Ever wondered what books would be great to read to your children? Especially the younger ones? While there are some wonderful books in the western publishing world, where are the Indian children’s books that could give your child the much desired multi-cultural flavor, especially if you are residing abroad? Enter Saffron Tree – an initiative that discovers and reviews gems in Indian children’s literature. Saffron Tree does the work of figuring out what books you should be reading to your child. All you need to do is read their site!

The Better India was privileged to have an e-mail exchange with Praba Ram, the founder of Saffron Tree. Here is what Praba Ram has to say about Saffron Tree and the thoughts behind it:

To check out the delightful world of children’s books, visit Saffron Tree’s website: www.saffrontree.org

And before we sign-off, here is letting you know that Praba is also an author of a recently published children’s book. It is titled “Dinaben and the Lions of Gir”. The book talks about the Asiatic lions of India and the community of cattle people called the Maldharis that live in the jungle with the lions. They have been co-existing peacefully for centuries. The book celebrates their lives and that of the lions of Gir. Sounds wonderful? It is! You can read more about it here and here.

In our lives whenever there is a financial emergency we have the privilege of access to a whole gamut of banking and financial services. We could walk into a bank avail a loan , use our credit cards. But there is a vast majority in our country who don’t even have access to a bank account.

That is where ‘Microcredit’ comes into play. Microcredit refers to providing small loans to low income households – mostly to start a micro-enterprise like livestock rearing, tailoring, grocery store etc. These income generating activities enable poor households to become self-reliant and get out of the vicious circle of poverty.

One can simply register on rangde.org to become a social investor. Choose borrowers to make a social investment of as little as Rs. 100. At the end of the repayment schedule, the investor receives a 2% interest on the investment.

Here’s an interview with Smita Ram, Co-Founder & COO , Rang De:

What was the whole idea behind starting Rang De?

The idea behind starting Rang De was to create a sustainable initiative that will address a problem at its roots. Prior to starting Rang De, we were dabbling with several ideas relating to child labor, domestic help, media etc.

But soon we realized that most of these problems had poverty as its root cause and unless we address poverty, the rest will continue to exist. While we were researching these problems, Mr. Mohammed Yunus won the Nobel Prize in December 2006. That’s how we were introduced to the concept of micro-credit. Something that intrigued us was the interest rates that the borrower paid and how little people like us knew about the concept.

Thus Rang De was born as an initiative that facilitates small loans (micro-credit) for Indians that do not have access to credit. You can lend from Rs. 100 onwards on www.rangde.org to entrepreneurs identified by our partners across India. Join us to make poverty history in India!

What kind of hurdles you had to face during setting up the organization?

There were plenty of challenges right from registering the entity, to attracting talent to getting funds. We continue to face similar and other challenges but that is what makes working for Rang De enjoyable.

Rang De has a fabulous repayment rate, how do you guys achieve that?

We follow a model that is similar to the one propagated by Mr. Mohammed Yunus. We lend money usually to individuals in groups.The group could be a self help group or a joint liability group. In both cases, the group members vet each other and the group leader signs as a guarantor. The group also agrees to pitching in with the repayments if one of them fails to repay. This is the main reason for the repayment rate. Apart from this, we have a criteria for the selection of the borrowers which our field partners follow.

What has been the response of the social investors?

Our social investor base is growing slowly but steadily. We have a little more than 1000 social investors and in some sense, we are a close-knit community. Those who invested their money first have also now begun to invest their time to make Rang De more efficient.

In how many states does the organization have its presence?

We currently have a presence in 10 states – Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,West Bengal.

Although the impact is quite evident, could you tell us some anecdotes of the social impact of Rang De, on individuals and the community in general?

Women entrepreneurs we are reaching out to in Orissa are getting access to loans for the first time. Their loan size is as small as Rs.1000. They are able to borrow money for the first time because it is affordable.

Any plans of making it a for-profit organization?

No. We do not plan to make it a for-profit organization.

How do you plan to take it forward? Where do you see it 5 years down the line?

We would like to be able to reach out to people across all states in India and go deeper into the territories where we have started to work. We would also like to provide a wide range of social investing options to the investors and make social investing a norm.

The Better India team wishes Rang De all the best of their mission to create a macro impact through micro credit.

