Support living expenses of children in a shelter home by Make A Difference

Support living expenses of children in a shelter home

Impact

A home where Dhanya finally feels loved and cared for

"I don't want to be very rich or very poor. I just want to be able to take care of myself," says Dhanya (name changed).

Dhanya lives in a shelter home in Bangalore. She was born in Andhra Pradesh. Her father had abandoned them before she was even born. He mother was the sole breadwinner. However, things started getting hard when her mother started getting epileptic attacks. As their village didn't have access to proper medical facilities, they were forced to migrate to Bangalore.

This put her education in peril. After a few months in Bangalore, her mother meet a social worker who enrolled her in a shelter home. Dhanya lived in that home for a year while studying kindergarten, however for unknown reasons she had to leave the place.

That's when she moved into the Make a Difference shelter homes. Convinced that this was a safe place for Dhanya, her mom enrolled her. She remembers that the sisters gave her snacks and showed her to her room.

She went on to study from 1st grade to 4th grade in Kannada medium. She wanted to get into English medium and after a year of hard work, managed to do so in 5th grade.

It was that summer that Dhanya was going to meet her father for the first time but before she could reach he passed away unexpectedly.

When she went to his funeral she found out that he had remarried and met her half-siblings. This incident strongly affected her.

Despite being uprooted more than once Dhanya continues to be forward looking. She is now in college and is working and looks forward to have an independent life. She wants to become an journalist or an architect and make her mother happy.

Children like Dhanya need support from you to fulfill their ambitions.

You can help vulnerable children across shelter homes in India dream of a better future and stress free life. You can donate so that they can get a safe shelter, and care. You can give with confidence because every program listed is GIVEASSURED.

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By donating to this program

you will be sponsoring the overall costs incurred to support the beneficiaries


About The Program

What the beneficiary gets
Shelter Home
What you get
Tax Exemption
Periodic Reports
Program Description

MAD Holistic Child support program works to provide shelter and education to homeless children from vulnerable backgrounds. This program has shown great impact over the last 3 years. With the intervention, the number of youth going to universities in the partner shelter homes of Make A Difference has gone up from around 20% to close to 78%.

Donations to this program will be used to cover the shelter expenses related to providing quality academic support like living expenses and hostel fees.

MAD works with children in orphanages and shelter homes across India such as Coimbatore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Cochin, Trivandrum, Mangalore, Lucknow, Vellore, Hyderabad.

These children have been abandoned from families and are placed with shelter homes in their cities. The aftercare support works with youth beyond the age of 18 transitioning out of shelter homes providing higher education and career counselling support to pursue viable careers.

MAD directly pays for university fees after a formal scholarship agreement signed by the beneficiary with MAD. All the details of such transfers along with originals bills are filed for reference and available upon request.

Transitional Readiness and Aftercare enables children to build their career paths that are in sync with their interests and is aimed at those who are poised to pass out from shelter homes. This is a volunteer driven system. At an average every youth under the programme is associated with a minimum of 3 volunteers. One of the volunteers is compulsorily a part of the Make a Difference Fellowship programme and is inducted and trained thoroughly around the nuances of the programme through a 4 day Training and Development conference. Apart from this, the volunteers are a part of an on-going Fellowship curriculum for the entire course of their fellowship.

Shelter homes are designed to provide safe spaces to youth at risk, up to the age of 18. As youth move out of these shelter homes, a majority of them move back into the marginalized parts of the society. By pairing them with a spirited volunteer, called a Wingman, we motivate, inspire and facilitate their journey towards an independent and sustainable life. Much like an elder brother or sister, the Wingman becomes a trusted advisor, friend and a guide for their kid; from finding internships, to procuring certain legal documents, a wingman runs post to post along with their child, making these processes possible.

Over 90% of the children successfully pass their 10th standard. Where children progress into class 11 and 12 the program provides more intensive one-to-one mentoring for a minimum of 2-3 hours a week, supported by placement into University where possible or jobs where more appropriate.

