The International Partnership Network (IPN)

?Partnership Learning Week in South India?

Chennai and Bangalore.

 16 - 22 October 2005

The Aseema Trust and World Education

Under the Auspices of The International Partnership Network

And in collaboration with South Indian Partners from Chennai:

 Amethyst, Prakriti Foundation, Dakshinachitra Heritage Centre, Nalamdana,

M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, SOS Children?s Villages of India ? Chatnath Homes; and Bangalore Partners

  Parikrma, Azim Premji Foundation and Indus -Tree

Partnership Learning Week Theme: Building Bridges between Learning, Earning and Increased Community Participation

The focal point of the partnerships examined during the South India Partnership Learning Week is that of how public sector efforts in education, health, environment, poverty alleviation, and sustainable agriculture are strengthened by close collaboration and wide stakeholder involvement.  Types of partnerships visited and studied during the week include the joint efforts of community trusts, corporate social responsibility efforts, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, community-based organizations, and research institutes.  South India's thriving economy and rapid transition to high technology, while retaining its traditional agrarian base, make it an ideal backdrop for studying how partnerships are being used to enhance and strengthen existing government programs and build new and innovative options to program beneficiaries.

The Aseema Trust and World Education organized the week in collaboration with the IPN and local organizations, with a different local organization being the co-host for each day of the week. Each day had a designated theme, with morning sessions devoted to helping participants develop a better understanding of the theme in the South Indian context. Afternoon sessions provide an opportunity to visit partnership activities in a field setting. Each day included an organized opportunity for reflection on the part of the Indian and foreign participants in the Partnership Learning Week.

Areas of Focus:

• South India's rich cultural heritage, efforts to preserve it, and how partnerships between the arts and local organizations are being used to reinforce important health and education messages.
• Communities engaged in sustainable development: the role of partnerships in building social capital to manage sustainable development activities.
• Partnerships in sustainable agriculture and the environment and make the critical connections between sustainable development, education and health and the role of innovative approaches to learning that are necessary to support development efforts over time.
• Issues related to the presentations on the work of M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Mylapore Times, Citizens? Run Trust, Bharathiya Yuva Shakthi Trust, ( www.bystonline.org )  which was short listed for global best practices award at London IPN conference November 2004)
• Vulnerable populations - children - how they are reached - and the effective bringing together of different stake holders in bringing up a future generation.
• Growing child and efforts to use education and training to offer a wider range of options for children as they prepare to enter the workforce. 
• Strengthening Government Programs through Public-Private Partnerships.
• Entrepreneurship training for empowerment and the growing need for partnerships.
• Efforts to build and sustain skills training and livelihood development with a particular focus on youth and women. 

Events Included:

• tour of Mamallapuram, its unique rock sculptures and a look at the new excavations of an ancient pagoda uncovered by the tsunami.
• visit to the Dakshinachitra Heritage Centre. Visit their web site at (www.dakshinachitra.net ).
• panel discussion with Deborah Thiagarajan of Dakshinachitra, Nitya Balaji of Nalamdana, The Aseema Trust, and the Alliance Francaise.
• site visit to a tsunami-affected village (Nemmeli Kuppam) to see a street play developed and produced by Nalamdana, a local NGO that is leading the effort to provide communities with critical information about HIV/AIDS prevention, care and counseling.  Visit Nalamdana?s web site at ( www.nalamdana.org ).
• the M.S. Swaminathan Research Centre in Chennai. Please visit their web site at ( www.mssrf.org   ).
• efforts to build and sustain skills training and livelihood development with a particular focus on youth and women. 
• site visit  to Karnaprayag  receiving center for abandoned Babies and the balavadi built by the Citizens? Run Trust. Visit Karnaprayag?s web site at www.karnaprayag.org
• traditional Koothu play by the children of the Koothu School run in Kancheepuram by the traditional artists? association.  Visit their web site at www.kattaikkuttu.org .
• the SOS Children?s Village, Chennai; the programme will focus on the  Presentations by the SOS Children?s Village, Indian Council for Child Welfare, Goodbooks, and RishiValley River Project.
• the SEED Partnership, a project working with children of life convicts.
• site visits to slum schools project of Parikrma, an NGO based in Bangalore. Please visit the Parikrma Foundation?s web site at  www.parikrmafoundation.org
• the Azim Premji Foundation site visits. Visit the Azim Premji Foundation?s website at www.azimpremjifoundation.org/  The foundation is the social outreach mechanism for WIPRO, one of India?s premier high tech companies located in Bangalore. 
• presentation on the Premji Foundation's award winning approach to working with government to improve access to and quality of education in both rural and urban areas of Karnataka State.
• visit to Indus-Tree, see website at www.industreeinc.com
• presentations by: Madhuri of Indus ? Tree and Anita Reddy of Dwaraka
• NGO efforts that maximize the use of locally available raw materials in craft production; crafts were on display by the women self help groups.
• panel discussion on partnerships in education and leadership training with Dr. L. C. Jain (former Ambassador to South Africa) and World Education. Dr. L.C. Jain was India?s Ambassador to South Africa at the end of apartheid and is a long time World Education colleague.

For further information, please contact

V.R. Devika  - The Aseema Trust - aseema123@yahoo.com

David Kahler - World Education -  david_kahler@worlded.org

Betsy Nelson - IPN - wsouthport@msn.com

The Assema Trust web site is under development.  Visit the World Education web site at www.worlded.org