Contact Details
Do visit www.rangde.org for more info
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rangde
Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/127485?m=96aaaf39/

In the recently concluded Asian Youth Chess Championships 2009, India has bagged 23 medals out of a total of 36, says this report in The Hindu. The championship was conducted by the Asian Chess Federation and was held at New Delhi, India. It is a great feat shown by India by being the majority medal winner. The second in the medals tally is Vietnam. India’s spectrum of medals included 8 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze.

The Asian Youth Chess Championships is conducted for both boys and girls under the following categories:
Under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years of age.

What is interesting for us is how this sport has been nurtured and carefully guided in our country so that we have now become an important ‘player’ in chess globally. The Asian Chess Foundation carries an interview of Mr. D. V. Sundar, Hon. Secretary of the All India Chess Federation. In this insightful interview, and perhaps an interview that many other sports bodies can take note of, Mr. Sundar explains how India has become a force to reckon with in chess. Addressing a question on what he believes has helped make India successful in chess, he says:

We hold many children’s tournaments. Every week there is a children’s tournament going on in one part or another of our 30 States. The five most active are in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal. These States are historically good in producing chess players.

We have many children’s tournaments, alternating age groups Under-8 to 16. The AICF insists that all tournaments give Certificates to all children. Not only children are encouraged but specially their parents.

It is wonderful to note that the sport is being encouraged amongst children and thereby giving players enough time to hone their skills by the time they reach the international arena.
Mr. Sundar goes on to say that the AICF is aiming to create a mass appeal for chess:

Aside from the traditional chess States, we have developed chess in Goa, Delhi, Orissa, Assam and Jharkhand. Kerala now organizes five to six rated tournaments per year with 150 to 300 participants each.

Rajasthan now organizes two or three tournaments every year. We are creating a mass appeal for chess.

You can read his complete interview here. It explains in detail how the game of chess is being spread in the country and how we are able to generate players of high caliber at a consistent rate. This could well be adapted for other sports too.

Congratulations to all the players who participated in this year’s Asian Youth Chess Championships!
The official website of Asian Chess Federation is www.asia-chess.com and that of the All India Chess Federation is www.indianchessfed.org

Image courtesy Wikipedia.

In this post we bring to you an insightful interview with Maitreyee Kumar who is the founder of Dream School Foundation. Before we get into the actual questions, here is a brief background about Maitreyee.

Maitreyee started her career as software professional and worked with multinational software development firms in India and abroad for over 8 years before she made a shift towards social development. Her desire for social change and interest in child development through civil society mobilisation urged her to join CRY (Child Rights and You). She worked with CRY in the resource generation and volunteer management divisions for a decade and was instrumental in setting up and coordinating Volunteer Action at national level. Educated at Pune University (Masters in Computer Science), Maitreyee provides leadership and direction to the organisation and is primarily responsible for the overall management and administration of the organisation. She was also a recipient of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust Fellowship.

Interview

The Better India (TBI):Tell us about Dream School Foundation (DSF) and the work that it does?
Maitreyee: Dream School Foundation (DSF) is a Bangalore based non-profit organisation working to ensure the child’s right to quality education. Our School Development Programmes help with holistic development of government schools while our initiative – HeadStart, addresses and assists a smooth transition from primary to secondary stages of education and strives to ensure continuity till the 10th grade for the vulnerable and underserved children.

We started as a group of committed individuals volunteering their time and skills for the cause of quality education for disadvantaged children in Govt. schools. Later we formally registered the organization and now 4 years later, we are fairly established with organizational framework in place, focused school programmes and two Education and Development centres for High School students. The underlying belief of our organisation is faith in people’s ability to contribute towards the education and development of our children.

DSF Volunteers with Maitreyee (5th from right, standing)

TBI: Who has benefited from your program and how have you made a difference?
Maitreyee: The objective of the our intervention at the school level is to enhance the learning levels of the children studying at the government schools through support and partnership with teachers, active participation of the community coupled with intensive class room and school level interventions through trained personnel, teachers & volunteers. We believe that these interventions create an environment and processes, which ensures holistic development and enhanced performance of the school and its students.

Our initiative HeadStart aims to mentor and track individual students from the various schools, we support, through and beyond their Higher Primary / Middle school and High School Education. The underlying driver of the programme is to ensure that children both continue into high school (not drop out) and make an informed choice of schooling in the neighbourhood schools that are willing to give them an opportunity to share a learning experience without being discouraged by the financial liabilities.

