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MAD- Make A Difference
Ubicación
To bridge the inequality in society by unleashing the potential of the youth.
Sobre ti
Ubicación
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
tu idea
Field of Work
education
If Field of Work is “other” please define in 1-2 words below
Year project started (or projected start date) (yyyy)
2006
YouTube Upload
Project URL (or link to any media coverage)
What is the primary problem your venture is trying to address and how are you addressing it (or planning to address it)?
We teach children living in orphanages and street shelters. Our children are street smart, intelligent and mature. Yet hardly any of them get the opportunity to continue their education after 10th. The problems are two pronged. Firstly financial. Most children are sponsored till the age of 15 and after that they are on their own. Secondly, and more importantly, the lack of quality education. These children go to sub standard vernacular schools that do not adequately prepare them for further studies. Children who finish their 10th cannot read a sentence in English without assistance. Hence they struggle and often dropout even if we are able to find a sponsor for higher education.
We address the second problem by providing life skills training which includes English, Computer skills and motivation.
Our English course is a 3 year program in which, every year our children go though 56 interactive classes of two hour duration each in a span of seven months.
All our orphanages have computers in the ratio 6:1 and we ensure every student gets half an hour everyday to learn, Linux, Open Office, Photoshop, Networking etc.
The first problem is addressed by making sure every child passing through our program is sponsored and well taken care of.
Name Your Project
MAD- Make A Difference
Describe Your Idea
To bridge the inequality in society by unleashing the potential of the youth.
Innovación
Project Description
To bridge the inequality in society by unleashing the potential of the youth.
Unique and different
1. Youth: Two out of three respondents in a survey indicated that the youth wanted to help, but didn’t know how. The biggest innovation of MAD is to provide a simple but powerful platform to volunteer. All a volunteer needs to put in is 2 hours a week and MAD takes care of everything from identifying a nearby orphanage to fixing convenient timings to providing professional training.
2. Syllabus: We have been working on our syllabus for the past 3 years and now we can proudly say that we have one of the most comprehensive and practically oriented English syllabuses for speaking skills.
3. Online integration: To enable participatory learning every class taken in MAD is clearly documented online in our community and every new activity is put up in our blog so that our volunteers never run out of ideas while preparing for classes
4. End to End support: Provide career guidance and place all our children.
Project plan
Today MAD has 300 active volunteers teaching more than 1000 children in Cochin, Chennai and Pune. By April 2009 we will expand to Hyderabad, Bangalore
and Bombay where we already have a volunteer base standing by. We will also launch a full fledged social networking site for volunteers of different cities to interact and learn. We also plan to expand our vocational courses and to enter into tie ups with corporate to directly recruit our children.
Partnerships
Orphanages - 8 in Cochin, 4 in Chennai, 4 in Pune
TTF - The Teacher Trainer Foundation: One of India’s best teacher trainers who train our volunteers twice every year and also worked with us to develop a full fledged syllabus.
OLPC - One Laptop Per Child: MAD is one of the organizations approached by the digital bridge foundation to help implement the OLPC project. They require our large volunteer to experiment and evolve a working syllabus for the laptop that can be implemented in India.
Teach India- The initiative that was launched recently by Times of India is associated with our Chennai branch.
Impacto
Impact
We want to bring about a situation where all children decide their careers based on their aspirations and potential rather than on their financial backgrounds.
Effectiveness
We deal with children rescued from the streets, orphans and children from broken families. As of today we are teaching 1000 children in 3 cities.
How do you engage and impact the community?
Children
• Imparting quality education which is practically oriented and enormously helpful for their future without any cost to them.
• Guidance on future career opportunities, scholarship availability, and other academically oriented information.
• Reminding the children that they are not alone in their struggle and that people do care.
• Getting them in touch with people of their age group from privileged sections of society, to whom they can relate to and learn from.
Orphanages
• Improving their infrastructural facilities in their organizations by starting libraries, computer labs and spreading awareness about their needs
to specialized agencies which can provide help
Volunteers
• Make them more conscious of their social responsibility and sensitize them to the needs of the underprivileged in their surroundings.
