Ritnjali sets up three Learning Centres in Kusumpur Pahari partnership with UEE Mission, Delhi: Ritinjali fulfilled its commitment to UEE Mission, Delhi of setting up three UEE Learning Centres in exactly two months and the present strength of learners stands at 120.

Now this is no small achievement considering the challenging nature of our work in Kusumpur. The high commitment levels of our three teachers and two boys at the project site on a daily basis, besides the backup and crucial support by the rest of the organization has helped us meet the challenge. From nine in the morning when the kids attend their Assembly to two in the afternoon, the place can be seen as one that has not only transformed itself into a center for quality learning but also one of inspiration in its neighbourhood.

The UEE officials had been pressing for an inspection of the project site for long. Finally, we invited the District Nodal staff of UEE Mission, Delhi to pay a visit to us. It was extremely heartening to see that Mrs. Rita Rani (Nodal Officer, South-West A District, Delhi) and Mr. Dinesh Sharma (Nodal Officer, South-West B District, Delhi) were highly satisfied with our work. They not only appreciated the staff, students, hygienic atmosphere within the building and the systems and procedures that had been put into place but they also told us that they would strongly recommend our site as a model to the Mission and direct delegations from other states and other countries.

The much-required students' and teachers' learning and teaching aids were met with on January 23rd. The meeting of these urgent requirements was a resultant of a serendipity phenomenon i.e. due to our two one-to-one meetings with Dr. Sanjeev Kumar (Programme Manager, UEE Mission, Delhi) at the Old Secretariat and Kirtinagar office on January 22nd and 23rd respectively. Though the meeting had been arranged for submission of the report, it ended up as a welcome news to all of us at Ritinjali when we were informed that the UEE Mission intends to give to us Learners and Teachers Kits too. He, at the Old Secretariat, went through our report for him and asked us to submit it to him at the Kirtinagar office while adding that he has some material for the 120 students and teachers. He later informed that these were UNICEF kits and would contain everything that might be required by the learners as well as the teachers-something that we had been thinking for quite some days and had been anxiously awaiting to deliver. Our subsequent visit to the Kirtinagar office paid huge benefits as we were able to procure not only learner's kits for our 120 children and teacher's kits for 3 teachers but also a lot of other material (e.g. several maps, chart papers, black-boards etc). The material was brought in Mr. Kapur's vehicle (which he had immediately made available after an urgent request was made to him) and distributed to the beneficiaries on January 24.

Its time now to look beyond and focus energies on the setting up of the other three Learning Centres that we had promised. Simultaneously, we also have to explore the possibilities to initiate scaling up into other allotted areas. Some spadework has already begun in an adjacent Kshetra, but actual work (starting from a detailed survey) might begin only sometime during the middle of the coming month.

Though there are several text books for the children, its time to provide common textbooks to each child, organize guest lectures, volunteering for survey work in the neighbourhood etc. -and sometime later even life-skills too (to the relatively grown ups). There is also a strong requirement of volunteer work to spread ideas of health and hygiene and organize 'shramdan' activities.