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.

Similar to the inauguration @ Jamunamarathur, Republic Day Celebrations a parents’ discussion was held here too. We The adults held a small flag hoisting ceremony showed them a video about Montessori on Republic Day and the young children who education and later they went around the centre attended the event actually went on to work in to understand how the materials assist in the environment for some time before they left. children’s education. This overwhelming It was an interesting lesson for the adults that response gave us a pat on our conviction about 'holidays' were more for adult's convenience starting such a space. than a need for children. We started the evening centre in this village for children from other schools in the same month. The response to this move was very good. We received new enquiries and requests for admission on a daily basis. Reviews on the functioning of both Jamunamarathur and Vallambedukuppam centres were made by RF project heads with regular visits.

Challenges Faced

The month of November 2015 and early December 2016 saw a poor attendance from the children due to rains. The parents were hesitant to bring the children in the rains and hence the disruption in classes was inevitable. However after the rains stopped, children started to come with the same level of enthusiasm. Parents meetings

Vallambedukuppam Centre The quarterly parents meeting happened for the first time in this centre. We had prepared a report for each child and shared with the This centre was inaugurated on June 20th 2015 by Mr. Murali Krishnan, Mr.Parandaman and parents by individually meeting them. This parents. Unlike Jamunamarathur where we review meeting was very useful for both the recruited assistants, this centre was started parents and us. Parents gave us lots of valuable close to Parandaman’s village his familiarity inputs that they wanted to see in the centre. being to its advantage. Before starting the Similarly, we were also able to clear their centre, a survey was conducted and parents doubts and answer questions. Many parents were invited for the inauguration. The response expressed positive developmental changes in was very good that on the first day of opening their children especially with respect to their the centre, 15 children joined the centre. speech development. Children, who used to speak through expressions alone, had started using words now. We were happy to receive these positive feedback and ideas for improvement. By end of March 2016, the total number of children has touched 18 in the morning.

Study Circle

One of the successful initiatives of CASCADE is involving parents at every stage of a child’s development not only to look at it from a different perspective but also to take Evening Classes ownership. For this, they needed continuous inputs. Study circles were one of the We had sixteen children between 2nd and 5th opportunities for us to give these inputs standard. They started their classes with school through Montessori philosophy. We read from assignments and homework. After sometime we one of the Montessori books and discussed the had split them into four groups to be able to let points with them in detail. Wherever possible, them choose to work with Montessori material we tried to connect them with reality by according to their age and developmental needs. invoking examples from their children’s lives We conducted sports session weekly once for without naming them. This had initiated positive them. During that time, we also invited our parenting approach in the parents’ minds. We primary children who were above 4½ years to started this study circle in our join the older children. This provided a new Vallambedukuppam centre from October 2016 experience for them as well. We used either a onwards. Mr. Parandaman, our centre school playground or a temple ground for sports. coordinator for Vallambedukuppam conducted Whenever we played, lots of village people these study circles. It happened on Saturdays. watched us happily as such activities never Depending upon the convenience of parents, we happened anywhere in the past. fixed it either twice or thrice monthly.

Weaving Sessions

We started weaving in our Vallambedukuppam centre. Mr. Mani who was working with our children in Thiruvanmiyur centre for more than 2 years, went to Vallambedukuppam centre weekly three times from 11am to 3pm. Weekly 2 days he spent time with the pre-primary children while on Saturdays he worked with Central Governments apart from International evening classes children, their parents, casa Organizations. Her feedback on her time with children’s parents and some interested women. Relief Foundation is below: They all liked to learn this skill. For children it improved their concentration tremendously. “This internship helped me to understand the workings of the law in a practical way. By reading the acts and regulations in a very thorough manner, I was able to take in the way in which the legal system works. By applying this knowledge on to the tool, I could see how the law affects the working of institutions, and eventually the public. I also understood that a tool like the CRCI is required in order to make the public aware that every child is entitled to

certain fundamental rights and these rights

must form a vital part of any school that he/she Library is sent to."

