Bridge the learning gaps of underprivileged children by Bhumi

by Bhumi
Bridge the learning gaps of underprivileged children

Thank you!

This program is fully funded because of donors like you.

Impact

Every monthly donation helps educate more kids like Sheela

Being a first generation learner from an underprivileged background, Sheela didn't have strong fundamentals in subjects like science and maths to help her continue her academic pursuit.

It was only after volunteers from Bhumi stepped in, did Sheela developed a keen interest in studies and the zeal to improve her fundamentals in the subjects that hindered her development the most. With the constant support she received from Bhumi, Sheela is now one of the most attentive students in school and a fast learner.

Your help can put a student like Sheela on the path of academic success and contribute to their bright futures

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Giveassured

By donating to this program

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


About The Program

What the beneficiary gets
Training
School Supplies
What you get
Tax Exemption
Periodic Reports
Program Description

Most children have English communication skills that are below age-appropriate levels. Most children in Grade 2 are unable to recognize alphabets while Grade 5 students fail to write 3 letter words. Bhumi believes, that with the right kind of skill training, these children will become aware of letter-sound relationships. They will comprehend the manner in which they read and hear and express themselves effectively within a time span of 2 to 3 years.

An interactive platform targeted at children from underprivileged backgrounds helps them with their listening, reading and writing skills. Each volunteer from Bhumi is assigned a group of 4 to 6 students. The students are engaged in 2-hour long weekend classes that focus on helping the students recognize alphabets using interactive tools.

The progress of the children is assessed through baseline, mid-year progressive and year-end assessments to monitor every child's progress.

... Read more

About The NGO

Bhumi
Bhumi Logo
Bhumi

Three like-minded friends in the year 2006 related closely to the need for quality education and believed a solution that creates educationally empowered youth capable of active participation and development of the community they belong to will make them self-reliant, and self-sustainable.

Thus, Bhumi – India’‘s largest independent youth volunteering organisation was established in the year 2006 with a vision to help build a more influential, equal and socially conscious society and a mission to drive social change by fostering an environment where young adults & children learn, lead and thrive. Bhumi as a platform enables over 20,000 volunteers in over 12 cities across India for causes like education, environment, animals and community welfare.

With an aim to render quality education, Bhumi provides comprehensive educational support for over 25,000 underprivileged children across India to help them break the cycle of poverty. Bhumi bridges the gaps in formal education and opportunities by providing language and STEAM education, life-skills support and scholarships for higher education:

- through volunteers at orphanages during weekends

- at low-income (private and government) schools with development support for teachers

- education at after-school community centres in urban slums

Most of our volunteers are students or working professionals under the age of 30 and go through mandatory orientation and in return gain immensely through our Leadership programme. Through this platform, the volunteers progress to more leadership roles and responsibility where they switch to education sector from the experiences gained from Bhumi. While holistic education is imparted to the children, Bhumi’‘s young volunteers are also transformed into socially conscious leaders in the education sector.

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founders
Founded in 1991
NGO Leadership

Vaishnavi Srinivasan

areas of operation
Area of Operation
Area of Operation

Primary Education | children

location of work
Location of Work
Location of Work

Tamil Nadu

Bhumi has

provided quality education to 5256 underprivileged children

awards
Awards And Recognitions
Awards And Recognitions

2014: CERTIFICATE OF EXCELLENCE (STATE LEVEL)

2017: Appreciation Letter

2016: Advanced Level - GuidestardIndia GOLD Transparency Award

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 136 out of which 51% were females, in Bengaluru,Delhi,Patna,Kolkata,Pune,Trichy and Chennai


Challenges faced and next steps

Nakshatra event - Bhumi�s annual inter-shelter home talent festival to unleash the creative potential of children. The festival provides a platform for our children to showcase their extra-curricular capabilities and talents in arts, literature and culture. Nakshatra was conducted across Bangalore, Chennai, Trichy, Pune, Patna, Kolkata and Delhi, involving 163 shelter homes, 3700 children and 945 volunteers.


Stories from the ground

Nisha Pramanik, a 5th Std. student. Shanthi Rani shelter in Kolkata trains in Maths, Computers and English with Bhumi. She looks forward to each weekend not just to learn but to interact with her Bhaiya�s and didi's to discuss her career aspirations and how she can achieve them. Apart from getting better grades at school, she feels empowered that Bhumi has been consistently supporting them in enhancing her foundations skills, while being very approachable and patient in teaching concepts. The activity and experiential learning methods is what appeals to her immensely as she finds them interesting, interactive and collaborative.


