Empowering Through Education Main

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INDEX

Sr.No. Content PageNo.

1

INTRODUCTION

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

3 CONCEPTUAL

BACKGROUND

4 REASRECH METHEDOLOGY

&

DATA INTERPRETENTION

5 FINDINGS

6 CONCLUSIONS

7 SUGESSTIONS

8 BIBILOGRAPHY

9 ANNEXURE


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Acknowledgement

Although it is a stimulating and motivating experience, completing theproject report takes a lot of effort, time and energies.

There are therefore several people I would like to thank

For helping me going through this process.

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisors, Anupama Mam &

Vrushali mam, without their invaluable guidance this work would surely

have not been the same.

Thanks for your time, energies, enthusiasm and advices, for teaching me

to be independent in my research, for helping me develop my critical

spirit, and also simply for being such good supervisors.It has been a great pleasure for me to collaborate with you, thanks

For everything! I would also like to thank the other members of the

Friends of Childern team for the contribution they gave to this project

and for being such nice collaborators.

In particular I would like to acknowledge those collaborators I had the

pleasure to

Interact more closely with: Aparna, thanks for being generous of your

broad knowledge, for always helping me when I needed it.

Besides I would like to thank the Laibrarian Mam and Rahul Sir with

Priya Mam for being such a sport and a milestone to cope up with all the

shortcomings of mine.

A huge thanks to my friends who have helped me making my project an

asset.

Akshay Sarkate

TY BBASarhad College of arts commerce and science


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Declaration

I Akshay Sarkate declare that this project report is my original work and

have not been submitted in any form as a part of any other project.

Information derived from the published and unpublished work of other

has been acknowledgement in the list references in given in the

bibliography.

Akshay Sarkate

TY BBA

Sarhad College of Arts Commerce and Science


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INTRODUCTION

FRIENDS OF CHILDREN PUNE:-

Non profit organization formed by the group of individuals

Registered NGO under the Maharashtra Charity Commission (Reg.

No. Maharashtra/115/2004/Pune)

CONTACT INFO:-

Friends of Chlidren

Plot no.497, Sector 28,

Opposite Giriraj housing Copmlex,

Pradhikaran,

PUNE 411044

Volunteers:

Vani: [email protected]

Aparna: [email protected]

Unmana: [email protected]

Phone: 020-65001445


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

FRIENDS OF CHILDREN TRUST:-

Friends of Children are the team of volunteers from various professional

backgrounds working towards fulfilling the dream of pursuing highereducation for children from economically weaker sections. We have a

strong focus on the education of the girl-child, and seeing them achieve

economic independence is the core element of our vision.

The Inspiration:-

Children who strive to attain their dreams despite all odds.

The Vision:-

A better future for children from economically weaker sections of

community through education.

The Approach:-

Personal & professional development through sponsorships & mentoring.


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BACKGROUND:-

Friends of Children is a coming together of people interested in working

towards education for children from economically weaker sections of

society.

Facilitate a better future for economically

Underprivileged children by supporting them in

Higher education and helping to make them Employable.

Founded in Pune in 2002 by three people: Aparna,

Venky and Vani.

Registered as a Trust in 2003.

Grew from 27 students in 2002 to over 400 students in

2007.

Maintained steady numbers since 2007.

Expanded from Pune city to support students from

Regions such as: - Narayangaon, Junnar, Manchar, Ale,

Sangli, Saswad, Baramati and RajgurunagarFriends of Children Trust has

till date reached out to more than 250 students, and feel proud to note

that several of them have been placed in good positions.

Funds for activities are raised through friends and personal contacts.

Trust has obtained Income Tax exemption u/s 80G of IT Act, 1961 for all

financial contributions to the trust.


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FOCUS:-

There are a few distinct parameters of the focus, which trust has captured

below.

Supporting Higher Education: Continuing education after Class

10 is a key to bringing in significant and lasting change to the quality

of living in the students families. Apart from improving their earning

prospects, students pursuing higher education are instrumental in

encouraging other siblings in the family to do well, and are ableto spread the message of education around them.

Personal Mentoring: Trust believed and also realized that

mentoring students and spending time with them is critical to their

progress. Their aim is to be much more than a funding organization,

and therefore we try to provide the students as much personal attention

as possible.

Placing need ahead of marks: Trust has consciously never made

marks a criterion for supporting a student, and focused on the need and

inclination. If there are opportunities for higher education, they try to

ensure that they are fully utilized by the students, regardless of their

scores.

Focus on Girl Child: Education for girls is a decisive tool to

change the shape of their future. More than 90% of the students are

girls, and it is heartening to see some of the positive impact that

education has brought to their lives.


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ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE


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THE TEAM:-

Individuals from various professions, offer their time towards

management & implementation of the programs.

Trust has no employees only volunteers drive the organization.