The mentor additionally engages a host of academic support volunteers (ASVs) who provide additional teaching support for up to 8 hours a week if the individual needs academic support, assuming the shelter is willing to provide access. Mentors also aim to interact with the parent of the child (where there is one) up to 6 times a year to ensure buy in and support.

Alongside this they are also provided professional career counselling based on which an appropriate future career path is determined, and the mentor also provides support for documentation and admissions/job placements as needed.

Some of the indicators collected to track the progress of the project are:

- 12th Std Grades

- No. of active scholarships awarded

- % of youth who scored 60% or more in their year-end exams

- % of youth who continued on to Higher Education (University)

- % of youth who successfully moved to second year of higher education

- Stable housing post shelter

- Progression to career oriented work

- Financial stability

- Earning Threshold

- Fundamentals of literacy and numeracy

- Confidence and self-esteem

- Core life and social skills

When you donate to this program you will help abandoned children living in shelter homes get access to safe living while getting an education that can change their life.

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About The NGO

Make A Difference
Make A Difference Logo
Make A Difference

Make A Difference (MAD) is a youth driven, non-profit organisation working to ensure equitable outcomes for children in orphanages and street shelters.

Registered as a non-profit in 2006, Make A Difference reaches out to over 3,460 children in 67 shelters across 23 cities in India, through a highly efficient 3,822 strong volunteer network.

Volunteers commit a year and spend between 2 and 10 hours every week mentoring, teaching and interacting with children in order to ensure that they get the support and care they need during childhood.

Their aim is to ensure that even the most vulnerable children in shelters are able to realize equitable outcomes and that they are able to live a life free from exploitation, with a capability of managing emotional and financial life crises.

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founders
Founded in 1991
NGO Leadership

Jithin C Nedumala

areas of operation
Area of Operation
Area of Operation

After School Program | education

location of work
Location of Work
Location of Work

Karnataka

awards
Awards And Recognitions
Awards And Recognitions

2014: Website of the year

2013: iVolunteer Leader

2017: Guide Star Gold

2014: Top Ranking Organisation of the year

last audited
Last Audited
Periodic Compliance Checks by GiveIndia

Renewals FY 19-20

Program Updates

Program Updates

22 September, 2023

An update on the program you are supporting

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

Total number of beneficiaries impacted was 461 out of which 41% were females, in Ahmedabad,Bangalore,Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Mysore, Nagpur,Trivandrum, Vellore, Vijayawada, Pune


Challenges faced and next steps

There were 129 Self Support Group Meetings for over 189 hours that were conducted with over 70% of the youth participating. Total youth under the aftercare programme during the quarter was 445 including the youth transitioning from transition readiness program. Of which, we continued to provide: ? Education scholarship to 177 youth ? Housing support to 130 youth ? Monthly stipend support to 117 youth Two youth got placed in internships of their choice within 6 months after completing graduation.. One of them has recently received an employment opportunity from Mirae Assets. Volunteer Sourcing and Recruitment: This quarter saw an incoming 2586 applications, apart from the 7199 applications already received in the previous quarter. Volunteer induction and onboarding:1822 new volunteers have been inducted and onboarded. Total youth under the aftercare programme during the quarter was 374 not including the youth transitioning from transition readiness (who were be added to the aftercare program starting next quarter). We continue to provide : ? Education scholarship to 163 youth ? Housing support to 123 youth ? Monthly stipend support to 99 youth 12 youths got placed in jobs of their choice within 6 months after completing graduation with a minimum pay of 10,000. Some of the reputable organizations where our youth have joined are, Lenskart, IFFCO Tokio and Radisson Blu (Oman). 2 youths got the choice of their internships, one of them in GE Electronics while 3 other youths pursued their higher education with the required support from MAD.


