NGO: Sewa Bharti Madhya Bharat
IDRF partner since: 1995
- Focus Area: Women’s Empowerment
- Location: Madhya Pradesh
- Project Title: Sagar Girls Hostel & Midli Project
- Details: The literacy rate among tribal females in the region is very low (6-7%). Furthermore, for middle and high schools girls are required to go to towns. Lack of lodging and boarding facilities and economic constraints of parents keep their girls away from continuing their education. In order to tackle this problem, Sewa Bharti is running separate hostels for tribal boys and girls and IDRF has funded the construction of the hostel for tribal girls at Sagar. In the past, IDRF has also supported several of Sewa Bharti’s educational programs, including the construction of a tribal boys’ dormitory, a separate dormitory for disadvantaged girls, an orphanage for abandoned infants, as well as the setup and upkeep of a medical van to provide health care to poor people living in remote rural areas. IDRF has also provided financial assistance for buying computers and providing vocational training to the economically disadvantaged in Midli village in Madhya Pradesh.
Tribal Girls’ Hostel at Sagar
A Room in the Tribal Girls’ Hostel
NGO: Vatsalya Trust
IDRF partner since: 1998
- Focus Area: Women’s Empowerment and Education
- Location: Maharashtra
- Project Title: Patient Assistant Program and Drive with Pride
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Details: IDRF has been funding Vatsalya Trust’s Patient Assistant Program, which began in 2005, in order to create skill development among girls from rural Maharashtra. Under the guidance of qualified nurses and doctors, over 700 economically disadvantaged women have gained quality technical education in the medical field. A unique feature of this program is to focus on the participation of girls from tribal areas. Each batch of students has included around 10-12 tribal participants who receive free lodging, boarding, medical facilities, and tuition. After four months of the theoretical training, the participants are sent to reputed hospitals for a period of six months to get practical training.
Almost all the participants have been able to get employment in various hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes after the completion of the courses. The growing demand of trained patient assistants in the society, especially for looking after of aged parents of working adult children, has encouraged girls from underprivileged sections of the state to attend this program, get employed and become self-reliant. Another skill development and empowerment initiative Drive with Pride that IDRF supports for school dropouts, started in 2016. This project imparts driving training for commercial vehicles to women who are then able to earn a living and support their families by becoming delivery van or rickshaw drivers and chauffeurs. Participants are also provided interpersonal and digital skills to improve their employability.
Patient Assistant Program Trainees
Patient Assistant Program Training Session
Drive with Pride program participants
NGO: Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS)
Partner Since: 2002
- Focus Area: Education, Health and Rehabilitation
- Location: West Bengal
- Project Title: Corpus Fund
- Details: IDRF has made significant contributions to Yogoda Satsanga Society’s corpus fund, which is used for the running of educational institutions, awarding scholarships to deserving but economically disadvantaged students. IDRF grants have also provided financial support to nearly 750 students annually, and have enabled YSS to take advantage of various similar government initiatives.
NGO: Upakar, USA
IDRF partner since: 2003
- Focus Area: Education
- Location: DC-Maryland-Virginia, United States
- Project Title: University Scholarships
- Details: IDRF has been continuously supporting Upakar to provide scholarships to bright, second-generation Indians in USA with acute financial problems. Since its inception, the organization has awarded scholarships to high school students going to college in order to ensure awardees are able to receiving a quality university education. IDRF is one of the top corporate sponsors of Upakar and contributed more than $ 32,000 to be awarded as scholarships.
NGO: Swami Keshwanand Smriti Charitable Trust
IDRF partner since: 2003
- Focus Area: Education
- Location: Rajasthan
- Project Title: Scholarships, Construction of Trust Office building
- Details: IDRF collaborated with Swami Keshwanand Smriti Charitable Trust to provide financial assistance to students in medical, engineering, and technical colleges, as well as colleges focused on teacher training, and other such rural institutions. Over 200 male and female students benefitted from these grants. In addition to providing scholarships to deserving students, the organization also conducted drug rehabilitation and vocational training programs. Until recently, the Trust office was functioning in a small dilapidated, 80 year old building. It was very necessary to construct a new and safe building. With the support of IDRF, and its long time donor, grants were sent in 2015 and 2016 for construction of the office building. The new and safer building is ready now and the Trust office has shifted in there.
NGO: Swa-Roopwardhinee
IDRF partner since: 1997
- Focus Area: Education
- Location: Pune, Maharashtra
- Project Title: Mobile Science Laboratory Expansion (completed), Scholarship fund for brilliant but needy children, and Integrated Development Centers and Patient-Assistant Courses
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Details: In 1996, Swa-Roopwardhinee initiated a Mobile Laboratory Program to provide educational programs focused on science – a subject that was found to be in great deficit in many of the current local educational institutions. As a result of this program, both students and teachers are seeing much greater use for the integration of the sciences in education.
IDRF and Swa-Roopwardhinee have been working together for two decades on Mobile Science Laboratory. Their goal has been to empower slum/rural children and youth through education and vocational training including coaching for various competitive exams. Till date, the Mobile Laboratory and All Round Rural Development project, has helped 12,000 students to complete High School education and teachers have received practical training.
IDRF and Swa-Roopwardhini also aim towards identifying and developing future leaders among school-going children from different strata of the society. IDRF supports Swa-Roopwardhini in running 16 Integrated Child Development Centers in various parts of Pune, wherein more than 800 selected students are benefitting. These centers are mostly situated near areas where mostly deprived sections of the society live. 200+ college-going youth volunteers, who themselves are from these deprived communities, help administer these centers. These after-school evening centers run throughout the year and provide study tours, residential camps, leadership training and coaching for competitive exams by professional experts and retired teachers.
IDRF is also supporting the Patient Assistant Courses for strengthening girls’ self-reliance and financial stability in the rural areas of Pune. Many girls from underprivileged communities are not encouraged to pursue education and forced to drop off during high school. Several are married off at a young age, leaving them financially dependent and vulnerable to dowry demands and harassment by alcoholic family members. Swa-Roopwardhinee has been successfully running this Patient-Assistant course for 23 years (recognized by Tilak Maharashtra University, Pune). More than 1,164 economically and socially disadvantaged girls have gained quality technical education and gotten jobs at hospitals and nursing homes. These girls are now earning decent livelihood and able to provide a life of dignity for themselves and their families.
Unique Housing Solution: Many parents are reluctant to let their daughters travel alone or stay in urban areas to attend training programs. A unique feature of this project is that, the training program is being brought to villages to offer safe housing for participants. Girls from tribal areas, remote interior villages around the backwater and hilly areas can also attend this program as a result.
Patient-Assistant Nursing program participants
Please click on the link to know more about Swa-Roopwardhini’s programs.
