The usage of water is being carefully monitored and regulated. We are examining various approaches for improving the groundwater situation in the valley. This would necessitate a comprehensive geo-hydrological survey of the valley and implementing methods for harvesting rainwater and recharging underground water bodies.

Village Visits

With the view to making our interaction with our rural neighbourhood more meaningful and sensitising children to the situation of people around us, some programmes of interaction at the 6th and 7th Standard level have been initiated. Sixth- Standard children have at least two opportunities for village visits and interaction with their counterparts in the satellite schools. One of these visits is an overnight stay, with various families hosting our children in the village. Seventh-Standard children go in small groups, by rotation, for village visits, where they assist in environmental or health-related work and teach some younger children. The response to these programmes has been encouraging, and a significant number of children have been touched by their experiences and become more reflective. These programmes are intended to create a base of awareness among students that can be drawn upon as they go to higher classes.

Senior School students continue to be involved with the rural health centre, volunteering their help during their free time. Biology students of Class 12 have completed various projects on the nutritional and health status of the rural poor. Presently they are working on the diseases and morbidity pattern of the REG children. A new programme introduced was a weekly visit to the villages by two students each from Classes 9 and 11 accompanied by Kartik and Ramamurthy. The children interact with the villagers and do a survey on their lifestyle, economic profile and the educational status of the village children. Typically they interact with two families during their visit. This programme is planned for five years so that we are able to do a long-term follow-up of the families involved.

Environment & Alternative Energy

On the alternative energy front we are working towards using solar energy more extensively. We have installed 1,000-mealsper- day solar cooking equipment over the kitchen. The system works well when there is bright sunshine. A similar system (to cook 100 meals a day) is installed in the rural school as well. A few solar parabolic cookers have been procured and given to some of the satellite schools. We hope to have them in all the satellite schools. We are also working on designing parabolic cookers using discar ded CD’s. The efficiencies that we have obtained, after some experimentation, are close to commercially available systems.

The Institute of Bird Studies recently celebrated the 12th anniversary of the declaration of Rishi Valley as a Bird Preserve.

Rural Education Programme

The MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development) grant has not yet been renewed because of some procedural difficulties. The Rural Education Programme has been running without funding since March 2003. We have been applying to various agencies for financial support. The funding required is about Rs 20 lakhs.

We continue to collaborate with various agencies, particularly in the north, in order to implement a similar network of schools and methodologies. A new programme with UNICEF is in the offing. Collaborations with projects in Nepal and Ethiopia are also at the discussion stage.

A residential school (called Bridge School) for school dropouts, started under the Velugu programme of Andhra Pradesh Government, has successfully trained 20 students for entry into mainstream schools. The programme is meant to eradicate child labour. The students were trained for about six months to facilitate their entry into the governmentrun schools at an appropriate level. One of the teachers of the main school (Ms Padmavalli) has been put in charge of the programme.

The State Government has extended the midday meal scheme to our village schools.

Rural Health Care Programme

Dr Nalini Gite ’s Ayurvedic Programme has been functioning well. She has been introducing integrated health care with the aid of herbal preparations to the village communities. She has been invited by several organisations, both governmental and non-governmental, to conduct workshops and to set up herbal gardens. The Union Culture Ministry has been very keen on having her services in establishing herbal gardens near ancient monuments in India.

The total number of patients examined at the Rural Health Centre during the year was 6,539, in spite of the fact that we switched to a three-day working schedule and that no outreach medical programmes were conducted during the year. However, an outreach programme involving students of Classes 9 and 11 was started with a view to increasing their exposure to rural India.

In the two years since collaboration with Sankara Nethralaya started, 200 patients have been sent to Sankara Nethralaya and 187 of these have been operated on for cataracts. Many of them have had vision restored in both eyes. Unfortunately, the programme came to an end in May 2003 due to funding constraints. We have, in July 2003, restarted the programme with the help of an ophthalmologist (an ex-parent of the school) in Madanapalle.

Under the Antenatal Programme, 30 women had registered (by March) and 11 of them successfully delivered children, six at home by trained “dais” and five in hospital. The remainder are being followed up. Under the Tuberculosis Programme, 30 patients are receiving treatment. One of them was a patient with Multi Drug Resistant TB, another was HIV +ve and a third had a rare form of TB of the hip, which was treated with the help of a surgeon from Madanapalle.