Dear Friends,

June has been a very busy month for our organization. Pardada Pardadi has progressed a great deal through the constant support and encouragement from you all. I feel very happy to share the PPES news with all of you.

Toilet Project
www.poopreport.com/village

Through the initiative of Mr. Dave Praeger, PPES has been able to raise $15,000 from 166 donors. PPES welcomes all these members to the family and thanks once again for your kind donations. With this donation PPES will be able to make at least 60 toilets in the homes of its students.

Examinations

May was a month of examinations for all PPES students. Group Counseling sessions were held with students appearing for class Xth and XII Board examination. There were 17 students appearing for class Xth Board exams and, for the first time, all took Maths as one of their subjects. Unfortunately, the results for class Xth were not very encouraging, as only five students passed their exams. PPES is reconsidering its education programme to improve future exam results.

Happily, 100% of the students who appeared for class V and VIII Board examinations passed!

New School Session

Admission to Other Institutions

Two students have been admitted to the Rai Foundation to their graduation program, one student in fashion design and the other in hospitality. We are very thankful to the Rai Foundation for admitting our students and providing them with scholarships.

PPES is hopeful that this kind of exposure will help the girls develop into smart and strong young women.

Job Opportunities

In line with the school’s expansion, we are also looking to hire a new manager and a fundraiser. We are looking for motivated applicants with a desire to work to help the underprivileged. Please help us find suitable people for the position.

To view the Manager job description, please click here.
To view the Fundraiser job description, please click here.

Visitors and Volunteers

Mr. K. B. Rajoria and Mr. P. B. Vijay from Indian Building Congress visited PPES to do a site survey. PPES and IBC are soon going to launch a vocational training center for boys. This facility will train the boys of the local area in the construction work e.g. masonry, carpentry etc.

Mr. Rambabu Khambapati (Team Leader of Kusuma Foundation) visited Pardada Pardadi to learn about the school’s operations.

Ms. Subha Rajan, CEO of Overseas Indian Facilitation Center also spent one day at the School with two other guests, Mr. Mukul Anand (Director, IMMACULATE) and Ms. Nayantara (A student of Duke University. They all interacted extensively with the students.

Ms. Riti a post-graduate student spent a week at the school, teaching students, computers and dance.

Vocational training cum Production centre

Recently Pardada Pardadi opened a production cum training center. The idea behind this training center is to empower its graduates, senior girls and women of the villages of Anupshahr. Along with training to make home furnishing, participants would also be given training on literacy skills, gender, health & sanitation etc.

During the training period participants are given a stipend of Rs. 250 (USD 6.25) per month as per their attendance in the training center. And after their training is complete they would be able to earn nearly Rs.3,000 (USD 75) per month on the basis of their production.

Marketing initiatives

A summer carnival was organized in Meerut to encourage the sale of PPES products. As part of its commitment to its students, PPES employed two of its graduates in the marketing department. The girls gained valuable first hand experience at the carnival which in turn helps PPES by developing a second line of leadership in marketing.

PPES continues to explore new avenues for marketing its products. As part of this initiative our marketing department secured an order from Mr. V. S. Ramana (Head of Corporate Communications, Larsen & Toubro – Engineering Construction and Contacts division) to make laptop bags for the India-US Global Business and PR Conference to be held in Chennai on 6th June 2008. Mr. Ramana also organized an exhibition of Pardada Pardadi products during this conference. PPES is very thankful to Mr. V. S. Ramana for his support.

Seasons, a large chain of home stores, gave an order to make stuffed toys as a gift for the children visiting their stores. We hope this relationship between Seasons and PPES continues for a long time to come.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism appreciated the products made at PPES and decided to decorate some of its tourist’s bungalows with PPES products. Similarly Reliance also placed the orders with PPES.

As always we look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions for the promotion and marketing of our products.

Capacity Building

US Advisory board

PPES has set up a US Advisory Board. The first meeting of the US board was held on 28th June in US and produced many suggestions and ideas. We are hopeful that the formation of this Board will strengthen and further PPES’s mission.

