National: HCL Foundation, in collaboration with its implementation partner NGO, Rasta, inaugurated a model bridge education centre and distributed certificates to children who successfully cleared their Open Basic Examination for classes 3rd, 5th, and 8th. Apart from this, HCL Foundation also felicitated ‘Depot Holders’, who are community volunteers trained under the programme as family planning advocates, in association with its implementation partner NGO, Agragami India.
The model demonstration bridge and remedial education inaugurated in collaboration with Rasta at Sarfabad, Sector 73, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, is equipped with a computer centre and a library which is open to all children who are part of HCL Foundation’s ‘Gurukul’ project in Gautam Buddha Nagar in the State.
Initiated in 2016, these Gurukul centres have been reaching out to children from underserved slum communities and living in difficult circumstances. These centres not only provide bridging, mainstreaming and after-school coaching support but also focus on life skills development as well as socio-emotional and nutritional needs.
HCL Foundation defines children in difficult circumstances as those who are deprived of developmental opportunities due to their socio-economic-cultural conditions, such as living on the streets, slum-like habitats, working in hazardous conditions like labourers, children of sex workers, prisoners and other similar categories
Gurukul centres provide regular follow-up and remedial support to ensure the smooth integration of these children into the regular school programme. The centres cater to children belonging to age groups three to 18 years.
In FY 2019-20, 18 per cent of the 15,150 children covered through the HCL Foundation supported ‘Gurukuls’ across HCL Uday locations were mainstreamed into schools.
This model centre will not only work toward further improving the quality of education and nutrition services but also serve as a demonstration model that can be scaled in order to reach out to many more children from vulnerable backgrounds.
During the inauguration, HCL Foundation along with RASTA also felicitated the achievement of 22 students from Classes 3rd, 5th, and 8th. The students were presented with certificates and applauded for their achievements.
HCL Foundation along with another NGO partner Agragami India felicitated ‘Depot Holders’ who not only adopted safe family planning choices themselves but also worked as advocates for their communities after receiving training under HCL Uday. The efforts of these ‘Depot Holders’ helped us reach out to more than 7,000 eligible couples and helped them to adopt safe family planning choices despite pandemic related access challenges.
HCL Foundation, along with its partner NGO Agragami India identified, and trained 109 family planning advocates known as ‘Depot Holders’ from the identified communities to facilitate distribution of contraceptives and creating awareness regarding usage of available contraceptives to eligible couples during the lockdown.
These depot holders were people from local communities whose main responsibility was not only providing contraceptives to the beneficiaries but also teaching them about the importance of family planning.
Agragami India, who is the implementation partner for the project, procured contraceptives and other reproductive health services that were further delivered to the homes of eligible couples and women of reproductive age. The aim was to prioritise the needs of women and girls of reproductive age.
