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Gujarat Earthquake
Earthquake Girl
Prutha Desai's First Painting Exhibition
AT A GLANCE
Report
- Aadariyana Village School Rebuilding
Report-
Earthquake
on schools of patdi
[ UPDATE 1] - 13 MAR
[ UPDATE 2] - 30 MAR
[ UPDATE 3 ] - 21 APR
[ UPDATE 4 ] - 9 MAY
[ UPDATE 5 ] - 8 JUNE
[ UPDATE 6 ] - 24 JULY
[ UPDATE 7 ] - 16 AUG
UPDATE
8 26 OCT
[ Update Zadiyana ] - 30 APRIL
[ Update Zadiyana ] - 22 MAY
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Dear Friend,
Here is a brief summary
of what’s happening at the Aadariyana School:
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Civil works going
on well, about Rs. 13 lacs work done so far, for 5 rooms the slab
will be cast on 18 May (so hopefully school can start in these rooms
on 11 June while the rest of the construction goes on …), there
is an acute water shortage, the village borewell has failed, so we
spend a lot of money ( and effort ) to get water from far away, water
is needed for construction and curing. Please see 2 photos taken on
2 May, attached.
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The village people
are cooperating in the project very well. Many people who have tractors
give it for site-use free of cost, the school is a few feet above
road level-this requires lot of ‘filling’, the village people
excavate the earth from the pond, fill it in tractor, and bring it
to site, we have to do only unloading. There are many other ways in
which the total involvement of the village is helping bring the civil
costs down. Also the contractors is not charging any profit margin,
he is also not charging many of the usual overheads.
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Many item suppliers
are also charging less money than they normally do, and are also giving
additional facilities free like delivery at site. Cement and steel
are still being purchased at market prices(remember my last Update
saying that the Govt GR excludes public buildings, and that we have
made a representation)
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So it looks that
we will be very much within the budget estimates. And have some extra
money left-over.
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M/s. ABB gave a
cheque of Rs. 19.42 lacs (about 5000 employees all over India gave
one day salary and a 3-man committee looked at various projects going
on in Gujarat Earthquake Rehabilitation and decide to give the entire
fund to Eklavya Earthquake Relief Fund.)
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India Today magazine
subsidiary Care Today gave Rs. 5 lacs to us for the purpose of making
a library we have to write "supported by Care Today – India
Today group".
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Some time in February
an organisation in Delhi called "Kids for Kids International"
organised a run of 3000 children. 1000 children wore saffron colour
T-shirts, 1000 children wore T-shirts and 1000 children wore green
T-shirts. The run was flagged off by the President of India. Kapil
Dev and P.T.Usha also ran. This was a fund raising idea and they generated
about Rs. 40 lacs out of which in a small sober ceremony yesterday
in Delhi they gave Mr. Rajiv Mehta , Executive Director-Core a Cheque
of Rs. 19.55 lacs towards Eklavya Aadariyana project. One person from
USA who was present at the ceremony was so moved that he wrote a Cheque
of USD 1000 0n-the-spot.
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So now we have about
Rs. 90.2 lacs, we are very close to our target of Rs. 103 lacs.
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What happens if
we get more money ? Should we do one more school? In the same cluster,
or in another cluster ? If it is in the same cluster, then it is easy
for us, it will also not be such a big school.
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Another suggestion
given was to keep 5-10 lacs in a Fixed Deposit in the name of the
school and use the interest for the following:
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give scholarships
to 3 top Std # 7 students and fund their education upto 12, and even
lateron if suitable
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buy magazines and
books in the library every year
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replenish Science
lab every year
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About Rs. 25,000
– 50,000 pa is est to be the cost of organising 4 functions a
year, eg inter-school cultural competition(amongst 11 nearby schools,
from class 1-7, songs, dance etc etc, there will be prizes, etc, all
11 villages will come together for this event). There will be other
events like this every year on sports etc.
I invite your suggestions
on what to do with the extra money
That’s it for now
Fond regards
Sunil Handa
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