- Yashaswini Venkatadri (BA., LLB) We have 90 books in our library. Children in our Jindal Global Law School evening classes borrowed books and took it home for reading. We maintained a register Relief Foundation has also been promoting child- where children recorded before taking and centric practices in schools. Our experience in after returning the books. Children in pre- the past had led us to develop a comprehensive primary used these books in the morning sitting tool that would assist schools to look into every and reading in the corner allocated in the aspect of schooling for a child. We wanted to environment. They choose the books themselves develop this tool into a software product that is and not adults. easy to install and use. With the help of

Congruent Solutions, an IT company, which Happy School Programme volunteered to develop this software free of cost, the tool was successfully completed last A comprehensive tool has been evolved to assess year. It will be released soon. We take this schools on Child Rights. Before automating it, we opportunity to thank everyone involved in this wanted to make sure that the tool complied with development right from the inception till its every education law and guidelines given by completion. Central and State Governments apart from other international organizations like UNICEF. Our requirement received a shot in the arm with a law student who interned with us completely checked the tool for its compliance. She found the tool be extremely comprehensive and met almost all the requirements of local, State &

and answer session was held for them to ask and understand the philosophy of CASCADE.

CASCADE Family learning Cooperative (SM)

CASCADE FLC is the guiding force behind - CASCADE website was revamped. We thank starting rural centres. A highlight of some of Ms.Elakkiya Srinivasan for this stupendous work. the interesting activities of the centre She managed to complete the revamp within a happened last year: short period and was very accommodative of all our requests. - Mr. Vivek, a trained person in sports, trained a - Subsequent to our visit made to Bengaluru to parent to take over sports from him. He also discuss our partnership with Dr. visited our rural centres and trained our ChandraShekhar Balachandran of The Institute teachers in basic sports. of Geographical Studies, a series of workshops were organized for children and parents

facilitated by him in Chennai on July 18th & 19th 2015. The workshop titles were “Sing along Geography” for children and “The Geo-connect with children” for parents. While children enjoyed and learnt a lot on how Geographical connections can be made in songs from various languages, it was an eye-opener for parents in the Geo-connect workshop of how Geography

was linked with every subject. This was the

first time that Dr. Chandra Shekhar spoke with - For the first time, an Open Day for CASCADE parents directly about Geography grandparents and other relatives of children of education. Few more workshops were organized CASCADE was organized on 28th June. The for parents in the year. intent was to expose them to Montessori Philosophy and also to show them how the - In an effort to consciously move plastic usage children learn. Few people tried to work on the especially as carry bags, we launched a paper material too with the instructions provided to bag making session for our rural centre staff as them. After the tour of the facility, a question well as children and families at CASCADE Thiruvanmiyur.

for their Geography projects. They started - Reading seminars for parents and teachers research on the Syrian crisis, a political, socio- began from July 2015 after a break for summer. economic study of the movement of people, and New topics for discussion were included. The submitted an interim report. Later Pranav took highlight of this quarter’s reading seminar was up a research on Kaveri water and Vaaman about that, about 6 parents/teachers who had his trip to North India. They presented their registered for various AMI Montessori Diploma findings in the International Geography Youth programmes, which commenced from August Summit held in Bengaluru in Sep 2016. They 2016, regularly attended these discussions and continued their sessions with other topics. They greatly benefitted from them. When the started a micro enterprise approach to create a parents/teachers complete their AMI Diplomas, rotational fund for their projects, by surveying they will undertake various responsibilities in the needs of our CASCADE families, carving out different projects of Relief Foundation. vocational time to fulfill these requirements.

CASCADE children visit to Jamunamarathur A trip was planned for the elementary children at CASCADE FLC Thiruvanmiyur, to visit our rural centre. The visit brought new consciousness in our children, about life in the village and frugal living. They stayed in Codello Institute of the Don Bosco Salesian Seminary, which had a residential night school for tribal boys of the group of villages. We interacted with the children and the staff who requested us for a session on Montessori Method and Geography Workshop teaching. Geography workshops were organized for the public and CASCADE families by Dr. Chandra Shekar Balachandran of TIGS on topic " Exploring connections – Delicious Geography” and “Thinking Geographically – Fire”. These were well attended and received workshops. Children enjoyed a documentary and the connecting discussions while performing activities that strengthened their understanding of the links between human historical and economic

geographies across the world. These workshops Online Sessions for CASCADE Children were held on 19th Sep 2015. You can read more about our partnership with TIGS through the Shravya, Pranav Shankar and Vaaman two High blog page: http://www.tigs.in/geovidyaa- school CASCADE students had online sessions geography-centers/gvgc-chennai/ with Dr. ChandraShekhar Balachandran of TIGS

Proverbs, scriptures as well as its medicinal and ornamental uses!

