Help vulnerable children achieve a bright future

According to UNICEF, India is home to an estimated 31 million orphans- the largest youth population in the world. Out of these nearly 176 million youth are considered to be in need of care and protection. Shelter Homes mostly are overloaded and focused more on basic needs than youth care or longer-term progression.

The result is that both quality of life and adult outcomes for youth in this demographic are very poor, leading to cycles of poverty and abandonment. This is compounded by the fact that little useful data exists because it has historically been difficult to track what happens to children after they leave shelters.

Make A Difference’s vision is that even the most vulnerable children in shelters are able to realize equitable outcomes. We are acutely aware that interventions when done in one sphere, like providing only education or monetary support, often fail to get the desired outcomes. What we do is run multiple interventions to ensure a child's all round development so that they transform into adults who are financially & emotionally independent.

We do this via three broad intervention strategies :

1. Empower children through better emotional health, life skills, exposure, educational support, transition readiness and after care.

2. Improve the ecosystem around them by driving better practices among the institutions that directly affect their lives; primarily shelters, schools, family, state and society.

3. Enable the sector through better data, sharing knowledge and building coalitions and networks.

It costs us Rs.18,000/- (1500/- per month) per child to implement these programs & ensure they are able to break out of the cycle of poverty.

We run three projects - Ed Support, Propel, and Dream Camp, which are interventions targeted to solve specific problems that the children face in shelter homes.

92% of children in shelter homes typically drop out of school by the age of 18. However, we have reversed the trend for those who have been through our programs, and more than 90% of the children we work with have continued into higher education post 18.

Percentage of children in our program who passed their 10th board exam - 96%

91% of our youth leaving high school have been placed in colleges/jobs/vocational training.

Read more about our impact at www.makeadiff.in