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.
