OSAAT Q2 2022 Newsletter

OSAAT has seen tremendous development in this quarter with regards to all ongoing school projects that were kicked off. Apart from this, the schools have conducted a lot of extra-curricular activities after they were physically reopened. Here are some of the highlights.

OSAAT is proud to announce the successful completion of various projects in India. Fifty-six projects have spanned across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur  and Uttar Pradesh. There are 19 projects that are ongoing, five more have been funded and will begin in a few weeks from now. 

• Our first project in Jharkhand at Khukradih is going well with the roof casting of classrooms and kitchen having been completed. 
• Our second project in Jharkhand at Tangrain, Potka taluka, is fully funded and the construction will start in Q3 of 2022. 
• OSAAT also forays into Bihar and the North Eastern State of Meghalaya. We are in the process of finalizing strategic partnerships with the local organizations in both the places and hope to start our first project in the last quarter of this year.

Projects Started in Q2 (and their donors)

At Komarapalayam, Tamil Nadu – Uma & Rajiv Ramaswami, USA; Jayashree & Vijay Ullal, USA; Saradha Balasubramanian & Bala Kalyanasundaram, USA; Usharani & Shanmugam Mohanraj, Kochi; Sankaranarayanan R, Chennai; N.Parameswaran, Coimbatore; Wipro 1980’s – Friends. The aim is to construct four classrooms along with benches and desks in  them. 

At Melanakuzhi, Tamil Nadu – Mrs.Latha & Mr.Raghu Raghuram, USA. At Yalavatti, Karnataka – Yokogawa India Ltd., Bengaluru; Smt.Manjula, Bengaluru; Vidyaranya Kannada Kuta, USA. At Ichangi, Karnataka – Uday & Microsoft friends, USA; Raghu BK & P2 Friends, USA. 

At Kodaganura, Karnataka – Smt.Vijayashree & Sri.Sathya Bettadapura, USA. OSAAT aims to construct four classrooms and a toilet block for boys and girls in these schools. 

At Maralli, Karnataka –  Mrs.Sneha & Mr.Keerthi Melkote, USA. This school at Maralli would require three classrooms and proper sanitation facilities. Being passionate advocates about girls empowerment and education, these generous donors wanted to recognize the grit and determination of young girls, who had the spirit to study no matter what their dwelling conditions are. 

Many donors have funded multiple projects over the years and have inspired their network of friends and family to donate generously as well. Also, they are very happy about the way the buildings have been constructed or recreated by using eco-friendly materials. They have expressed their opinion about being delighted that the little kids will have their future shaped in these classrooms and reach greater heights.

Projects Completed in Q2

The school at Taralakatti, Karnataka, was completed in Q2. The donors were Mitel Communications Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru; Mitel Cloud Communications Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru; PowerSchool India Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru. OSAAT constructed 4 new classrooms at this school.

Affordable and quality education for every child is the foundation for a stable, prosperous community of coming generations.  There is certainly a large divide between urban India and Rural Bharat, especially in terms of access and content.  The recent pandemic has certainly exposed this weak underbelly of an already crumbling infrastructure of India’s rural schools.  This initiative is to enable affordable, accessible and sustainable infrastructure for rural children and provide them an equal opportunity to learn.  The project aims at creating an open ended platform where multiple contributors can participate, leverage already existing content and take the first steps in making primary digital learning available for all. We are launching ODiSI in 50 schools in Kolar and Mysuru rural taluks. The participating school list – https://osaat.org/odisi/

ODiSI – Donor and Partner Summit – On 14-May-2022, B V Jagadeesh, Chairman of the Board, One School At A Time presented ODiSI to CSR partners, Corporate sponsors and friends of OSAAT. ODiSI is OSAAT’s Digital School Infrastructure program which was developed during the pandemic with an implementation in 12 rural schools. OSAAT plans to launch this in 100 rural schools in the year 2022. This event was held at P3 Terrace Lounge, KSCA (Karnataka State Cricket Association) Stadium, Bangalore.

How is the ODiSI Program helping? – Our team administered a baseline test of ODiSI to a bunch of students at Malur Girls and Chikkakunthur. The idea is for volunteers to understand how children and teachers use Google classroom as part of ODiSI, how they complete some of the activities, and how data flows into our dashboard. This  helps us understand their ‘learning baseline’ as of today. These insights will help us to make necessary changes to our Google class room infrastructure and content rendering techniques.

“Naatya Raaga” attracts artists from across North America

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc and our hands were tied in 2021 to get our signature event “Naatya Raaga” going in any meaningful way. Now that there is some relief as a result of the availability of vaccines for all age groups and “most” activities are returning to normal, OSAAT USA decided to launch Naatya Raaga in a new format, with many “first”s. The contest is open to all of North America, solo performances instead of group performances, pre-recorded music and dance videos instead of live performances, judges making decisions in the comfort of their home, are some of the highlights. The registrations closed on June 15, 2022. We are looking forward to the award ceremony and all the excitement that comes with it, tentatively planned for the last weekend of July.

Bio Engineering – Summer Camp for 3rd -6th Graders!

Isha Jagadish & Deeksha Palle (Saratoga High students) are hosting an online zoom-based summer camp.

In this camp, participants will learn basic concepts of biology, diseases, genetic engineering basics and exposure to the wonders of modern computer science intersection with biology concepts. It’s a great way to introduce these concepts with simple fun-based activities of learning the basic science with awareness and education!!

This camp will be over Zoom and it will be 5 one-hour-long sessions, Monday-Friday, with a choice of either morning or afternoon sessions. It will be FREE of charge; however, a donation is strongly encouraged as all the money received will be donated to OSAAT (One School At A Time)! OSAAT is a non-profit organization that is committed to providing basic infrastructure for rural schools in India, allowing children to attend school and enabling them to receive an education. For more information, visit osaat.org.What are you waiting for!!Hurry up and register your kids now! http://www.tinyurl.com/bioengsummercamp

The schools resumed in May after two years of Pandemic. The facilities provided by OSAAT were put into best use by all the Institutions. Apart from academics, there were various other activities like International yoga day celebrations. Some of the pictures can be seen below.

A Humble Feather in our Cap

OSAAT has been awarded the prestigious GuideStar India Transparency Key for 2022 and have joined India’s largest pool of credible NGOs after undergoing GuideStar India’s due diligence process. GuideStar India enables greater giving through trust and transparency. www.GuideStarIndia.org is India’s largest and most reliable online information repository with 11000+ NGOs.

GuideStar India’s Transparency Key is the Foundation Level certification indicating that the organization has filed annual income tax returns as a tax-exempt entity and has shared the same in the public domain.

CAF Validates OSAAT

OSAAT Educational Charitable Trust (India) is now eligible to receive grants from CAF (Charities Aid Foundation), USA. OSAAT also received the CAF International Validated Organization Badge. https://www.cafamerica.org/?s=osaat

Cost Escalations

We are dealing with the harsh reality of a 10% increase in construction costs.  For a classroom that used to cost Rs. 11 lakh,  we have to now factor the increase into the budget for our upcoming projects. We will continue to investigate ways to achieve efficiencies and cut costs without compromising quality.

Thank you, Volunteers!

It is always a humbling experience to honor our volunteers for their selfless service. We got together on April 3rd 2022 to say “Thank You!”. It was a wonderful evening with Shantha Rangaswamy, Indian cricketer, as a chief guest. She inspired our volunteers with a great speech and facilitated them with a token of appreciation in the form of a growing seedling symbolizing the prosperity of OSAAT. The team relaxed and enjoyed the event with music and dance!