Stories from the ground

Mukesh started his journey in one of the shelters in Vijayawada.With the support of MAD volunteers he started his journey with B.Sc in Hotel Management from Chennai�s Amirta college.During his days in Chennai, he attend the SSG meets in our aftercare program diligently and built a community of his peers for himself. During every meet-up, he would surprise the team with photos and the dishes he tried newly in his college and even cook for the other youth and volunteers. He saw himself marching towards his success step by step when he got an internship with Radisson Group of Hotels in Goa.He started working as Commi Chef Level-1 with ITC Grand Chola in Chennai. Ultimately with his own interest to explore he came across job opportunities on LinkedIn and got selected to work with Radisson Group of Hotels at Sohar, Oman. He is finally ready to fly across the ocean and make his dreams come true. *name changed to protect the identity of the youth*


20 December, 2022

MAD welcomes back the children into care.

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

a. Milestones achieved

  • 95% (19/20) of youth got placed in jobs within 6 months after completing their graduation with a minimum pay of INR 10,000.
  • One youth took a job in the core sector with a pay of INR 9,000 b. Major events 60 Decibels Impact Performance Report Omidyar Network India (ON India) partnered with 60 Decibels, a tech- enabled impact measurement company conducted interviews with 198 MAD’s students and was able to provide a detailed impact report on how successful MAD’s operations has been for the beneficiaries. With a 94 Net Promoter Score ® — on a scale of 100, MAD’s staff and volunteers were observed to love MAD’s staff and volunteers and the opportunity to access education through MAD. With a 100% quality of life - The top reported outcomes are: • Access to formal education • Improved performance at studies • Received employment opportunities A 93% of the beneficiaries reported an experience with NO challenges which is an indicator of how successful the programs are able to function on-ground. Lipman Family Award - April, 2022 Make A Difference was named as one of the three winners for the prestigious 2022 Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize, selected from almost 100 organizations globally. The Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize at the University of Pennsylvania acknowledges efforts from individuals and organizations towards initiating far-reaching transformation in the social sector. The evaluation criteria of the award are leadership, impact, innovation and transferability c. Cities, regions, areas etc covered Under the Aftercare Program, there are 18 Cities which have been Impacted: (Ahmedabad,Bangalore,Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Mysore, Nagpur,Trivandrum, Vellore, Vijayawada, Pune) d. Number of people impacted directly/indirectly 370 Youth were impacted under the Aftercare Program. e. How the work was carried out Strategist recruitment The Strategist Team is our strongest vision guardians and custodians of MAD culture amongst the MAD volunteer base. They are the enablers who will support and mentor teams throughout their MAD journey. In March 2022, we kick-started our Strategist recruitment process where we conducted a series of tasks, interviews, and tests to identify the best people to support our fellow team this year. We look for people who are natural enablers and we train them in coaching & project management skills through weekly training & support sessions. We received 130 applications from our volunteer base for the Strategist roles, of which 74 strats were recruited.

Fellow Recruitment MAD Fellows (Community Leaders) are recruited from the exceptional volunteers of the previous year. We look for young people who are willing to take ownership, can lead from a space of vulnerability, and have a growth mindset.

This year 712 volunteers applied for the MAD Fellowship and we organized co-working sessions, case studies, role-plays, and personal interviews to finally select 304 of them. These fellows bring onboard skillsets like integrity, ability to self-learn, team working skills & facilitation mindset which are the bare necessities to grow into a community leader.

Having a strong fellowship team this year was more crucial than ever because this cohort is going to take MAD back to its basics, back on ground after a 2-year hiatus. Even though we needed 450 fellows this year, we only chose the 300 who were willing to and committed to go on ground who met the requirements of the skillset and quality for this role. We hope to recruit the remaining fellows from the new volunteers who will be recruited this year.

