The year 2005-06 has been a hectic and fruitful year for us at Chord in that we could not only reach out to more number of poor children of the needy communities but also acquire key infrastructure for our future needs and also expand our donor base far and wide that will strengthen our hands in accomplishing our mission of bringing the smiles back on the faces of the children we serve. Similarly we have very successfully met our targets in terms of the number of children mainstreamed. We have also achieved hundred percent result in the class VII board exam yet again.Infact this year majority of the children secured first and second class marks giving tremendous satisfaction to the teachers and parents.

Our bridge school model was so successful that twice we had to turn down offers from the district administration to branch out to new areas due to our prior commitments. Corporate giants like Ernst&Young,Oracle, 24/7, TATA Telecom and Quallcomm have volunteered their services to our children in several forms on their own on learning about the good work turned out by our projects. Therefore all in all it has been a very fulfilling year that reinforced faith in our vision and mission and a very promising year that makes us to look with hope into the future and it was an year that left pleasant memories in its trail. Here is a brief report on the way things unraveled during the year gone by.

Projects and their performance in core areas

I. Child welfare

1. Project 'Aashirwad' sheltered about 163 underprivileged (children consisting of child laborers, homeless children, destitute and orphans) last year with the aim of mainstreaming them and imparting them basic and technical education to enable them to become self-reliant individuals. These children are admitted on the basis of an admission test designed to assess their academic ability. Accordingly they are grouped. After the admission process the children are divided into two groups. First group is put into Bridge course-I where children of age 7 to 15 are accommodated. Bridge course-I is nothing but the condensed form of classes Ist and 2nd curriculum. The second group is bridge course-II, this is mainly useful for the dropouts and covers 3rd, 4th and 5th class curriculum. These Bridge courses are taught for 6 months and thereafter children are mainstreamed according to their learning ability. 

1. Following is our class wise bridge school strength last year.

2. Project Abhyaas

Project Abhyaas is secondary bridge school for the children who have passed the seventh board exam. The aim of the project is to prepare them for the SSC board exam which is minimum qualification for any lively hood opportunity and to simultaneously impart them vocational training to make self-reliant individuals. We have educated three children in this category. Two of them have appeared for class X board exam and one child appeared for class IX. And four children from the last year batch have attended vocational college (Junior Intermediate). 

3. Project Akshara

This initiative was launched at the Jeedimetla industrial area of Qutbullapur Revenue Mandal.
A bustling semi urban industrial locality surrounded by more than 75 slums revealing the dirty under belly of urban living. This project was launched a couple of years back as a residential rehab center for 100 rescued child laborers. It is a residential school with all in-house facilities like classrooms, dormitory, library, kitchen and dining room for children. Since inception the project has performed exceptionally well and the results are very encouraging

Slum education projects

1. Non-formal education centers for children below the age of 14 have imparted primary education in the Neighborhood slums of Kukatpally and Qutbullapur municipalities of Ranga Reddy district. These slums also serve as peripheral catchments for referring working children to the rehabilitation centers 'Aashirwad' and our new projects. Nearly 78 slums were covered in this category benefiting more than a thousand children.

2. We have imparted basic education to fishermen children at Vemuladeevi at West Godavari District by organizing single teacher non-formal schools.

II. Women's Empowerment

Project Aasha

Mothers' of the children are formed as mother's committees to enlighten and educate them and train them towards meaningful livelihood earners for their families. Four self-help groups have been formed consisting of mothers of the children rehabilitated at our projects. These SHG's helped these women in availing government loans, house pattas, cooking gas connections and ration cards. It also helps them to unite as group and empowers them to exercise their fundamental rights. Nearly about 20 women have been provided with livelihood opportunity in various trades and about 20 poor widows have been supported with monthly help and ration. Five girls have received vocational training in the trades of computers and tailoring. 
This year we intend to start a technical training program for widowed women and unemployed girls to empower them and make them self-reliant.

