Empowerment

One of the things we often get asked is how are we measuring the impact of our programs. It is difficult, because many times in the domain of education the impact can be actually be felt only after a certain number of years. We want to have a few short term change and impact as well.

But when a good example of Empowerment presents itself, and you know that the initiative you have been running is the cause for it; you smile from cheek to cheek and feel proud. Through our different programs, we have always emphasised on the need to apply the knowledge gained by the students.

Yesterday the results of the Class 10 board exams were announced and there was immense crowd at the computer centres. Needless to say the crowd could get impatient too soon. The anxiety of the parents and students  both were understandable.

There were 6-7 students who had just completed the Digital Literacy and Internet Awareness Course, who were there with their mobiles, searching and telling all the anxious students and parents the results. Our joys were unbound at seeing this!

To us, that is empowerment.

Updates on Projects and Activities

Now that we have the blog, and functional Facebook Page, we want to ensure that we communicate regularly with our supporters, well wishers and the people who believe in our cause.

The last couple of months have been really hectic and satisfying at the same time. We will be providing regular updates on our work and project learnings through these platforms. Here’s the updates as of today June 6th, 2014.

1. We began our champions selection process in May, which itself was late due to the elections, but could not finalise it due to the summer vacations beginning! So we hope to get that moving as soon as the school reopens. There are a few changes planned on this too! Stay tuned!
2. We successfully completed the first batch of around 80 students for the Digital Literacy and Internet Awareness Course. It was really wonderful to see the students all excited about it! We need to complete the cycle by providing pointers on what the students could do next, whether from a career or from a education point of view. That is critical.
3. Our next Career Awareness Seminar is scheduled to be held on the 26th/27th of June and during that period, we will also be handing out the certificates to the participants who completed the IAC course. The first batch they say is always special!
4. The second batch of Internet Awareness Course is about to commence from mid June, and we are really hopeful that more people can benefit from it!
5. We were featured by the MIT India Alumni reading group last month as well as a featured social enterprise. Do read up the article that talks about our different approach towards education. Thanks to another of our well wisher to connect with the team there.

Here is a small excerpt from the article that sums up our approach

“The unique way adopted by HHT involves empowering the students by actively involving them in story-telling sessions conducted by champions. The program functions in some of the most backward regions of Bihar and aims at introducing the children to the world outside their textbooks and building their self confidence.”

Read the complete article here

Thank you all for the continued support!