Parents & children were really excited when she unveiled lots of facts about trees and their role in the ecosystem. Children in groups quickly plunged into the task of collecting and discussing among them about parts of trees, some exploring the park on their own and a few

asking questions to the volunteer.

Expansion

CASCADE Thiruvanmiyur expanded with a new neighborhood building to set up separate Toddler and infant environments. It was driven by the parent group with this age children, with some support from trained consultants. The benefit of early entry into a Montessori classroom was seen in the way children settle CASCADE Resource Library sooner into a primary classroom subsequently. New additions were added to CASCADE Resource library. Our hallmark of support to the families in our Cooperative was the collection of Montessori works, including Newsletters from the Archives of AMI. You can check the list here: http://cascadeflc.org/wp- content/uploads/2015/10/Cascade_Library_Oct 2015.pdf Please visit our Facebook page and website for updates about this initiative. www.cascadeflc.org

https://www.facebook.com/CASCADE.Chennai Tree Walk for Children and their Families

A tree walk for children and their parents was Teachers’ Lab organized on February 6th, 2016. A volunteer from NGO Nizhal took the parents around the Teachers’ lab initiative was launched 4 years Kotturpuram tree park that houses more than 15 indigenous tress and some exotic trees. She ago to address the gaps of qualified teachers gave an interesting glimpse of trees by stating for the schools that we managed then for a its link to Sangam Tamil literature, folklore, Corporate Foundation. Through this initiative we had trained several teachers who were already part of the school and new teachers about us and the work we did for some years who completed fellowship with us. Several either directly or through our well-wishers. parameters were arrived at and candidates When we started the Vallambedukuppam in were selected after rounds of tests and Gummidipoondi Taluk, we were confident of interviews in order to make sure that quality getting funds, as good and true initiatives are was given its prominence. The main always supported by people. With their prerequisite we had for new teachers was support, we were able to manage the financial they should be ready to work in rural areas. year successfully. The highlight of this RF ran 3 batches of training through this sponsorship scheme was that, a donor could initiative. We had to stop the fellowship choose to support a child for as many years as programme in the middle after our exit from possible. Donors could choose to make full the Corporate Foundation as we were payment or quarterly payment according to seriously consolidating our work. their wish.

Ever since we launched the Montessori Rural The scheme is still on. Those who wish to Resource Centre project, we wanted to revive contribute can write to us @ this initiative. Teachers’ Lab was re-launched [email protected] in May 2015. Any candidate who is ready to undergo 1 year of intensive training with a Fund raising programmes stipend and 3 years of commitment to work in a rural centre is eligible to apply. 2 candidates Our committee member Ms. Juliette wanted from our rural centres and one from the city to raise funds for the construction work of immediately applied for teaching positions. RF our Jamunamarathur Centre. We launched an funded the training programme (ONLY for online crowd funding campaign through a rural centres). All training programmes for website called “indiegogo”. We managed to our own projects and other schools were raise about 585 British Pounds of the total routed through Teachers’ Lab. While initially 7200 Pounds, which was our then fund we had a separate website, this was later requirement to complete the building. Though clubbed into Relief Foundation’s website the fund raised was less, it had generated so itself. For more information please visit much goodwill. The project had reached so www.relieffoundation.in many people outside India. It was also a

different experience for us to understand Donor Update how crowd funding worked.

A sponsorship programme for children in our We thank all the benevolent hearts who rural centres was launched last year. Many extended their support to this important new individual donors committed for long term project. sponsorship support for our children in Gummidipoondi centre. All of them had known

young parents had joined this programme and Tamil Montessori Video greatly benefitted from it.