23 January, 2023

Half Yearly Update on your Donations

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

3,044 children were impacted across Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Patna, Pune, Mumbai, Trichy. In Maths, Topics Covered were Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Money Value, 2D/3D Shapes, Days/Weeks/Month, Place Values, Word Problems, Fractions, Perimeter, Division, Symmetry, Area & Conversion, Data Handling, etc. It was seen that Grade1,2 & 5 children performed well across all numeracy and operation modules. In computers, children performed independently at Introduction to Computers and Paint without the help of a teaching volunteer. Children also performed well in Excel and Internet independently without the guidance of a volunteer. In English (Reading fluency & comprehension, writing, speaking & listening), Children of Grade 3 were able to perform well across modules. -> Delivery of virtual classes in English, maths, science, computers, robotics, life-skills & mentoring, arts & dance. English: Listening, speaking, reading comprehension/fluency, and writing skills. Activity-based learning through Alphabets, vowels, verbs, listening skills-stories, nouns, introductory sentence, Crosswords, comprehension, jumbled sentences, state, and capitals, an overview of parts of speech (pronoun, adjectives, Adverb, preposition, interjection, gerund, conjunction) Common noun, proper noun, vowels, etc. Math: Fundamental arithmetic skills to eliminate the fear of conceptual learning. Activity-based learning through Number identification, reading and writing numbers, operations (Addition, Subtraction Multiplication, and Division), Place values, Money Values, 2D and 3D shapes, Perimeter Science: Conceptual learning of general Biology followed by real-life applications/scenarios of the concepts Computer Science: Basics of computers, internet & office suite, HTML, etc. Activity-based learning through presentations, live demos, and video modules; post-class practice worksheets via WhatsApp/E-mail Robotics: Learning through AV content: Circuits, Voltage and Currents, Ohms law, Resistive circuits, Motors, Algorithm thinking Life skills and Mentoring: Holistic development through SEL and mentoring through Right to Information, Personality & Career Development Communication skills, Public Speaking, Good touch and bad touch, Healthy food and adulteration, Team Building, Patriotism, Menstrual Hygiene, Social Awareness, Anger Management and Honesty, Public Speaking, Self-Awareness, Gender stereotype, Winning or Losing Arts: Holistic development and creative arts expression through Origami (Birthday cards), Pencil Portrait (Using grid technique), Origami (Shoemaking for baby doll), Single Point Perspective (Drawing a city view), Cartoon Art, Making Swan using Origami Technique, Mandala Art, Warli Art, Doodle Art, Making Dog, Frog and Whale using Origami Technique, Pull tab card, Waterfall car, Silhouette, Pencil Shading Dance and Sports: Hip Hop, Folk, Indian Contemporary, Bollywood, Western & Freestyle, Yoga, Chess with focus on attitude, expression, style, step-clarity, and confidence Key Activities: Volunteer Recruitment; Shelter Homes Centre Identification; Children Initiation; Completing Volunteer orientation and beginning classes in shelter homes; Introductory class with children; Volunteer awards and Learning & Development event (BEACON) Impact: In Maths, there was an impact from 53% in the beginning of the year assessments to 58% in the year end assessments across skills in Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Money Value, 2D/3D Shapes, Days/Weeks/Month, Place Values, Word Problems, Fractions, Perimeter, Division, Symmetry, Area & Convertion, Data Handling etc. In Computers: Out of 96 children, it was seen that highest number of children (30 and 28 respectively) performed independently at Introduction to Computers and Paint without the help of a teaching-volunteer. 70% of ther children (avg) are in dependent level across all modules such Introduction to Computers, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PPT, MS Paint, Internet


Challenges faced and next steps

Challenge: Without Laptop tutors unable to deliver the 100% content in Digital Literacy, like MS office, Applications of computers etc. Way Forward: ? Baseline Assessments in Centers ? Annual City level volunteer meeting ? Baseline Assessment report generation by Volunteer Centre Management ? Regular Classes for students in Shelter Homes ? Regular Classes for students in Shelter Homes ? City level volunteer meeting ? Progress tracking of the centers and identifying centers that need assistance.


