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Naandi Foundation mentioned in GOOD Magazine - out on news stands now

An Excerpt from Source:

PROBLEM Groundwater contamination is still a large problem in many parts of India, particularly rural areas: 1,600 people die every day because of diarrhea—often caused by unsafe drinking water. Mothers and newborns are particularly at risk, and medical expenses are one of the leading causes of sending people back into poverty once they’ve emerged.

SOLUTION The Naandi Foundation is working with Tata, the Indian conglomerate, and other funders to put community-owned and -operated water kiosks with safe drinking water in villages all over India. Their water filtration system uses a transportable reverse-osmosis mechanism and sells water to locals at low rates—350 kiosks have already been erected.

SAYS FAETH “They’re putting in forty of these a month in very poor rural areas, and it looks like a very viable model that could be easily replicated.”

COST TO INDIVIDUALS Four cents for a 20-liter bucket. That’s about $14 per household per year.

PAYBACK PERIOD FOR INITIAL INVESTMENT Each kiosk costs approximately $15,000 and serves 5,000 people. Kiosks are usually paid back (in user fees) in three years.

PEOPLE SERVED (GOAL) Five million people, many in rural areas, by 2012.

SCALABILITY FACTOR High. The kiosks are very inexpensive and easy to build.

IMPEDIMENTS Financing for a major expansion of the effort, which could cost around $21.5 million.

EXPANSION TARGET There are 1,000 villages without access to safe water, according to Naandi, and they would like to reach all of them.

Get on to http://www.good.is/post/don%E2%80%99t-love-that-dirty-water for the complete article

Nanhi Kalis for 15 August Independence Day parade @ Hyderabad

June 2009, Hyderabad: Naandi is thrilled to announce that girls from the Government Children’s Home, Yousufguda, supported by the girl child programme: Nanhi Kali were chosen by the AP State department of Culture for a half hour performance during the state’s independence day celebrations on 15 August 2009.

This decision was a result of some extremely accomplished and heart warming performances held by the Nanhi Kalis from the Home, during the closing ceremony of a month-long summer camp organised by Naandi.

It was the guests of honour for the closing ceremony: Dr Rallabandi Kavitha Prasad, Director, Department of Culture, Government of AP. and Pramodini Rani, Regional Deputy Director, Department of Women and Child Welfare who, impressed with the performances, made this big announcement.

The summer camp had workshops in theatre arts and carnatic music and the programme has a mix of performances ranging from outright funny skits to thought provoking presentations to fun and entertainment. It was tough to believe that children could produce such inspired performances after just a month of training.

What they said:

Dr Rallabandi Kavitha Prasad “As the Director of Culture I keep attending many programmes. But I’ve rarely seen children performing so well and with so much of innocence. As adults we all live within our MASKS – everywhere. These children are inspiring all of us to come out of the walls which we have built among ourselves (Departments of Culture and Directorate of Women and child Welfare) and work together “

He announced: “children of this home will be given a half an hour slot in the State Function of August 15th and November 14th which they rightly deserve, looking the standard of the programs. And the expenses for the same will be borne by the Department of Culture”

Promodini Rani “This performance by the children has given us an opportunity to find the real spirit of art and its expression. We will do our best and support Naandi in encouraging these children in all aspects.” She also said the Department was keen for Naandi to work with more children’s homes to encourage and groom talent.

Special Mention: The ambient support for the function was provided by Murali Mohan, an employee of Capital IQ without whose support this would not have been possible. In the same way – dresses and other accessories have been helped by many anonymous supporters.

Kanker’s schoolchildren make history

Every child passes the Vth board exams in the district.

Chhattisgarh June 2009: Naandi is proud to announce that everyone of the 1377 children that appeared for the Vth standard board exams from the Kanker district of Chhattisgarh has cleared the board exams.

This is a moment of sheer thrill not only for the children and their parents but for the government’s district education teams and for our ECL programme that’s being run at the government schools there.

What’s more, apart for the 100 per cent success, a phenomenal 80% of the students scored between 60 and 79% - 1^st division - as well. This is unprecedented in the district’s Vth board exam history.

Naandi education programme Ensuring Children Learn has been running here since 2005 and every year it has been working with children from standard I to V to improve their learning abilities and performance outcomes. You might like to know many of these children are first generation learners who get no academic support from their unlettered family members. The table below gives a comparative analysis of how children’s performances have improved over the year.

On this exemplary performance Dr M Sudhish-Asst. Director, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan said, "This is indeed a great example of the joint efforts of an NGO and the Government's Education Department to improve the quality of education in the primary schools of Kanker district".

Sushanta Kumar Bhuyan - the head of the education programme at Kanker feels "this remarkable result in the Vth std board exams by children only proves the point that it is only opportunity that matters - not location for children to come up and do really well. We, at Naandi, created a platform for children and worked collectively with them, the teachers, their parents and the community from day one to achieve this kind of a result".