Bengaluru, 06 December (HS): Accelerate India Foundation Trust (AIFT) is a Bengaluru-based voluntary organization committed to the cause of continuing education for orphaned children not studying due to various reasons and problems including family financial pressures and challenges.
Current Initiatives: In fact, AIFT is into a variety of activities for the welfare of less privileged children. These days, many children get disconnected from formal and basic education due to genuine and flimsy reasons. Well, the genuine reasons include adequate finances and problems with proper communication in reaching the nearby schools. Added to these features also include the piquant situation of lack of awareness and social stigma to join the schools. AIFT engages in networking between schools and families to ensure that the children do not suffer from being educated.
400 Children supported: AIFT, is presently extending support to 400 children by providing school kits, online content, counselling as well as teaching support. Depending upon the class in which the children are studying, required textbooks, notebooks, school bags, and other accessories are provided while eligible children are also provided with scholarships. In addition, school fees are being paid directly to the schools, wherever they are studying. And for those children requiring personal care and support, special counselling sessions are being arranged with AIFT mentors.
Livelihood, skill and personality development: AIFT provides training for skill development and self-sustaining program activities to underprivileged school children. The objective behind such an initiative is to make the beneficiaries acquire job-oriented skills, develop basic computer knowledge, and basic communication skills, and enable them suitably trained for a professional career after SSLC and PUC.
Admission of special children: AIFT also helps special children for admission to residential schools. Children with no guardians or any place to reside are considered for residential schooling. However, this measure is wholly dependent upon the willingness of the children and the financial adoption of the child by any individual donor.
Endowment Programs: AIFT has also drawn up endowment programs seeking support from well-wishers and philanthropists. Some of the initiatives, it is seeking liberal help include the following:
*Support a student/youth for education and employment.*Livelihood support (self-employment) for women, artisans, and youth(rural/urban).
*Disaster support for a family in a disaster-impacted area.
*Support environment-water body, set of trees, waste2value product.
*Immunity improvement for underprivileged/special ability/urban poor or rural women and children.
*Support a marginal farmer for crop sowing (seeds, soil preparation, nutrients, etc).
Why support?: AIFT appeals to the general public for liberal support to help in its initiatives. It claims to follow a 100 per cent transparent process enabling the donors to create impact, witness the change and experience the gratifying moments. It also extends an invitation to be part of the activity and share experiences with the participants. It also has awareness programs on health, hygiene and education. It is also open to co-branding kits and other materials that can help create a positive influence on the sponsor.
Monthly updates and newsletters: AIFT also issues monthly updates and newsletters, covering progress made and planned programs for the future. It also provides access to a wide database of skilled individuals through technical training programs, leading to a potential future workforce. Access to the rural population and an opportunity to create a long-lasting positive impact is assured.
COVID-19-affected children support programs: AIFT has volunteered with COVID-19-affected children support programs. It has already completed the first round of support to all the COVID-19 orphaned and single-parent children of five districts, surveying the family situation, health supplements, nutrition support kit, benefit entitlement enablement education, and education kit support activities.
Districts covered: A total number of 106 kids of COVID-19-impacted orphan/Single parents were covered in Dakshina Kannada districts with active support and participation from BMC Hospital and Abhaya Hospital doctors and staff teams. 155 children were covered in Chamarajnagar district with the support and participation of District Child Protection Officers, Kollegal Taluk Government Hospital and Kamagere Holy Cross Hospital’s doctor and nurses team. 135 children were covered in Dharwad district with the support and participation of District Child Protection Officers, doctors and staff of the Dharwad Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (DIMHANS), Dharwad. 96 children of the Belagavi district were reached with the support of Siddarth Netralaya, Dr Devegouda Charitable Trust and Shree Ortho and Critical Care Centre.CSR donations sought: As of now, AIFT is keen on long-term quality education for the children and some type of employment-cum-training support for the single mother on an ongoing basis by working along with DCPOs and central ICPS/Social Welfare Dept. To accomplish these activities, AIFT is on the lookout for more corporate CSR donations.
Immediate goal to reach 250 kids: AIFT has set an immediate target to reach at least 250 most vulnerable kids, good in studies, to support their educational needs on a long-term basis in the form of scholarships, school fees mentorship etc. It also intends to establish self-help centres in partnership with the Social Welfare Department, GoK to create opportunities for widow and elderly groups to make a sustainable livelihood. It has also drawn up plans for setting up two centres for skill development and employment for youth in the areas of Electronics and Semiconductor manufacturing, Stitching and Tailoring, Data tagging, annotation, web scraping skills, Vocational training and product development centres.
Trustees of AIFT: Dr Anurag Srivastava is one of the Trustees with areas of work experience in Innovation acceleration for large organizations, integrating science and technology research to accelerate business scale for short and long-term organization needs. Dr Shyam Vasudeva Rao is also a Trustee holding a doctorate in Real-Time Embedded Systems, specialising in Parallel Computer Architecture from the Indian Institute of Science (Gold Medal) and has been with CG Smith, Ericsson and Tata Consultancy Services. Dr C V Kamath is the Secretary of AIFT and in the IT industry for 33 years with varied experience in manufacturing, procurement, consulting and technology enablement. Raghu Prasad N is a Senior Mentor at AIFT with 30 years of experience in business development, Alliance Management, and Life Coach and is currently spearheading the Trust activities.
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