Asha Chennai

Under the Sugadharam project, Asha constructed toilets at Palavakkam and Kannigaiper. The construction began in June 2024 and was completed by September 2024.

Asha’s coordinator, Mr. Rajaraman Krishnan, an IIT Madras alumnus, was a featured panelist at Sangam 2024, the annual IIT Madras Alumni Association event.

The Rural Technology Centres (RTCs) have grown from two centers in 2022 to nine in 2024, serving rural areas across Tamil Nadu. With a curriculum designed to foster practical tech skills, students engage in hands-on project work. Here is an overview on the impact of RTCs in these 7 locations.

Asha Chennai expanded its ACE (Asha Computer Education) program, launching ACE V2 in four Tamil Nadu districts: Thiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Thiruvanamalai, and Villupuram. ACE V2 builds on ACE V1’s success by offering a more extensive, two-year digital curriculum.

The RTC Impressions event showcased projects by students from Asha Chennai’s Rural Technology Centers (RTCs). Students presented projects in digital literacy, programming, web development, animation, physical computing, and media editing to a panel of judges at IITM Research Park, Chennai.

 A lot was achieved in the Asha Kanini project during 2023-24. In addition to continuing to work on our Asha Kanini product, several contributions were made to improve our IT related processes. See the detailed report.

A lot was achieved in the Asha Kanini project during 2023-24. In addition to continuing to work on our Asha Kanini product, several contributions were made to improve our IT related processes. See the detailed report.

Asha has been revamping the assessment framework for our various CS programs in the 2023-24 academic year. This has been impacting the outcomes of our programs. Here is a detailed report on the same.

 RightStart, our annual teacher training program, took place from 13th to 17th May at IIT Madras. All our teachers as well as some from partner organisations participated in the program. We had our usual Maths training by Mrs. Meena Suresh and team and a training session by Karadi Path. We also new sessions by LeapForWord in English through syllabification, Dealing …

Amazon Chennai hosted Asha Impressions 2024 at their World Trade Centre office at Perungudi near Chennai. More than 100 children and 25 teachers came from our Sangamam, Poorna Vidhya and Thulasi projects to present their projects. It was an enjoyable and educational outing for all.

On 31st March 2024, The Hindu Downtown paper had a detailed article on our RTC Impressions event that was conducted on 7th Feb 2024.

This year the education department asked the schools all over Tamilandu to celebrate annual day functions.  Therefore most of our supported schools celebrated the annual day. Asha sponsored prizes for children and snacks for them as well.

 Asha is running 6 RTCs (4 in Thiruvallur and 2 in Thoothukudi districts). Starting from two RTCs in Jan 2022, RTCs have successfully completed 4 terms. See a status report on the RTCs now.

In Dec 2023, Chennai and vicinity was battered by Cyclone Michaung that affected several villages that we work with. Later in December heavy rains inundated several areas of Thoothukudi and Thirunelveli. Asha Chennai undertook flood/rain relief work at these places and completed it in Jan 2024.

During the months Oct 2023 to Feb 2024 Asha undertook the repair work on the toilets at 3 small primary schools at Allikuzhi, Palayanur and Thomur.

 Our lead teachers, Nathiya and Kumari travelled to Pune to attend the Amazon Computer Science Education Summit, and then to Mumbai, to attend the Asha India Conference with our volunteer Rajaraman. Here is a report about their experiences as written by them.

  Amazon donated gifts to 300 children from 9 schools under Project Sangamam in Thiruvallur. The gifts were chosen by the children themselves!

We conducted oral assessments at all the Asha supported schools in Tamilnadu and UP in Nov 2023. More than 180 schools and 15000 students from classes 1 to 8 were covered in this assessments.

Asha Chennai has entered into an MOU with the education department of Govt of Tamilnadu on 22nd Sept 2023 to work with 50 teachers in 50 government schools to facilitate a one year computer science curriculum to any one class of students from 6th to 9th standards. The project will be funded by Amazon under its Amazon Future Engineer program. …

Asha Computer Education (or ACE) program was inaugurated on 19th OCt 2023 by the CEO Ms. Saraswathi and DEO Ms. Mohana. ACE program will train 52 government teachers in middle, high and higher secondary schools to teach a one year Computer SCience curriculum. Asha will work closely with these schools to assist in the project implementation.

Every year Asha distributes stationery materials for schools and students. This includes things like charts, plain papers and mats for school as well as notebooks, pens, geometry boxes etc. for the students. This was distributed to students in our schools in Sangamam, Thulasi, Poorna Vidhya and Cauvery projects.

As a part of the Sugadharam project a new toilet was built at PUPS Gengavaram, part of Project Thulasi. Inauguration function was held on Aug 30th.

Asha Chennai is providing a nice uniform for all the students in Sangamam, Pearl and Thulasi projects. The uniforms were distributed to the students in Sangamam and Pearl projects in August.

Asha put up a booth in the conference held to celebrate the completion of 3 years of New Education Policy on July 28th and 29th 2023 aa a part of the groups working with IIT Madras.

Asha undertook the construction of 3 new toilet complexes and the repair of one at schools in Thiruvallur and Thoothukudi District. These were completed and inaugurated in June/July.

Asha Impressions, a competition showcasing the best projects done by students in the schools supported by Asha, was hosted by Amazon Chennai office on May 5th 2023.