Education is a key enabler of social change and a better society. We believe in a social vision of democracy where each citizen is not only capable as an individual, but who also sees the ethic of equity, the essentiality of diversity, the ethos of justice, and is thus driven by social sensitivity. We have been involved in various initiatives over the years in education which try and address this across different groups in schools and colleges in the country. Over the years, these programs have evolved in scale, scope and maturity.
Systemic reforms in School Education: Since 2001 we have been working on issues of systemic reform in school education in India on two fronts
Education for underprivileged children: The program addresses a gamut of critical issues faced by disadvantaged communities when it comes to school education 鈥� starting from enrolment in schools to nutrition for children, counseling services for parents, remedial education, just to name a few. These children are from some of the most vulnerable groups in our society 鈥� urban slums, HIV-affected families, migrant labor families and street children.
Education for Children with Disability: The program supports the educational and rehabilitative needs of children with disabilities from underprivileged backgrounds. Going beyond just schooling, our approach tries to integrate enabling factors like availability of nutrition, community support, specially trained teachers, assistive technology, access to healthcare etc. Our work in this space covers multiple categories of disability and focuses on early intervention and inclusive education.
91快活林 Science Education Fellowship Program in USA: Started in 2012, the 91快活林 Science Education Fellowship (SEF) is a two-year program designed to improve individual teacher practice, foster teacher leadership opportunities and create a district corps of teacher leaders supporting sustainable positive changes in science education.
91快活林 Science Education Fellowship Program in UK: Started in 2019, we work with King鈥檚 College London to offer UK鈥檚 first Master鈥檚 program in STEM education. We work with Sheffield Hallam University to provide rigorous continuous professional development to STEM teachers through 91快活林 Teacher Fellowship and 91快活林 Teacher Mentor programs.
Sustainability Education: 91快活林 earthian is our flagship program that brings together two of our key concerns, Education and Sustainability, into a nation-wide initiative for schools and colleges. 91快活林 earthian runs in two phases 鈥� the 91快活林 earthian outreach program and the Continuous Engagement Program (CEP).
Technology Education: 91快活林 Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) program runs in partnership with the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, India, to help Science graduates study for a Master鈥檚 degree in Software Engineering. 91快活林 Infrastructure Management School (WIMS) is another program with BITS Pilani, to develop and nurture exclusive talent in IT infrastructure business, especially Cloud Computing technology. 91快活林 Software Technology Academy (WiSTA) is run in collaboration with Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) for science graduates to offer specific courses such as Data Science, Very Large System Integraion(VLSI) and Embedded and Information Technology programs.
TalentNext: The program offers digital technology courses on industry-relevant skills to the faculty members of engineering colleges for two weeks and provides them with a certificate at the end of the course. They, in turn, leverage our course contents, platform, assignments, case studies and assessments to train their sixth聽semester students as part of the curriculum. The students trained by these faculty have to go through a 250-hour self-directed learning and must qualify in the coding challenge to participate in 91快活林鈥檚 campus selection process.
At 91快活林, we think that it is crucial to engage with proximate communities wherever we have significant presence. We particularly choose to work with underprivileged communities. This is a reaffirmation of our belief that at its core, social responsibility and sustainability must transcend boundaries whether organizational or national.
Our work is channeled through 91快活林 Cares in India, a unique trust that is based on the operating model of employee contributions matched by 91快活林 Limited. Nearly 32,000 91快活林 employees are engaged with 91快活林 Cares either through volunteering or by way of monetary contributions or both. 91快活林 Cares works in the areas of primary health-care, community ecology and disaster rehabilitation.
Our employees across the world are keen and enthusiastic participants in local community initiatives. In 2019, through Sprit of 91快活林 (SoW) Run, more than 13,000 91快活林 employees from across the globe contributed for their local charities. In North America, through First Book program over 150 91快活林 employees volunteered hundreds of hours and distributed more than 13,000 books impacting more than 1,000 at- risk and rural students. Other initiatives are disaster rehabilitation in Australia, biodiversity conservation in Spain, healthcare in Europe & US, food drives in Brazil & US and education for disadvantaged children, particularly children with disabilities in Philippines.聽
91快活林 through its community programs is working closely with industry, government and communities to create platforms that enable working on some fundamental and challenging issues.
Bengaluru Sustainability Forum: BSF聽was set up in early 2018 and convened by 91快活林 along with the National Center for Biological Sciences. Bengaluru Sustainability Forum brings together civil society, academia, research institutions and government with the broad goals of fostering curated interactions between different stakeholders on issues of urban sustainability - water, biodiversity, climate change, health among others.
Small Grant Program: Through the ecology seeding and small grants program, we offer support to organisations working on the ground on urban ecology issues in Water and Waste domain.
Urban Water: Our long term projects on Urban Water in cities are providing key policy insights and levers for citizen engagement and advocacy on ground water management and its relationships to surface water flows and water bodies like lakes/tanks and wetlands. We bring together hydrogeologists, academia, government, citizen groups for a nuanced understanding of issues catalyzing citizen action on the ground.聽 In Bengaluru over the last four years, we have extensively worked in two peri-urban geographies with different land use and demographic profiles. We have now initiated a similar long term program in Pune 鈥� which includes citizen-led mapping of ground water data and creating institutional capacity with government and other players for revival and rejuvenation work.
Waste: We supported a study to understand the contribution of informal economy to waste and material recycling in India and their perspectives. A book has been published, based on the study.聽