Volunteers execute all of the activities: fund-raising, home visits for

student identification, teaching and mentoring, conducting outings,

personality development activities, etc.

Importantly, a few of the ex-students have returned as volunteers and arehelping immensely in the activities.

This has been a major shot-in-the-arm for trust.

FOC does not have any paid employees or any overhead costs. This

means that 100% of the money raised goes to the children. Any

administrative costs are borne by the Managing Committee and Core

group members

ACTIVITIES:-

FOC sponsors higher education as well as vocational education for

meritorious students subsequent to their initial school years. At present

they do not accept applications for sponsorship below standard 10.


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From 26 students in 2003 trust now have around 350 students across the

greater Maharashtra region. The activities have also widened to include a

number of complimentary areas in addition to financial support, such as

provision of textbooks, trainer camps & skill sessions, mentor & guide

networks, Spoken English training sessions etc. FOC continue to growand evolve.

The trust strives to help the students in developing their overall

personality and try to provide them much exposure as part of the

engagement with them, in addition to improving their academic

performance.

Furthermore, addressing specific health issues, close monitoring of

students to prevent drop-outs, etc are important components of theirendeavor towards fulfilling the vision of supporting children in their

pursuit of higher education.

Activities can be broadly classified as below.

Identification of needy students

Sponsorships & financial support

Mentoring & monitoring of students

Academic support

Personality development activities Disha Outreach to Government schools through Annual Science

event

Networking for job opportunities for students

Support for specific health needs

Fee distribution

Residential camps

Workshops and trainings

Use of library and computer lab

Career counseling Mentoring

Treks and extra curricular activities

Other on time projects including medical help, donating materials.

Resolutions:-

Maintain our numbers

Add two new regions


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Ambitious camp/workshop schedule

Introduce identity/attendance card

Provide certificates for workshops attended

Extend medical help to two individuals

Support one village school

305 new students

New regions: Rajgurunagar and Saswad

Two residential camps in May: Junnar and Sangli

3-day workshop for senior students in December

Medical health Camps.

Service Differentiation (Conceptual

Background):-


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A concept in Economics and Marketing proposed by Edward

Chamberlin in his 1933 Theory of Monopolistic Competition.

Definition:-Product or Service differentiation is a business level

strategy intended to:-.Increase The perceived value of the firms products or services as

compared to the competitors.

.Create customer preference for the Firms Product or Service.

In marketing, product/Service differentiation (also known simply as

"differentiation") is the process of distinguishing a product or offering

from others, to make it more attractive to a particular target market. This

involves differentiating it from competitors' products as well as a firm's

own product offerings.

Differentiation can be a source of competitive advantage. Although

research in a niche market may result in changing a product in order to

improve differentiation, the changes themselves are not differentiation.

Marketing or product differentiation is the process of describing the

differences between products or services, or the resulting list of

differences. This is done in order to demonstrate the unique aspects of a

firm's product and create a sense of value. Marketing textbooks are firm

on the point that any differentiation must be valued by buyers. The

term unique selling proposition refers to advertising to communicate aproduct's differentiation.

Differentiation primarily impacts performance through reducing

directness of competition: As the product becomes more different,

categorization becomes more difficult and hence draws fewer

comparisons with its competition. A successful product differentiation

strategy will move your product from competing based primarily

on price to competing on non-price factors (such as product

characteristics, distribution, or promotional variables).


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The Importance of differentiation in strategic

implementation:-


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There are different kinds of bases of

Differentiation:-

1-Service/Product Attributes: - Exploiting the actual product

2-Firm Customer Relationship:-exploiting relationships withcustomers

3-Firm Linkages: -Exploiting relationships within the firmAnd/or relationships with other firms

A SERVICE differentiation strategy must meet

the


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VRIO criteria

Is it Valuable?

Is it Rare?

Is it costly to Imitate?

Is the firm Organized to exploit it?

if it is to create competitive advantage.

FRIENDS OF CHILDREN AND SERVICEDIFFERENTIATION FOR SERVICEMARKETING:-

Friends of Children (FOC) Pune are a regular service project under

Nanyang Technological University (NTU)'s Welfare Services Club.


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Set up in 2003 as a special project under Welfare Services Club, Friends

of Children started out with only 15 volunteers and today, it is a family of

170 volunteers who are passionate about lending a hand to under-

privileged children.

In 2006, FOC was formally recognized as a Regular Service Project with

our first service project, Bright Owl Project (BOP). BOP is currently

held at Whispering Hearts Family Service Centre, located near Pune

station.

At FOC, they mainly provide academic mentoring to children from

lower-income families on a voluntary basis. Apart from focusing on the

academic aspect, they also organize events to hone the life skills of our

beneficiaries.

FOC is hoping to reach out to more children who are in need of academicmentoring.

Empowering Children through Education


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"Education is that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the

foolish their lack of understanding."

-- Ambrose Bierce.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned inschool. ~Albert Einstein.

