Hutatma Rajguru Project with St. Francis High School

This project will establish a cooperative effort between students of St. Francis High School, Mountain View, CA (SFHS) and Hutatma Rajguru High School, Pune (HRHS) India. San Jose Pune Sister City Committee will act as a liaison to facilitate and manage this project. The project will establish a communication link between respective students and provide financial assistance to economically disadvantaged female students in Pune. Initially this project will be limited to assist 30 students of Hutatma Rajguru High School for the school year 2006-2007.

In October, the City of San Jose bestowed a commendation upon both St. Francis High School and the Sister City committee for the Hutatma Rajguru Project, which was received by Salvador Chavez, Joe Hedges, Shana Patadia, Srav Puranam and Shri Shende.

Present Condition

Some of the HRHS students leave school and work full time to assist financially to their family. This forces them to do menial jobs and precludes them from getting better job opportunities due to incomplete high school education.

Main Project Goal

The main goal of this project is to provide encouragement via financial assistance and student-to-student direct communication for selected HRHS students to stay full time in school to complete their High School diploma. We expect getting such basic education will open doors for better economic opportunities to those students and lead to an improvement in their standard of living. We plan to provide assistance for selected students from eighth thru 12 grades.

Progress Update

  • Project initiated on January 2, 2007 in Pune, India supported by project teams in Pune and San Jose, CA.
  • Thirty-eight grade students were selected after visiting families and evaluating needs.
  • Obtained commitments from students and their family to participate in this program
  • Living assistance for work assignments around the school is being provided each month in the form of groceries for the families of 30 students.
  • Progress of each student monitored by teachers / Pune San Jose Sister City Foundation and reported to San Jose Pune Sister City Organization each month.
  • On going communication established between HRHS and SFHS students via pen pal relationship. Please samples of communications in the next section.

How you can help!

Students of St. Francis High School, City of San Jose, San Jose Pune Sister City and Pune San Jose Sister City Organization support this project. Hutatma Rajguru Students support by working around school after school hours.

For the 2007-2008 school year, we plan to add 30 more students to this project. Total expenditure for the year 2007-2008 is expected to be US $12,000.

We need your assistance and active participation for this project. There are many ways you can help students at Hutatma Rajguru High school.

  • Sponsor a student with a donation of $250 for one year.
  • $120 will buy groceries for eight student families for a month.
  • Sponsor a student workshop for $250.
  • Become a member of San Jose Pune Sister City Organization for $25 membership fee.
  • Be a volunteer for Sister City programs/projects.