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Training programmes were undertaken on 17 th & 18 th of July in both Medak & Kurnool for Read India campaign personnel like divisional coordinators and mandal coordinators. This month also saw the distribution of Sarpanch letters in both the districts in order to gain the support of village heads in activity of mobilization of volunteers, local leaders, SHG members, govt school teachers and youth within the Read India campaign coverage area. Two functions in Emmignoor (Kurnool District) and Siddipet (Medak district) were also conducted that saw the participation of MEOs, local leaders, volunteers, Pratham coordinators etc, in order to pass on the motto of Read India campaign.

In month of August, the mobilization drives continued in both the districts. On 10th August, a meeting was conducted with Medvan which also saw the participation of SSA's Snehbala Project coordinator Mohamed Nabi. All participants of the meeting discussed the plan of efficiently distributing the mandals of both the districts between coordinators for Read India campaign. Both the NGOs, namely Pratham and Medvan also brainstormed on other aspects of the Read India campaign along with discussing all the problems that their personnel were facing at the field level and the ways of providing solutions to field level challenges. In Kurnool District a meeting with Mandal Education Officers was undertaken in which after listening to Read India campaign's motto, the MEOs promised their full support in reaching the goals of the programme. 20 th August to 21 st August saw the visit of a state level team of Pratham in Kurnool district that came with an aim to plan, monitor and encourage the activities within Read India campaign in the district. The month of August ended with the conduction of a Master training course for mandal level and cluster level personnel of Read India campaign on 28 th and 29 th of the month.

District - Kurnool

Date – 20 th and 21 st of August, 2008

Persons involved – Sunita Burra, State Head

Damini Sud, Academic Operation Coordinator, Read India Campaign

Sudha, District Coordinator, Kurnool and Medak

On reaching the Kurnool town, the Pratham team first met Mr Janardhan (Project Coordinator, Snehabala, UNICEF) in order to share the objectives of the Read India campaign with the already existing team of UNICEF in the district. As the Snehbala Project helped in addressing the evils of child labour in the district along with helping children to form forums around different social issues, there was immediately a one-ness in the objectives being followed by Pratham's Read India Campaign in partnership with UNICEF and the Snehbala Project of UNICEF. Mr Janardhan assured the Pratham team about his support for the Read India campaign through help in coordination that would be facilitated by UNICEF's cluster coordinators.

Post this the Pratham team traveled to Emmignoor Mandal where the team visited 3 classes in Kalakuntla Village . Within the village, the team interacted with the community along with testing the children's learning abilities through multiple games. In the village, the Pratham team also met Laxmi (self-help group leader), Anjamma (anganwadi teacher), Jayarami Reddy (Sarpanch of the village) in order to mobilize the community leaders in providing their support to the Read India campaign. The team also met the Read India volunteers in the village namely Narsimhulu, Ramesh, Dayanand who were informed about the timelines of volunteer trainings, material distribution, participation in Gram Sabhas etc in order to keep them aware about the multifarious aspects of the Read India campaign in the coming months.

Pratham team on the next day held a planning meeting with Divisional Coordinator Pullayya along with Mandal Coordinators Vijjanna, Sadanandam, Ramanna, Laxmanna and finalized activities within the project like completion of volunteer mobilization, meeting government officials, finalizing govt. school lists, dates for volunteer trainings, media coverage, participation in gram sabhas etc. The team also did its budgetary planning for volunteer training.

The month of September first saw the activity of mobilization of volunteers getting completed in remaining mandals. In this month teacher learning material was sent to selected divisions from where Mandal Coordinators allotted the TLM to particular mandals under them. Material distribution was undertaken in MRC buildings so that the head masters together with SSA officials could collectively have a responsibility towards Read India campaign. On 23 rd September, TLM releasing functions were conducted in 7 mandals of Kurnool district, the remaining mandals saw the conduction of similar functions on 24 th and 25 th of September. It was planned that volunteers training programmes were to be completed within the month of September but due to delay in receiving budget, the same was postponed to month of October. In Medak district, activity of distributing pamphlets and making arrangements for Gram Sabha meetings to be conducted on 2 nd October were undertaken.