Partners in the West

SPJ Sadhana School, Mumbai

SPJ Sadhana School aims at imparting quality education for the mentally challenged, to develop them cognitively, emotionally, morally and spiritually.

During the five year polytechnic course (commenced in 1990), after the intensive therapy, the students go through pre-nursery, nursery, Juniors Grade and pre-vocational. Thereafter depending on their interest and capability, they are provided training in vocational courses like Office Procedures, Hospitality & Catering, Visual Arts & Crafts and enhanced skills.

ABF is providing part funding towards the operational costs mainly salaries for professional trainers and trained teachers, who are involved in their five-year polytechnic course.

Kherwadi Social Welfare Association (KSWA), Mumbai

KSWA, one of the oldest non-profit organisations in Mumbai, works with a mission to create employment opportunities for school dropouts and deprived youth. By educating them in vocational skills through their 30 Out-Reach Centres (ORC) they are enabling them to lead a productive and socially useful life

The vocational courses offered at the urban ORCs are- Electrical wireman, Home Appliance repair, Multi-Skills technician, A/C Refrigeration mechanic, Motor Mechanic, Motor Driving, Mobile Repair, Tailoring and Cutting, Fashion Designing, Beautician and Mehendi, Nursing Assistant, Retailing, Hospitality, Computers, English and Life Skills. For the rural areas, it has courses like Improved Agricultural Practices, Horticulture and Social Forestry, Livestock Management and Fisheries & Water Resources Management.

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants to support the operating costs of running the Vasai (West) and Kalyan (W) ORCs whereby nearly 900 youth will benefit from the various courses being run at the ORCs.

Besides the above two ORCs, ABF is also supporting their Chakan ORC & two model-training-centre-cum-Hub at Nagpur and Aurangabad.

Lifeline Foundation, Vadodara

Lifeline Foundation has developed a revolutionary concept for Highway Accident Relief in India, recognised and supported by various organisations from all over the world. The delivery of HRP (Highway Rescue Project) is in line with international conceptions on emergency care, with focus on pre-hospital care and initiation of treatment within the "golden hour". Dr. Subroto Das and his wife Sushmita, along with two colleagues met with an accident in August 1999 on a rainy night on NH8. Badly injured, they were left stranded without any help for 4 dark hours. Without losing hope they fought for themselves and the lives of their colleagues. At early dawn, they finally managed to get help and got transported to a hospital. Thus Lifeline Foundation was conceptualised to provide Emergency Medical Services (EMS) on the highways.

Unlike other NGOs, Lifeline Foundation does not believe in creating infrastructure; instead it believes in maintaining the existing setup, which in itself is a herculean task. Many NGOs have wound up the EMS operations due to paucity of funds for maintaining the infrastructural setup. Lifeline networks with existing facility providers thereby getting added functional and financial avenues to sustain the cluster and at the same time be instrumental in supplementing each other's work.

The network of service providers forms the backbone of the rescue and evacuation services, provided free of cost to the accident victim. Through extensive mapping of the highways (detailing out each landmark) accident locations can easily be determined without use of GPS, a very costly proposition in India. A 24 x 7 Central Control Room, is equipped with all necessary communication facilities to respond to distress calls and organise rescue operations. Besides the direct intervention in accidents, Lifeline undertakes awareness campaigns to sensitise the existing stakeholders and to target more populace through their vehicular sticker campaigns and through distribution of leaflets detailing the emergency contact number on the stretch (NH) in case of emergency. The leaflets also contain the extracts of the laws, which clarify that emergency evacuation should supersede the lodging of any FIRs while also enumerating the duties and responsibilities of the driver of the vehicle as well as the doctors on duty at the hospital at the time the victims are brought in for medical treatment.

Axis Bank Foundation has been working with Lifeline Foundation for more than 3 years and we are supporting their HRP in the states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Kerala.

Eklavya Foundation, Bhopal

Eklavya is a non-profit, NGO that develops and field-tests innovative educational programmes and trains resource people to implement these programmes.