Hence Education proves to be the weapon to bring about change in the

society and to help one in developing the inner skills and hidden talents.

But still education though important is not made available to many of the

potential students due to varied reasons of their family capacity, structure,

earning potential etc.

Discrimination in terms of Sex and Financial conditions eventually lockdoors for many of the talented students who long for better educational

prospects.

Domestic problems, financial crunch, not enough of a motivating

environment to study, no mentor to guide them through. The situation

may be despairing, yet we can try to reach out to some of them. All we

have to tell ourselves is Yes, we can!

RESEARCH METHEDOLOGY:-

OBJECTIVES:-

"Real" world oriented - learning has value beyond the demonstratedcompetence of the learner.


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Hence my motive for doing the project was to

1-Gain a sharpened understanding of how things work in an NGO.

2-A good chance for own learning.

3-Learning utilized real time data - investigating data and drawing

conclusions.

4- The Dynamic approach in exploring real-world problems and

challenges.

SCOPE OF STUDY;-

Within the limited range of the next few pages, this report attempts to

present a snapshot of developments and/or important features in thegeneral area Social upliftment through education, the main objective


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being understanding the Service differentiation for the Services

marketing.

The scope of this section is broad and attempts to address soft as well as

hard issues involved in the complete processes.

Within the context of this report, I will:

1-Present some case studies illuminating different facets of the hard work

and success in form of results of students

2-Present some broad overall conclusions of the study.

DATA COLLECTION SOURCES

Primary Source:-


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Speaking to counselors, Volunteers and parents

Teaching and non teaching staff

Students and their friends

Secondary Source

Files and compilations in the office at Pune branch

Internet information.

3. SAMPLING TECHNIQUE AND SAMPLE SIZE

Sampling technique: - Simple random Sampling

Sample Size:-2 cases out of the 40 plus cases with the organization.


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nationwide are vacant, and 57% of college professors lack either a

master's or PhD degree.

Hence to conclude education should reach to more and people and

support to educate the children should come from government aswell as the Ngos who take up the responsibilities of educating

INDIA.

FOC Identification and Selection Criteria:-


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Meeting Schedule Once a month

Village Students:-

Identification& Home visits: - Teachers from the local schoolsidentify and do the home visits. Done by Infosys volunteers

familiar with the area.

Income

Cut off % X > 70 % cut off % XI > 60% cut off % XII> 65%

Degree and other course: 1st Class.

Fee Distribution : One time payment Meeting Schedule : Half

Yearly meetings / School Teachers Coordinates with Students


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DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:-

The journey of supporting students started since 2001.

Over the years FOC have supported and mentored more than 250students. Their focus has been the education of the girl-child. The

numbers below indicate that the efforts have been in the right direction.

Friends of Children Trust have grown from supporting about 40 students

in an academic year to 60-80 students presently.


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One gets motivated by seeing the struggle through various hardships and

students coming up with flying colors.

Trust gains satisfaction and measure success by the smiles of our students

and their parents when they complete their graduation and get a job.

FOC Pune has also been keeping peace with the FOC Bangalore the

current status being,

Over 300 students across all regions

Students in different courses such as 10th, 11th,

Engineering, Diploma in Engineering, D.Ed., B.Com.,

RURAL AND URBAN AREAS:-

With the observations that have been produced by the firm the ratio of the

students which the firm works for is more for the students in the rural

places of Pune.

Following Pie chart gives a better understanding of the percentage of the

work of the firm in the urban and the rural areas


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Statistics of the students activities after Support form the FOC:-


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Others include the activities such as:

1-Politics

2-Abroad education and businesses

3-volunteering for FOC

Students have sought entry in this competitive work culture as

designated positions:


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Accounts assistants

Customer support executives

Front office assistants

Nurses

Process associates

Software engineers

Teachers AN Engineering student Sachin Bankar has been offered a post

of Asst Systems Engineer at TCS and will be joining them shortly.

He has been sponsored by trust for the past 4 years and we wish him well

for a bright future.

Some of the companies where the students are place include the big

names such as:


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Alcatel

AMICORP

CYPRUS

Deloitte

Government of Karnataka, Irrigation Dept Hewlett Packard

IBM

IGate

Infosys

Irrigation Dept. , GoK

POGO MAD

Nokia Seimens

Oracle

St. Philomenas hospital Victoria hospital

Wipro


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THE DIFFERENTIATION TECHNIQUES

OBSERVED:-

Know your customers, really, really well.

Pick a blend of differentiation methods that, in the eyes of your

customers, truly sets you apart.

Talk about your differentiation in terms of customer benefits.

Tell everyone about what differentiates you--often.

Keep your differentiation fresh by listening for changing customer

needs.


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APPLICTION PROCEDURES OF FOC

Guidelines for application to FoC

1. Family income should not be above Rs 50000 for rural areas / Rs

60000 for urban areas.

