NGO: Shiksha Bharati

by Ngo'sWomen’s Empowerment

NGO: Shiksha Bharati

Shiksha Bharati is an educational institution that is devoted to the cause of the empowerment of girls. The education complex comprises a senior secondary school for girls, an IDRF hostel for tribal girls, a B. Ed college, herbal garden, and gaushala (animal shelter) on a 20-acre campus, some 65 kilometers east of New Delhi. IDRF provides free value-based education, board, and lodging to underprivileged tribal girls from northeast India. The IDRF-supported hostel can accommodate 100 students and is attached to the C.B.S.E. accredited senior secondary school.

IDRF partner since: 2001

  • Focus Area: Education, Women Empowerment and Eco-friendly Development
  • Location:  Hapur, Uttar Pradesh
  • Project Title:  Biogas plant at IDRF Tribal Girls’ Hostel
  • Details: IDRF got in touch with Dr. Emmanuel D’Silva (a World Bank retiree) and his business partner Narendra Jindal who have set up more than 70 biogas units across India on a pro bono basis. IDRF helped Shiksha Bharati to set up two, new biogas units: a-20 cubic meter digester close to the gaushala run on cow dung and an-8 cubic meter unit run on human waste from the girls’ toilets. The biogas generated from the units meets most of the kitchen fuel needs of the girls’ hostel.

    The Shiksha Bharati management is happy with the new biogas unit that employs the latest technology. Unlike traditional dome-shaped cow-dung biogas plants made of bricks and cement, this one is made of synthetic material that looks like a balloon and rolls on the ground. The technology is sourced from Mexico but fabricated in India. The new unit saves about four cylinders of LPG gas per month in winters and five cylinders in summers.

    The biogas unit has already generated considerable interest locally. The state’s Minister for Panchayats came on a visit to see the biogas plant and showed his appreciation for IDRF’s eco- friendly vision. The project might inspire other semi-rural schools that have student hostels, gardens or cattle sheds to have biogas units too. IDRF is looking ahead to support the spread of this technology to education/health institutions in other states of India as well.

The two-unit biogas plant installed at IDRF-tribal girls’ hostel

The biogas plant meets the fuel needs in the kitchen at the girls’ hostel

Clean energy from the biogas plant replaces 57 (approx.) LPG cylinders per year at the hostel

Please click on the link to learn more about Shiksha Bharati https://www.shikshabharati.com/

NGO: Lila Poonawalla Foundation

by Ngo'sWomen’s Empowerment

NGO: Lila Poonawalla Foundation

Padmashree Mrs. Lila Poonawalla along with her husband Mr. Firoz Poonawalla established the Lila Poonawalla Foundation (LPF) in 1995. This educational trust was set up with a vision to contribute to the empowerment of Indian women through education. LPF supports academically outstanding and financially deserving girls through scholarships to pursue higher education. LPF places great importance on nurturing women’s abilities through a comprehensive education, including personal development workshops, activities, gatherings, study tours, and other such enrichment programs. Since its inception, over 12,220 scholarships have been granted to 5,848 deserving girls. The foundation gives Scholarships to the girls from Pune, Amaravati and Wardha districts in Maharashtra.

IDRF partner since: 2009

  • Focus Area: Women’s Empowerment and Education
  • Location: Maharashtra and Telangana
  • Project Title: Merit-cum-need based scholarships and skill-building
  • Details:  LPF awards scholarships to academically meritorious girls from the economically weaker background:

    1) School scholarships (7th grade up to graduation)
    2) Undergraduate scholarships and skill building project (engineering, engineering after diploma, pharmacy, nursing, and science courses)
    3) Postgraduate scholarships and skill building project

    The focus of LPF scholarships lies in the overall development and transformation of the scholarship recipients. Besides the financial assistance provided for completing their professional education, LPF focuses on ‘Beyond Scholarship’ by investing in the Skill Building & Development interventions to transform its girls into confident employable professionals for the industry at large. This also makes them balanced, empathetic and responsible human being. LPF provides them support in locating internship and placement opportunities, especially to those girls who may not get campus placement opportunities. LPF School Project is also supported with need based infrastructure and counseling of girls and their parents.

