As written in the previous post we have learnt a lot and now this year we want to implement those learnings in a more structured and result oriented way.
Some of the important steps we need to take:

1) Scale the working model to a larger audience, this means increasing effectivness in existing places and implementing them in others places. A good example of this is what I call the Surathkal model (for the lack of a good term)- This is the model where we pair students in their final/prefinal year with mentees in neighbouring schools. This has been quite effective so far but needs more work from a loop process i.e we need to learn how to keep the mentors in the loop after they leave the program so that they are helpful to the mentees.

2) Track progress much better: This is something we will be implementing rigorusly at all the three places we are active in. We had done a horrible job of tracking progress/interactions but with candid feedback from mentors about why and how we can make this more effective, we have built out an action plan which will hopefully work.

3) Choose good partners: This is very important and while we have very good relationships with YFS and Naandi project, we need to strengthen these relationships and build a more focused approach to make sure we are helping each other out to serve the needs of the mentee.

We have started implementing some of the practises but with the sort of branched out approach that we have its difficult to get these things up and running quickly.

It’s a little bit more than a year that we began the GD learning curve and wow what a curve ( this curve would make a crazy rollercoaster) it has been. No research, no pundit talk could have braced us for what we had in store. When we started off we were brim with optimism and really grew quickly in the first 3 months signing up mentors and forging “partnerships” all across the country. At a point we had more than 1000 mentors registered in our program things were looking great till reality hit us, the scale of operating with so many mentors was daunting and all I had was me and my strong army of 3-4 coordinators.  Today we have around 250 mentors across three places in India and we have decided to try to make that an effective group of mentors.

Stuff we have learnt:

1) The weakest link is the Mentor. Good mentors are tough to find however dedicated and happy to help the mentors look like in the beginning, it WILL wear off. Try to identify and be pickier on the mentors.

2) Involve the mentees. We never involved the mentees in the process given that they are super young (6th-7^th std).  This is going to change, involving the mentee is very important to gauge progress and keep the feedback loop consistent.

3)  Iterate fast. If something is not working from get go it may not work at all.

4)  Email is not the best mode of communication.

5) Documentation is a must. Document feedback, track progress and build systems that accommodate the mentors and mentees without being obtrusive.

6) Pick your battles. Remove dead ends quickly so that you can concentrate on what’s working.

7) Mentoring is way tougher than Fund Raising. We always knew that it would be more difficult but what we didn’t know is that it would be this difficult. Almost every person I meet is ready to write me a check but not ready to spend an hour with a kid once a month.

These were only some of the pointers and lessons we learnt. We have matured a lot from when we started and I honestly don’t think we could have learnt it any way better than to have done it.

—–End Of Part1 >> Part 2 coming soon.

Gurudakshina Hyderabad Chapter has kicked off a pilot program in partnership with Naandi Foundation’s Nanhi Kali Project. Under the Nanhi Kali project, Naandi has mobilized a force of community activists for tutoring underprivileged girl children studying in under-resourced government high schools. Gurudakshina’s pilot program involves 25 of Naandi’s community activists to mentor girl children in the age group of 13-15. The program is spread across 13 teaching centres across Hyderabad covering English, Telugu and Urdu medium schools. The mentoring sessions have begun and both Naandi and Gurudakshina are eager to know how the girl children respond to weekly 1:1 mentoring sessions. Gurudakshina Hyderabad coordinators look forward to strengthening the partnership and extending the program across all of Naandi’s high school centres in Hyderabad.

Big thanks to Soujanya Kumar, Programme Officer of Nanhi Kali project for all his enthusiasm and cooperation. Also a big Shout out to Sonal Gandhi ( @sonalnow)  who has successfully started this with such a big name to support our work.

Mentor and mentee in Hyd

About  Nanhi Kali: (http://www.nanhikali.org/nanhikali/about_nanhi_kali.aspx)

Project Nanhi Kali was initiated in 1996 by the K C Mahindra Education Trust (KCMET) with the aim of providing primary education to underprivileged girl children in India.

Anand Mahindra, the founder of Nanhi Kali, believed that educated women form the foundation of a modern secular society and felt that there was a strong correlation between the existing societal ills in India such as spiralling population rate, dowry deaths, caste system etc and no education of the girl child. He believed that empowering the girl child with education would result in huge benefits for the nation in the long term. Studies conducted in developing countries have shown that this is true and today, even the World Bank has acknowledged that there is no investment more effective for achieving the millennium development goals than educating girls. According to the World Bank some of the benefits associated with girls’ education include reduction of child and maternal mortality, improvement of child nutrition and health, lower fertility rates and improvement in economic production. Moreover the benefits in the form of reduction of abuse and exploitation of females are huge.

So it was with the dual objectives of impacting the nation’s development through education of the girl child & encouraging Indians to “give back” in a focussed manner that Anand Mahindra began Nanhi Kali, a sponsorship program, where individuals could support the education of a girl child in India.