2. Students who have scored 80 % in Class 10, 70 % and above in

Classes 11 /12 can apply. The eligibility for all other courses is 60

%.

3. In case student does not score required marks in certain semester,

he or she can avail of textbooks alone for that particular term and

apply again when he or she qualifies next term.

4. Eligibility for scholarship will be considered after home visit is

conducted by FoC volunteers

4. Fees based on Government colleges only will be provided for any

professional courses.

5. Student will be given fees only if application is complete with

documentation and home visit is completed.

5. Students who join Engineering courses, will be sponsored only for

the First year after which they have to avail of a bank loan orscholarship from other funds / trusts. A list of 35 colleges for

engineering has been prepared by FoC for reference for

sponsorship.

6. Student must not receive monetary aid from any other NGO for the

same course / amount. It is the students duty to inform FoC if they

receive any monetary assistance from other NGOs as if discovered

later, they can be instantly removed from the FoC scholarship

program.


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Documents required from new applicants

1. Income certificate of all earning members in family for current

year.

2. 1 passport size photo

3. Photocopies of all marksheets/ certificates to date. ( class 10

onwards )

4. Ration card copy

5. caste cert. etc. if available

6. Pertaining fee receipt ( orig. to be stamped / notarized Xerox to be

submitted )

7. Application letter to FoC requesting aid for current year.


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Documents required from students presently under FoC scholarship

program

1. Income certificate for current year from all earning members of

family

2. Mark sheet for current year

3. Application letter to FoC requesting educational assistance for

current year.

4. Pertaining fee receipt ( original to be stamped / notarized Xerox to

be submitted )

(In case discrepancy in any documents is found later, the sponsorship

stands cancelled)


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THE SUCCESS:-

Updates from FoC Students

1. Ramesh Girme has joined Patni Computers as a regular employee from

this month.

2. Ganpat Lokhande has joined Thermax Limited from September.

3. Deepika More has joined Central Park hotel from August . She will be

trained & employed by them.

4. Devidas has become a permenant employee in Intervida as site

engineer .

5. Rahul Deshmukh (Visually Challenged) has stood first in Pune

University in his M.A course. He is still looking for a job.

6. Ujjwala Mane is joining Acceltree as Trainee.

Achievers of Class 10

It is with great pride that FoC is able to announce the results of the Class

10 exam. Housed at the Blind School for boys, Koregaon Park since

Class 1 , these boys have done both their institution and FoC real proud !!

Basavaraj Santhikar, who is from Shirur scored 83 % and wants to

become a lawyer.

Shivaji Londhe, whose father is a sugar factory worker,wants to become a

teacher. He scored 79 % aggregate.

Jitendra whose father is a mason, scored 67 % and aspires to become a

teacher.

Vikas Waghmare whose father is also a mason scored 63 % and wants to

work in a BPO.


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VOCATIONAL TRAINING FOR THE

VOULENTEERS AND MENTORS:-

The role of mentor is very critical in the success of a FOC sponsored

student.

They play many different roles and enable them to succeed in their

academics and reach gainful employment.

The mentors are the bridge between FOC and the student; they are a

coach, guide, and a teacher to the students.

They not only help the students with their academics but also in general

inculcate good habits in them, which would help the students in their

academic and professional lives.

In summary the key objectives of the mentor are:

establish rapport with the student and create an environment where the

students are encouraged to share their concerns

provide academic guidance and coaching to bring improvement in

academic performance and lead the students towards gainful employment

assist students (within FOC parameters) by removing road blocks that

prevent them from continuing their studies and achieving good results

facilitate the processes between the students and FOC; this may include

coordinating reimbursements of fees and books

communicating meeting schedules and times for other events

registrations for extra coaching classes if required (and approved)

providing feedback to FOC on progress for continued sponsorship

Specific responsibilities


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To achieve the goals of academic success and proper administrationof FOC sponsorship there are specific responsibilities that mentors

have to fulfill:-

These are:

Ensure that the student has submitted all the paperwork required for

sponsorship

Communicate weekly with the students on their progress and needs

Be aware of critical timelines for all exams including unit tests for the

students

Getting updates on unit tests results

Ensure that the students fulfill their social service responsibilities

Understand the students studying environment and habits

Ensure that the student attends the required FOC meetings (at least once

a month) and specific meetings that apply to their needs

Assist students in getting the support from FOC in terms of

reimbursement of fees, providing books and other supplies

Being educated on FOC policies around fees reimbursement and

ensuring that their students understand those Maintaining a file for each student which has all the progress reports for

the student (see the list of document in Appendix A)

Meeting with the parents every quarter to keep them in the loop in

relation to the progress of their children.

Mentors can also guide the parents in the steps that they can take for

helping their children achieve better results.


