Teeing off some action!

A word of thanks to all those who attended the meeting on 23rd August 2009, most specially to Mrs Rebecca, for facilitating and guiding the session. The discussion was intended to bring out ideas on conducting needs assessment surveys, and it managed to bring out some great ones!

Accordingly, we have marked up 6th September on our calendars, to start our first field visit for the second project. A transect walk is planned in our project village, in Vellore district, on the 6th September. During this transect walk, we intend to build rapport with the villagers and gather some basic data, and look at the feasibililty of conducting a Dermatology camp soon after.

We need help in the following fields - field work (in Vellore), flash website building, 2D animation, and of course, in Advocacy, Fund Raising and Public Relations. Interested volunteers do write in to hugsindia@gmail.com, let's join together and make "EDUCATION FOR ALL" a reality!

News for the first half of August 2009

Yes, an update on what we have done so far since regrouping.

As a bottom -up or participatory approach towards identifying projects in villages (of course, all projects aimed at child education), HUGS will be putting together groups of volunteers to do field survey - preferably using the RAPID RURAL APPRAISAL approach. Later on, as defined by prevalent needs we will assess feasibility of setting up community run projects using the PARTICIPATORY RURAL APPROACH. Meanwhile, we also are looking at structured studies using questionnaires to quantify individual problems. Overall, our information gathering looks to employ the optimal tool to obtain the best possible info, since such information is vital to planning specific projects. The surveys and subsequent projects are to be based in Vellore, where we already have an introduction through our footwear donation project.

As for the team, we have Sherab and Vetri in Planning, Benjamin and Becky in Fundraising, Nachi and Karthik in website design and maintanence, Renita and Feroz in fieldwork, Partha, Sashi and Kurien as advisors.

New volunteers have come in, Latha Srinivasan, Arun and Monica, and will be part of Budgeting, Advocacy and Fieldwork respectively.

HUGS encourages you to sign up in any capacity that you choose to contribute in, and we will make sure you have an enriching experience.

Events :

Group discussion for volunteers based in Chennai (or who can attend the meeting in Chennai), on the 23rd August, evening - time to be notified by mail.

Coming soon

HUGS website is being upgraded and will be available in its new avatar shortly.

Field visit planned to project village in Vellore district - date to be confirmed after meeting on 23rd August.

HUGS - where are we?

After about 20 months into it, HUGS has provided footwear to about 2200 children in rural areas in Vellore district.
After a hiatus, we regroup to continue working towards helping children go to school.
As the first step, we have approached an auditor to help us with the paperwork - updates and progress should be available soon.
HUGS website is to be revamped, and relaunched soon.
Discussions regarding improvement of methodology will be set in motion soon.
With a busy year ahead, HUGS enthusiasts can look forward to more encouraging news in this blog.