Our Work
Day school and community care hostel for children from single-parent and vulnerable families from tribal communities.
First in the region residential with schooling, football player and coach development & sports excellence building academy.
Technology-focused program to build career pathways for students interested in engineering, programming, and Agri-tech innovationS
- Develop an impactful and contextual education through a structured framework.
- Provide enriching learning opportunities via partnerships for local Agri-tech innovations
- Facilitate vocational, career, and skills development to address the learning, opportunity, and achievement gaps in rural India
We work to develop vocational, career, and skills training to empower middle grade and high school students to build a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities. We want to enable partnerships to connect the students to education, training, employment, and entrepreneurship in the rural.
Riverside Natural School, a day school and hostel facility for talented football and sports players is also a community care initiative for children from single-parent and vulnerable families who are unable to provide safety and education due to financial troubles. We follow due diligence and strict admissions criteria based on a four-step process:
- Advertise our program through pamphlets and community meetings.
- Visit over 50 villages in Mandla and Dindori districts to check residential school eligibility on social and physical parameters.
- Invite the selected children along with parents to our campus to have a conversation with our Program Heads.
- Make the final selection. Once this is done, the team then helps parents fill out the forms, speak to the existing school (if attending) for exit formalities and ensure that the transition is hassle-free for families.
We also scout through year-round events, tournaments, and leagues where we build a pool of eligible sports candidates who are then scrutinized further.
BENEFICIARIES BACKGROUND
79% of our total school children belong to the farming families and the rest have family members running small-time shops, businesses, and jobs.
All the children enrolled in our residential program are from impoverished farming families that belong to Gond and Baiga tribes.
The malnutrition percentage among these families is as high 90% and their average annual household income is Rs. 30,000.
HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT
When we evaluated children’s body mass index (BMI) at the start of 2018-19, we realized that 89% of children fell in the chronic energy deficiency category. These children were then admitted to the shelter home by their parents who struggled to meet requirements of family in terms of food and basic amenities of clothing and shelter. When we checked the Haemoglobin levels of such children, we found that 62% of them had HB levels below the standard value of 12 g/dl. In consultation with the doctors from the Community Health Centre at Mohgaon, we started the daily exercise and meal routine for children in the very first month of their admissions to the shelter home.
A carefully monitored food menu is prepared each month with advice from a nutrition expert. The menu also takes into account availability of seasonal fruits, vegetables and pulses.
We track children’s Body Mass Index (BMI) on a monthly basis with special attention paid to those children for whom improvement in BMI is slower than others and those who fall ill often.
Under the care and guidance of the hostel caregivers, children go about their tasks in a disciplined manner.
A few of the practices we follow at the shelter home:
- Surya namaskars for all children every morning
- Sitting in vajrasan position before and after meals
- Bathing in water with neem leaves soaked in it
- Sports events on holidays
- Movie screenings and sports event screenings on Sundays and holidays
- Origami
HOW DO WE KNOW OUR APPROACH IS WORKING?
We have already seen the impact of nutrition on children’s health and educational outcomes. For the children under our care in the residential program, the percentage of severely malnourished children (BMI < 16.0) fell from 81% to 68% in the period from June 2019 to February 2020.
After the lockdown was announced in March 2020, we sent all the children back home. In August 2020, we re-opened, getting children back in batches and with written permission from the parents. Many of them fell sick at that time, sustained injuries and suffered from skin and liver ailments. Today, we have 60 children who are back with us largely, those from Classes 4 to 8. Among these, 95% of children are out of anaemia as in March 2021.
