Talk by J. P. Solomon
ILP is hosting an informal talk by JP Solomon, who has founded an extremely successful public school reform program in Bangalore, including community mobilization for increased parent and community involvement in the functioning of such schools.
| Date: | Thursday, September 22, 2005 |
| Time: | 7pm |
| Venue: | "Ashoka" conference room India Community Center, 555 Los Coches St. Milpitas, CA 95035 Directions |
About MAYA
MAYA, a Karnataka-based development organisation, was initiated in 1989 with the primary focus of eradication of child labour, working with communities across slums and low-income areas of Bangalore Urban & Rural districts.. The early years focussed mainly on enrolment of children to formal school and interaction with parents and other community members to facilitate an enabling and supportive environment. Over time however, the organisation realised that while direct relief measures are necessary, a long-term and effective solution is only possible if systemic causes of poverty and child labour are addressed.
MAYA ORGANIC is a programme initiative of MAYA that has evolved from these experiences, seeking to address livelihood issues of the working poor within a systems perspective.
The MAYA ORGANIC team includes full-time staff members at MAYA who are closely engaged in building the institutional capacities of the worker-owned enterprises in the different sectors (presently garments, lac-ware and construction). A centralised team of MAYA ORGANIC Support Services offers marketing and design support to the various sectors.
About J P Solomon
Founder and Director of MAYA, Solomon grew up in India and has an engineering background. He started working in the heavy engineering and electro-chemical processing industries and later worked in Europe for an international youth exchange organization based in Berlin, with assignments in Latin America and Asia. In 1989 Solomon founded an extraordinarily successful public school reform project called MAYA, operating out of Bangalore in Southern India. MAYA is working with the state government of Karnataka to recruit parents and villages to take ownership of public schools. MAYA work is gaining a growing reputation for transforming the culture of public schools, at very high volume and low cost.
