May 2022 Update on the Amaravati Sewing School Project
With all of the difficulties that we have faced organizing the Rotary Grant for this project, we are now facing a further difficulty that threatens the further operation of the Sewing School, just as the school has re-opened again.
As some of you are aware, sending funds to charitable organizations in India is not a simple matter. The Government has created rules for receiving such funds that essentially require the receiving organization to have a government registered permit to receive and/or distribute charitable funds. The government may also selectively audit these transactions. The expense for seeking such a permit is fairly significant and Pushpa does not have such a permit. As such, we need an intermediary to receive and distribute charitable funds to Pushpa in India.
We previously reached agreement with the Rotary Community Service Trust (the Trust) in Vuyyuru to receive and distribute our project funds to our partner, Pushpa, to reimburse it for its expenses in establishing and operating the Sewing School. In view of the potential cost of such an audit, however, the Trust has reconsidered the prior agreement and informed us that it is no longer willing to receive and distribute funds from our grant to our partner, Pushpa. The Trust apparently fears that it will have to bear the cost of such an audit. As such, unless we can find another entity to receive and distribute such funds, it is possible that we may have to return the bulk of our grant to our main funding source, Rotary International (RI).
This leaves us without an appropriate means for transferring the remaining funds set aside for the Sewing School, and under the terms of our agreement with RI, we may have to return a sizeable amount of the remaining funds to RI if a new intermediary cannot be found. We have been working to find such a new intermediary or some other work around, but we have advised Pushpa that the remaining funding may have to be returned if we are unable to find such a work around. The picture of the new class of students shown above was taken shortly after the news of this development was released.We have been working with Rotarians in District 5960 and elsewhere here in the U.S. and in India to find a new means for transferring the funds that have been raised to support the Sewing School that follows government guidelines. Unfortunately, in spite of the hard work of Glenn Bowers and other District Rotarians, we have been unable to identify a new means for transferring such funds to India and it appears that the project may have to be unwound and that a good portion of the remaining grant funds received from Rotary International (RI) that have not been spent, will need to be returned to RI. This further difficulty comes at a time when, as previously reported, the Amaravati Sewing School has once again reopened to a new class of students. The new class has ten students and Dr. Franklin reports that, in consultation with community leaders and Pushpa, the Lead Teacher has directed that one of the six sewing machines in the school is to be designated for production of products to be sold by the school in an effort to introduce elements of entrepreneurialism into the curriculum and to develop a means for raising funds to keep the school open when the funds from the initial Rotary grant from Rotary District 5960 are depleted. We believe this is, at least in part, a response to encouragement that was provided when the grant was given.
The school has been in existence now for nearly three years and, although the school has been closed for two different periods of time during the Pandemic, the promise that the school brings to the community has been an encouragement to the community leaders and the community as a whole.As readers of our prior reports will recall, the school came together very well initially. With the onset of the Pandemic, however, everything was disrupted. The elders in the community had wanted the school to remain open as much as was practical, but the leaders at Pushpa and the teachers have taken a somewhat more conservative approach as has been needed.
As previously reported, the first graduating class received their certificates of completion prior to the Pandemic. A picture of the graduating class seated with their arms raised as they wait for their certificates is shown above.
Two of the graduating students from the earlier graduation are pictured in the two pictures below, one, who was chosen to speak to the gathering at the graduation ceremony and another who is receiving her certificate from Chairman Franklin. Also with the students and Chairman Franklin is the Lead Teacher (Suzanne) and a teaching assistant.
Pushpa's mission has been to help marginalized community members of rural Guntur District villages transition from migrant, subsistent lifestyles, dependent on seasonal labor and temporary shelter, to sustainable livelihoods in healthy communities. Its mission has not changed. The organization’s main goal is to work together with underprivileged (tribal) members of rural Guntur District villages to find ways to enable socio-economic change in small ways, one person, one family, one student, at a time, through projects in which the recipients themselves participate. (See http://pushpaproject.org/vision_mission.htm )
As shown in the picture below, a group of the local elders look on, as one of them cut a ribbon to the entrance of the school after he was given the honor of doing so in a ceremony for the opening of the school in May of 2019.
A lot of hard work has gone into establishing the school and there are many people to thank for their hard work and significant contributions. Pushpa is working hard to keep the Sewing School open out of respect for the hard work that went into opening the school and out of respect for the critical funds needed to do so that were received from Rotary District 5960.The leaders of PUSHPA, both here in Arden Hills and in Andhra Pradesh are especially grateful for the support for the new sewing school from the Arden Hills Shoreview Rotary Club and Rotary District 5960 and have continually expressed their gratitude for our assistance to the school.We and Pushpa are thankful for the matching grant received from Rotary District 5960 and to the following Rotary Clubs for their generous support of our project: Belle Plain; Brooklyn Center; Forrest Lake; Fridley Columbia Heights; New Brighton Mounds View; Prior Lake; Roseville; St. Croix Falls; St. Paul No. 10; Siren Webster; West St. Paul Mendota Heights; and White Bear Lake.