I consider myself very lucky for getting an opportunity to mentor a child Sreemayee and interact with the child and her family for a couple of months.Sreemayee is now studying in 8th std,women’s peace league school,Bangalore. She lives with her family inside the premises of Vyasraj Mutt,Gandhi Bazaar.Mentoring is a part of sponsor a child program launched by YFS.Mentoring for me was to help the child study and score better by motivating her and discussing the topics which are difficult for her,try and help her for any other problem she has.

I had no difficulty in introducing myself and explaining my role to them as they were very welcoming,hospitable and very interested in the education of their daughter.I explained to them that the academic fees and books for their child’s education will be provided by YFS and that i will be a link b/w them and YFS, will try to help the child in her subjects,encourage her by monthly/fortnightly visits.

Sreemayee is a very sweet,hardworking and intelligent child.During every visit, we discussed her difficult topics in all subjects especially maths and english.She would show me her progress reports from school which were always good.Still,i felt there was be a need for private tuitions as she has to get her basics right and it was not possible for her to get all her doubts clarified at school.

I also learnt that the child has good interest for drawing,painting and crafts. On seeing her work, i must say she is very talented at it ,so i’ve given her parents the details of art and craft classes close to their place and hope they get her enrolled for the same.

It was nice to go through the topics of school again.For most part of it , it was fun to revisit those topics  and also challenging to deal with topics from kannada grammar lik sandhis and samaasas.Unfortunately, i wasnt able to continue as a mentor but will continue to keep in touch with the child and do the best i can. I ‘d like to thank YFS and GURUDAKSHINA , it is because of them today i have had this sweet,satisfying experience which is definitely a beginning to many more future tasks of this kind

We wish Vidyambika the best of luck and hope that she can come back someday to be a mentor with Gurudakshina.

I have seen a lot of NGO’s and what I have seen is that most of them “collect funds” and “distribute” it to the needy in terms of fees, clothes, food etc . The reason why this is easy is because its all tangible things that can be measured. With mentoring there is a lot less of  money and more of a  ”personality “. It depends on the people who are running the program, the mentors , the mentees, the partner NGO’s and the likes.  Only the right combination of all of them will make a successful program, even if there is one piece that doesn’t function well things will fall off.

At GuruDakshina we have had more than our share of failures- from bad decisions of marketing, choosing wrong mentors and bad execution from our end. This was a learning experience that has helped us strengthen our focus and most importantly notice red flags when we see it. This is still a learning phase and we still have a lot to improve. We started off chapters in Bhopal and Pune which were over even before it started. The chapters in Bangalore and Surathkal are going strong, the chapters in Hyderabad and Delhi are looking promising but there is a lot of work and support that we need to provide in those regions. I am hoping that with the support of everyone we can build GuruDakshina to a more successful platform.

I am writing this blog as a reply to all the kind people who have offered to provide funding to GuruDakshina. GuruDakshina has been getting quite some offers of funding from friends, family and people who know about the work GuruDakshina does, so far I have been very clear that GD is not looking to raise funds because we are still in the learning phase and not sure if we can utilize the money in the right direction. Once we do see where we need the money and how efficiently it can be utilized then I will definitely approach everyone who would like to contribute. For now let me work on the details create results and iron out the issues before I can come forward to ask for your hard earned money.

On a similar note, a lot of friends are really pissed that I don’t put any effort in marketing – for gods sake we don’t even have a proper website.   I really want to market and spread the word, that is exactly what I did initially and had a huge number of signups for mentors (900+ ) , but as reality dawned most of them backed out and it was quite disappointing . I want to now create results a scalable model and then put in efforts to scale it. A good example of this is that we were able to open up chapters in many cities but only 2-3 were actually successful rest have been pretty unsuccessful. I always had this in mind that GD was something that would scale when you have the trust and goodwill of the people involved in it and we can only retain it by concentrating on the mentees needs and creating an atmosphere that helps them. Once I am convinced that we have done that effectively and everything seems to be working fine with measurable results then I shall give my press release . Having said that if anyone wants to spread the word of GD please feel free to, I just don’t want to divert my resources towards doing it but rather focus on getting results.

PS: We just confirmed a 100% pass rate amongst our 80 odd mentees in Bangalore with an average grade of A.

The RTE bill was passed in the Indian parliament way back in 2002 and so was the amendment which introduced the  Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, making education free and compulsory to children in the age group of 6-14 a fundamental right, but even to this day, these two legislation are yet to be notified, meaning they cannot be enforced. (Notification of a legislation is a mandatory step by which legislation are set exact dates from which the law will be enforced). More than seven years have lapsed since the amendment and parliament has changed hands with ruling and opposition coalitions swapping their roles, but the notification of these legislation continues to elude them and so does it rid the right to education from children in the lower strata of Indian society.

What’s stopping the parliament from notifying these two legislation is the cost of implementation, which the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) has billed at INR 1.7 trillion (USD 37 billion) for five years. For comparison India allocated USD 28.9 billion for its annual defense budget in 2009 and seven years were inconclusive to arrive at a co-census on allocating 24% (37 billion over 5 years translates to 7.4 billion per year) of this amount for making free and compulsory education a child’s right! One may argue that defense spending is important, especially with terrorism raising it’s ugly head everywhere these days. But, if you take a closer look at terrorism, it’s mostly mis-guided youth who for their lack of awareness and education were drawn into these heinous crimes. Doesn’t it make more sense to spend a little more on the education front and hence pull the terrorism weed by its roots?