    Many LILA Girls/LILA Fellows are working as Leaders in organizations such as Google, TCS, IBM, and Walmart in the USA. In India, thousands of LILA Girls and LILA Fellows are excelling in their career with Corporate MNCs, Hospitals, Academia Institutes, Research Organizations, Consulting and Civil Services.

    LPF encourages the culture of give back within the LILA Girls/LILA Fellows through donations to help other girls get an education and blossom into confident young ladies through mentoring. There have been frequent visits by IDRF’s Board Member -Dileep Thatte and his wife Naina Thatte to LPF to interact and encourage LILA Girls/Fellows.

Skill building and training program for LILA Fellows.

Lila Girls from Wardha in a training class

Please click on https://www.lilapoonawallafoundation.com/  to know more about how Lila Poonawalla Foundation champions the significant cause of promoting girl’s education and women empowerment

NGO: Economic Rural Development Society (ERDS)

by Ngo'sWomen’s Empowerment

NGO: Economic Rural Development Society (ERDS)

Economic Rural Development Society (ERDS) is an organization that was established in 1982 in West Bengal. ERDS owes its existence to the dedication and hard work of Mr. Madhu Basu, who wanted to combat the growing poverty in villages and urban areas. It is a non-profit, secular and non-political organization dedicated to the mitigation of misery and poverty, and upliftment of the impoverished.

The primary objective of the organization is to engage in sustainable development techniques to empower the local rural communities, especially women and children. In the initial years it concentrated on non-formal adult education. Gradually ERDS has diversified its activities in other fields such as women and child development, children’s education, health & nutrition, low cost sanitation, care & rehabilitation of the elderly and disaster relief & rehabilitation.

IDRF partner since: 2005

  • Focus Area: Women Empowerment, Education, Health and Disaster Management.
  • Location: West Bengal
  • Project Title: Micro-Credit for Women Supported Small Business Activities
  • Details:  After years of providing community services, ERDS conducted an assessment of living standard improvements among its supported populations, and found the surprising news that there had been hardly any long-term improvements. ERDS discovered that their donations to supported communities had actually led to dependence rather than self-reliance. In a concerted effort to redirect this trend, ERDS turned to micro-credit with the financial support from IDRF.

    Pushing against cultural obstacles that make it difficult for rural women to work outside of the household, ERDS went ahead with mobilizing women into small groups, inviting them to gatherings where they were encouraged to speak up, and where their apprehensions were addressed. Since 2010, with the support of IDRF, ERDS’s micro-credit program has been educating women on how to effectively use their money, while also providing them with credit for small business ventures. This program has encouraged the development of women-owned small businesses, and also inculcated a practice of saving money.

    These training programs have been very successful, and over the years, the loan sizes have increased from INR 5,000 to 20,000, and it boasts of 99% repayment rates. As IDRF funding is in grant form, the repaid loans are used as revolving credit to make new loans. ERDS strictly monitors the activities on which the borrowed money is spent by regular visits to the family residences, and, thus, preventing the misuse of loans. The families are given advice on how to use the money for maximum gains, and businesses have steadily grown as a result. The program is co-financed by multiple sources, to best ensure its long-term sustainability. Due to the monitoring, training and 99% of repayment rates, over the years IDRF funds have become three-fold and have changed the lives of 2,000 families in 133 villages.

    IDRF’s funds are directed entirely toward the provision of these loans limited solely to rural areas and villages. ERDS is able to provide women with loans that was previously impossible to obtain due to the high cost of capital. Hundreds of women have received the technical skills, confidence, and financial expertise to operate extremely successful small businesses. Many of these women are now primary breadwinners in their households and leading more dignified lives. The general economic benefits seen by families has led these women to take good care of their children’s health and education.

Shyamali Rani purchased Ice-Cream Carts with Loan Funded by IDRF

Chayarani Mondol’s Success Story:

Chayarani Mondol belonged to a poverty stricken background and used to sell vegetables in the local market to meet both ends. Despite her hard efforts, the volatility in the prices of vegetables and increased competition in the market, made it very difficult for her family to survive on her meager income. Her children had to drop out of the school and could not continue their education.

