Fellowships
Two fellowships have been processed recently. Abhijit Sinha from Indiranagar, Bangalore has initiated his startup called the Makerspace in Banjarpalya where he has set up self-sustained learning centers equipped with computers, internet and simple prototyping tools to help people build projects, run within communities.
Kaushiek Pranoo and Shruti Thariyal are working on their project “Rela” to engage children from Adivasi Community by centering education on their traditions and everyday lives. They are working to improve the adivasi communities. They strive to strengthen the community within its own roots by facilitating women, youth and children.
July 2014 – December 2014
Asweetha Shetty from Tirunelveli, TN, has set up ‘Bodhi tree’ in Tirunelveli, where she helps build capacities of rural youth alongside connecting them to appropriate income generating opportunities.
Manoj Rathore from Itarsi applied for the second phase of his bird conservation project in Madhya Pradesh and was selected for a fellowship too. He has worked on his project of providing water and shade to birds on roof tops to help them survive the heat of summer with the help of community volunteers who host bird shelters on their rooftops.
April 2013 –October 2014
Our Schools Our future
The film ‘Our Schools , Our future” was completed in September 2013. We shared it with those engaged in the education sector and interested in it. We find that there is growing interest in working with SDMCs. The film captured the good examples of SDMC work through video documenting by children in collaboration with Centre for Child and Law in Karnataka.
Our School Our Future by plustrust
A screening of the film was organised on the Plustrust day (May 7th 2014) at Bangalore.
Jeevan Utsav
We organised a Jeevan Utsav in Itarsi on 4th and 5th August 2013 with help from our fellows there. It was a platform for connecting and networking for the 70 participants. Dairy farmers, people running Ghoshalas, Government veterinary doctors, activists working with dogs came together under one roof and deliberated together on animal welfare.
Fellows workshop and the Plustrust day
The highlight of the year was a 3 day long ‘Fellows Workshop’ organized in May 2014 along with the Plustrust day celebration fulfilling the long standing desire of our fellows to come together. It turned out to be a very interesting group of 16 people with Plustrust fellows, young people on the threshold of testing out their ideas and professionals in social work sector participating. The impact of the workshop was seen in participants now working to concretize some of their ideas and even applying to us for fellowship.
Fellowships
Two fellowships have been processed in the phase. Asweetha Shetty from Tirunelveli, TN, has initiated her startup called the Bodhi tree where she helps build capacities of rural youth alongside connecting them to appropriate income generating opportunities. Manoj Rathore, an existing plustrust fellow applied for the second phase of his bird conservation project in Madhya Pradesh and was selected for a fellowship too.
October 2012-March 2013
Post-conflict Livelihood Skill Enhancement (Masonry) in Kokrajhar, Assam
Shri John Daimalu Basumatary, a Social entrepreneur trained in TISS Mumbai from Kokrajhar Assam, works to upgrade skills of the Masons from refugee camps in Kokrajhar.. An NGO – Thulunga has been formed and a 2 day orientation programme for the masons conducted.Earlier John was supported with a Plustrust fellowship to work on vocational education for village youth. When the conflict exploded in Kokrajhar he was one of the early relief workers to reach the camps and he approached us with his idea. In view of the extraordinary situation, we have extended the fellowship upto March 2013.
Vasundhara –A Project For Welfare Of Stray and Street Dogs In Itarsi
Ayesha Pathan with a Masters degree in Sociology from Barkatuallaha University,Bhopal has been working in the social development sector for last 12 years. Her passion is to work with Stray dogs in Itarsi town. As part of her work she has completed her baseline in Itarsi town on stray dogs.
The current project will focus on treatment of dogs, sensitize people towards need to take care of dogs conduct anti-rabies and neuter camp for dogs in Itarsi town.
June 2011 – April 2012
Fellowships
Promoting a Youth Collective for Vocational Education in Assam
Shri John Daimalu Basumatary, a Social entrepreneur trained in TISS Mumbai and hailing from KokrajharAssamwas supported for his work with the young people of Kakrabari village in Dadgiri. The young people in this remote area do not have access to vocational training and this project is an effort to build skills for local livelihoods. A society MEHER has been registered and training in electrical work, carpentry, and organic farming have been so far organised. It has also helped John to assess the scope for further work and join hands with others engaged in similar efforts in the region. Dr Anjali Daimari has been associated with this project as advisor.
Teaching Western Music To Children In A Rural School
Vinit Alurkar, a musician and teacher of western music organised a music camp for the children of Senapati Bapat School-Male,Mulshi near Pune. We supported this experiment to encourage rural school children and build their confidence in using English by teaching them western music which they do not have regular access to. The children enjoyed the camp tremendously and Vinit now has plans do this more often.
