1. Aflatoon Program in BMC Schools in Mumbai

Meljol's Aflatoon program in the BMC Schools focuses on the Child's Right to participation ad hence is based on the belief that children can participate and contribute effectively to bring about a positive change in the environment. The program has been developed with support from the education department of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, municipal school principals and teachers.

United Way Mumbai support ed Meljol in the year 2003-04 to implement the Aflatoon Program in 37 Marathi Schools, 19 Hindi Schools and 11 Urdu Schools. United Way Mumbai sanctioned a grant amount of Rs 300,000/- towards Meljol for implementing the program.

The activities planned for implementation of the program is as follows :

• Workshop with authorities from the education department and principals
• Teachers Training Workshops :

  1. Teachers from Marathi medium BMC school from Std V to VIII
  2. Teachers from Hindi, Urdu medium BMC schools Std V-VIII
• Training of Trainers : Teachers who are identified as trainers will be trained to facilitate children's workshops at school and zonal level camps.
• Volunteer Workshop : To orient volunteers to Aflatoon Program and seek their support in implementation
• Children's workshops at the School Level : Form Aflatoon Clubs and elect club representatives, select issue/project for the club
• Zonal Level Camps : Formulate plan of action for the issue selected.
• Annual Event : Aflatoon Program culminates in an Annual Event. Sharing of experiences and achievements of the work done on the issues selected by Aflatoon clubs.

Names of the schools where school level camps were conducted are as below :

Work done with UWM Support :

• Material Creation

Translation of Aflatoon Series (Hindi) books in Marathi & English to Hindi.

• Principal Meetings = 75 principals * 2 meetings
• Teachers Workshop (New) = 60 teachers
• Material Provided to schools (18 sets of Aflatoon Books to Std V- VII, 33 schools)
• School level teachers workshop
• Refreshers Workshop (83 teachers * 3 workshops)
• Training of Trainers
• 68 School Level Camps
• Zonal Level 6 Camps
• Monitoring of Schools
• 29 Volunteer workshops
• 68 School Visits by Volunteers
• Annual Event (Bal Anand Mela) 480 children participated

3. Aflatoon Replication Program in Nanded District

Meljol in collaboration with other state level NGOs would like to develop a uniform module and plan of action for inclusion of child rights education in schools. Keeping this in mind, Meljol has conducted an initial workshop with concerned NGOs in the state of Maharasthra. The 19 NGOs, who participated in this workshop, have shown a keen interest in collaborating with Meljol in its efforts to replicate the program in other districts.

Considering this Meljol has evolved a strategy, which will ensure participation of NGOs as well as District Authorities and DIETs in the process of replicating its Aflatoon program in all the districts of the state of Maharasthra. This collaboration will be at two levels :

• Centrally – the collaboration will be between the state level governments authorities, funding agencies, NGO's and Meljol.
• At the district level, the collaboration will be between district level government authorities including DIETs, local NGOs and Meljol.

The coordination between state level government authorities, RC's, DIETs/CRCs and local NGOs will be facilitated by Meljol.

United Way Mumbai in the light of the given background has agreed to support Meljol in replicating the Aflatoon Program in one block of Nanded District of Maharasthra. United Way Mumbai has sanctioned an amount of Rs 8, 11,500/- for the replication project.

Project Progress ( April – June,04)

Activities Planned :

• Identification of a District for the programme.
• Getting permission for the programme from the education authorities at the district level.
• Material Development and Printing.
• Identification of a partner NGO in the selected district.
• Training of the NGO personnel.

Activities Conducted :

Identification of the district for the programme :

Kinwat block from the Nanded district is selected as a district for replication based on the following criteria :

• The population is primarily tribal.
• There is a very high drop out rate, even those attending school have irregular attendance.
• Female illiteracy is high.
• Social issues, such as discrimination on the basis of caste and gender, child marriages, high infant mortality rate, substance abuse are very obviously seen.
• Lower rate of academic achievements.
• Willingness of the education departments to co-operate with MELJOL and to provide the necessary support to carry forth all related activities.

Permission :

MELJOL team met with the Chief Executive Officer and the District Education officer, Nanded district, who showed willingness to support the program. MELJOL got written permission from the education department to implement the program in the Kinwat block of the district. District education department also gave instructions to the block level education departments to co-operate with MELJOL and to provide MELJOL with the necessary support.

Material Development and Printing :

1. MELJOL Aflatoon books series : These books were reviewed and re-printed for the programme with a few changes.
   Manuals for teachers and trainers were developed considering the specific issues and the problems in the selected district.
   MELJOL is also planning to develop posters and activity sheets for children, which can be distributed to children in the children's camps, which are planned in the month of September-04.
2. Audio cassettes for Aflatoon Songs

Identification of the partner NGO in the selected district

Meljol identified SIPRA (Social Institute Program for rural area) as partner NGO. SIPRA is a part of the major NGO networks on education such as Bal Hakk Abhiyan, and Bal Shikshan Manch. The NGO is also active in the field of Human Rights and watershed management. The NGO has good rapport with the education departments at the district and block levels. MELJOL is in the process of developing a contract with this NGO for the program.

Plan of Action for the next quarter :

• Training of Trainers
• Training of teachers
• Training of NGO personnel
• Trainers Meeting for the review of the implementation at school levels
• Developing song cassettes and posters / activity sheets for children
• Camps for the children