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Additional Tips

Identify poor performance, the reasons for poor performance, and

communicate that to FOC

Outline a plan for each mentee individually wherein they can get in

touch with you only at certain times of the day (if so required by you);

create expectations and discipline on how they need to interact with you

Expect proactivity and enough notice from students when they need

your assistance.

Do not entertain last minute requests / demands for tuition fees or any

other monetary assistance

Do not give money to any mentee under any circumstance, unless it has

been approved of and billed accordingly by FOC.

Do not accept excuses from students not getting in touch with you at

regular intervals at the specified times

Do not get involved in other aspects of their lives or provide assistance

outside of FOC (for academic or other reasons)

Be sensitive to the travel constraints (particularly for ladies students)

and the hours they travel


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Academic Coaching

As a mentor the biggest contribution you can make is through thorough

academic coaching.

Most of our students do not have any coaches who can assist them in

understanding how to be successful at academics.

They come from an environment where there are not many roles models

for academic success.

Being a coach requires significant involvement and dedication and

changing students study habits requires consistent and long-term effort.

New student steps

When a mentor is assigned a new student they should follow the

following steps:

Assess students academic potential based on past results

Discuss the students goals

Create a plan to reach goal Monitor against goals and make corrections


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Assess students academic potential

When you are assigned a new student, review all the past academic

results with the student to understand their overall potential.

Understand their areas of strengths and weaknesses.

Discuss the students goals.

Once we understand the past academic performance you need to discuss

the students goals in terms of what percentages are required in which

areas based on career path the students wants to pursue.


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Monitor against goals and make corrections

To ensure that the student reaches their goal, it is important to monitor

their progress and see if they are making steady progress towards their

goal.

If the progress is not as much as desired, you need to understand the

underlying issues and create a corrective plan.

The reasons could range from student not studying to them needing

additional assistance in studies.

During this time understand specific areas of weaknesses the student has

and encourage them to work with you to create solutions to overcome

those weaknesses.


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Creating Study Plan

Many of these students do have an idea on how to effectively maximize

their study time and results. Many feel that just because they are spending

more time with the books they will get better results. As a mentor you

should analyze their study habits so that they can be improved better

results.

To create an effective study plan analyze the following aspects:

Total time spent on different subjects; time spent should be ensure that

weak subjects get early attention

Quality of time spent (morning time when they are fresh versus late

evening times)

Pattern of studies; does the student time consistently or does he spent a

lot of time one day and then skips studies for days

Utilization of the time (to understand the concepts, practice, or take

sample tests)

Study environment and the disturbances; understand environmental

factors such as number people using the space at study time, noises like

radio or TV; if need be look for alternative study environment

Study approach (rote of the text versus understanding the concepts)

Time spent on other activities which could be used for studies Priority setting approach in covering the syllabus of the courses

Understand who their peers are and how they assist each other


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Academic assistance

When a student is weak in particular subjects, mentors should look for

ways to provide them additional academic assistance. This assistance can

be in the form of the mentor teaching the student, finding some other

tutor through FOC or personal contacts who are involved with FOC, or

recommending using of coaching classes. Currently, FOC only sponsors

the fees for coaching classes for students in 12th standard or for certain

professional entrance exam.

Any summer classes or a vocational course organized by FoC for the

students requires mandatory attendance. Failure to attend would mean

discontinuance of sponsorship.

FOC also encourages you to send your students to general developments

classes conducted by FOC. These classes may be in the area of learning

English or focused on certain personality development concepts.

FOC may also organize special classes if the need for that is large across

our student population.


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CHRONICLES:-

1- FOC IN NEWS:- Foc pune had made an initiatives to sponsor

children in Manchar taluka Pune.


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Friends of Children Trust was covered in a feature article City of

Angels by Times of India, Bangalore edition.

The article has appeared on May 31st on page 4 of the main paper.


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MAJJA RUN

23rd May 2010:-

The participation of Friends of Children Trust in the Majja run at

Sunfeast World10K in Bangalore was a grand success. In its first attempt

to reach out to a larger audience, FoCh registered with the event as a

group and got a very good response.

The focus of participation was two fold - bringing about an awareness of

the trust and its activities, and also to spread the message of Highereducation for all.

FoCh realises that many parents, shelter-homes and schools do a

commendable job in educating children upto Class 10, despite difficult

circumstances. However, it is the years immediately after completing

Class 10 that play a large role in how a child shapes his future. The

importance of right intervention at this stage cannot be further

emphasized and the volunteers of FoCh tried to highlight this at the event.

The Majja Run itself was a 5.7 km walk and FoCh group was more than

80 strong including some children. It was great to see everybody trying to

put a great effort to walk together as a team shouting slogans, making

friends and having fun. The team wore graduate hats prepared by the

students themselves and carried some interesting placards and banners.

And like every marathoner who feels a wave of energy when the

onlookers cheer, our students too can egg-on and reach the finish line of

graduation all they need is a little bit of support and a lot of

encouragement.