In 2009, she took the initiative and set up a small stationery shop with the seed capital support of INR 5,000 from ERDS. Chayarani made substantial efforts to increase the sales of her stationery shop and gradually the popularity of the shop increased. She gave up selling vegetables and started working full-time in her shop.  She has been very regular in repaying the loan installments and with the financial support from IDRF, she has been extended a credit of INR 30,000. With this extended credit, she has been able to add daily use products and a photocopier machine in her shop.

As a result of her hard work and support from IDRF, her family income has nearly trippled and their average monthly income is now INR 10,000. With this increase in her income she is now able to fund higher education for her daughter.

Chayarani Mondol’s shop setup with the loan funded by IDRF

Madhumati Saha’s success story:

Prior to joining IDRF and ERDS’ micro-credit program in 2010, Madhumati Saha’s garment workshop was making a loss in spite of her hard work.  Through ERDS, she obtained a loan of INR 10,000 to buy an embroidery machine and raw materials.  This initial investment paid off, and with the help of other loans through ERDS, she was able to expand the business to include hosiery products and children’s clothing.    After successful repayment of her loans, she was able to borrow larger amounts that allowed her to rent a place to house the business and hire employees. She is now a thriving wholesale supplier of clothing products to various retail outlets in Kolkata. Her family income has improved significantly to INR 25,000 ‐30,000 per month.

“We are now capable enough to fulfill the basic needs of the family like education, nutrition, and health.
We consider ourselves blessed to be members of this micro-credit program”, says Madhumati Saha, beaming with pride.

Madhumati Saha runs a successful tailoring business with the loan funded by IDRF

Please click on the following link to find more information about Economic Rural Development Society (ERDS)

http://erds.in/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ZT5fzLlOI&t=2s

https://youtu.be/Aj3mRWZ4Bpk

NGO: Vatsalya Trust Mumbai

by EducationNgo's

NGO: Vatsalya Trust Mumbai

Vatsalya Trust Mumbai is a non-profit organization that was established in 1983 with the primary objective of caring for and rehabilitating destitute children through its orphanage as well as other social programs. The name ‘Vatsalya’, a Sanskrit word meaning affection, was considered appropriate for naming the Trust, as it works for the welfare of children and provides various facilities for their social and economic upliftment. Over the years, the Trust’s focus areas have extended beyond just the caring of destitute children, to include women’s empowerment and education efforts.

IDRF partner since: 1998

  • Focus Area: Education and Women’s Empowerment
  • Location: Navi-Mumbai, Maharashtra
  • Project Title: Balikashram: Sanpada Project
  • Details:  The Balikashram- Sanpada Project was started in June 1999 in Navi-Mumbai at Sanpada. IDRF has been partners since 2008 and sending grants to support this project. In this three-storied building about 54 destitute girls in the age-group of 4 to 16 years are provided shelter, nourishment, medical care and educational and developmental facilities. These girls from economically weaker sections of the society are getting education as well as personality development classes so that when they go back to their families, they feel more confident and self-reliant. During the academic year, several events and competitions are held and the girls are encouraged to participate in order to ensure their all-round personality development.
    Organization also conducts various vocational courses such as: tailoring, fashion designing, beautician, and henna application, etc. for girls at the Balikashram as well as other women from economically weaker section of the society.

Please click on the following link to learn more about Vatsalya Trust’s programs for destitute children and women.
http://www.vatsalyatrustmumbai.org/balika.html

NGO: Surabi Charitable Trust

by EducationNgo's

NGO: Surabi Charitable Trust

Surabi Trust is a non-governmental and philanthropic organization that was founded in 2008, by a group of socially committed youth in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.  The Trust is established with the ultimate aim to serve deprived children by providing them quality education, better medical and nutrition support and empower women to be self-reliant.

IDRF partner since: 2015

  • Focus Area:  Education and Health
  • Location: Tamil Nadu
  • Project Title: Brindavan-Residential Care for Homeless Boys
  • Details:  Surabi runs a free stay home Brindavan for abandoned children in a friendly and caring environment which makes them feel at home. IDRF has been supporting Surabi’s program of providing a home for homeless children who are vulnerable to exploitation by criminals and anti-social activities.
    The objective of this program is to provide good education to these destitute children by providing them a friendly learning environment and to equip them with moral values and help them grow into good citizens. Surabi provides free food, shelter, clothing, shoes, haircutting, education, sporting activities, and training in Taekwondo, music and arts for the children residing here. Apart from academics and sports, Surabi also arranges recreation programs and annual trips for the children to enjoy.

