2020

Vanasthali Rural Development Center (VRDC)

Project – Pre-Primary Education

MF Issue Area : Education, Women’s Empowerment

Vanasthali provides access to quality pre-primary education for rural children including extracurricular activities and learning enhancement programs, to engage children in education and reduce the dropout rate from schools. This is done by tapping into the underutilized strength of rural women, training them to become primary school teachers. This innovative approach has a twofold objective: providing education to rural children, and empowering rural women who are otherwise home bound and often restricted to traditional occupations like agriculture. This increases the availability of teachers in rural areas, since trained teachers from urban centers are rarely willing to move to villages. The training of teachers also includes sensitization on many social issues like women’s health, protection from exploitation, provisions of the law, and environmental issues that affect their lives. Vanasthali serves nine districts of rural western Maharashtra, 55 Talukas, and around 180 villages. This program works with around 650 rural women, benefitting around 30,000 children per year.

Swa-Roopwardhinee

Project – Patient Assistant Nursing Program

MF Issue Area : Education, Women’s Empowerment, Poverty Reduction

The Patient Assistant Nursing Program was started with the goal of strengthening women’s self-reliance, financial stability, providing vocational training opportunity and equip them to support their families. Given the opportunity, girls are hardworking and ready to rise up to the challenges and take control of their future. The course is designed to give tools and education, enabling these girls to get jobs at hospitals and in nursing careers to succeed in their lives. Not all girls from rural areas are able to travel to Pune for the duration of 1 year. Many families are reluctant to let girls travel. As a result, Swa-Roopawardhini decided to bring the training program to villages and offer safe housing for girls. In the village of Male they have started a girls’ hostel where girls from nearby Adivasi villages and the Konkan can come and stay and complete the course.

Rural Organization for Social Education (ROSE)

Project – Education for Dyslexic Children

MF Issue Area : Education

ROSE has been working among disabled children in 10 rural villages in Kurinjipadi Taluka of Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu. Through educational activities, ROSE identified 153 students in 10 schools suffering from the learning disorder dyslexia. These dyslexic children are from illiterate parents, dalit communities, destitute families, widows, underserved people, and families headed by single women. Dyslexia is a learning disability that is estimated to affect 10 per cent of school-going children. It causes difficulty with reading and can also impact math, spelling and writing. ROSE proposes to create awareness about dyslexia, prepare appropriate educational materials, assist these students financially by paying their tuition fees and providing uniforms, and provide opportunities for the overall development and building the self confidence of these children.

Rajasthan Bal Kalyan Samiti

Project – Hunar Ghar

MF Issue Area : Education, Health and Poverty Reduction

Educate for Life / Rajasthan Bal Kalyan Samiti has been serving Bakhel Panchayat, an extremely deprived and marginalized rural, Adivasi community in Udaipur, Rajasthan, for ten years. Educate for Life runs an innovative primary school called Hunar Ghar, which also acts as a community hub, providing integrated education, healthcare and other support to the community, from pregnancy to adulthood. Educate for Life involves the local community in the running of the school, adapting curriculum material so that topics are meaningful to the experiences of first generation rural learners, and providing ongoing training, support and mentorship to their teaching staff.

Educate for Life believes that good education and good health go hand in hand. Children at Hunar Ghar School are given two healthy, nutritious meals each day, annual health checks from a pediatrician, vaccinations, weekly iron folate supplements and 6 monthly deworming medication, thus providing holistic services to break the cycle of illiteracy in poor, rural areas.

Resource and Support Centre for Development (RSCD)

Project – Panchayat Kayada Saathi

MF Issue Area : Women’s Empowerment

The Panchayat is one of the oldest institutions of governance in the world. Although India has the distinction of having a very sound and structured system of local self-governance, RSCD’s work in rural Maharashtra has helped identify ‘lack of information’ as a major gap. There exists a disconnect between the elected representatives and the gram sevak/ Panchayat secretary. Information isn’t willingly shared/disseminated among those in power in the villages and the villagers themselves. This gives disproportionate power to those with knowledge of government schemes and services and budgetary information. The lack of technical and legal information has been a glaring but common phenomenon in villages in Maharashtra. The various power centers in a village, act as gatekeepers of information, hindering the democratic and developmental process, often adversely affecting the most vulnerable section of society. The Panchayat Kayada Saathi (Legal Colleague) Programme aims to minimize and eventually eliminate this problem. 100 women will be identified to learn and later lead their villages with regard to the various Panchayat laws, government schemes and regulations being implemented for village development, to ensure accountability, good governance and accessibility.

LeapForWord

Project – English Literate Maharashtra

MF Issue Area : Education

LeapForWord believes that large-scale social change will not happen by enforcing equality, but rather by providing equal opportunity to all. LeapForWord believes that “English is the great leveler” and aims to ensure that students from underserved communities can access any opportunity that they were previously deprived of due to a lack of English skills. LeapForWord has designed an innovative methodology to teach English to students for whom English is not a first language. Working in Nashik, as well as rural areas like Kalwan, Nandurbar, Taloda and Ghodegaon, LeapForWord trains and certifies existing teachers from underserved communities in this unique system to teach English to children who are not exposed to English at home or anywhere in their lives. The current project aims to expand their work to Aurangabad district. The founder, Pranil Naik, has been awarded the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship for his pioneering work in this area.

Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)

Project – Child Labor Prevention And Education/strong>

MF Issue Area : Poverty reduction, Women’s Empowerment

Most individuals processed by the criminal justice system are school dropouts, come from low socio-economic status, have weak family relationships, and/or possess very few marketable livelihood skills. Due to an expanding network of illegal contacts, reduced contact with family and community, and mental and emotional instability, many get pushed towards the margins, with increased vulnerability to crime and exploitation. Women living in custody and their children are in danger of getting further victimized or criminalized, or fall into destitution or mental illness due to lack of stable shelter, social supports and skills towards sustainable livelihoods. Prayas will target women rescued from commercial sexual exploitation in Mumbai and Thane and their children and families, and released women prisoners. This project is aimed at developing their confidence and skills; stabilizing their shelter options; facilitating access to welfare schemes; and improving their social capital through family counseling, networking with the NGO sector, helping them develop employable skills, and establishing strong support systems to ensure that children are not neglected and victimized.

Halo Medical Foundation

Project – Manas Mitra Prakalp

MF Issue Area : Healthcare Provision

Reports indicate 1130 farmers’ suicides during 2015 in Marathwada. Various issues have significantly increased hopelessness amongst the drought affected communities.

Adarsh Mahila Griha Udyog

Project – Life Skills For Adolescents

MF Issue Area : Education

In India, women and girls face the problem of sex abuse in large numbers. Millions of girls are forced to into this work due to poverty and ignorance. Through this project, Adarsh Mahila Griha Udyog creates adulthood sensitization among girls and boys from 9th and 10th school standards giving them input on adolescent age related physical and psychological changes, facing challenges in life and ways and means of overcoming them, reasons of addiction and freedom from the same, value education, sex education and awareness on HIV/AIDS and trafficking. Students from 75 schools of Latur district have participated so far. The project aims to implement this training in 40 more villages.