The programme is strengthened by volunteer-involvement to mentor and track the performance of the participant – students and motivate them through the commitment of financial support for 3 years of High School Education. It is closely associated with our Learning Centres where the student-participants will have the opportunity to capitalise on Spoken English and Life –Skill Tutoring. We have seen marked improvement in the academic performance as well as personality development of these students and they are much better equipped to face the challenges of the world today.

TBI: What inspired you to create an organization like DSF?
Maitreyee: My experience and exposure as a software professional and later work with CRY gave me lot of opportunity to have a world view of society and social development. I came across several well meaning individuals who wanted to do something to bring about a change but very few ended up doing anything worthwhile. Some of us who were really passionate for the cause of Education and felt it is the only sustainable tool that can empower the nation and bridge the economic divide between communities in India started getting together.

We saw that while govt. efforts have ensured that most children have access to schools, quality education in these schools was still a dream. Schools needed to be equipped to provide education that is more than just development of cognitive abilities and rote learning and make learning an exciting and stimulating experience for children. Thus was born the idea of a Dream School which was developed by this group of passionate individuals with a keen desire to bring about a change.

TBI: How does DSF sustain itself?
Maitreyee: A large percentage of our funding comes from CSR initiatives of corporate firms while another significant part is from individuals and groups.

TBI: What are the schools that are currently under the purview of DSF?
Maitreyee: DSF partners around 20 schools across Bangalore for the Holistic school development and extends its services on smaller scale to several other needy schools. Our schools are primarily located in North Bangalore – RT Nagar, Yeshwantpur, Rajajinagar areas, while we also work with some schools around HAL airport area. Our Learning centres are situated at Yeshwantpur & RT Nagar.

Students at a DSF Adopted School

TBI: What plans do you have for the future?
Maitreyee: This year we would primarily focus on strengthening our interventions both at our existing partner schools and Learning centres. Meanwhile the public education scenario in the urban context is undergoing several reforms and changes. We need to wait and watch before we step further in our programme expansion in urban areas.

Instead it’s the rural schools that are kind of orphan and need developmental support. There we also have tremendous scope for enhancing community participation in the school development. We plan to take on a pilot School development programme in the outskirts of Bangalore, extend our existing programmes to the rural community and then explore possibility of scaling up the initiative.

Computers at the DSF's R T Nagar Center

TBI: In what ways can our readers contribute to DSF?
Maitreyee: DSF owes its beginning to few committed individuals who volunteered for the cause of quality education. We have full faith in people’s ability to contribute towards the nation building process. Whether it is through volunteering your time or financial contributions, each one of you can reach out to underserved children. One can be a member of our School Support teams and volunteer at a school or mentor / teach students at our centres. We are in need of sponsors to contribute to the High School education of our HeadStart children.

One is also welcome to help in specialized areas like website & content development, financial accounts, counseling, child psychology, education etc.

TBI: Any other message you would want to provide or talk about?
Maitreyee: We believe that people at large are responsible for the situation of the state of education and children today. And people should play a proactive role to change the situation through collective action. We need to work on formation and strengthening of alliances that promote collective action which will finally result in influencing govt. policies and bringing about constitutional changes. We as educated citizens need to widen our perspective, get more aware and involved in the education system and advocate the right cause that would benefit a larger population than a narrow segment of society.

Maitreyee is ably supported by DSF’s Co-Founder Sabu Joseph. Sabu holds the post of Director – Strategy & Partnerships. Here is a brief bio of Sabu:
Prior to initiation of DSF, Sabu worked with Centre for Environment Education (CEE), in Bangalore where he initiated and managed projects in Environment and Sustainable Development. He taught Social work and management in IIRM, MATS school of management and was visiting faculty in many management institutions and organisations. His interest lies in training and development and has conducted various programmes in corporate, academic and NGO settings. Sabu currently consults with global organisations on sustainability and business transformation.

He provides vision and direction to DSF and is responsible for strategic planning and partnerships. He holds a Masters in Social Work and also a recipient of Common wealth Secretariat scholarship on Environment Education (TEE).

Contact DSF

For further information, please click here to visit the website of Dream School Foundation.

You can also e-mail DSF: info[at]dsfindia[dot]org