Well, the parliament is not doing anything about it and keeping the current economic recession into perspective, the chances of RTE bill getting the proposed budget allocation is a distant dream. But, let’s not wash our hands off the issue and do our part by helping children from lower strata of society in their pursuit for education. Let’s be true patriots and do more than catching that live telecast of Republic day Parade. Come join as mentors and we will take RTE to more children, without waiting for the parliamentary nod. Please note that Gurudakshina has now spread its wings to Bhopal and Pune, where our local chapters will be kicking-off soon. Netizens from these two cities please drop us a mail at vineet@gurudaksina.in to join us as mentors in the above two chapters.

The mentor-mentee relationship forms the backbone of our model, and the initial response from both the mentors and the mentees has been very encouraging. Let’s now take a look at the response we got for from mentors, mentees and their families.

Mentor Tasneem with her mentee Sultana

Sultana is a differently-abled Class X student, who is being mentored by Tasneem, a Journalist by profession. Tasneem has been guiding Sultana, who is at a critical stage of her academic life. Over the last couple of months, Sultana has been showing renewed interest in her academics, clearly benefiting from the guidance and encouragement from her mentor Tasneem.

While its clear that the mentees are no doubt benefiting from our model,  let’s now take a look at what our mentors have to say from their mentorship experience:

Thank you Gurudakshina for giving me such an opportunity to a mentor a kid… Its a GREAT experience for me..

says Jagath Venkat who is mentoring Class 6 student-Naveen Kumar. Jagath also mentions that Naveen’s family was overwhelmed by the  YFS scholarship, which has been partially funding Naveen’s education.

Lalitha is very fond of her studies and a very active and brave child. I was so inspired  to see her interest towards her studies and felt proud to be her mentor too…. Thank you one and all for giving me an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life…

says Vairam S who is mentoring Lalitha, a class 8 student. Lalitha was recently moved from a government subsidized Kannada medium school to an English medium private school, and thanks to Vairam’s guidance, Lalitha has been coping well with the new study environment, and continues to impress everyone with her academics. Lalitha’s mother has been striving hard to provide the best of education to her daughter and together with Vairam’s support and guidance, Lalitha is on track in realising her mother’s dreams.

It’s not all stern tutor work for our mentors, as we do encourage them to involve in some leisure activities with their mentees. We believe more in enriching the lives of the kids, than just guiding them in their academics.

Tasneem and Sultana sharing a lighter moment

The year 2009 was all about laying the foundation for implementation of our model, and kick-off of local chapters across India. Now, the emphasis is more on penetrating across India to forge more mentor-mentee relationships and with support from our partners and volunteers, we promise to take Gurudakshina to greater levels in the coming year.

How did countries like Vietnam and Thailand beat India in education penetration? The answer is simple: adequate infrastructure at the rural and sub-urban level for affordable and sustainable education. While Indian government is not lagging far behind in establishing a sustainable education environment, a multitude of problems are preventing  the benefits from reaching the actual beneficiaries- the children at lower strata of society. We can go at great lengths blaming it on corruption or lack of awareness among the rural population and the like but instead we as educated youth can bring about a difference in the education scenario in our country. That’s exactly what we at Gurudakshina  are intending to do with our mentor-mentee program. Any educated adult, willing to spend around 3 hours  per week can join us as a mentor and help the mentee in realising the importance of education. While the immediate goal of the mentor-mentee model is to motivate the mentee to continue their education, the long-term goal is to create a sustainable environment in which mentees, having benefited from the program will join as mentors for the younger generation.

Eventhough our mentor-mentee program is in its stages of infancy, the initial response from mentors as well as mentees has been very encouraging. We have proved that we can create a sustainable environment within the existing infrastructure, all thanks to the network of volunteering mentors who form the backbone of our program. Please do drop us a line at  vineet@gurudakshina.in , if you like to join as a mentor and we can work together to make sure that the next census shows a considerable improvement in the literacy percentage of India.

]]> http://gurudakshina.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/literacy-rate-and-where-do-we-stand/feed/ 2 Sushant http://gurudakshina.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/operations-time/ http://gurudakshina.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/operations-time/#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:32:20 +0000 Vineet http://gurudakshina.wordpress.com/?p=125 Continue reading →]]> Its been three months – 80 days to be precise since I first started promoting and working on Gurudakshina. I know I have been very lazy when it comes to updating the blog and keeping all my followers informed , but I will get better I promise

As of now we have 934 mentors across India with a focus on Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. We will be now putting a hold on the crazy recruiting drive we did and will focus on the operations part of it. What that means is that we will be working now towards pairing up all the mentee’s and mentor’s , understanding best practices and creating the environment for a healthy growth.

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me with a contact, coordinating or just being a mentor and a special thanks to my coordinators Prabha, Mainak, Saurabh, Mugdha, Jagdeep, Sourvi and Deepthi.

Please follow @gurudakshinango at twitter for more quicker updates.