The board members are:

1. Mr. Bill Snook – Marketing expert and former Dupont employee
2. Mr. Ken Hostelley- Marketing expert and former Dupont employee
3. Mr. G. Irv Lipp- APR, Principal Lipp Services, LLC & Hillis Group
4. Mr. Gene Kreuzberger – Marketing expert and former Dupont employee
5. Mr. Ray Whalen - Businessman
6. Prof. Sunil Chopra- Professor at Kellogg Business School
7. Mr. Kush Agarwal- President & CEO of Vein Clinics of America
8. Mr. Andrew Webster- Principal, Wardlaw Hartridge School
9. Mr. Paul Chapman – Principal, Head Royce School
10. Dr. Gary Fountain – Principal, Chatham Hall School
11. Ms. Sue Henderson – Vice President, Institutional Advances at Queens College
12. Ms. Sherry Fuchs – MS psychology, MS business, former child development specialist, Grant writer.

Thank you once again for being a part of PPES family.

With kind regards,
Sam

Dear Friends,

During February and March many of friends of PPES met each other for the first time and many others came back and revisited the organization.  We are very thankful to all of you for your continued guidance and encouragement.


Volunteers and Friends

Pardada Pardadi bid farewell to Ms. Judith Hunger after her six month stay. Ms. Annabel Ipsen also left for Chille after her two-and-a-half month stay with PPES. Ms. Wendi Boxx and Mr. Alexander Bargstadt revisited Pardada Pardadi. Mr. Royce and Dr. Rikki Asher also spent some time at the school. Pardada Pardadi had a meeting with volunteers to discuss and review the volunteering program.  Pardada Pardadi has benefited a lot from the efforts of numerous volunteers and so I would encourage all of you to help us recruit others to aid PPES (volunteers should be ready to stay at least for six months with PPES).
Ms. Wendi Boxx coordinates recruitment of the volunteers. Please write to her at pardada_pardadi_school(at)yahoo.com with regard to the volunteer program.

New York -Anupshahar Postcard Exchange! 
High School Social Studies Teacher Ms. Alice Braziller and Dr. Rikki Asher introduced Pardada Pardadi School to one of Alice's classes in January in NYC. Alice's class designed beautiful postcards about New York City. Rikki worked with the 6th graders at PPVS last month on postcards about the village and will bring their beautiful cards back to New York City for a postcard swap!  This small project evokes peace and understanding between two groups of teens and young teens through art and writing!


Replication of Model      

On 14th March Mr. K. P. Singh, President and Founder of DLF group of Companies (a construction developer) visited PPES along with a team member. He was very moved by his experience at the school. He has expressed the desire to replicate Pardada Pardadi in his native village of Chola in Bulandshahr District, Uttar Pradesh.


Snehalaya
Snehalaya is a voluntary organization working in the Gwalior area. They have decided to replicate the PPES model. A quote from their newsletter: “We intend following the model of Pardada Pardadi Society's School in Annop Shahar as started by Sam Bhai, which we had an opportunity to see few years before. The girls will be provided with the uniforms, transport, books, food and the parents will be motivated for sending their girls for attending the school as well incentives will be given, which will give them a start in life after finishing the school to become independent.”


Individual Donations

Third Bus
By end of April PPES will have the third bus to bring girls from far away villages. We are very thankful to Mrs. Geeta Malhotra & Mr. Mahinder Malhotra for organizing the donations that went towards purchase of this bus.  PPES would also like to recognize Mr. Vinod Malhotra for donating money towards purchase of this Bus.

Sponsorship
Year after year many friends of Pardada Pardadi have been donating towards the education of PPES students and graduates. It really reflects their commitment to the cause of PPES. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for being a part of PPES family and supporting the students.


Training cum production center for young adult women  

Very soon PPES is going to start training cum production center. We are very thankful to friends like Ms. Geeta Athreya, Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, Mr. P. K. Agarwal, Mr. Vijay Gupta, Mr. T.C. Garg and family for visualizing and actualizing this program.




Board Exams

The first batch of PPES graduates appeared for Board Exams for class XII. 17 students of class X also appeared for Board Exams. For the first time all students in class X will have mathematics as one of their subjects for examination. We wish them all the best on these exams and for all of them to excel in life.


With kind regards,
Sam