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3-KHLIESHWAR SCHOOL VISIT:-2nd January 2011

Friends of Children started off the New Year by meeting children in a

small village school.

The school is in Khileshwar, some 150 kilometers away from Pune. It isa primary school with classes 1 to 4. FOC donated sweaters, flip-flops,

school bags and stationery sets (pencils, erasers, sketch pens etc.).

Mr Upar, the volunteer who teaches at M.G. College, Manchar, had put

us in touch with the school. It was a long drive through scenic territory.

They had to veer off the road and drive five miles over the dam on a poor

road to get to the school. The school stands near the river and flanked by

hills.

It is a small Zilla Parishad school in an adivasi area. There are 87 students

in all.

They came forward one by one, and they handed over the stuff to them.

Afterwards, the teachers called on two of them to thank , which they did

very prettily in front of all their schoolmates.

The headmistress informed that attendance was high and that she tries to

ensure it remains so. The children go on to study at a high school that is

right next door.

Right now, they are repairing the roof on the school so that the children

have to make do with a classroom that is also used for cooking and eating

lunch. Also, power has been temporarily disconnected due to the

construction work. However, once the improvements are over, there shall

be five functional rooms. The headmistress also informed that they are

getting benches for the students. Some of the money for the same has

been collected by villagers, and another NGO is expected to donate some

benches.


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4-FOC and blind school:-

FoC (Friends of Children) has taken the initiative to start a computer lab

at Blind School, Koregaon Park , Pune for the use of Students from Blind

school (100 Students) and FoC students (65 students).

The children from the Blind School will be trained from May onwards by

Rahul Deshmukh (a visually impaired, but trained teacher) during the

week. Over weekends ( May onwards ), the students of FoC will utilize

the computer lab for sessions to learn computers, training towards the MSCIT exam , learn and practice Tally, programming languages and any

other specific requirements that crop up.

During the past year, the boys of Class 9, from the Blind School, have

been taught by Rahul, at his house, and have learnt Ms Word, Excel,

PowerPoint, emailing etc. They are now able to operate and work on the

computers independently. Trust found that the commute of over an hour

was tiresome during the week for the students. With this in mind, they

have planned to teach the boys of Classes 7 and 8 this year alongside atthe school premises itself.

The Blind School has provided them the classroom along with 5 working

computers. They have checked the configurations of all the computers and

all of them are functional. The software's specially required to be installed

for the blind boys ( JAWS ) needs to be procured. They also need to get

software for the computers, computer text books and material for the

syllabus of MS CIT .

Besides this, they would look forward to volunteers coming forward to
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teach / supervise classes for our own (FoC ) students during the month of

May and June when we plan to hold summer classes during the vacation.

The schedule for this will be ready by late April..

In return FoC promises the unstinted commitment of all its volunteerstowards making this project succeed.

Book Donation Drive Initiative:-

Most of the students are in their professional courses and doing their

diploma or engineering. Even most of the 10+2 students are preparing for

various entrance exam like MH-CET, AIEEE & IIT so this year they are

trying to increase their library strength by "Book Donation Drive

Initiative" ,in which planning is to collect books from those who want to

donate. Because it's education that can make a difference in their life.

For this wonderful social cause we need your support in following way

1.You can donate books of any kind(technical,fiction,non-fiction etc) to

the library.

2.You can spread this message among your friend circle

3.You can help us in contacting your college authority so that trust can

set up a stall on a particular day where the volunteer will be there to

collect books

Trust just require your kind support so as to make it a successful donationdrive because

"Helping hands are always better than praying

lips"

-----Mother Teresa


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CORPORATE SUUPORT AND

SPONSORSHIP:-

Some of the corporate have support schemes for supporting of

organizations for a social cause.

Vidya Poshak

Sparsh A healing touch

Other companies such as Synygy, IBM, Symantec and Extentia

Individual donors who have partnered with us through the years


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IBM support:-

FOC- IBM SaradaMath Sweater Project

Friends

Thanks to IBM Employees and Imprint 2006 team.

Trust have distributed the sweaters to all the 197 Children who are

studying in Sarada Math school.

All these students are from slum areas that dont go to regular school.

The total cost for the sweaters is 30k.


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FoC has joined hands with Infosys Hinjewadi Foundation (Sparsh - A

healing Touch), PRERANA & VIDYA POSHAK (two like minded

NGOS from Karnataka) and plans to induct 125 more students into their

fold.

The funds for this project (5.0Lakhs Approx) and the Books will be

provided by Infosys Hinjewadi Foundation (Sparsh - A Healing Touch) ,

PRERANA & VIDYA POSHAK.

Makar Shankaranthi is a very auspicious festival in Maharashtra. It was

all the more sweeter for 150 students from various streams of education

today.

