OUR EVENTS:

Children are the future of a nation. For an emerging country like India, development of underprivileged children holds the key to the progress of the nation itself, and their education is the cornerstone of this progress. But education for children cannot be achieved without ensuring the welfare of the family – a child can go to school regularly only when the family, particularly the mother is healthy and empowered; the family has decent livelihood opportunities and a steady income.

Realizing this, Vishwabharathi, beginning in the corridors of education, has adopted a lifecycle approach with intensive programmes focused on family health, livelihood and community engagement through women empowerment, which addresses the needs of less privileged children, their families and the larger community.

EDUCATION SUPPORT EVENT:

Mission Education provides basic education and healthcare to underprivileged children, with the belief that education is both the means as well as the end to a better life because it empowers an individual to earn his/her livelihood while also increasing one's awareness on a range of issues; in the process helping him/her evolve as a better citizen.

HEALTHCARE EVENT

VISHWABHARATHI runs health camps Events which provides curative and preventive healthcare services at the doorsteps of the underserved in remote rural villages and urban slums, besides inculcating a health-seeking behaviour in them.

WOMAN EMPOWERMENT EVENT:

Aralau is a programme focusing on girl children and women empowerment. The USP of Aralau is its innovative and highly effective approach named the ‘4-S Model’ which means Seeking Healthcare as a Behavior, Support through Education, Support from Men through Male Involvement, and Sustaining Change in the Community.

SPECIAL SUPPORT EVENT:

Vishwabharathi constantly strives to support and empower individuals, particularly underprivileged children enabling them to meet basic ambitions of their life and realize their potential, make informed choices, resist oppression, fight for rightful existence and facilitate new possibilities and opportunities for them.

MISSION EDUCATION:

Mission Education is a national level programme of Vishwabharathi, which is committed to providing basic education and healthcare to underprivileged children. Vishwabharathi believes that whether you are addressing healthcare, poverty, population control, unemployment or human rights, there's no better place to start than in the corridors of education.

Education is both the means as well as the end to a better life; means, because it empowers an individual to earn his/her livelihood and the end because it increases one's awareness on a range of issues – from healthcare to appropriate social behavior to understanding one's rights, and in the process evolve as a better citizen.

VISHWABHARATHI:

Educational initiatives include Pre-school [3-6 yrs], Non Formal Education [6-14 yrs non-school going], Remedial Education [6-14 yrs school going] and Bridge Course [14-18 yrs drop-outs]. It works for education for underprivileged children who are under difficult circumstances, such as child labor, children of poorest of the parents, children inflicted and affected with HIV/AIDS, street and runaway children, children with rare disabilities, disaster struck children and slum children. Special emphasis is given on girl education and women education, so that they and their families get empowered. Since its inception in 2014, more than 85 underprivileged children have directly benefitted from the Mission Education programme.

Healthcare:

“He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything” – Arabic proverb

India has made rapid strides in the health sector since independence. However, various eye opening data from NFHS clearly indicate that access to healthcare still remains a challenge.

While the health statistics of rural India continue to be poor, the health status and access to health for the poor in urban slum dwellers has surfaced to be equally deplorable and have less than 4% of government primary healthcare facilities.

Urban slum dwellers suffer from adverse health conditions owing to mainly two reasons –first the lack of education and thus lack of awareness; and second the unwillingness to lose a day’s wage in order to reach the nearest medical facility Healthcare for underprivileged, which is a desperate need, thus remain unaddressed.

The need of the hour is thus a two pronged approach – first to bring quality healthcare services to doorsteps of the needy and second to promote healthcare awareness and contemporary healthcare seeking behavior among the underprivileged. In such a scenario free healthcare services delivery system is the most practical mechanism. And in subscription to this view, Smile Foundation has initiated the Free health camps programme. This is a unique health camp hospital programme that seeks to address problems of mobility, accessibility and availability of

primary healthcare with a special focus on children and women, in urban slums and remote rural areas. The Free health camp has so far provided free healthcare services to more than 115 children and families

ARALU

The youth comprises over one-third of the Indian population which in turn constitutes a major part of the labor force of the country. The number of underprivileged youth in India who lacks education and proper guidance is so huge that according to the reports of the Financial Express only 15% of the young graduates passing out of colleges are employable; the rest are branded unemployable.

It is not their lack of theoretical knowledge that causes this. Instead, it is the lack of right skills and attitude. There is thus, an increasing concern among the leading employers of the country, about the dearth of ready-to-deliver employees. In addition, the macro perspective affirms that, it is crucial for the energy of the underprivileged youth to be channelized properly with proper direction to aid economic growth and nation building to elude their addition to family woes, social stress and national misery.

ARALU Programme is such an initiative of Vishwabharathi that aims at creating a pool of young and independent people, from a section of underprivileged youth, through skill enhancement in tandem with market requirements. It is an effort towards bridging the gap between demand and supply of skilled manpower in the fast emerging services and retail sectors of modern India.

This national level programme trains the urban underprivileged youth in English Proficiency, Basic Computer Education and Soft Skills for enhancing their prospects of employment in the fast expanding retail, hospitality and BPO sectors.

So far, 55 youth have been trained and 15 have been placed in over 8 brands through 5 operational projects across Karnataka.

Various studies, as well as our experience, have shown that when we work towards women empowerment, the whole society benefits. But unfortunately in India, far from being empowered, most women are denied even their basic rights like health, education, employment and a respectable status in society.

According to a recent UNDP Human Development Report, India has a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio, the chief reason being rampant female infanticide and sex-selective abortions.

ARALU, SHG, was initiated in 2015 to address these challenges through a simple yet effective approach. The programme is specifically aimed at realization of both individual and collective self-esteem and inner strength for marginalized and socially excluded women and adolescent girls through innovative community practices.

An Aralu-made strategy called the ‘4 S Model’ has been developed under ARALU for women empowerment. The ‘4 S Model’ is an acronym for four novel approaches, namely Seeking Healthcare as a Behavior, Support for Education, Supporters through Male Involvement, and Sustaining the Change in Communities.

The programme identifies adolescent girls and women from the community and develops them into Change Agents, who in turn actively contribute to the community mobilization process.

So far, ARALU has successfully made a difference to the lives of over 125 women and girl children.