Dear Friends,

Visitors and Volunteers
Pardada Pardadi School was honored to have many visitors this month.

Mr. V.S. Ramana (Head Corporate communications India, Larsen and Tubros) came to visit and spoke with the graduates about their future plans.

Ms. Mary Anne, Mr. Whit Sears and Ms. DD Sears joined Pardada Pardadi to work as volunteers on the following projects.

· Training of the trainers – for English teaching
· Teaching English to students of Class VI.
· Designing a concept for a Language lab
· Teaching spoken English to a few teachers and senior students
· Developing and training for program auditing system.

Ms. Peggy and Mr. Ray Whalen did a need assessment on health issues and also provided training in first aid. After their visit they have been discussing about various options promoting working of PPES.

Ms. Vinita Garg, a representative of “Bitiya” organization in US visited Pardada Pardadi. We had a very fruitful interaction with her. Bitiya has decided to organize the entire program of Ms. Suman Tomar’s (graduate visiting US this year) stay in US.

As mentioned earlier, the first phase of toilet construction project has been completed. For the next phase of construction, Pardada Pardadi was looking for financial support. We wrote to all the participants of World Toilet Summit 2008. Mr. Dave Praeger responded to the email and visited the school along with his wife.

Mr. Praeger kindly helped raise funds by writing about the toilet project on his website www.poopreport.com/village . The outcome of this initiative will be shared in the next update.

Many volunteers and friends are contributing in different ways to Pardada Pardadi. Last year Class IV students of the Hamlin School in San Francisco, CA decided to help out the cause. By doing various chores at home, the students raised $400 to sponsor a PPES student. Pardada Pardadi was deeply moved by this gesture of such young students.

Natasha Whesker (McDonogh School) and Ms. Garima Kapoor (Wardlaw Hartridge School) also raised donations from their friends and families.

Pardada Pardadi is very thankful to all its friends for their kind gestures, support and time.

Exposure visit
IdiscoverI is a company focusing on child-centered methodology in teaching and learning. Mr. Ashish Rajpal (a partner in company) visited PPES last year. Mr. Rajpal offered to host a group of PPES students and teachers for an adventure camp. Twenty students and three teachers went for an adventure camp to Teerthan Valley, near Manali in Himachal Pradesh, where they were taken for nature walks, trekking, etc. It was the first time that they saw and played in snow!

Pardada Pardadi thanks the entire team at IdiscoverI for making this trip a reality and treating all the participants to such a delightful outing.

PPES has benefited a great deal from trainings conducted by IdiscoverI. Following this trip participants have become ambassadors at the school to promote ideals of cleanliness and time management. We are honored to have this partnership and hope to see it continue for a long time.

Our communication partners: R & PM Edelmen
Mr. Roger Pereira and his team from Edelmen are among the most cherished partners of Pardada Pardadi. They have not only extended financial support, but have always helped us with media contacts and designing and developing communication materials. We salute their sincerity and commitment to Pardada Pardadi. Edelmen has always been more than willing to guide and support us. Whenever approached for help, in his very simple way, Roger always says “We are your media partners, we will be always there to help you.” Thank you, Roger and your team for being with us.

Donation with a difference
Students of Pardada Pardadi have been getting regular donation of rice from two sources: Daawat Basmati Rice and MCKS Food for the Hungry Foundation. This support has enabled PPES to provide a better evening snack to the children. Thank you very much for the kind donation.

With kind regards,
Sam

Pardada Pardadi Educational Society
www.education4change.org
www.pardada-pardadi.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArVz5lM5vQY