Homeless children residing at Brindavan

Homeless children residing at Brindavan are trained in Taekwondo and participate in championships

Please click on the link below to know more about the various programs carried out by Surabi Trust.

http://www.surabitrust.org/

NGO: Santosh Kumar Kamlesh Singhal Saraswati Vidya Mandir (SKKS)

by EducationNgo's

NGO: Kusum Goel Dr. Santosh Saraswati Vidya Mandir

A team of dedicated professionals has developed a National System of Education which helps in building a generation of young men and women infused with patriotism, physical, mental, and spiritual development and capable of successfully facing challenges of life. These youth will contribute towards building a harmonious, prosperous, and culturally rich Nation.

IDRF partner since: 2018

  • Focus Area: Education
  • Location: Uttar Pradesh
  • Project Title: Funding request for a school for rural children (especially girls)
  • Details:  In 2018, a team of professionals started a school at a village Kanauja in Ghaziabad, about 25 km north of New Delhi. This new school spans over four floors and 16 classrooms. A team of 25 members works at the school and about 500 children are enrolled from nearby rural areas. The school is not-for-profit and provides quality and affordable education to children from economically weaker families and who are likely to drop out of school for lack of finances or facilities.
    The school is funded by donations from individuals and does not get any financial assistance from the government. The school is governed by Vidhya Bharati Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Sansthan. To achieve the goal of providing quality education to rural children, the school needs to create more facilities such as smart classrooms, improved computer lab, activity rooms, security, and CCTV system, and a sports complex. Donations are being sought to provide facilities at the school as well as to meet the annual educational and other essential expenses of the students.
    Besides academics, the students are also engaged in vocational training, field trips, cleanliness drives, environmental camps, and evening coaching classes to help with the homework, etc. To encourage the children to attend school, they are also given toys, books, and other school supplies. Dedicated school teachers regularly visit the children at home to meet up with their parents and get them to be involved in their child’s education.
    At present, the school has limited facilities and has initiated Phase-II of their building construction. A block of four floors with a covered area of 1,400 sq. meters will be added for which there is a dire need of funds.

Please contact admin@idrf.org for more details.

SKKS Saraswati Vidya Mandir School in village Kanauja, Uttar Pradesh

Annual Sports Day 2019

Summer Camp

Eye exam for the students

Student activities at the school

NGO: HOPE

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NGO: HOPE

Background: HOPE is a social service organization working in Odisha to empower local communities by providing a variety of services including supporting women’s microcredit and training programs, adult education, community/local advocacy, and disaster relief programs.

IDRF partner since: 2005

  • Focus Area: Disaster Rehab/Misc
  • Location: Ganjam District, Odisha
  • Project Title: Emergency Health Intervention
  • Details:  In the aftermath of the devastating Phailin Cyclone, HOPE has set up a mobile health unit to provide medical services – Doctors, pharmacists, nurses & medical supplies – to victims of the cyclone and floods. The project also supported ten health camps in the most affected villages.

NGO: Transparency International India

by Governance and InnovationNgo's

NGO: Transparency International India

Transparency International India (TII) is a non-political and non-governmental -anti-corruption organization of India. This pan-India organization has extensive expertise in understanding of corruption issues experienced by common man in the country. The organization’s main aim is to reduce corruption, bribery and abuse of power, and, promote good governance and rule of law. TII works in the interest of the country with Union and State governments, civil organizations, media, academia and common people. They raise awareness about corruption and give voice to the victims and witnesses of corruption.

IDRF partner since: 2004

  • Focus Area:  Good Governance
  • Location: Bihar, Jharkhand
  • Project Title: Pahal: ‘Shasan Sudhar Ki Ore’ (Moving Towards Good Governance)
  • Details:  Transparency International India (TII) started Project Pahal in Bihar with the financial support of IDRF. This project promotes grassroots intervention for improving governance in rural areas of the state. Pahal team is working closely with the partner-NGO and activist in four districts of Bihar namely: Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Madhubani, and Supaul in 54 revenue villages.