Stories from the ground

Ms. Neha Kulkarni from our Pune Chapter sharing her experience of volunteering in Bhumi. "My friend suggested me to join Bhumi. I attended the orientation and joined as a volunteer. I never knew I would come this far. All of this is because of the volunteers and the love that I got from the kids. Even during the hard times Bhumi has helped me in expressing my thoughts and being more outgoing. There is some good in this world. If it?s there somewhere, it?s worth fighting for. Kaviya and Cheenu were underprivileged children living in Chennai. Their mother Rosy wanted to place them in tuition to improve their quality of education, but she is a daily labor and can?t afford the fees. We could see that these children were in middle school and needed to get a coaching to improve their understanding and concepts in subjects. Bhumi helped and educated them which made the students achieve an improvement and increased their interest towards education.


2 June, 2022

Bridge the learning gaps of underprivileged children

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

->Baseline Assessment for Children to assess their skill levels. In Maths, Topics Covered were Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Money Value, 2D/3D Shapes, Days/Weeks/Month, Place Values, Word Problems, Fractions, Perimeter, Division, Symmetry, Area & Conversion, Data Handling, etc. It was seen that Grade1,2 & 5 children performed well across all numeracy and operation modules. In computers, children performed independently at Introduction to Computers and Paint without the help of a teaching volunteer. Children also performed well in Excel and Internet independently without the guidance of a volunteer. In English (Reading fluency & comprehension, writing, speaking & listening), Children of Grade 3 were able to perform well across modules. -> Delivery of virtual classes in English, maths, science, computers, robotics, life-skills & mentoring, arts & dance. English: Listening, speaking, reading comprehension/fluency, and writing skills. Activity-based learning through Alphabets, vowels, verbs, listening skills-stories, nouns, introductory sentence, Crosswords, comprehension, jumbled sentences, state, and capitals, an overview of parts of speech (pronoun, adjectives, Adverb, preposition, interjection, gerund, conjunction) Common noun, proper noun, vowels, etc. Math: Fundamental arithmetic skills to eliminate the fear of conceptual learning. Activity-based learning through Number identification, reading and writing numbers, operations (Addition, Subtraction Multiplication, and Division), Place values, Money Values, 2D and 3D shapes, Perimeter Science: Conceptual learning of general Biology followed by real-life applications/scenarios of the concepts Computer Science: Basics of computers, internet & office suite, HTML, etc. Activity-based learning through presentations, live demos, and video modules; post-class practice worksheets via WhatsApp/E-mail Robotics: Learning through AV content: Circuits, Voltage and Currents, Ohms law, Resistive circuits, Motors, Algorithm thinking Life skills and Mentoring: Holistic development through SEL and mentoring through Right to Information, Personality & Career Development Communication skills, Public Speaking, Good touch and bad touch, Healthy food and adulteration, Team Building, Patriotism, Menstrual Hygiene, Social Awareness, Anger Management and Honesty, Public Speaking, Self-Awareness, Gender stereotype, Winning or Losing Arts: Holistic development and creative arts expression through Origami (Birthday cards), Pencil Portrait (Using grid technique), Origami (Shoemaking for baby doll), Single Point Perspective (Drawing a city view), Cartoon Art, Making Swan using Origami Technique, Mandala Art, Warli Art, Doodle Art, Making Dog, Frog and Whale using Origami Technique, Pull tab card, Waterfall car, Silhouette, Pencil Shading Dance and Sports: Hip Hop, Folk, Indian Contemporary, Bollywood, Western & Freestyle, Yoga, Chess with focus on attitude, expression, style, step-clarity, and confidence

-> Coding was taught to children without the use of computers through an external collaboration -> Conducted Child Impact Assessment: To understand changes in Children's Behavior towards Classes & Studies via Bhumi's intervention -> 100 children in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Delhi, Chandigarh, West Bengal, Bihar were impacted through Give India funds.

Way Forward: -> End Year Assessments ->All volunteer Meetings -> New Leadership Team Selection -> Curriculum Deliverables for the next academic year


Challenges faced and next steps

-> Prolonged completion of assessments due to pandemic. With volunteers' support and extra time extended, the reviews were completed.
-> Volunteer Shortage. Children are split into batches to tackle this challenge -> Initiating offline sessions on hold due to covid lockdown. Hence, e-sessions are being delivered for the children


Stories from the ground

(1) "My motivation to reach out to children was to show them that they are not less in any way but rather are achievers and India's strong pillars. Initially, I hesitated as the city was new, and I did not know Hindi. But Bhumi showed me the path to achieve my dream, and the children's enthusiasm made me make an effort to do the best for them."