FoC Pune handed out scholarships worth INR 5,20,000 to 150 deserving

& needy students from Pune and neighbouring villages.It was wonderful

to see 4 busloads of young people with their hearts full of dreams and

hopes soaring skyhigh enter the Infosys campus at Hinjewadi.

Many students from FoC Pune participated in the programme and helped

the rural children with many of their doubts about various courses . Mr.

Tikot of Vidya Poshak and Ms.Priti Rao of Infosys graced the occasion

with their presence.

These 150 students were chosen based on the merit of their marks and

various volunteers from Pune made visits to their homes to confirm their

need for assistance. Over 300 applications were received and 150 were

chosen from these .

It is indeed hoped that they continue this tradition of FoC Pune doing

something really good every Shankaranthi as last year was celebrated by

handing out 160 sweaters to rural children in Lauki, narayangaon and this

year has been celebrated by handing out scholarships to 150 children.


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Infosys Career Guidance Session

A note from Infosys Volunteer

Dr Vibha spoke about, what steps each student should follow beforemaking a choice of career.

Mr Ghadke, ITI Aundh (Girls) Principal, gave the students an overview

on the admission procedures, timing and course offerings being made by

IIT

Indeed a day it was to be rememberedand hope the tune changed from

Yeh kaun sa mod hai zindagi ka

Topayega jo lakshya hai tera

lakshya to her hal me pana hai


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FOC AND EXTENTIA:

FoC supports higher education for more than 400 students across the state

through its Nurture Merit Program. Working to make underprivileged

youth employable, the NGO empowers students to pursue certification in

Engineering, Education, Commercial Applications and Science.

Extentia, a Pune based global technology services company, has been

associated with FoC since 2006. The company celebrated its anniversary

recently, and on the occasion, Extentia made a donation to FoC to fund a

Residential Youth Camp for sixty students in May 2010.

Extentia supports FoCs work toward providing underprivileged youth an

opportunity to earn a sustainable livelihood. Funds are typically allocated

by Friends of Children for:

School/college and tuition fees.

Regular monitoring and career guidance.

Guidance and Educative sessions on weekends.

Books and other stationery.

Mentoring and Teaching.

Health check-ups.

Funding for vocational courses.


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FoC Sarada Math Notebook Project

Trust distributed notebooks to 200 poor students from Sharada Mutt

school , Vittalwadi costing about Rs 15000.


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QUESTIONNAIRE:-

1- What is your Name?

2-You are from which place?

3-Which course is you admitted in?

4-For past how many years are you associated with FOC?

5-What is your family background like?

6-How do you think FOC has contributed in changing your life?

7-Would you like to volunteer for FOC in the future?


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Some of the most frequently asked questions to

FOC:-

* What is FOC?

Friends of children is a non-profit no-overhead-expenditure organization

to help educating poor children in schools & colleges. The volunteers are

working professionals in various software companies and educational

institutes. Help is provided in terms of:

# Regular monitoring over weekends

# Providing school/college fees and tution fees

# Providing bus pass

# Providing books and other stationery

# School uniform for primary/high school children

# Teaching (Project name TEACH: ToEducateACHild)# In some cases, health check-up and treatment charges

# Funding for job oriented training courses.

# Fees for various competitive exams like JEE/AIEEE/K-CET etc.

* How is FOC different from any other NGO?

FOC supports only a limited set of students per year with the objective

that there is a regular interaction with them all along the year and they are

mentored with individual attention to make them successful in life andnot just studies.

* Can I donate in kind (books, educational-CDs, science kits etc)?

Yes. Specifically, note books will be of great use. But please note that

donating in form of funds is preferable as FoCh can buy the notebooks at

a discount price.

* What if I wish to donate notebooks?

You can donate note books. College students require 15 long plain note

books. School children generally require 12 short ruled books.

* Do I get any tax exemption if I donate money?

Yes. The trust a registered organization and you get exemption under

section 80G of income tax rules. Only Indian currency is accepted.

* Which are the schools does the FOC support?

FOC doesn't support any specific school. It supports only limited set of

students every year. Once FOC finds that either the family is again in a

position to take care of their education, funding is automatically stoppedso that other deserving students also can get benefit.


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* Which are all the students does the FoC support?

Only a limited set of students are funded by FoCh and they are

monitored regularly. You can meet the children whom you are

supporting. Many children drop out after 10th standard due to lack of

fund and lack of support from the family. Since the expenses steeplyincrease beyond 10th, FoCh mainly supports students after 10th class. In

some special cases where the family is very poor and the children are not

getting support from anywhere else, primary/high school children are also

supported.

* How did the students perform under FOC support in the past?

The main hurdle for them is change of medium from Kannada to

English. Almost 60% students have scored above 60%. 80% of the

students who are funded by FoCh have passed in the exams. The

objective of the project is to provide full support for education as long the

conditions allow in their family and mentor them to make sure they do

not go in a wrong way.

* Can I visit FOC activities? Can I be a part of it?

