Bhumi - Corpus Fund

According to a survey by Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) - 2018, one-fourth of the country’s youngsters in the 14-18 age group cannot read their own language fluently, while 57% of them struggle to solve a simple sum of division. At least 44% couldn’t add weights correctly in kilograms. More so, 21% of the students could not answer the state they live in, while 14% could not even identify India’s map.

It is evident that these communities are vulnerable, and the lack of a community’s investment in the child’s holistic development (mental, physical, intellectual and spiritual) could only intensify these societal challenges. Children residing in shelter homes/orphanages or from low-income communities are deprived of better employment opportunities and civic engagement due to the devoid in quality education and a dearth of role models to guide and mentor the underprivileged children towards a better future.

Furthermore, volunteers who work to bridge these gaps often face challenges such as placement of work is opposite to the place they were vowed to work for; finding the right caused connected to their passion/interest area; volunteering feasibility; aligned to the organization’s vision and values; adequate training and gaining experiences from the organization they opted to volunteer.

The educational programmes have been focusing on improving learning outcomes to bring them up to class-appropriate levels. However, given that the gap in learning outcome is large, Bhumi realised the compelling need to improve the education system and its processes further.

With an aim to render quality education, Bhumi provides comprehensive educational support for over 25,000 underprivileged children across India to help them break the cycle of poverty. Bhumi bridges the gaps in formal education and opportunities by providing language and STEAM education, life-skills support and scholarships for higher education:

• Through volunteers at orphanages during weekends

• Low-income (private and government) schools with development support for teachers

• Education at after-school community centres in urban slums

Being one of India’s largest independent youth organization, over 80% of its volunteers work with Bhumi for at least two consecutive years and has been able to expand boundaries from one city to 14 cities. Bhumi provides leadership programme called Lead Bhumi, a platform that identifies potential leaders, nurtures leadership to make volunteering a national habit creating a ripple effect by impacting lives of other volunteers, in turn, contributing to the impact of more beneficiaries. Some of these volunteers have switched to the education sector from engineering/arts/medicine background as full-time employees of the organization because of their experiences with Bhumi.

The corpus funds raised through the project shall be used as a principal towards a fixed deposit, at the prevailing interest rate provided by the bank of 7-10%, principal being renewed perpetually.

Bhumi’s key achievements snapshot over a period of 12 years:

• No. of volunteer hours clocked since 2006 – 1.38 million;

• No. of volunteers for Civic Initiatives in 2017-18 – 11,865

• No. of volunteers engaged since 2006 – 46,170; 2018-19 – 15,000

• No. of children benefited since 2006 – 99,609; 2018-19 – 20,000

• No. of cities: 1 in 2006 to 12 cities in 2018