandana Kumar, Austin solid educational foundation can ensure that all children have an equal opportunity Viren Kamdar, Seattle Pratima Abichandani, Boston to succeed. Rakesh Bhatia, Washington DC Anju and Anup Desai, Charlotte Ram Karuppusamy, Washington DC And of course, none of this would be possible without our staff and volunteers. Shailendra Verma, Chicago We thank them for their extraordinary dedication and for helping Pratham make Yogi Patel, Past President and Readathon Co-Chair Sri Sridharan, Dallas-Fort Worth quality education a reality for millions. There is still much to be done, and with their Dr. Atul Varadhachary, Past President support, we are committed to continuing this important work. We look forward to a Mayur Saigal, Denver Vineeta Salvi, Readathon Co-Chair renewed partnership towards an educated and prosperous society. 4 5 PRATHAM MEANS FIRST Pratham Co-Founder “Mumbai needed about 4,000 Balwadis (preschools), but officials said there Dr. Madhav Chavan on wasn’t enough space or trained manpower. Taking this shortage of resources into account, we began to set up preschool centers in Mumbai that identified young INNOVATION women in slum communities who were good with kids—we gave them a simple orientation and some play materials and asked them to find a community space where the parents would send their children for a couple of hours. The women were allowed to charge a small fee and keep the collection as their income. The Balwadis proved that, even without money, space or trained teachers, you could succeed on a large scale if you just cleared the restrictions in your mind.” Pratham CEO “Pradhanji, the village headman in Sultanpur, did not believe the results of the Dr. Rukmini Banerji on ASER village report card that had been shown to him: although almost all of the children were enrolled in school, only a very small fraction could read. Armed MEASUREMENT with a reading tool, he walked through the village. Every child he met was asked to read. By the tenth child, he sat down, put his head in his hands and said, “yeh to mere izzat ka sawal hai (this is a question of my honor). How can this be the situation with children in my village and I not know about it?” ASER’s simple but effective approach to measurement had revealed what was invisible in plain sight.” Pratham Co-Founder “In 1990, while giving a speech at UNICEF on the vulnerability of girls, especially Farida Lambay on those living on the streets, I was interrupted by a brash young man: “Will working with a few girls change the country?” At first I was taken aback. Then my deep- SCALE rooted conviction became clear: investing in children is investing in the country. I felt inspired. That young man turned out to be Madhav Chavan. I went from doing a small-scale education study of families in Mumbai—important work though it was—to talking with him about giving an education to every child in India. Some people thought we were mad. We took this as a compliment and went to scale. The rest is history: from Mumbai to the country—and now the world.” 6 7 RECOGNITION 2014 Asia Game Changer Award for transforming ideas into actions and improving lives in Asia For the fifth consecutive year, Pratham USA earned a BBVA Award in the Development 4-star rating—the highest possible—from Charity Navigator Cooperation Category for giving the gift for “sound fiscal management” and “commitment to of literacy to tens of millions of accountability and transparency.” disadvantaged children Selected by USIBC as one of its two charities of choice for demonstrating extraordinary vision and leadership 8 9 IMPACT REACHING CHILDREN IN 21 OF INDIA’S 29 STATES 287 million people in India cannot read or write, of which an estimated 100 million are children. We believe that given the right support, every child can learn. We partner with schools, local communities and governments to improve the quality of education so that children across India are afforded the opportunity to learn and fulfill their potential. 10 11 IMPACT 2014-2015 7.7 MILLION CHILDREN REACHED THROUGH LITERACY AND LEARNING PROGRAMS Twenty years ago, Pratham innovated In our signature Read India program, HELPING Balwadis (preschools) in the slums of we group children by ability rather than Mumbai. Today, we have reached more grade level and combine academic KIDS WRITE than 40 million children and are building instruction with fun, hands-on activities. a foundation to re-imagine learning This drastically improves learning. through the use of mobile and Independent evaluation shows that THEIR OWN digital technologies. after only 30 to 40 days of instruction Our goal, first and foremost, is to ensure in a Pratham learning camp, 80% of FUTURE children are learning. By improving children become readers and are able to the quality of education provided to confidently do basic arithmetic. underprivileged children at the primary and middle school levels, we improve 10 GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS their chances for success in the future. ACROSS 6 STATES 12 13 IMPACT 2014-2015 4,600 DROPOUTS RE-ENGAGED IN LEARNING THROUGH OPEN SCHOOLS PROGRAM We promote access to secondary This model is increasing graduation rates A SECOND education for adolescent dropouts, and making an impact in the lives of the primarily girls, through an alternative students—last year, the national pass CHANCE TO education model that helps students percentage for Pratham students was obtain their diploma and improves their 84% as compared to 72% in 2013—while prospects for higher education and in turn also having a positive effect on PUT HER employment. the community as a whole. EDUCATION Established in 2011, our fifteen-month program affords dropouts a safe and 31 CENTERS IN 7 INDIAN STATES supportive learning environment so they FIRST can return to the classroom and prepare for their Secondary School Examination. 14 15 IMPACT 2014-2015 15,000 YOUTH EMPOWERED THROUGH VOCATIONAL PROGRAMS Since 2005, we have built pathways to Strategic partnerships with businesses GIVING careers and economic self-sufficiency ensure that our programs meet and for thousands of disenfranchised youth. align with industry needs training. Our YOUTH THE Pratham vocational programs graduates earn 1,000-2,000 rupees more emphasize practical training over monthly than their counterparts. Since RIGHT TOOLS classroom instruction; they also 2012, enrollment has doubled annually impart basic life and soft skills, and we expect to reach more than better preparing students to enter 25,000 youth in 2015-16. FOR THE the workforce. In addition to technical training and job placement services, PROGRAMS: AUTOMOTIVE • BEAUTY TRADE Pratham also offers entrepreneurial BEDSIDE ASSISTANCE • CONSTRUCTION support towards self-employment. ELECTRICAL • HOSPITALITY • TAILORING 16 17 IMPACT 2014-2015 600,000 CHILDREN ASSESSED IN READING AND MATH THROUGH ASER Through the Annual Status of Education data to school and government MAKING Report (ASER), Pratham has mobilized officials, informing domestic policy and thousands of volunteers annually to budgetary outlays. And its influence AN IMPACT measure the basic literacy and numeracy goes beyond India’s borders: education skills of 600,000 children in rural entities across the globe—Kenya, districts of India.