RELIEF FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2015-16 Chairperson’S Note
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RELIEF FOUNDATION ANNUAL REPORT 2015-16 Chairperson’s Note Dear friends and well-wishers of Relief Foundation, “A year has gone by, but the sun will remain, seasons will pass again and again”! So goes a song in an elementary Montessori classroom, reminding us of the vastness of Universe and the need to arrive at our sense of inner purpose, anchoring ourselves in it. Relief Foundation has been on a pioneering track, cradling path-breaking projects that are maturing and creating the desired first stage impact in the communities served. This year, we have had a lot of pre- training courses, and interested families who have taken up Montessori courses to enter our cradling project – CASCADE Family Learning Cooperative. Two of our key project team members too enrolled and are in the intense AMI Elementary Montessori Diploma training that will be completed in Feb 2017. Our two rural centres are sailing through the challenges of building responsible families that care for children and their education. Visitors and volunteers expressed happiness at the intent turning into a success as action. We have learnt a lot in this journey, chiselling our Resource centre model with insights and assessments from the field. Gracious support has never been in such abundance, we are deeply thankful for the generous donations and words of encouragement and goodwill from our small circuit of friends and families, of which you are a part of. An invitation to present a session at the Fifth Assembly of the AMI EsF to be held at Hyderabad in Aug 2016, was a fillip to our efforts. We began gathering field data to present before the august audience. In the coming year, we hope to slowly increase our reach to 2 more areas with workshops and events for parents to get empowered with information they rightfully need to know to be aware, confident parents of the future generation. We look forward to receive your continuous support in the years to come. Vidya Shankar Cascade Montessori Rural Resource teachers to share information about the method of education. Parents slowly started coming to Centre put their children in the centre. Temple festivals were yet another local challenge to Jamnamarathur Centre face as children take 2-3 days of leave because they had to accompany parents. With our After successfully completing the training regular interaction we slowly brought this down programme, the assistants from to an extent. Jamunamarathur returned and located a place on rent. As the construction of our own From July 2015 onwards we started the evening premises was still happening and was expected classes too. About 11 children had initially to complete by end of August 2015, we decided enrolled for this programme,, which has now to start the centre in a rented place. The gone up to 15. inauguration took place on June 13th 2015. The place was jointly inaugurated by Ms. Vidya New Building Inauguration Shankar, Mr. Alagappan from Take Solutions and parents. A short film followed by a discussion After several months of functioning from a with parents was held sharing details about rented out place, our Jamunamarathur Centre Montessori education. Details of what moved to the newly built place in September expectations parents have about their children’s 2015. It’s a big room that could accommodate education were captured in videos and 30 children in the morning and again about 20 presented in our official Facebook page children in the evening. In a traditional way, we https://www.facebook.com/relieffoundation020 performed simple housewarming ceremony called 32015 “Grihapravesam” on 25th September. Parents and the community came in to wish our children and us, a successful journey. The building adorns the green landscape, inviting the community to visit and go around the lush greenery in the campus. Trees and plants have been placed throughout the campus, to ensure that children get adequate shade for play as well as enjoy nature. New Facilities for children Convincing parents of an education space that is With the arrival of trained staff, new materials not a school is a slow process and we faced a were also added. Three more steel shelves were challenge to convince parents about it, who were bought along with a wooden cupboard for (and are) used to receiving education as free or storage of supplies. These were procured and in private schools with no participation from delivered in the month of January 2016 at the their side. Home visits were made by the centre and had helped to add more furniture to the slowly growing Pre-primary. With the opportunity to delve deeper into the lives of the addition of new material, adults had tribal adults working with us. The visit to their opportunities to give new presentations while homes told us a lot about how their childhood children had some wide range of material to days would have been and gave us reinforcement work with. on the need of why we need the Rural Montessori Centres. Toddler Children The children who had been coming steadily in This visit also saw the first community 'Bhajan' the morning had slowly moved on to the first being held at Jamanamarathur. It was well few Sensorial activities of the Pre-primary. One participated by children and adults. On day two, of the children had also been shown few of the a parents meeting was held which brought forth Tamil Sandpaper letters. From the month of quite a number of questions that went through January, a visually challenged child had been their minds. A video of children in our urban coming as well. He had shown progress in environments were shown. Parents were happy identifying his basic requirements like taking a to see functioning and mature environments, mat out before he started to work on his own. where children were seen peaceful and in deep He was regularly accompanied by a relative as concentration. They raised a lot of questions well to guide him. relevant to the centres functioning as well as sought support for parenting their children. You Parents Meeting can read more about the parents meeting here https://www.omprakash.org/blog/parents- The first parent circle meeting was held on meeting-1 Independence Day this year. Twelve parents attended it. For a first time meeting that was a heartening presence. Out center coordinator for Jamunamarathur Mr. Hari addressed this meeting. One parent in particular, was reassured that some of the practices that she had been following were falling in line with how children were taken care of at the Center. Few of the Elementary children’s parents who attended had lots of thought provoking questions answered. The idea that the Center at Jamunamarathur is Evening Classes a Resource Center for parents as well was thus Children who were coming for evening classes reinforced. These centres are our doors for had been steadily increasing and was finally community development. capped at twenty children. The elder children along with the younger ones had four days of Community Connection orientation to games and sports with our Sports Once the training was done, Mrs. Vidya Shankar faculty Mr. Vivek. They took on to the games along with three others visited the introduced in a flash and were very happy to try Jamanamarathur centre. This visit was an them out without inhibitions every evening. Agricultural Practices The adults from both our Rural Centres were present for four days at Chennai for a mid-year The land in front of the new center, was slowly training program. They listened keenly to the developed as a farming garden. Millets (a local history of RELIEF Foundation and were variety called "Samai”) was sown and it added intrigued by the vision of self-sustenance for lush greenery to the area. Saplings of flowering our Rural Centres. They were also empowered on plants, fruit trees and few timber trees were the nuances of communication and the need to planted keeping in mind the nature walks be proactive. The adults also got an opportunity children would take along with the adults. A to meet and interact with the Trustees and separate gardener was appointed to take care Committee Members of RELIEF. The last day of the saplings and also the crop. We practiced was spent on learning more about usage of some and continue to practice organic farming in this of the materials in the environment and also on field. material making. Harvest of Millets at the small farm The first crop of 'Samai' which was planted in the month of September was harvested in December by our gardener and few others. The incessant rains prevented us from processing the harvested crop until the end of December. The yield was relatively lower than usually expected as the sowing was slightly delayed. Nevertheless, the first organic crop from our own Rural Centre encouraged us to move Dry Toilet forward. The dry toilet construction was completed in October 2016. There were challenges in the Training Update beginning in children using it as they were not used to such toilets before. But as we talke with Starting September 2016, the two adults from them about it regularly, their inhibitions were Jamunamarathur travelled to Chennai on slowly removed from their minds. A helper alternate weekends (1st and 3rd Saturdays of always accompanied them. every month). Their questions on classroom management and further nuances of handling children were presented to them on such Saturdays. These days were also used to empower them to conduct study circles along with parents on the last Saturday of every month. This deepened their understanding and reinforced the Center's duty of answering parental needs.