Youth Engagement in Local Governance in Dandakranya
Ms. Tejaswini Madabhushi, a follower of Gandhian ideals and working for peace in Dandakaranya is working to spread the notion of Gram Swaraj in Dandakranya through facilitating Youth Engagement in Local Governance. She has been able to mobilise several like minded people to come together to campaign for gram Swaraj and interest youth in the area in adopting Gandhian ideals.
July 2010 – June 2011
Fellowships
Bharat Calling, Itarsi
Sandeep Mehto from Itarsi works in Kesla block to link bright students from remote villages to opportunities for higher education. Currently 75 children are receiving coaching and preparation for entry to good higher education institutions. This is based on an earlier summer project he took up as a studen tof TISS.
Varnamaya, Chennai
Bhuvanesware B G a trained professional in Art Based Therapy (ABT) uses her expertise to enable women and children from disturbed homes to explore emotions and deal with their emotions better through her project, Varnamaya. She explained these methods and their impact on children from difficult family situations and socio- economic background. She is now setting up a centre in Chennai to extend her work further.
Samabhava, Bangalore
Sandesh Raju of Samabhava spoke of his work to improve the lives of working animals like ponies and donkeys in the city. It became clear that these animals are indeed playing an important role in the city even today. They suffer from lack of adequate health care services. The owners themselves are poor and the veterinarians are not taught to care for equines. He is planning to build his organisation and Plustrust hopes to help him in planning for such expansion.
Caring Hands for Animals, Hyderabad
This is new organisation set up by three committed women, Padmaja ,Priyanka and Vani. They have been working to improve the plight of z“animals in the corporation pounds in Hyderabad. They are now hoping to mange a facility in the animal husbandry department in Hyderabad. Plustrust hopes to help the work.
January 2010 – July 2010
Shelter for Abandoned Pets in Chennai
Shri B Ashok is an animal rights activist based in Chennai and has dedicated his life to this cause. In his experience, many people abandon pets because of personal circumstances and these pets have great difficulty surviving on the streets. He has established Eden Gardens, a small shelter for abandoned pets in Chennai. Plustrust has part supported the construction of a shed and met the rent and the cost of a veterinarian’s presence to tend to such animals from January to July 2010. We are now dialoguing with him on how he would like to stabilise this initiative and take this further.
We propose to begin our work on animal welfare in Hyderabad by working on a directory of services available for care and emergency support for animals in the twin cities.
Self Assessment Process For Gurukulam Schools
We were invited by UNICEF to offer technical support to the Gurukulam Society (set up by the Tribal welfare Department in AP ) to develop a self assessment process in their schools. Plustrust worked with a core group from Gurukulam to develop the approach and visited fifteen schools to pilot the process designed. The team members from Plustrust were mainly friends of Sukanya –Mr. B Subbarao, Mr Ali Asghar, Ms.Pradnya Keskar, Ms, Padma, Ms Madhurima Malladeb, Ms. Mamta Uppidi and Dr. Lalitha Iyer and the field trips were fun indeed.
A questionnaire has been developed and we plan to test it further and use it to stimulate dialogue on inclusive education. We hope to build on this experience and work more for the tribal welfare schools.
Inclusive Play
We are collaborating with www.kilikili.org to explore integration and inclusion for children with special needs. We hope to have several consultations involving parents teachers and special educators between July and October 2010.
Scholarships and Educational Support
We have continued our scholarships fro Kinthu, Swapna and Sai.
October 2009 – October 2010
Plustrust is keen to support initiatives and projects on:
- Shelter and protection of stray animals, particularly dogs
- Experiments on inclusive education and integrated schooling for children with special needs or different abilities
The support could include fellowships to develop a project proposal, guidance in starting off, mentoring and project management support if needed. Please write to us or call us if these themes rings a bell for you. The guidelines for the fellowship can be downloaded here.
October 2008 – October 2009
Platform 8
A short documentary of the life of children on railway platforms and the work of NGOs on platforms. Plustrust encouraged and guided Ms Padma in developing and directing this documentary. A small grant was also offered. The film was mainly funded by Sathi Bangalore.
Skill training for children
Monthly stipends and honoraria were offered for teachers offering skill training in different institutions providing care or shelter for children in difficult circumstances.
Scholarships
Some children in need of educational support have been offered scholarship.
Ms.Ranjita Sapkota, IDEX fellow joined us for a six month internship (January-July 2015). With energy and enthusiasm she worked to build the 2015 batch of fellows. She went ahead with research on the supply chain for Mid- day Meal Scheme in Ramnagara. We are indeed very grateful to Ranjita for her hard work and creative contribution. We are proud of her excellent performance as in her Masters Programme with TERI University and her subsequent selection as a Karnali Fellow in Nepal. Our best wishes to her as she returns to Nepal to find her calling.
