Support scholarships for 4 bright students from rural homes in Raigad District Maharashtra, to fulfill their professional aspirations. Collaborate with Swades Foundation as we give wings to 100+ such students this year. #SupportForAspirations

Swades Foundation's work encompasses 7 Blocks of rural Raigad Dist, MH, covering ~3,100 sq. Kms, ~2,500 villages in ~380 GPs, comprising of ~120,000 HHs/550,000+ lives.

Distribution of HHs by annual income (all sources): 18% HHs live <INR 50,000, 25% HHs earn INR 50,000-100,000, 35% HHs have income 100,000-200,000, 22% HHs make >INR 200,000

The main occupation of households (HH) is agriculture (>60%) and labour (>25%). ~40% HHs do odd jobs to earn livelihoods. 67% HHs don’t own agricultural land. 43% HH earn <INR 100,000 annually. These HHs and next 35% are largely dependent on leasing land and/or working as labour in private/Govt establishment.

In our geography there are 1300+ schools with >135,000 students enrolled. Whilst some improvement in basic school infrastructure happened in earlier years, they were still grappling with a large number of out-of-school children + school drop outs, who are either likely to join the labour market or potentially land in exploitative situations in the near future.

Swades Foundation is working towards four thematic areas- Water & Sanitation, Health & Nutrition, Sustainable Livelihoods and Education; with the vision of creating a replicable at scale & sustainable model for rural empowerment.

In education our focus is to bring about Holistic Schooling Transformation- linking learning outcomes to livelihood opportunities to make them socially inclusive, conscious citizens as change catalysts for upliftment of communities.

Our three-pronged approach focuses on:

1. Nurturing Mind-sets – Capacity building of stakeholders, awareness & behavioral change for adoption of best practices & sustainability to handover & exit programs.
2. Enabling Environment – Making learning fun through experiential tools, infrastructural upgrades, promoting literacy in English & Computers, scientific approach, rational thinking and boosting confidence.
3. Being Future Ready – Better employability with career counselling for informed choices and financial aid support for pursuit of higher learning and/or skilling. Alumni-meets for sharing experiences & advice to counter inhibitions, instill confidence + aspiration in students-parents.

This scholarship will aid bright students from rural homes of Raigad Dist, MH to pursue professional courses, the support will be towards cost of residential stay (boarding & lodging) & college/university tuition fees. The scholarship will not only increase employability of these students but will also result in overall development of the community economically & by building aspirations amongst youth.

Swades Foundation has supported 4,421 scholarships so far & is looking to support 100+ students this year.