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NRI PrathamUK
charity raise funds for illiteracy in India by auction of paintings
London, Dec. 03, 2006
Sohan Sahota
Since March 2003, PrathamUK
has raised over £400,000 for Pratham programmes
in India. M F Husain masterpiece will go for auction under Christie’s
in New York to raise funds for Pratham for illiteracy in India.
The painting, titled Woman playing Veena, currently in possession
of Usha Mittal, wife of NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. She will
auction next March to raise funds for Pratham’s work with
children in India
NRI Usha Mittal, a collector of art and antiques
advised and assisted Pratham in the organisation of our successful
auction of Indian art at Christie’s in May this year, which
raised a net £1,40,000.
NRI Sangeeta Chawla Joshi, founding trustee and
President of Pratham said that PrathamUK is a UK incorporated
charity organisation established with the aim of raising awareness
and funds for Pratham's activities. PrathamUK is headquartered
in London and has been established by a group of volunteers who
have been associated with the Pratham movement for several years.
The founding trustees include Dr. Apoorva and Manveen
Koticha, Sangeeta Chawla Joshi, Tulsi Naidu, Manjiree Jog and
Dr. Viral Acharya (President). Ramola Bachchan, Prabha Chopra,
Anita Roy Martins, Lakshmi N. Mittal, Seema Ram, and Jasjyot Singh
have also joined the board.
PrathamUK has grown from the strength of 6 founding members
to over 200 volunteers and growing rapidly in various regions
of the UK, including London and surrounding (eg. Harrow), Leeds
and Leicester.
Pratham's overall goals:
- Continue to be "Every Child in School
and Learning Well"
- To provides educational opportunities to child laborers, street
children, pavement dwellers and children in conflict with law.
Teaching and learning happens in places of work, on streets, pavements,
railway platforms - wherever children want to learn
- This year Pratham has adopted the basti(community) approach
in order to increase impact. A Basti generally comprises 200-250
households and has a clearly demarcated geographical boundary.
For each of these Bastis, we ask ourselves 3 questions,
in order to work out the community profile:
- Is every child in a pre-school center?
- Is every child in school or in the "education net"?
- Can every child read fluently, write and do basic maths?
Pratham learning programs are aimed at motivating children and helping
them to learn. Pratham programs for out of school children prepare
them socially and academically for "mainstreaming" and
in-school children who are lagging behind academically, are helped
to "catch up" through our teaching-learning activities.
The classes may be located in the community or in schools. There
maybe separate classes for out of school and in-school school. At
times, though, they are taught in the same class. In the latter
case the instructor has to cater to the distinct needs of children
in each of these categories.
In order to inculcate a reading habit and to sustain the interest
of the children, Pratham has undertaken to start a library in every
basti. Apart from lending books, various extra-curricular activities,
such as drawing, quiz etc. are conducted, in these libraries. Each
library maintains a register, which contains the details of every
child in the Basti.
Based on the community profile and needs of the children, Pratham
plans the classes for different learning levels.
Groups of 20 - 25 children interact for 3/4 hours daily. Learning
outcomes and time targets are set. Teaching-Learning methods have
been developed and continue to evolve so as to help instructors
and teachers achieve the set goals within an optimum time frame.
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