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Vanasthali completed 31 years of activity. All centres organized a week of celebrations, with meetings and writing competitions. As thirty supervisors are going to meet in Pune next week to discuss of their practice in teaching Marathi language with Madhuri’s method. They will take this opportunity to say more about these celebrations.

This is just a brief information of Vanasthali revision camp organized in Pune for 253 women. Those women who had small children at home they did not come.
253  women participated into our winter camp. Balwadi teachers, Trainees, Trainers, Supervisors and Teachers who work through hobby classes in local municipal schools. It was  a mixed group.
From Nov 5th to Nov  9th. Residential arrangement was in our students welfare Association’s Hostel.
Programme :

• Lectures on various needful subjects.
• Demonstrations on warli painting, flower decoration, careful utilization of Gas, water ;
• Electricity, simple experiments in science, simple recipes in the kitchen for nutrition food, etc ;
•  Physical  exercise and games in open air ;
• Revision of songs, storey telling techniques ;
• Presentation of reports from all centers’ were conveyed in group meetings on 6 mobile book and toys, vehicles and on training courses etc.
  

On 9th evening all women went  back home after this enriched experience of being together and learning from each other etc. Friends, these camps bring women an enthusiastic experience which helps them to work with children.

Nirmala Purandare

This month (May 2011), teachers and supervisors are going for a trip. They make their own plans in small group and receive some help from Vanasthali (roupies 200) and from Panpoi book trust (roupies 200). These excursions contribute to their personal enrichment.

On June 9th and 10th will be held the general annual meeting of the supervisors of Vanasthali. They will elaborate the new annual report, the different reports of their trips in the country, and the plans for next year.

Hobby classes are extending in remote destitute places, thanks to the efforts of the supervisors. This is appreciated by the teachers and the children. Budget will have to increase...

Camille Bucher, a French young girl, accompanied Sunanda Nawale at a teacher training camp, a meeting of the supervisors in Pune and a summer camp in Shrirampur.

See the slideshow of Camille Bucher.

For details and figures, see the latest annual report (April 2009/March 2010) : vanast_rep_2009-2010_english.pdf

Vanasthali is expanding its activities in Devagad village, district of Sindhudurg (Konkan). In 2009, two teacher-training courses each lasting 6 months took place there, under the responsibility of Sharmila and Sunanda, followed by a refreshing camp in June. The new supervisor, Shubanji Tali, is very enthusiastic. She was able to speak in front of all the existing teachers to convince them of the usefulness of the hobby classes. The inspector approved, encouraging the staff to welcome the Vanasthali teachers to come for the hobby classes, saying that it was a good thing, but unfortunately this could not be generalised because of the lack of teachers and structures. This district is different from the others, being far from Puné, thus must be managed more independently. There are no balwadi but many hobby classes. The « Paranjpe Trust »will take over the financial responsibility ; and several girls trained by Vanasthali are now employed in schools run by UNICEF.

Vanasthali has had two new trustees since september 2010 : Jaya Gophane and Vrinda Gupte.

Since 2008, there are more mobile libraries : 7 vans are now circulating around Baramati, Somatne, Shirwal, Lonand, Shrirampur, Lasalgaon and Saswad.

Nurse-assistant training courses : Since it started, 5 batches of nurse assistants have benefited from the six-month training course, i.e. about 60 young women, and almost all of them are now employed different hospitals in Pune where their competence is well appreciated. These training courses are organised together with the « Jagruti » centre, managed by Mangala.

Aparna, the supervisor of Baramati, spends a week each month in this remote and isolated tribal place (about an eight- hour drive from Baramati) ; hobby classes, balwadis and training courses are progressing well, with Sheela as a supervisor. Most of the local schools have given a room for the hobby classes, state and municipal teachers participate as well and speak to the parents ; now, the children seem to like being at school. They come from diverse origins, often nomads ; they understand Marathi, but mix it with neighbouring languages. In 2010, there are 41 hobby classes and 34 balwadis, including catering for mentally deficient children. The Vanasthali teachers of Udgir go to Baramati for some meetings. All this is the result of 10 years of hard work. The action in Udgir is specially sustained by the Swiss association, « Panah”.

After Three years of hard work, Madhuri Purandare has just accomplished a beautifully written and illustrated book for the learning of the Marathi language. She demonstrates it to the Vanasthali teachers and supervisors and various other schools.

In October 2010, a group of Entr’Inde met a few Vanasthali collaborators, including those who came to France in 2006 and 2010 on a training and sharing basis (except for Anita, who was bedridden in Lasalgaon with typhoid fever. She is better now). All appreciated this unusual experience ; they came home with more self-confidence and are more capable of speaking in public to expose what they saw and learnt. - On this occasion, Entr’Inde started to draw a portrait of some Vanasthali workers mainly in the Pune office.

In march 2010, two Vanasthali supervisors (Anita Gandhe and Sunanda Nawale) were invited by Entr’Inde (a French association) to spend a full month in Saint Michel sur Orge (France) ; they were fully integrated into a nursery and primary school, working with the French teachers and exchanging their respective knowledge and methods ; the same experience took place in 2006 with 4 others ( Manisha Agashe, Sunanda Aglawe, Aparna Sabale et Kalpana Gunaki) who stayed 7 weeks but only in nursery schools. To know more about it, see the article in French : Stage de 2 superviseuses de Vanasthali

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