SAMUHA:

SAMUHA is a Karnataka-based development organisation. It works in Raichur, Koppal, Uttar Kannada and Bangalore Urban districts, and with people living in over 300 slums in 7 class-1 cities.

SAMUHA's core competencies cover HIV/AIDS, Disabilities, Integrated Village Development, Micro Credit, Watershed Development, and Appropriate and I&C Technologies.

SAMUHA-Plan is the Integrated Village Development sector of SAMUHA. It works in 138 villages, and accounts for 61% of SAMUHA's rural operational area.

SAMUHA-Plan interventions include Community Organisation, Education, Community Health and Livelihoods.

Education:

SAMUHA-Plan's 2 core interventions in this area are:
· Government Schools Supplementation; and
· Shikshakara Samuha - supplementary schools.

FY03 Summary:

Educational Highlights:
+ 45 animators presently work as assistants in government schools.
+ 42 capacity building trainings have been conducted to build the capacity of these animators to work with the government school as wells as the community to re-enrol drop outs.
+ Around 150 children have been retained in school due to their persistent efforts.
+ Education animators facilitate 1113 10-16 year-old children in 33 clubs and conduct their weekly meetings. Besides facilitating the children's clubs' members to meet regularly, SAMUHA-Plan has encouraged these 10-16 year olds to take up initiatives to work in coordination to develop their community in small ways and be responsive to children's issues. Children held work camps to clear or clean school premises, play grounds and also campaigned to reenrol drop out children from their wonis in school. At least four to five children have been successfully re-enrolled by each club.
+ In 6 communities animators maintain sports materials like skipping rope sets, cricket and volleyball sets as well as the circulation of 85 library books for children.
+ After the overwhelming response to a pilot computer course "Learning and familiarity with computers" in FY 02, more courses have been introduced. 49 children have successfully completed this course and 36 more have enrolled in the present batch. 50% of these have been girls. Children have also reported better grades in their computer science subject at school.
+ The impact of the course was also noticed at the Plan India-facilitated Tarang Children's Video Magazine Workshop where these children demonstrated proficiency in technical aspects of film making which required computer skills. Children brought out two beautiful and moving documentaries on child labour and disabilities.
+ SAMUHA-Plan also conducted 7 holiday camps with 1008 children participating from 32 villages. Children undergo various trainings in crafts, cultural programs and physical well being which in turn churn out enterprising children who excel in sports day, children's day and teachers day celebrations.
+ Shikshakara Samuha schools provides essential life skills to 1454 children in the Irabgera area of Deodurg taluk through 19 Supplementary Schools. External resource persons train the 35 SS teachers on a monthly basis. The performance of both children and teachers are monitored at "circle" levels. Each circle has 6 villages on average and a core group of 6 SS teachers who participate in the monitoring of these. The SS has also begun to facilitate informal village committees which can take over the monitoring of the schools in lieu of SDMCs.
+ The inclusion of class 5 into the government village primary school also highlighted teachers inability to handle the English subject. SAMUHA-Plan supported these teachers through trainings on usage of English teaching kits. These kits have been given to 84 project schools in the current academic year.
+ SAMUHA-Plan also facilitates 15 government school teachers to meet as a core group every fortnight and also provides a resource centre for these teachers. Educational issues are debated in this core group and valuable inputs are incorporated in the program.
+ SAMUHA-Plan began to work directly with 28 government ICDS centres this year.
+ The forum provided by the project to ICDS workers brought to the fore different concern requiring its intervention in the ECCD sector.
+ A gap analysis was done through a joint meeting with ICDS workers and ayahs for the first time in the project area.
+ At the 6 trainings to revitalize ICDS workers and 2 trainings to ICDS ayahs, their initial training and vocation was reinforced.
+ 76 care-givers participated in these meetings and trainings.
+ A video documentary on model anganwadis was also shown to the workers. This has helped them become conscious of their roles in the early care and development of children.
+ ICDS workers worked with SAMUHA-Plan to contribute to wall paintings and play materials for their centres. They raised additional contributions from the communities and Gram Panchayats.
+ This year 23 ICDS centres were painted with a package of 3 short stories from the Panchatantra and 12 charts of animals, birds, fruits, numbers, alphabets etc.
+ 28 ICDS centres were also provided with play materials - pull/ push carts, walker trolleys, puzzles.

SDMC President Shivanna from Nagoli : "The SAMUHA-Plan education animator has taken his responsibility very seriously. He motivates other SDMC members to attend meetings regularly and also supports the education of the community children."

Gopalappa, community member from Wagadambali : "By providing an education animator, SAMUHA-Plan has helped our children learn better. Child strength has increased at school due to his regular home visits."