  • Muthukeerthana, Volunteer

(2) Adithya and Swaroop of Grade 9 at PCMC High School, Pimple Gurav (Pune), was captivated to know the difference between an AC & a DC motor. We could see that this enabled children a fun and creative way to understand simple math and scientific principles, thus overcoming their fear of these subjects, which can be daunting otherwise.

Adithya and Swaroop did not just take minimal time to understand the concepts of loops and binary conversions and helped their fellow peers grasp these concepts. When the volunteers introduced them to essential hardware components like LCDs, LEDs, Sensors & Motors, they understood the functionality. They made an array of LED sensors, with little guidance, that glowed in a pattern. They also made a remote-controlled car with support from Vaibhav, one of the volunteers.

Further, the volunteers used "Arduino Blockly" – a visual programming code simulator that made the children practice and learn coding simply and interactively.

The exposure given by the teaching-volunteer of each module has created a significant impact on the children, and now they are on the path of creating autonomous robots like maze followers, intelligent bins, etc. - a much-needed 21st-century skill towards a brighter future!


25 November, 2021

Bridge the learning gaps of underprivileged children

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

421 children of grades 1- 5 across India are equipped with the skills to communicate, continue education, and progress in a globalized society for a better future>Alphabets, vowels, verbs, listening skills-stories, nouns, basic sentence, Crosswords, comprehension, jumbled sentences, state and capitals, an overview of parts of speech, (pronoun, adjectives, Adverb, preposition, interjection, gerund, conjunction) Common noun, proper noun, vowels, etc. were delivered


Challenges faced and next steps

No Challenges Plan: >Baseline Assessments>Content/Class Delivery


Stories from the ground

A beneficiary impact story will be shared as part of the next reporting cycle.


5 August, 2020

Emphasizing on the overall growth and development

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Emphasizing on the overall growth and development




Bhumi’s volunteers are committed to delivering age-appropriate content to different learning styles and levels every weekend at shelter homes across India.
The year’s learning culminates with Ignite Fest, an annual inter-shelter home education fest where children enthusiastically participated in activities set up by the volunteers, and presented models they had created. Working robots, conceptualized science project models made evident that consistent support and exposure, nurturance and opportunities only steer children forward towards a brighter future. Around 2,400+ children from Bengaluru, Chennai and Trcihy participated with the help and guidance of 300+ Volunteers.
Ignite' is an after-school program run by Bhumi for 2800 underprivileged children. This program provides an opportunity for children from low-income families to be up-to-speed with the education standards of their age. These classes are held by volunteers on weekends with modern, interactive tools.



19 November, 2019

Children immersed in diverse activities

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Children immersed in diverse activities








22 July, 2019

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Program Update


Most children have English communication skills that are below age-appropriate levels. Most children in Grade 2 are unable to recognize alphabets while Grade 5 students fail to write 3 letter words. Bhumi believes, that with the right kind of skill training, these children will become aware of letter-sound relationships. They will comprehend the manner in which they read and hear and express themselves effectively within a time span of 2 to 3 years.


An interactive platform targeted at children from underprivileged backgrounds helps them with their listening, reading and writing skills. Each volunteer from Bhumi is assigned a group of 4 to 6 students. The students are engaged in 2-hour long weekend classes that focus on helping the students recognize alphabets using interactive tools.


The progress of the children is assessed through baseline, mid-year progressive and year-end assessments to monitor every child's progress.


Story from the field


“The important thing is to never stop questioning”. Einsteins’ words resonate in every effort our volunteers take in giving children an experience they don’t get otherwise. Durga, Josewa and Kishore took part in First Lego League (FLL), an international competition organized by FIRST, where they are exposed to scientific and real-world challenges. They also built, tested, and programed an autonomous robot using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® technology to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game.


Each student was chosen to create a diverse group which provided an opportunity to learn from each other and grow as the event progressed. The children were overjoyed with their first experience of real-time usage of robotics and we are thrilled to have given them access to such a platform!


In Durga’s words “Programming was at first very difficult. Keeping the robot at the starting line every time during the trial was also difficult because the robot was programmed to operate in zero gravity condition. But then I found a way to mark the starting point.” Josewa quoted that the problem they wanted to solve was creating gravity in space. They tried many things and finally got the solution where they created the rotating model. Kishore said they could not build a robot that competed all the tasks hence with great difficulty they kept changing the parts for every task. Fortunately, the exposure that these children gained in FLL made them derive solutions for the gravity problem.


