Water tank for Govt school in Parandur village, Kanchipuram

There is a Government school in Parandur village about 14 kms from Kanchipuram. The school has 498 students (272 boys and 226 girls). The school has upto 10th standard. There are buses only every 2 or 3 hours to this village from Kanchipuram. This is the only school in nearby 10kms. The teachers who are working now in this school, are very committed. For the past 3 years, the pass percentage of the school is about 96%, which is really great for a school with this background. There are couple of students who have scored about 460/500 last year in 10th standard. There are regular special classes being conducted for 10th std students. The students who attend this class sometimes stay in the school itself since there are not enough commuting options.

The school has a very small water tank which has a lower capacity than required. The tank is filled with water supplied by municipality in the morning. This water is drinkable and tested in TWDA(Tamil Nadu Water Development Authoritiy). The water in this tank is sufficient only for the morning hours. For the afternoon, the school is dependent on the bore water which is not of good quality. The Head master of the school requested Helping Minds trust for an additional water tank so that sufficient municipality water can be stored for the entire day. HM member Murali visited the school on Jan 10th and validated the request details. HM trust has provided Rs. 15000 for installing another water tank in this school.

Nagapattinam tuition classes

We have started regular tuition classes for the 22 ST children at Porayar in Nagapattinam District. We have engaged a trained teacher Mr. Ravichandran holding Bsc,., BEd degree to take the classes. He is working on PTA posting in a local high school. The children are studying various classes from 4th to 11th. He will take classes for four hours a day - two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.

The students of primary classes are in very bad shape - they are not able to read even simple sentences in Tamil. So, the teacher's priority for the primary classes will be to make them read and write flawlessly in Tamil. For other classes, he will guide them in lessons. He will hold tuition for each class thrice a week. On rotation all the classes 4th - 10th will be covered. All the 22 children will visit the tuition classes everyday, but will be asked to write tests on the remaining four days.

HM will pay Rs 1000 per month as salary to the teacher. The marks obtained by the students in the recent half-yearly examinations are being noted down. We will review the progress after three months and if the students show improvement, we will continue the scheme.

Renuka, a girl from the community, who is a volunteer of Safai Karamchari Andolan (organisation working to root out manual scavenging) will coordinate with the teacher and ensure that the children attend classes regularly.

The classes are now being conducted in a room at Bala's house (One of HM Members). If the classes prove successful, the teacher will find a new location later.

HM request for a Saidapet BCA student

A girl, from Saidapet, is doing BCA in AM Jain college. She is working in a Xerox shop as a part time employee where she earns Rs. 2000 which is being spent for her family's survival. Her mother is unable to work for long time continuously because of her health condition. The girl has studied in Govt school in Saidapet and scored 200/200 in 12th standard. HM has given Rs. 10000 towards her college fees on 11 Jan 2009.

Mess fees for Jan 2009

HM has paid Rs. 565 for Hari Narayanan and Rs. 435 for Hari Krishnan for their December mess bills on 9th Jan '09.

Continuing help for Rajkumar

Rajkumar is doing BTech chemical in Anna university. We have helped him for past two semesters. More details about him at http://helpingminds.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-request-rajkumar.html. He has scored about 8.4/10 in the last semester. HM has given Rs. 7660 towards the college fees for this semester on 11-Jan-2009.

Continuing help for Karthik and Vetri

Karthik and Vetri have got 90% and 85.5% marks in 6th semester respectively; they are expecting results for the 7th semester in few days. They requested help for their hostel fees (Rs. 5500 for Karthik and Rs. 7800 for Vetri including mess dues) for this semester. HM has provided this fees on 11-Jun-09.