Following projects were conducted during this period Project I: Self Support Group Self support group model is targeted to build long term self sustainable communities of youth transitioning out of shelter homes by creating multiple self support groups Project II:Placement Aftercare placement is aimed towards ensuring youth have the necessary support systems and active mentorship available to progress in the career of their choice Project III: Scholarship Aftercare scholarship project is aimed towards ensuring that the youth have the necessary financial and active mentorship support available to be able to continue with their education/job when they move out of the child care institutions Project IV: Crisis Support Enabling intervention to ensure youth undergoing crisis are able to bounce back and continue in the system

f. How did the program help and impact the people

Project I: Self Support Group -370 youth part of 38 self support group across the country

  • 90 + self support group meeting conducted across India

-85% youth participated in the SSG meetings against the baseline of 72%

  • 77% volunteers attended the SSG meetings against the baseline of 75% Project II: Placement

-95% (19/20) of youth got placed in jobs of their choice within 6 months after completing graduation with a minimum pay of 10,000

  • 100% (20/20) youth seeking jobs got placed in formal sector
  • 100 %(10/10) youth seeking higher education support continued with higher studies
  • 75%(3/4) youth seeking internship got placed in internship of their choice Project III: Scholarship 170/170 Youth seeking education scholarship supported with education scholarship 157/157 youth across india seeking housing support provided with housing in the form of PG’s, hostel, community homes 96/96 youth provided with monthly stipend support Project IV:Crisis Support

-93% of youth seeking crisis intervention continued in the program.

  • 87 /87 youth seeking covid relief supported since the wake of the pandemic with the direct financial support of 11.6 lakhs to the youth and their families

Challenges faced and next steps

Staying in contact with youth is a challenge when they go through any crisis Having volunteers available whenever youth needs them was a challenge Post Pandemic, it has been difficult for youth to find jobs in the fields of their choice. Delay in exams + results has heavily impacted the ongoing progress made.

How did you overcome it? 100% of volunteers are trained to manage crises and extra support is given wherever necessary Volunteers support each other when the other is unavailable so youth has support throughout 100% of youth are given placement support to get placed in formal sector jobs with work from home options available. Other program volunteer, fellows and employees also stepped to provide required suport to ensure youth continue within the program despite any crises and also tapped into their network to get job placement opportunities.

Plan for the next 6 months for this program: 100% of youth continue to attend the self-support group meetings to support each other Strengthen the digital infrastructure for youth so they can stay connected with the supporting teams 100% of youth are supported with any kind of crisis they go through All the youth that pass out of college this academic year get placed within 6 months in the formal sector

Volunteer Sourcing and Recruitment: As the academic year came to an end and another has begun, it is time for us to put together the team of community volunteers / change agents who provide the support to our beneficiaries week -on-week basis. The newly onboarded Fellows and Strategists run volunteer sourcing campaigns and conduct recruitment workshops within their cities with the help of the full time employees during the months of July and August.


Stories from the ground

Baby Khatoon

Baby was one of the children at ACTT in Kolkata and was quite young when the operations were shut down in the shelter. She moved multiple shelter homes, struggled with issues at home and finally achieved what she wanted. During her first call with Indrajeet, who is working in Aftercare, in 2019, she’d told him she wants to be in the hotel management industry, at that time it felt like a dream, she still had her schooling to finish. Amidst all that, she also lost her father and travelled two hours everyday to attend school. She has been through a lot.

Earlier this year, she moved to Bangalore for a course. Through that, Baby has been selected by Windsor Manor. It was a long process at ITC as she attended 3 rounds of interviews. Bangalore team has also supported in the last two months. The team had to do a lot of prep over a weekend and it came out handy before her interview. She started her 1 year apprenticeship from 20th June, 2022 onwards.

Indrajeet, who has been closely working and supporting her said “It’s just a moment of content for me today. At the time, we didn’t even have operations in Kolkata but we made it work with weekly check-ins and what not. From not knowing whether she would be able to complete school in the first place to her landing an apprenticeship, it felt like living her dream with her. I am hopeful there is no going back to the same cycle now for her, it’s only the best things. crying happy tears. I’m just so happy that this is what we do everyday, we make dreams come true.”