There are two main cause of widespread corruption in the country: first, is the lack of awareness among citizen about their rights and entitlements, and, second is the lack of courage to fight back against corruption and injustice. Project Pahal is addressing both these causes of corruption and is making efforts to reach out to both: the victims and socially disadvantaged communities that are vulnerable to corruption. It acts as a platform for voicing the concerns of citizens and finding solutions for grievances through amicable measures.

TII uses various methods for creating awareness and spreading the helpline number as part of their outreach efforts. Stickers and posters have been placed at public places like: schools, banks and courts, etc. Leaflets with information on Pahal and its functions were distributed. Calendars for the year 2014 were designed and printed with Helpline Number and IDRF logo were also distributed among various people. The outreach material was designed in both Hindi and English languages.

As a result of their 2008 study, TII has taken local action by organizing trainings, community meetings, and engagement workshops on RTS (Right to Service), RTI (Right to Information), and Social Audits. The Pahal program in Bihar, sponsored by IDRF, has benefitted more than 3,500 men and women who are refusing to pay bribes.

The recent one-year project (2017– 2018) ‘Pahal’ for promoting Good Governance and Fighting Corruption through Multi-level Intervention is aimed at raising awareness of the poor, marginalized and illiterate people about their legal rights and entitlements in four districts in each of the states. The project also disseminates knowledge about tools of good governance like Right to Information (RTI), Social Audit, regular Gram Sabhas, Citizen Charter and e-governance, etc. to common people especially focusing on Below Poverty Line families (BPL), tribal women and youth.

Further, this project is also promoting positive interaction, participation and partnership between citizens and government officials to improve service delivery and good governance. The citizens are being provided an effective support system by way of a grievances redressal mechanism for combating corruption in their everyday lives and free legal/administrative advice for reporting mal-governance.

A baseline survey has been conducted as a starting point for monitoring changes in attributes over the duration of the project. Training workshops are being held for youth volunteers to train them about various citizen rights, entitlements, welfare schemes and tools of good governance. The project team and volunteers visit the intervention areas to understand issues emerging at grassroots’ level.

Thus this project is serving two-fold purpose of creating awareness about rights and entitlements of rural citizens and also providing support with helpline in case the rights are infringed. The program has already started benefitting thousands of rural poor who are not only refusing to pay bribes but also ensuring that corrupt government officials are held accountable for their crimes!

 

RTI Training Program

Youth Training Program

Outreach literature distributed by Transparency International India

Please click on the link to learn more about Transparency International India’s various programs and activities.
http://www.transparencyindia.org/

NGO: Janaagraha Center for Citizenship & Democracy

by Governance and InnovationNgo's

NGO: Janaagraha Center for Citizenship & Democracy

Janaagraha was co-founded by Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan in 2001, who returned back to India from the United States with a dream to improve urban living. This organization focuses on pan-India campaigns encouraging Indians to implement social changes in their local urban communities by enabling citizen participation in public governance. Janaagraha’s web-based and physical campaigns target youths and everyday people to make necessary changes, rather than accept many institutional realities, like corruption. Today, Janaagraha has grown into one of the leading institutions for systematic urban change in India.

IDRF partner since: 2012

  • Focus Area: Good Governance
  • Location: Urban India
  • Project Title: I Paid A Bribe, I Change My City, Bala Janaagraha, imatter and Community Policing
  • Details:  Janaagraha works to improve quality of life in India’s cities and towns through urban good governance and citizen empowerment. The have been striving to find permanent, scalable solutions to urban challenges through a structured roadmap of action, that they call their “City-System Framework”. IDRF started their association with Janaagraha by launching two campaigns: I Paid A Bribe and I Change My City

I Paid A Bribe: became a very popular pan-India campaign that encouraged Indians to engage in a dialogue regarding their everyday and institutional experiences with corruption in India. Janaagraha’s I Paid A Bribe campaign is largely web-based and focuses on educating the public on ways to move beyond corruption as a form of interaction, commerce, etc. This campaign became so popular that, NGOs and government agencies from at least 17 countries had contacted Janaagraha to ask about obtaining the source code and setting up a site of their own.