Through their community based project of Shiksha Protsahan Kendras (SPK), usually run in the village school itself with a community appointed facilitator, Eklavya seeks to help first generation learners who find it difficult to cope with the school curriculum and to mainstream non-school going children into primary schools. It also holds "Summer Camps" to encourage children to learn the fun way and this initiative has received an overwhelming response from the children.

Axis Bank Foundation has entered the 4th year of partnership with Eklavya to support 180 SPKs in 5 districts of Madhya Pradesh, namely "Betul, Hoshangabad, Harda, Dewas & Ujjain".

Door Step School, Mumbai

Door Step School (DSS) was founded in 1988 to address the major issues plaguing the education system viz: non-enrollment, wastage and stagnation. The organisation provides education and support to the often-forgotten children of pavement dwellers, slum dwellers, construction site families and many other underprivileged families.

DSS runs various programmes under its aegis like Balwadis, The Literacy Class, School on Wheels, Study Classes, Library programme etc.

Through provision of the services like, Study Classes, Reading Promotion, Excursions, Mental Health Project etc, DSS takes effort to teach the children in an innovative and fun way thus ensuring that the children continue schooling and also perform well in school.

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants towards the running costs like preparation of Teaching Learning Material, Teacher's salary, etc incurred in the adoption of three BMC Schools in Gowandi, Bora Bazar & Crawford Market area whereby approximately 1700 children benefit from the efforts of DSS.

Shaishav Trust, Bhavnagar

Initiated in 1993 Shaishav Trust is essentially a child rights organisation which works with the Government and the Society for children so that the children are able to enjoy their basic rights and actively participate in realising their basic rights.

Shaishav provides non-residential bridge education for out-of-school children and support classes for those attending school. The centres are known as "Balghars" which run either full time before or after school hours depending on their school time or part-time which normally run in the evenings.

Besides education, Shaishav facilitates initiatives like the Balsena, a children's collective and encourages them to raise issues pertaining to child rights, child labour, education, gender bias, etc.

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants to Shaishav Trust to support the Balghars and the Balsena programme.

Light Of Life Trust, Mumbai

The Light of Life Trust (LOLT), a non-profit organisation's, goal is not just literacy, but the complete all- round development of each child. The organisation works towards uplifting disadvantaged children by re-instating them in schools and equipping them with skills to live in mainstream society.

Light of Life through its SFSEP initiative is making the learning interesting and joyful and aids in reducing the dropout rate. The teachers themselves are very motivated and enthusiastic. Many of the teachers are also pursuing the opportunity to scale up in their own career.

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants to LOLT to support the SFSEP program in Karjat (near Mumbai) and 13 other centres.

DEEDS Public Charitable Trust, Mumbai

DEEDS (Development Education Empowerment of Disadvantaged In Society) is a public Charitable Trust which supports the cause of the hearing impaired in imparting free education to the deaf, providing vocational training in various skills wherein they ensure job placements for the trained youth.

The DEEDS "Ishara" initiative functional in Mulund is a BELC (Basic English Literacy Course) programme which uses the Indian Sign Language to teach deaf students written and spoken English. The students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and are either studying in mainstream colleges or are on jobs or undergo vocational training in other centres in Mumbai. Some of the students later become interns and Teachers at "Ishara".

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants to DEEDS to support the "Ishara" initiative at their Mulund Centre.

MBA Foundation, Mumbai

MBA (Mutually Beneficial Activities) Foundation was started by a group of parents, to provide day care and life care services for disabled persons, unable to start self-employment or find gainful occupation in the mainstream.

The day care services of MBA Foundation ensure that these youngsters are active during the day, making / packing a variety of items and relaxing through Bhajans, Yoga, Drawing & Painting, Music & Dance, Outings, etc.

The most important activity in these care centres is "Skills Training" for various vocations, including value adding activities; individual therapy for daily living as independently as possible and group therapy for stress management and relaxation.

The aim of the Foundation is to encourage many more parents of such youngsters to come together and replicate these facilities in different parts of our country.

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants to MBA Foundation for their four centres in Powai, Chembur, Thane and Gorai which provide vocational training & therapy to the disabled.

SUPPORT, Mumbai

SUPPORT (Society Undertaking Poor People's Onus for Rehabilitation) is a residential re-habilitation programme to eradicate substance abuse amongst street children and homeless youth to prevent high risk behaviour.