31 May, 2022

Help MAD Find Employment for Youth

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

75% of youth have a self-support group with other youth in it to support each other in any kind of situations 100% volunteers are trained to support youth with any crisis management 75% of youth able to take the support provided by MAD and come out of the crisis 100% of any basic financial support is given to the youth by MAD. 90% of youth got placed within 6 months of leaving college 91% of youth get placed in jobs after university with a salary of at least Rs 10000 or above 95% of youth seeking jobs post-graduation get placed informal sector jobs 100% youth seeking placements support, supported with interview readiness (resume building, mock interview) 100% scholarship disbursement without fine payments 95% of youth under scholarship have stable housing

Areas covered (Cities in which youth are provided with living expenses): Ahmedabad Bangalore Chandigarh Chennai Cochin Coimbatore Delhi Hyderabad Lucknow Mumbai Mysore Mangalore Nagpur Pune Trivandrum Vellore Vijayawada


Challenges faced and next steps

Staying in contact with youth is a challenge when they go through any crisis. Having volunteers available whenever youth needs them also has been a challenge. The ongoing pandemic has made things worse as it is getting difficult to find jobs for youth.

All of our volunteers are trained to manage crises and extra support is given wherever necessary. They support each other when the other is unavailable so youth has support throughout. All our youth are given placement support to get placed in the formal sector jobs with work from home options available.

All of our youth continue to attend the self-support group meetings to support each other. We have strengthened the digital infrastructure for youth so they can stay connected with the supporting teams. All the youth that graduated out of college this academic year got placed within 6 months in the formal sector


Stories from the ground

Gauthaman is one of the first set of youth that MAD worked with. He has been sound academically and has even got admission to the science stream in his 10+2, But after that, he discontinued his academics and started doing odd jobs. He then went to CCIP in the US and took a course in automobile engineering. Even after that he came back and started off doing the same things that he was doing before - Working as a cleaner in a lorry and then slowly started working as a mechanic in some local workshop. We encouraged him to take up Polytechnic and after some encouragement from his peers and us, he took us the course. He finished the course in 3 years itself with a CGPA of 8.06 and got 2 placements from college but denied them since he wanted to work in the core auto mechanic domain. He found a job in Toyota and is employed there now. The picture is of his first day wearing the coverall and heading to work.


28 November, 2021

Support living expenses of children in a shelter home

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

Milestones Achieved:98% of youth progressed to the next academic cycle. 100% of the youth have stable housing99% of youth have continued with the programMajor Events:Covid Relief: Today, the world is facing an unprecedented danger with COVID-19. The scale, spread, and long term economic impact of COVID-19 is worrying. As each day unfolds, we hear stories of how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the world, just like everyone else covid-19 had serious implications in the lives of the youth and their families that MAD works with, some of the youth and their families lost their jobs/livelihood and were not even able to meet 2 times meal a day.To ensure all the youth who need financial and daily sustenance support because of covid-19, we initiated Covid Relief and provided support to 84 youth and their families along with mentoring and emotional support to the youth.Between April to September 2020 we provided direct covid financial support of 9.46 lakh INR to the youth.Areas covered (Cities in which youth are provided with living expenses):AhmedabadBangaloreChandigarhChennaiCochinCoimbatoreDelhiHyderabadLucknowMumbaiMysoreMangaloreNagpurPuneTrivandrumVelloreVijayawadaThe number of people impacted?317 youth were impacted in this program in the last 6 months. How were they impacted or helped?We believe stability across 4 broad areas together would provide the necessary foundations required for the youth to achieve and sustain middle-class outcomes. Youth were impacted/helped through the below broad areas:Personal,Financial, Living conditions andFamily