Kishore, Durga and Josewa aspire to become scientists in the future and shared that they will apply these experiences when they become one. The three children are enthralled that they put in hard work as a team and gained immense knowledge from one another.


What is the expected total number of beneficiaries in this program for FY18-19?6000
What is the number of beneficiaries/ benefits provided in this program, Year-To-Date4691
Village/City/State where project is locatedChennai, Bangalore, Trichy, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Jaipur, Chandigarh,New Delhi
Total Budget for the project for FY18-1910000000
Total Expenses for the project YTD8378094

30 October, 2018

Bhumi's Update

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Program Update


Bhumi's academic programme poses a way to bridge educational inequities, in a scalable and cost-effective manner. The academic year began across cities where baseline assessments were implemented to identify the skills of the children. Programme kits were purchased such as story cards, flash cards, arrow cards, money cards, ganith mala etc., to deliver activity-based classes to the children. In the next few months, syllabus will be delivered to children based on their learning levels from the assessment conducted.


Story from the field


Dinesh was enrolled as a child in Bhumi's Ignite programme - Computer Project back in 2008 when he never had the opportunity to use a computer. In time, he was able to learn quickly, and he gained interest and enthusiasm because of the volunteer's teaching methodology. Due to his family situation, it was doubtful if he could study beyond class 10 but among other factors the confidence and motivation from the volunteers pushed him forward to pursue computer engineering in a polytechnic college. He went ahead to pursue higher studies further by taking an educational loan and with guidance from Bhumi volunteers, he continued to gain an in-depth understanding into computer science. While he aims to become a successful software engineer, he is aware of his community's needs - today, Dinesh volunteers with Bhumi to teach children in his neighbourhood the computer, thus creating a snowball effect of the nurtured nurturing others.


Expected total number of beneficiaries in this program for FY18-1925000
Number of beneficiaries/ benefits provided in this program this year20000

30 April, 2018

Little children thrive at Ignite Fest by Bhumi

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There is no one perfect way to make mainstream education more effective and interesting.
Bhumi volunteers have made sure that our children appreciate what they learn, through their practical teaching methods and radical education fests. A pole-star in Bhumi's Ignite education programme is the Ignite Fest, an annual inter-shelter home education fest conducted in Chennai.
At Ignite Fest, hundreds of children from different shelter homes and lower economic schools participate to display proficiency they have gained through the subjects taught by our volunteers. Children demonstrate project related models, conduct experiments and attend workshops, and thus get a unique opportunity to learn, compete and grow.
This year (2017-18), the Fest was organized in National Institute of Fashion Technology on March 4, 2018. Over 950 children took part, displaying interesting projects made by them in teams, guided by volunteers. More than 260 Bhumi volunteers helped in organizing and conducting the event. The stage had inspired children to bring out their otherwise passive potential. Apart from the project expo, there were technical (learning-oriented) games and workshops for children.
An example of one such game is Run to board, in which children had to connect different words to a common thematic word. Under Artoons, two main events were organised, aimed at bringing out the creativity of the kids. One event emphasized on how all paintings doesn't necessarily require a paint brush. It was demonstrated that any material like sponge, forks, straws, even hands can be used to portray creativity on paper; every child came up with creative ideas, efficiently using the materials. In all, the day proved to be an ensemble of talents, an inspiration to participants and the guests.



13 March, 2018

Inspiration can take you to great heights!

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Rahul (name changed) was enrolled in Bhumi’s Delhi Ignite program, on the mentoring programme in high school, which pairs underprivileged children with volunteers who act as their mentors and role models. Though Rahul was in the mentoring programme, volunteers from all educational programmes under ‘Ignite’ in Delhi supported his education.
Soon after his Class 10 final exams, Rahul moved back to his hometown and has been continuing his higher education. He has been educating more than 150 children in his hometown through an after-school program. Along with five other volunteers, he has been volunteering to train younger kids in their village.
“I am liking it (teaching other children) so much. Time passes so quickly while teaching them. They are very eager to learn” – Rahul.
It was a big achievement for Bhumi to learn how Rahul drew inspiration from the volunteers and decided to give back to society. Apparently, even in the Joy to the World program, he had asked for an Encyclopedia!
Rahul stands as a leader to many underserved children in his village, just like how he was led by volunteers during his time in Delhi.



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