Using the "FLUTE" ideology ie: Freedom, Listening, Understanding, Transformation and Enjoyment, the SUPPORT staff strives to bring about a change in the overall persona of the children through sustained efforts in detoxification, education and rehabilitation.

Besides formal education, SUPPORT also imparts training in vocational streams such as Carpentry, Welding, Screen Printing, Cooking, etc to enable those children who don't have the aptitude and inclination towards core education to take up livelihood training instead.

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants to SUPPORT towards the School Fees of girls and boys, their educational material costs, the fees of College going students and the Teachers' salary.

Navjeevan Centre, Murbad, Kalyan

Navjeevan Centre is an organisation initiated under the aegis of the Mar Thoma Mumbai Diocese which provides residential facilities coupled with education. The main beneficiaries of this project are the children of the Commercially Sexually Exploited Women (CSEW) from the area of Kamathipura in Mumbai.

The children are first taken to the day-night care centre and then after suitable guidance are transferred to the Half-way home in Kalyan where they are prepared to be transferred to the Navjeevan Village wherein they live a disciplined life. They attend the Navjyoti School which is recognised up to the 10th Standard by the Maharashtra School Board.

Vocational Training is also imparted to students inclined towards obtaining the same in collaboration with Fr. Agnel Technical Institute, Bandra.

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants to Navjeevan Centre to part-fund the educational expenses of Navjyoti School and comprehensive support to the Navjeevan Vocational Training Center (NJVTC).

ADAPT (Formerly The Spastics Society of India), Mumbai

ADAPT was started by Dr. Mithu Alur in 1972 as a special school for children with developmental disabilties, which has today grown to advocate and practice inclusive education.

With the establishment of Anganwadis ADAPT is practicing inclusive education while providing assessment and therapy.ADAPT has an ADAPT Rights Group for advocacy of rights of the disabled and it also empowers the underprivileged women (the mothers of the disabled children coming to ADAPT) by providing them training in vocations like stitching and other crafts to enable them to become economically self- reliant through the initiative "Narika Shakti".

Axis Bank Foundation is providing grants to ADAPT for the six Anganwadis in the slums of Mahim and Dharavi to support the salaries of the personnel involved in the programme and other administrative and therapy input costs.

Sense International (India), Bhopal

Since its inception, Sense International (India) has been instrumental in setting up of services as well as being an advocate for deafblind people and their families.

It is a pro-active and needs based organisation supporting different models of service delivery including:

• Day Care Education Units
• Home-based Programmes
• Vocational Training
• Community Based Rehabilitation
• Teacher Training programme

Axis Bank Foundation partnered with Sense International (India) since August 2010 to increase educational opportunities for deafblind Children in Rajasthan (Jaipur) and Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal). The local project partner implementing the program in Bhopal is Digdarshika, Institute of Rehabilitation & Research, Bhopal.

The project would ensure that all deafblind people in these regions would have access to diagnosis, early stimulation and education. It would also help the parents and the wider community to understand the value of education to their deafblind children.

Br. Nath Pai Shikshan Prasarak Mandal (Vikhroli Vidyalay), Mumbai

Grant has been provided to the organization for construction of a school building. The two-storeyed structure will accomodate 40 classrooms benefitting the existing student strength of 900 students with an additional capacity of student strength of 300-400 children per year.

The one time grants are purely based on the merits of each case and are considered for the most deserving and meritorious cases. Since Axis Bank Foundation is focused on "Education" through provision of grants for supporting running expenses of on-going projects, such grants for construction and asset creation are usually not considered.

Vidya Prasarak Mandal Dahisar, Mumbai

Grant has been provided to the organization for construction of a school building. The School building consisting of 40 rooms will be able to accommodate the present student strength of 5000 and future enhanced student strength based on the number of students admitted per year.

Mission For Vision, Mumbai

A one time grant was disbursed to the organization for purchase of a bus which is being used to ferry the villagers to and from the villages for eye surgery and subsequent eye check-ups at the Tulsi Eye Hospital, Nashik. This has greatly benefited the villagers who were otherwise bereft of such eye-care service in the area.