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Himalayan Water Service Tatha Vikas Avam Paryavaran Sanrakshan Samiti
Savidya Upasamiti of HIMWATS::
Vision:
Savidya Upasamiti aims at bringing the educational efforts in government schools at par or even better (as the Govt. teachers are highly paid and better trained) than those in the private schools. For the success of our efforts, the co-operation govt officials, citizens' parents, teachers and enthusiasm in children has to be created, through state-of-the-art (SOTA) facilities for physical and mental development. The computer education, learning science by doing, the games and sports facilities, inculcating self-confidence, self-discipline and to shoulder the responsibilities to become useful citizens of the country. Hard work and duties as responsibilities along with 3 R's training is envisaged in the schools. Ingredient of essential needs for quality education and health care are to be implemented with .political will and government machinery in these Govt. schools.
Mission:
The Savidya Upasamiti aims to create a high-quality sustainable model educational setup with health care to check the exodus of residents of hills to the plains of India.
Some useful links:
Savidya Project
School Site
Savidya Projects
- Siddha Jagran Seva Program
- Teachers Training Program
- Learning and Science Resource Center Program
- Vocational Training Program
- Brief about these projects
History:
The Savidya Upasamiti aims to improve the quality of education and the skills and attitudes of the children and youth in the region. To this end, Savidya attempts to improve the resources in various schools, organizes workshops and provides merit-cum-need scholarships for study in schools and professional institutions. Savidya is also focused on the good health of the students in the schools it supports, and organizes health camps for the benefit of the students.
- The Savidya Upasamiti was started to help quality education and health care of the underprivileged children and to help them to gain and/or complete their school education. This started with the grant of scholarships to few needy children on August 15 2004 from the Corpus fund established by Dr. H D Bist from his personal savings of Rs 2.0 lakhs during his active years of service.
- In November 2004, Dr. Bist, during his regular (now private) visits to the USA, approached the Silicon Valley chapter (and several others - Princeton, Chicago, Los-Angeles, Seattle chapters to support one school each) of ASHA for Education to approve his project envisaging a group of about 10 Government schools to provide quality education and health care that could help the poor children and youth in the Champawat region of Uttarakhand.
- Following discussions within the AFE Silicon Valley Chapter, and acting upon the recommendations made by a volunteer from AFE Delhi Chapter (Dr. Rohini Muthusami) - who visited Haldwani to see the needs of typical Government Schools to assess the help needed in such schools - the adopt-a-school program was proposed and approved by AFE Silicon Valley in April 2005 after due deliberations and meetings with Dr. Bist in Santa Clara.
The summary of schools and budget spent (for the period '05-'07) is given below:
| Year | Total # schools adopted | Other Activities | Total # Children / beneficiaries | ASHA SV Grant (INR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005-06 | 1 | 52 | 279,000 | |
| 2006-07 | 3 | 338 | 717,800 |
Progress: 2005-06
From the year 2005-06 AFE Chapter of Silicon Valley started to adopt a school in Kulethi. The inauguration of the Adopt-a-school program of SiV was on Oct 14 2005.
In 2005-2006 Stanford Chapter of AFE had approved 6 scholarships each for primary and Middle school children. However, our experience had shown that awarding scholarships to children does not serve the purpose of improving education level of the children, the money being used by the parents for their valid/improper utilization. Hence , around Dec 2005, this token budget provided by Stanford University Chapter of AFE ,for scholarships of Rs 200/ pm to 6 Primary students were used to provide two teachers in the Primary Pathshala Mukhani for a period of 6 months. Likewise, the scholarships of Rs 300 / pm for Middle school children were used for donating partial dresses to all the children of Dungra Sethi School in Dec 2005.
Detailed periodic communications to obtain the support from AFE Chapters are given in Annexure-1.
Progress: 2006-07
ASHA for Education Si Valley examined the impact of their support to primary school Kulethi on the basis of presentation by Dr. H D Bist in their office at Santa Clara. They agreed to support two more schools - Girls Middle school, Dungra Sethi at Champawat and the Primary school, Subhash Nagar at Haldwani. The similar facilities & activities, as in Kulethi, were also gradually given in these schools. However, due to uncertainty in the no. of children daily attending the school at Subhash Nagar the uniforms were not recommended for these students. The Subhash Nagar School was undertaken as the support of two teachers was not fully utilized.
We had to discontinue the support of Mukhani School due to lack of proper cooperation from the principal of the school, hence during 2006 -07 the number of schools became 3 with the total expenditure from SiV increasing almost proportionately.
Detailed periodic communications to obtain the support from AFE Chapters are given in Annexure-2.
On the basis of constant dialogues between ASHA Si Valley chapter & Savidya the Adopt-a-School program was further expanded by including 3 more school in 2007-2008, thus bring the total no. of schools to 6. Additionally, to make an impact of this expansion at the local community level the following four additional programs were initiated.
In the coming years it is envisaged to extend the work under the above 5 programs supported by AFE SIV and other programs supported by other possible supporting individuals, agencies and corporate world.
The budget for the period '07-'08 is given below
| Year | Total # schools adopted | Other Activities | Total # Children / beneficiaries | ASHA SV Grant (INR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 - 2008 1st Installment | 6 | 619+ Students | 8,92,420.95 | |
| 2007 - 2008 2nd Installment | 6 | Siddha Jagran Seva +Publication
Learning and Science Resource Center Teachers Training Program Vocational Training Program |
2000+ Students | 9,41,232.6 |
The budget for the period '08-'09 is given below:
| Year | Total # schools adopted | Other Activities | Total # Children / beneficiaries | ASHA SV Grant (INR) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 - 2009 1st Installment | 7 |
Siddha Jagran Seva +Publication
Learning and Science Resource Center Teachers Training Program Vocational Training Program |
500+ Students | 10,19,959.20 |
| 2007 - 2008 2nd Installment | 7 |
Siddha Jagran Seva +Publication
Learning and Science Resource Center Teachers Training Program Vocational Training Program |