Very much! You can visit the FoCh on weekends (Saturday 2:30pm to

5:00pm and Sunday 9:00am to 4:00pm) to see how they teach and who

are the students FoCh is supporting. Providing books or food alone is not

enough. They need mentoring too. If you can help in terms of medical

assistance in special cases or career guidance (information about exams,colleges, and specifically any job oriented courses etc) would also be

extremely helpful.

* How the students are identified for support under FoC?

They are identified in the slums of Chamarajpet, suggestions from the St

Theresa school, referral from the children who are funded now, as well

the ones identified by volunteers NGOs. These children continue to get

support as long as they perform decently in academics. FoCh believes in

continued education rather than supporting for one year and not caringlater. If a student was consistently scoring above 80% in academics,

he/she would would scholarships anyway and they may not need others

help. FoCh feels that if we can bring up the ones with 50% scoring to

70% or more, that would be a real achievement.


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* Who should be contacted if I want to contribute? By when?

Since the schools/colleges open around June time frame, almost 70% of

the expenses of the academic year will be in that time. So, if you can

donate before that time, it would really help us in estimating how many

students we can support. Since we support students in various courses, weneed to spend money all along the year. So, contribute NOW!

* Can I donate money after June?

Definitely yes. In fact, since the money has to be spent throughout the

year for competitive exams, personality development programs as well as

additional books needed at the time of various exams, FOC welcomes

your donation at anytime.

* What if I want to sponsor a student for an year? How much does it

cost per student?

For a high school student, generally the expense is around Rs 1200. For

a PUC student, college fee itself is around Rs 4000. For a degree college

student it is around Rs 6000. For an engineering student it is around

Rs17,000. For a dental college student it is around Rs32,000 per year.

(Note that the colleges are giving huge discounts for students who are

funded through FoCh and hence the fees are less. Special thanks to those

colleges.) Since some of the children scored good state level rank, we are

admitting them in professional courses like engineering and medicine.

Obviously, the cost would be much more. Your contribution plays amajor role in allowing them to study beyond mere 10th standard. If you

can help us in getting corporate sponsorship to help these children, it

would be really great.

* Can I support a specific student of my choice?

If you have any specific student in your mind who is not already

supported by any resource and the student is sincere please refer him/her

to us and we can certainly work towards helping that student.

* What kind of courses are supported by FOC?

The main focus of FoCh is to provide education beyond 10th class.

Students are admitted into various courses like: high school, PUC

(science, commerce, arts), degree (commerce, arts), medicine,

engineering, dental, painting, polytechnic (computer science,

mechanical), ITI and so on.

* What is the procedure to donate funds?

Funds could be donated in form of cash or cheques. The cheques need tobe drawn on "The friends of children trust".


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Suggestion:-

With the observations based on the field visit and the office records I

have drawn certain suggestions:-

1-The organization does not concentrate on the marketing I think they

should concentrate on marketing also so that they can reach more and

more people and corporate firms.

2-The organization should have the strong administration staff as if now

there is only one lady who works for the admin section.

3-The volunteers are not given any certificates when they should be given

for their good profile.

4-FOC should also look out for more students from the urban areas as the

percentile is more for the students in rural area.

5-There is no branch offices in the villages, FOC should look out for

forming such branches to help the people connect through easily.


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CONCLUSIONS:-

About The Services Differentiation:-

1-Differentiate to innovate to survive and to sell

2-It is very important to ensure that Service differentiation stays

meaningful and does not become simply a fad.

3-It is equally important to understand the trend and know the feelings of

the customers.

4-The ultimate distinction would be the utility and the value that

consumers take away from the product.

5-A base of differentiation must fill some

Customer need:

A-Image

B-Beauty

C-Safety

D-Furthering a cause

E-Hunger

F-Status

G-Quality

H-Reliability in use

I-Comfort

J-Style

K-Service

L-Nostalgia

M-Accuracy


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About Education:-

Education in India is mainly provided by the public sector, with control

and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local.

The Differentiation of the services in Education may seem to be same but

the way the Organizations use them is unique and their success speaks it

all.

The segmentation and the differentiation techniques enhance:

1-The customization for the requirements of the prospective students.

2-Keeps the check in delivering the services to the needy only.

3-greater rate of the Customer satisfaction is seen.


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Bibliography:-

1-http://www.focpune.org/

2-http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Education_in_India

3-http://socialgrowthtechnologies.com/couponbuddy_v002/index.php?

4- http://www.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://lh4.ggpht.com/fhuebler/

Books referred:-

1-GUIDE TO FUNDRAISING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS FOR NGOs

AND

NON PROFIT ORGANISATIONS

Author: V. K. PURI'S

2-NGO HANDBOOK

Author: NABHI'S

3-"History, Development and Contemporary Problems of Indian

Education"

Author: R. P. Pathak

4- "Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the Future

Author: Pawan Agarwal


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