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Sri Sri Balasai Central Trust
India

The Problem

Over 380 million people are presently illiterate in India and only 15% of the students attending a school reach high school level according to recent UN reports. That is the largest number of illiterates in any one country, more than the total population of India at the time of Independence and would be the third largest country by population. The population of Kurnool district is about 3.5 million people and 45.37% are illiterate in this impoverished area of Andrah Pradesh (a federal state in India).

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The Trust has established 125 schools offering free evening classes in remote villages in the district of Kurnool since 2004. These schools were provided for those children being unable to attend school because they have to work as farmers in the fields during the day to support their poor families. Moreover, the Trust employs professional coaches who supervise regularly the operation of each school. Almost 6000 students have nowadays received a free education and free text books from the Trust. The teachers and the supervisors receive a monthly salary from the Trust.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The founder of the Sri Balasai Central Trust in 2000, Dr. Sri Balasai Baba had the incentive to establish a particular kind of school for those children who need to support their poor family and are not given any kind of basic education in the district of Kurnool, Andrah Pradesh.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The Sri Balasai Central Trust employed people to search for remote villages where children have to work and do not have any opportunity to attend a school. Then they try to find an educated person in the same village who is interested in teaching these children. Thereafter the Trust will gather ten educated people from nearby villages. These teachers are finally trained by coaches to learn the skills of teaching and running evening classes. After the training period evening classes are opened in the private houses, temples or any public places.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
In 2004 the Sri Balasai Central Trust established the first free school for children originating from the slums in the Kurnool district. Next the Trust started to organize evening schools in remote villages by selecting educated people from surrounding villages and providing them with teaching skills. In 2005 first groups of new teachers started to open 60 "Single teacher schools". In the year 2006, about 4000 students and all the teachers from 90 schools gathered and held a general meeting in Kurnool at the official site of the Trust attended by the Federal Minister of Education. Currently, 125 single teacher schools are operating and about 6000 students attend these evening schools. About 20 new schools are planned. For that new teachers are already undergoing teacher's training.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The major obstacle is the lack of financial sources to
meet the high demand of poor children seeking basic education in the remote village areas in the federal state of Andrah Pradesh.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
Welfare organisations in Germany, Switzerland and in other countries of world such as Children-are-our-world e.V. in Germany as well as numerous private donors provide funds for all social initiatives generated by the Trust. Besides, the Trust
took up loans from Indian banks to extend the current social projects and to start new welfare projects in the district of Kurnool.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
Welfare organizations from Germany, Switzerland and other countries like Children-are-our future e.V. in Germany and private sponsors regularly send donations to support these projects. Besides, the Sri Balasai Baba Central Trust has taken up loans from Indian banks to increase the amount of social projects (e.g. single teacher's schools).

This type of initiative can be easily imitated or picked up by other local and regional welfare organizations in India in order to establish similar type of evening schools.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Due to highly motivated coaches and the support by educated people in the villages, regular supervisions and controls and further training of the teachers, the single teacher school concept became a great success and is functioning very well.
However, without the support of foreign donations and the help of local volunteers the Trust would have never been able to implement this particular school project.

First contacts in the villages have been established since 1994 when the Trust performed free eye surgeries removing mainly cataracts in about 800 villages in the Kurnool district. The Trust sent out volunteers and doctors knocking on the doors of the houses informing the people about free eye checks and treatments. Up to now about 450,000 people were examined and 60,000 underwent free Intra Ocular Lens surgeries. In this respect, the Trust got to know about the villages who were devoid of adequate and sufficient medical and educational facilities.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Sri Sri Balasai Central Trust
Institution Type:   Non-Governmental Organization  
Contact Person:   Ramarao Tumepalli
Title:   Dr.  
Telephone/ Fax:   00919866067222
Institution's / Project's Website:   00914066669339
E-mail:   balasaitrust@gmail.com  
Address:   1-2-593/8 Ganga Mahal Colony Domulaguda
Postal Code:   500029
City:   Hyderabad
State/Province:   Andrah Pradesh
Country:   India

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