I Change My City: is another web-based governance campaign that gives locals an opportunity to file grievances regarding institutional failures that have impacted their daily lives. This campaign provides advocacy and training resources to empower several local communities and has led to greater governmental transparency on both the local and national levels.

IDRF is continuing its mission of good-governance with Janaagraha to improve quality of life in urban centers through citizen empowerment. The success of this mission requires a multilevel approach that brings together school children, corporate employees and heads of urban local bodies by launching the following campaigns under civil learning and civil participation:

Bala Janaagraha: is a civic learning program that aims to transform today’s children into informed, responsible and active citizens that focus on addressing local civic issues. The program covered over 40,000 eighth grade students across 527 schools in 25 cities of India.

Imatter: is an innovative civic learning intervention for corporate employees. It intends to increase citizen participation in local governance through civic awareness. This program has reached 114 employees from 9 corporates and has received widespread support and recognition.

Community policing: a civil participation campaign, was launched in 2013 by the Bengaluru City Police in partnership with Janaagraha to enhance neighborhood safety and security perceptions through police-public partnership. This program has reached 236,882 citizens through various platforms of citizen interfacing with the police, like awareness programs and activity campaigns.

Janagraaha has been approached by NITI Aayog,* the think tank of the Government of India to seek their help and support in drafting the ‘15 year Urban Vision Document’, that will be accompanied by a ‘7 year Strategy’ and a ‘3 year Action Plan’.  I Change My City – the world’s largest online hyper local civic change platform was approached by the Swachh Bharat Mission, Ministry of Urban Development to launch “Swachhata Solutions” a 4th Generation Complaint Redressal mobile platform, to fulfil the key Swacch Bharat Mission objectives of a Clean India. The MOU with the Mission mandated Janaagraha to develop, host and maintain Swachhata Apps in 4,041Cities and Towns across India.   Swachhata App was launched in August, 2016 and in a span of 10 months able to have on board 1,405 cities, with one million plus registered users, and, more than 6 million complaints.

Student Participants of Bala Janaagraha

Co-founder Swati Ramanathan at the Community Policing Campaign Launch

Swachhata App

New Swachhata App Helped a Citizen Get Rid of a Garbage Dump in His Area in Just a Few Hours

*NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India) Government of India. http://niti.gov.in/

Please click on the links to learn more about Janaagraha’s various campaigns launched in pan-India.

http://www.janaagraha.org/about-us/, http://www.ipaidabribe.com/#gsc.tab=0, www.ichangemycity.com ,
http://swachh.city/

NGO: World Teacher Trust (WTT)

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NGO: World Teacher Trust (WTT)

The World Teacher Trust (WTT), is an organization inspired by the life and teachings of Dr. Ekkirala Krishnamacharya and founded in 1971. WTT collaborates with social and cultural organization to promote education, alleviate human suffering, and improve the general welfare of the disadvantaged. It also promotes ancient Indian culture and upholds traditional values relating to human society. The groups associated with WTT comprise members from all walks of life and are spread all over the planet. The various groups function with the main idea of goodwill in the different fields of life.

IDRF partner since: 2010

  • Focus Area: Health
  • Location: Andhra Pradesh
  • Project Title: Free Homoeopathic Dispensariesof Science Laboratories and Classrooms
  • Details:  The WTT has taken up free homoeopathic and medical services as a means for healing the sick. The main homeopathic dispensary of the WTT is in Vishakhapatnam and it offers free services to nearly 10,000 patients per month and more than 100,000 patients are served free of cost per year. IDRF has partnered with the WTT to provide homeopathic medicine and medical care to the rural poor of Andhra Pradesh. It has also supported WTT by sending funds to provide food and clothes for the poor and needy people. Additionally, conferences and trainings are being held across the state to promote homeopathy and social work. All doctors and medical assistants working at the clinics are volunteers.

Free medical care provided to poor and needy people

Homoeopathic Dispensary in Vishakhapatnam

Please click on the link to learn more about the Homoeopathic and Medical services provided in India by World Teacher Trust.
http://www.worldteachertrust.org/en/web/service/healing/homoeo_services_in_india