III. Advocacy of Child Rights

Project Aadarsh

CHORD has a nucleus of experts on child rights issues imparting and sensitizing social action groups, schools, educational institutions, clubs, corporate employees and the like. We have highlighted the issue of child labor by making documentary films in lime quarries in Piduguralla, Guntur District, fishermen children in West Godavari District, tribal children in Krishna District, and on working children in stone crushers surrounding Hyderabad District.

Under this initiative we have reached out to 12 formal schools, 110 business establishments and 1182 apartments and several other civil society organizations with the message against child labor as part of our sensitization program. Three big rallies and four workshops were conducted highlighting the issue of child labor and child rights

IV.New initiatives/projects launched.

Project Aadarsh

In the year 2005-06 we launched two very important projects in the area of child labor rehabilitation. While one project targeted urban migratory child labor the other project focused on the rural children in the Qutbullapur Mandal. The initiatives are explained below

1. Project New Aashirwad
This is yet an other institutional initiative launched in August '2005 meant to rehabilitate and mainstream 100 children from the rural belt in Bachupally village. This is also a residential project with all the in-house facilities for children. Since inception the results have been very promising. 

2. New project yet be named was started in the Malaysian township area in kukatpally with support from the NCLP and cooperation of the employer IJM constructions. This project was started in March 2006 and is just about gaining momentum. 

3. Construction of Residential School Building at Bachupally village:
In a rare and unique gesture SUPER GAS (SHV Energy Pvt Ltd) has very graciously come forward to undertake the construction costs of residential school building for our children at Bachupally Village in the month of August. This is an unprecedented act of generosity that sets an example in the sphere of corporate social responsibility. This school will provide shelter and empower two hundred desperately poor children. On September 28th the foundation stone for the School Building was laid by Sri.Ajay Kumar CEO, Super Gas and the Jyothi(Lamp epitomizing hope) was lighted by Sri.R.R.Raj Vice President SuperGas.This event was widely covered in the print and electronic media in view of its social relevance and importance

4. Street children survey:
With encouragement from the District Administration we have carried out survey to find out the exact number of street children in the municipalities of Kukatpally and Qutbullapur covering 158 slums. This has been a huge task covering the width and breadth of two huge municipalities. The results have thrown some very disturbing facts on street children. This has given our staff tremendous insight into not just the issue of street children but also the attendant social maladies like poverty, sanitation, illetaracy and so on

V.Number of staff and volunteers

Last financial year we had the following number of staff working for us
Teaching staff: 19
Non- teaching: 10
Administrative: 3
Number of volunteers: 25

VI.Staff training and other programs:

• Aashirwad teachers have attended teacher training program from 23rd November to 5th December'2005 conducted by NCLP and DPEP at a Chilkur Telugu Bala Mahila Pragathi Pranganam
• Aashirwad staff have attended NCLP District child labor rehabilitation program Review meet on 7th March 2006 at the collectorate.
• Chord children and staff have taken part in the Badibata program launched by the Government of Andhra Pradesh in the month of June and were instrumental in enrolling hundreds of children into regular schools

VII.Special Eves and Festivals for children

Annual day celebration on 23 rd December '2005
Independendence day on 15th August '2005 
Gandhi Jayanthi on 2nd October '2005
Child rights day on 20th November '2005
Christmas Eve on 25th December '2005
Republic day on 26th January '2005

VIII.Dignitory and VIP visits

Sri.G.Venkatarami Reddy, Vice Chairman, VUDA
Sri, B.Venkat Reddy, Assistant Commissioner of labor
Sri.Srinivasa Reddy, Project officer, ILO
Sri.Kondaiah, Executive Director, NISIET 
Sri.Utkarsh, CEO, Ernst&Young, Hyderbad

IX.Acheivments and Milestones

Number of children mainstreamed to formal schools: 150
Number of children attending class VII exam: 26
Number children attending class X exam: 02
Number children attending class IX exam: 01
Number of women in SHG programs: 40
Number of families' benefited: 350