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Yatra Foundation Australia now has tax deductible status! Donate today!
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Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan
Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu
Rural Udaipur, Rajasthan
Established in 2009 on the border of India’s most famous tiger reserve, this school was established in conjunction with an Indian NGO (GSK). We now support 150 students at this school, delivering a personalised curriculum that is reviewed daily and includes an excellent sports program to supplement the academic one. The students are drawn from 4 local villages, on land donated by a local farmer whose dream was to see his children at school rather than working in the fields.
Incorporating sport and physical activity into the curriculum has led to several success stories with students representing at state and, recently, national level in their chosen sports with the awarding of educational scholarships to these students. Yatra is a firm believer in the doctrine of “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. All students are provided with sports uniforms and equipment and engage in regular sports and nutritional education as part of their curriculum.
The Fariya project has now also become a resource “model school” for the region with teachers sharing teaching methods and pedagogy with neighbouring government schools. This leverages our impact on the local and wider community and promotes the importance of education.
Learn more about our philosophy and NGO partnership with Gramin Shiksha Kendra (GSK) in the video below.
Located in southern Tamil Nadu, nestled near the tsunami-prone shores of the Bay of Bengal, Yatra Foundation provides Teacher salary and Teacher training to enable local children to attend this state-of-the-art facility in conjunction with Isha Vidhya foundation. 1000 students benefit from excellent classrooms and computer facilities and learn in a full English-medium curriculum. Yatra foundation provides teacher salary subsidies to recruit and retain the best available teachers. We also provide training to local rural teachers to enhance their classroom skills and again, leverage our effectiveness in reaching a larger number of needy children.
Recently, 150 local headmasters and young teachers from 50 regional schools attended a workshop at the Yatra Cuddlelore School to learn about teaching methods, evaluation, and resource allocation. We hope to continue these workshops on a regular basis so that these teaching methods and processes can be disseminated around southern Tamil Nadu. We are now seeing some extraordinary academic results especially in science and computing. The children at this school now have hope with a belief and confidence that they can dream and accomplish great outcomes. Many of our supporters have visited and marveled at the level of education being delivered in this remote location. We are now hoping to add year 11 and 12 to this school. We conduct regular medical and dental camps at this school also to ensure our children are healthy in mind and body.
Yatra is committed to providing continued teacher training and support programs for the student cohorts currently in Grades 2 and 4 at Isha Vidhya. Such training will remain until the respective cohorts complete education equivalent to Year 12 level. Yatra aims that through this process teacher training will reach a standard of excellence so as to establish Isha Vidhya as the model program for teacher education in the region. Yatra anticipates thereafter that Isha Vidhya will become the preeminent resource for Government Education in the region, allowing the school to transition to alternate sources of funding and ultimately become self sufficient. Self-sufficiency will be determined by:
,and will be expected to come about in [2025]. Once the program reaches self-sufficiency, Yatra will withdraw financial support for Isha Vidhya, and look toward other opportunities.
In partnership with Seva Mandir, an exceptional NGO well established in Rajasthan, we have established 20 Shiksha Kendras (rural educational learning centres) each with an average of 30 students drawn from the corresponding local village with the teachers often sourced from the same village. These children receive a quality bridging education with the aim of integrating them into government schools when the requisite skills have been acquired to equip them for future long-term success.
The beneficiaries are the residents of villages, who are young children, aged 6-14 years who reside in remote areas not serviced by government schools, and the teachers who are drawn also from the villages and given teacher training. The majority of this population live on less than $2 per day and over 90% rely on subsistence agriculture, where conditions are arid, the land degraded, and water is scarce. Public services are dysfunctional and there is a high level of malnutrition, and the majority of children do not attend school. Yatra Foundation has supported the primary education of more than 3000 children over the last six years through Seva Mandir facilitated Shiksha Kendra (SKs) in the rural and tribal hamlets of GirwaBlock, Udaipur.
Yatra aims to oversee the transition of all School Capital funding from the Yatra Foundation to full community ownership. It is expected that in so doing, local governments will begin to implement Yatra Foundation protocols to optimize school readiness preparation to cope with increased enrollment in government schools. Yatra will begin the transition of School maintenance responsibilities to be taken up in partnership with the local community and government. The completion of such a transition will be expected in 2030.
This was Yatra Foundation's first project in India. A small school was started within a slum in the surrounds of Kota, a large education coaching town with many tertiary education facilities. This slum was surveyed and found to be in need for a primary school. The small school was opened in December 2007 and has been well accepted and embraced by the slum community.
Unfortunately since the Federal Government of India has introduced the “Right to Education” bill to be fully implemented from March 2013, the Basti school will no longer be deemed a satisfactory environment for a “school” due the many high tension electrical wires, and poor sanitation in the surrounding area and Yatra have had to cease functioning as a school. Ironically, the government has opened a government school right next door to our own building!
The Basti community strongly support the continued presence of Yatra Foundation so we are currently trying to work out other ways to help this poor community with education, resource facilities, health camps, homework support and other initiatives. Yatra Foundation has actively sought alternative arrangements for 20 children who wish to continue with their studies and do not want to attend the government school. These children are being transported daily to a private school for the remainder of their primary schooling.
This small computer training facility is located in the village of Mandana, close to Kota in Rajasthan. The teacher is able to provide essential computer skills for both high school and University age children and young adults and allows them additional time to practice these skills away from school. So far, there have been 147 students trained at the centre and it continues to provide support for many children and young adults.
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100% of all individual donations made to Yatra Foundation are used to fund Yatra projects. No proceeds are used for any administrative costs, which are paid for by the founders or by the organisations and businesses that support Yatra’s work. Yatra Foundation Australia has the authority to fundraise under permit no. CFN/21179 in New South Wales and 10272 in Victoria.
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