Annual
Report
2023

KarmaCorps submits its 2023 annual report: a record of the year's work for the holistic welfare of our Right to Education children, covering quality education, digital learning, supervision, child protection, financial support and events.

The year's largest decision was structural. In May, operations at the Ayanavaram centre were concluded and the Chetpet centre became a community hall. Children now attend tuition close to home — the choice their parents asked for — while KarmaCorps pays the fees, visits the centres and keeps its own hall for IXL practice, documentary screenings, the library, birthdays and parents' meetings.

A second change went with it: monthly support for education, sports and extracurricular activities is now transferred directly into each child's own bank account. Eighty passbooks were opened at the State Bank of India for Chetpet families, with Ayanavaram's process completed in parallel.

The data in this report covers finance, education, technology, health, monitoring and safety, so progress and gaps in each can be tracked.

On 11 May the Ayanavaram centre was wound up. Two computers and the furniture went to Wisdom Learning Centre, a special school run by the Vinayaka Charitable Trust; kitchen utensils to Thozhi, which works with the transgender community; and equipment to a soup kitchen and day care centre for the elderly run by a Christian charitable trust. The rest was moved to Chetpet.

The Chetpet premises became a community hall: a place children come to practise IXL, read in the library, watch documentaries, celebrate birthdays and meet with their parents and our staff.

Tuition itself moved outward. In May and June our team visited centres across Chetpet, Anna Nagar and Ayanavaram and chose one for each group of children. Chetpet children started on 12 June; Ayanavaram children joined Credible in Anna Nagar East in July.

By September parents said plainly that they would rather their children walked to a centre near home. From October KarmaCorps agreed and began paying tuition fees at whichever centre each family chose — 80 children across 30 centres — with staff visiting twice a month to check attendance and speak to teachers.

Children continued to practise on IXL through the year, at the hall and at home. Of 105 accounts, 89 were in use; the highest practice time recorded by one child was 112 hours. Practice was strongest in the first four months, dipped mid-year and recovered a little in September — a pattern the team is working on with the children directly.

IXL's effect shows up in the things that are hard to test: new vocabulary, clearer reasoning, the confidence to keep working without a teacher standing there. Certificates from the platform went to the children who answered the most questions, and the monthly top ten were posted on the board at the hall.

The laptop rental program ran a second year with device usage logged month by month. Over 2023 the highest use recorded was 307 hours, followed by 245; the lowest was 80. Review meetings and home visits by our technical assistant addressed connection problems and encouraged longer use.

At the hall, children read fiction, science and English titles from our own library each weekend — a habit that pays back slowly and for a long time.

Documentary shows. Every Saturday the children watched a documentary at the hall — world events, science, history — chosen to give them accurate knowledge about things nobody had told them yet, and to leave them curious.

Storytelling. The monthly session grew all year, with more children volunteering their own stories. They used stick puppets, pictures, stuffed toys, drawings, paper cuttings and a miniature globe, and taught their listeners new words as they went.

Birthdays. Celebrated at the end of every month for all the children whose birthdays fell in it — decorations, a cake, a gift, and the whole room singing.

Greeting cards. From 2023 the team taught the children to make and send cards to the people who look after them — a small lesson in gratitude that goes beyond good manners.

Nutrition. Through the first four months, while the centres ran, a hot balanced snack was served each evening in a clean, well-lit dining room, with RO water and food tasting recorded by our nutrition aide.

School fees at MCC. On 19 May KarmaCorps paid school fees for six children at MCC — three in class 4 at ₹45,230 each, and three in class 8 at ₹48,450 each — ₹2,81,040 in all.

Bank accounts. From October the team collected forms from the State Bank of India, briefed mothers on the documents needed — Aadhaar copies, photographs, proof of address — and helped them fill everything in at the hall. Eighty passbooks were received in November and handed to the mothers against signed acknowledgements.

Monthly transfers. Support for tuition, sports and educational costs now goes straight into the child's account, with a monthly signature from the parent on the acknowledgement receipt. For Ayanavaram children, tuition fees were paid to the centre by cheque.

Family support. Direct monthly financial assistance of ₹5,000 to one family facing hardship continued through all twelve months — ₹60,000 for the year.

This year KarmaCorps worked to keep quality and holistic education going through a change of model, while adding weight to extracurricular activity and sport.

Children kept practising digital learning, and came to the community hall for documentaries, the library and their birthdays. Parents enrolled them at tuition centres near home, and we paid the fees and checked they were there.

Scholarships reached 98 children. Eighty passbooks were issued at Chetpet and the Ayanavaram accounts completed, so support now arrives in a child's own name. Regular visits to the centres told the children plainly that someone was keeping track — and their attendance improved.

Support to our partner organisations continued, helping them reach their own goals. We thank our founders, our funders, our small staff and the parents who kept up with all of it.