We would like to record our sincere At CASCADE we offered parenting Montessori orientation and awareness programs for appreciation and gratitude for Mr.Ramesh interested parents to attend and learn more Bhaskaran who developed a Tamil Montessori about this way of education. We had 5 parents Education awareness video clip for us receiving these sessions, 3 of whom were from completely free of cost. Apart from editing CASCADE families. This had invoked the the video, he had also arranged for a voice interest of their families who brought their over in Tamil and English explaining how the relatives to visit and understand the guiding philosophy works. The script and the unedited philosophy of our centre. video were given by us. This video was very useful for us during our parent interactions in both the centres at the time of launch. New Initiatives

Montessori Parenting Course Cleaning drive at all our centres: We launched cleaning drives and removed plastic

and trash from inside our compound remaining Parents play a very significant role in the lives from the construction in Jamunamarathur as of children. Particularly their role in well as the adjoining areas there and in our education need not be overemphasized. Unlike other rural centre, besides the Thiruvanmiyur in the past where joint family system was the centre. The approach road was made clean, practice, today’s world mostly practices which impressed the children as well. They later nuclear family system for various reasons like helped us and also went around door to door work, travel, etc. There was an advantage in a campaigning for clean environment. joint family system to learn from the elders at home. But with young couples living alone, both working, children’s needs are hardly understood.

With nearly 19 years of working with children and families across economic criteria Relief Foundation wanted to share its knowledge with young parents and those who were interested to know parenting skills. That’s the Other important updates idea behind launching the course “Montessori SOUTH PEDICON was a conference of Philosophy and Parenting”. The course offered Pediatricians across the country. It was held various minute but important skills & details between Aug 14th and 16th at VIT Vellore. Ms. for parents to know about their child’s Vidya Shankar spoke on Adoption - Social and developmental needs and their role in that. 2

Legal aspects. The presentation was well points for consideration in the State Education received by the Doctors as they felt updated on policy for children. This was the first meeting the current developments and needs based on cohort of a series that will lead to the the adopted child. formulation of the state policy for children.

Date 30th Oct 2015, at Asha Nivas, organized by the Department of Social Defense.

Grandparents and relatives of children studying at CASCADE were invited for a grandparents meet on 24 Nov. The event was a grand success with the children demonstrating to their dear grandparents, what they learn at CASCADE, with materials. Visit by Partner

Relief Foundation has tied up Omprakash On 8th Septempber 2015 Ms. Vidya Shankar Foundation, an international organization for was invited at Asha Nivas to share points, discuss international volunteers. This organization and analyse on the Child Protection Vs Juvenile focuses mainly on creating a platform for Justice Act and Hostels and Homes for women and volunteers to link up directly with its NGO children (Regulation) Act, 2014 and to suggest for partners. One of its members Ms. Lacey Worel possible amendments,. This program was organized visited us in November 2016 to understand our by the Department of Social Defence, and work. She also visited our Vallambedukuppam inaugurated by the Minister for Social Welfare and NMP, Smt. Valarmathi. centre in Gummidipoondi Taluk to know how Montessori education was implemented in a village. She was extremely satisfied with our work.

Flood Relief Work

Relief Foundation’s primary area of work is education. Though we were actively involved in relief work in the past, ever since we started to focus on education, our energies were directed Ms. Vidya Shankar attended her first towards strengthening the hands of parents and meeting as a Committee member of the TN communities to provide a safe environment and State Commission for the Protection of Child learning space for children. Rights as a Montessori Specialist and gave her

But December month’s flood was unprecedented wherein many families were stranded and were looking for support from every corner. While support poured in from many quarters, calls from some of the interior villages were not much answered because of lack of accessibility and coordination. Relief Foundation was requested by few villages for support. With timely donations made by various donors, we were able to identify 6 villages in Thiruvallur Distribution Photographs district in Tamilnadu with the help of Mr.Jagan, a local contact. An initial survey was conducted to ascertain the needs and also to list down the children who were in need of support. Each village had a volunteer who went to every house to know the name & class of children in particular apart from other details like father’s name, etc. This list later helped in distribution in two ways:

- To eliminate duplicates - To ensure that only those who registered got the benefits

The identified villages were:

- Ammankulam - Manali Pudhunagar - Sadayankuppam

- Athipattu Pudhunagar - Vellankulam New Partnership - Vichur Huma Pharma, a group of student volunteers We could support 700 children. We distributed from Paris approached us for an internship bags, notebooks, stationery items like pen, project during August of year 2016. We had pencils, geometry boxes, etc. We are happy finalised the workings of the project objectives indeed that we were able to contribute in a after a series of discussions. The plan was to meaningful way. We also take this opportunity to work in our Gummidipoondi centre with the thank all the donors who extended timely help community, on health awareness. The team was without which this distribution would not have already working in Madagascar and was very been possible. keen to work with us on a long term basis.

Survey Work Photographs