THE BACKGROUND, CONTEXT AND PROBLEM:

India is home to the largest number of non-literate adults in the world. There are 18.12 crore (approx) adults in India who are non-literate! They need to be taught to read and write so that their lives can be transformed. It's a mammoth task.

Adults who are non-literate - how does it matter?

It matters because literacy is the foundation of opportunity and development. 

When you can read and write, you can have access to information and ideas that will help you improve your standard of living and enable you to better care for your family and yourself. 

The literacy rate in India is one of the major factors for socio-economic progress in addition to academic achievement.

There is a need to empower these adults and make them literate. This will dramatically impact their lives. This impacts not just them but also their families. How do we do this? 

THE SOLUTION AND INITIATIVE:

The Rotary Club of Bombay is conducting a pioneering initiative that hopes to eradicate adult illiteracy and promote adult education across the Mumbai and Palghar districts of Maharashtra. The aim is to make adults functionally literate using the Each One Teach Many model.

This is a unique program that actually transforms the lives of these men and women. It is done through 60-minute classroom sessions over 2 to 3 months (duration varies basis the ability of the learner) and costs just INR 275 per adult. This includes the Primer Kit (NCERT approved) consisting of various books and flashcards, stationary, final exam facilitation costs, graduation certificates, and administration costs.

Learners acquire a vocabulary of around 700 keywords, enough for day-to-day needs such as reading destination signs on buses, filling in deposit and withdrawal slips in Banks, and newspaper headlines, besides being able to learn simple arithmetic adequate to maintain a household.

The “Each-One-Teach-Many” model operates on the principle that education knows no bounds. Local volunteer teachers, known as Akshar Sathis, play a pivotal role by identifying non-literate adults in their community. They are taught Hindi at the Mumbai locations and Marathi in Palghar. 

These dedicated teachers gather 30-40 adults at a central location, conducting immersive literacy classes for a minimum of 60 sessions for an hour. All information on teachers and adult learners are available in a centralized portal.

Guided by an adult literacy primer, Akshar Sathis opens doors to learning for anyone willing to learn and embrace the joy of education.

All funding has 80G tax benefits.

FEW IMAGES FROM THE PROGRAM:

THE IMPACT: (CASE STUDIES AND STORIES)

IT IS INCREDIBLE THAT IS DONE AT A COST OF JUST INR 275.

GLIMPSES OF THE CLASSES:

ABOUT ME:

My name is Abhinav Shah. I am 17-years-old and a Grade 11 student at The Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai.

This campaign of mine aims to transform the lives of non-literate adults through a uniquely low-cost and high-impact Adult Literacy program in Mumbai and Palghar. This program gives them immense confidence and opens up a world of opportunities for these adults. 

I have undertaken this campaign because I think empowering adults, especially those from economically backward families, has a massive impact on their entire family dynamics. It will transform their lives at a personal level and also impact the lives of future generations. It allows them to read better, work better, travel better, and dramatically changes their confidence. The fact that it takes just INR 275 to transform the life of one adult was a pleasant surprise. So, for example, if you fund INR 5500 it will help transform the lives of 20 such adults.

Please support my campaign by funding it and let us together transform the lives of as many adults as possible and bring cheer into their lives. 

MAP :

ABOUT ROTARY CLUB OF BOMBAY

The Rotary Club of Bombay is one of the pioneers in India of the Rotary movement, devoted to the ideal of Fellowship through service. It was founded on March 19, 1929. The membership of the Club has grown from 38 in 1929 to around 350 today. The unique single classification concept of Rotary allows the Rotary Club of Bombay a membership compromising a high-performance cross-section of Bombay’s successful business and professional men and women, all accomplishers in their field ranging from doctors to architects, legal luminaries to bankers, entrepreneurs to educationalists and merchandisers to communicators.

From the very beginning, the pulse of Rotary has been and always will be Community Service. Today the Rotary Club of Bombay has diversified its activities through the work of over fifty committees constituted to look after the various avenues of service. 

TAX BENEFITS:

Funding for this campaign is eligible for tax breaks as the Rotary Club of Bombay is a registered NGO and you can avail of benefits under section 80G of the IT Act. Foreign funding is not accepted. 

FEEDBACK THAT YOU GET:

To ensure that there is complete transparency, I shall get a report from the NGO (this takes between 1 to 3 months usually after the funds are raised and transferred to them) telling me who benefitted from the funding. The details will then be posted in the UPDATES section of my campaign and will be in a format like the one below. As soon as I post an update, the platform will send an EMAIL alert to all the funders - i.e. to you. Click on the link in the email and you can read about which woman benefitted. That's transparent, right?