Challenges faced and next steps

Digitalization/online classes:Since the beginning of the pandemic, almost all the institutes have started online classes or WFH, a lot of our youth did not have access to good quality laptops. To ensure all our youth can attend classes and can work from home we launched an internal volunteer campaign and community campaign to raise funds and resources, we successfully managed to leverage our community network and get the required resources within the MAD community.The aftercare volunteer team was able to support 37+ youth with technology upgrades in the form of laptops and mobile phones.What is your goal/aim/activity plan for the next 6 months for this program?-Develop a framework for Self Support Group assessment to standardize the intervention across the SSG’s based on the requirement of each self-support group across the country-Considering the current pandemic conduct the volunteer training and inductions via online platforms-Enable community network/MAD Alumni/Corporates for aftercare placements-Continue with the Research to identify aftercare needs for lower age groups dropping out of shelter homes-Potential collaborations with other organizations working with the Aftercare demography to leverage on the experience and best practices-Considering the current pandemic situation continue with the online platforms to foster community building and ensure consistent skill-building and academic support for the youth-Build competency across the various volunteering layers to manage Crisis Scenarios


Stories from the ground

It brings us great pride in sharing with you a story of MAD Hyderabad, where the communities came together to empower the youth. Suryam is a youth under the Aftercare Program in Hyderabad. Over the years Suryam had shown keen interest in music. After receiving his first guitar, he went ahead and taught himself how to play the instrument. Years later, when Suryam posted his version of a song in Telugu, the Indian - American playback singer Sid Sriram reshared the post on Instagram and wished him the best.Over the last months, he had shown interest to pursue his future in music. With the help of his Aftercare wingman and the Hyderabad community, 3 Lakhs enabled Suryam to get his admissions into KM College of Music and Technology in Chennai.With Suryam stepping closer towards the dream of his choice, at the MAD community each individual is left feeling proud. We are immensely grateful for your support in transforming outcomes for Suryam and many more children/ youth like him.


23 March, 2021

Supporting Child Care institutions with essentials during the Pandemic

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In times of need, the MAD community came together to support Child Care Institutions (CCI), children, youth, and their families.
Under the Transition Readiness Program, 51/59 youth received admissions into colleges of their choice. Financial support of about 10 Lakh + was provided to youth for housing and tuition. Since July 2020, 700+ online sessions have been conducted to provide youth the required mentoring and support.
Online Self Support Group (SSG) meetings were conducted to mentor and provide emotional support to the youth. During the pandemic, the aftercare team conducted sessions on nutrition and wellness, yoga, and fun learning on computers. The session was conducted to help the youth acclimatize to the changes that were happening due to the pandemic.
During the pandemic, 12 youth were staying at the Cochin community center, which includes youth who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. They were provided with regular spoken English class, computer, and tech awareness sessions.
The amount was also raised to cater to any urgent support needed by children/youth in case of emergencies. To ensure that the youth in the Aftercare Program is supported, MAD provided financial support of 9.4 Lakh to 84 youths and their families. The same was extended to youth who were earlier part of the MAD program and had reached out for support.



5 July, 2020

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MAD has interventions in the following areas in the shelter homes - Supporting the education of children from 5th to 10th by teaching them English, Math and science. Conducting sessions and providing a mentor for children who transition from 10th to the PUC, while also supporting them in their studies. Providing sessions and mentoring youth once they exit the shelter. Here, we are providing you with proud statistics from last year -



  1. Total number of youth supported by MAD under Aftercare Programme in 2019-20 - 267
    155 youth supported with housing support in PG’s, Hostels, Flats, Community homes

  2. Number of youth Pursuing higher studies in 2019-20 - 195

  3. 99.2% of youth progressed into next year’s academic cycle in their respective colleges/Vocational courses

  4. Number of youth who graduated in 2019-20 - 62

  5. 98% of youth seeking job placements got into formal sector jobs of their choice. They are placed in organizations such as TCS, Accenture, Byjus, Jio Ltd, Indigo, Columbia Asia

  6. 83 youth supported with a monthly stipend to initiate financial inclusion to meet daily needs especially the youth who are orphans or have no caregiver to provide financial assistance



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