SEIZE THE MOMENT

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SUMMARY OF PROJECT: Seize the Moment, West Bengal

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GROUP     Sharda Kalyan Bhandar
NAME

PROJECT   Saharad Palli, Sector 1
ADDRESS   Midnapore, West Bengal, India

PROJECT   Professors Rekha Sarkar and Bharati Ghosh
DIRECTORS

PROJECT
PHONE NO. (011)-(91)-322-6271

CONTACTS  Deb Banerjee ASHA-L.A.
          E-mail deb@ucla.edu
          Telephone (310) 312-0875

NUMBER OF
CHILDREN  363

FUNDING   $1750 for the first year and subsequent years contigent upon progress.
          Allocation increased to $1800 in Dec. 1997.

DATES     December 1994-present.

SOURCE    Kaushik Sen who is an ASHA member and is from a
          nearby village.

STATUS    Funding started in December 1994.
          Progress was monitored by member K. Sen in December 1994.
          Progress was monitored by member N. Swamy, Deep Bhattacharyya and
          D.P. Prakash in December 1995.
          Progress was monitored by Prof. Ajit K. Mal and his family in July, 1997.


FUNDING   Dec. 1994 $1750
          Dec. 1995 $1750
          Dec. 1996 $1750
          Dec. 1997 $1800
          Dec. 1998 $2100
          ---------------------------
          Total     $9150

SUMMARY   363 children who were working in the fields during the day are
          given the chance to attend school. $1800 provides for uniforms,
          sweaters, books, stationery, and two biscuits and a glass of milk
          before their tutorials. Provisions are being made for medical aid
          and check ups for the students.

IMMEDIATE (1) Provide medical aid to children, preventing tuberculosis, malaria,
GOALS         and other common diseases prevalent in the region, through proper
              testing, medication and spreading of awareness.
          (2) Increase enrollment by reaching out to more children in the
              neighboring villages.
          (3) Create a better educational environment to motivate illiterate
              children towards education and learning by providing them with
              study materials and to create an enthusiasm for learning.
          (4) Program focussed on womens education for attaining financial
              independence.


CURRENT    The project is expanding to another village this year.  Also, they just
STATUS     started a medical awareness program for immunization and basic
           education about nutrition (for instance, there are a lot of child
           deaths in the area due to diarrhea and lack of awareness among the
           tribals about simply feeding water to the affected child). They need
           atleast another $1000 from some other sources for giving the medical
           awareness program a good start.

           They also have focussed on education of girls (due to social
           ostracization of educated girls for marriage, many girls drop out
           due to parental pressure, while the boys are encouraged to get
           education). This program is designed to obviate this trend.  Minimum
           funding required:$300. Max.: $1500/annum for five years.

CURRENT    Out of the six Asha-Stars two years back, only two have confirmed
FUNDING    a total contribution of $600. We need an additional amount of 
STATUS     atleast $1500, better still $1800.



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