• Our panel of experts is top of the line and will coach them in the art of teaching and help them with syllabus.
• Provide a conduit they otherwise would not have had to channelize their efforts.
• We hope to get them recognition for their work by affiliating to institutions of repute like Young Indians (Youth wing of CII), Round Table of India etc., provide them with certificates and publicize their efforts.
• We will enrich them with the interactions they have with sections of society they would never have met otherwise.
• Provide them an opportunity to manage schools and take up posts in the organization, developing their managerial talents and leadership skills.
• Group meetings to interact with other volunteers to share their experiences.
How do you measure this impact?
Today our children can completely comprehend when spoken to them in English and also has the confidence to attempt to respond in English but once they complete the course we expect them to speak confidently and legibly.
We intend to quantify our impact by establishing an English speaking standard and then certify those children who reach that standard.
Currently computer is just another tool for our kids and they are completely comfortable using them for day to day purposes. We intent to certify them with vocation specific certificates like CCNA, MCSE, RHC etc.
Placements: We will maintain the record of every student who has passed through our program. Our placement program is student specific and every student
is taken care of and followed up at regular intervals.
Obstacles
Financial: The administrative cost for MAD is almost zero. The little that we incurred was spent by the volunteers themselves. But now that we have
expanded, and as most of our volunteers are students, we are unable to meet our major expenses like the teacher training costs.
We also have two ongoing projects
1. Computer Project where we are trying to reduce the student computer ratio to 3:1 for better exposure
2. Reading Room: To start a reading room that’s conducive to reading in every orphanage
Hence this year on, the growth of MAD shall also depend on funds and not just its volunteers. Being able to raise funds without getting tied down by it is one of the biggest worries we share this year.
Esta presentación se trata de
Sustenibilidad
Fuente de financiamiento
(or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)
The Friends of Mad Project is an innovative method by which we hope to raise our funds in the future. Currently, Mad is sustained by the contributions of the core team members, well wishers, and a few corporates who were interested in some of our projects.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow and sustain your project?
MAD is a structured organization which functions more like a corporate than an NGO. We have a well defined process that ensures the smooth running of the organization. With most of our co ordination done through our website we have managed to create a scalable model that we intend to replicate in the other cities where we have a volunteer base.
Finance details
As of date we have raise Rs 3 30 000 for computers, Rs 45 000 for library books, Rs 1 50 000 for teacher training Rs 1 00 000 for annual camps.
All other expenses were met by the National Board.
Every city in MAD has got the following Core team members:
President
Secretary
Treasurer
V.P Human Resource
To Ensure the availability of well trained qualified teachers round the year
V.P Public Relations
1.Keep the people in MAD well informed
2.Spread the MAD word outside
3.Make life fun for the MAD Folks
V.P Placements
1.Placement Options for every 10th standard student
2.Scholarships to every student who wishes to study
3.Identifying Talent and promoting it.
V.P Fundraisers
Make the branch Sustainable
V.P Training
Syllabus
Ensure every volunteer is trained and up to date
Maintain liaison with the teacher trainers
V.P Resource
Maintaining and Managing all MAD’s Resource
V.P Computers
Maintaining MAD’s Website, Webapp, Blog and community
Creative funding
Friends Of MAD: In MAD what we are looking forward to is a regular and sustainable income more than a random big donation. We also want the people who contribute to understand what we are doing and support our cause. Hence all those people who are interested in being part of MAD but cannot spare their time for it can be a Friend of MAD by contributing Rs 100 every month to MAD. In return we’ll keep them informed on what’s happening in MAD through news letters and blogs.
Other non finance needs
Teacher Training would be the most important resource that MAD can have, Our volunteers need to be constantly trained and syllabus constantly updated based on new observations made on the ground. We feel our biggest asset would be the experience we have on the grass root level and the syllabus we have evolved based on it.
La historia
Motivation
It all started when we decided to start teaching English at the YMCA poor boys home. When we started, our goals were simple, spend some time with the kids,
teach them some English, show them couple of movies and basically have some fun while doing all this. But a few days with them made us think.
The students we taught were exceedingly capable and more mature than the normal kids you find in private schools. They were aware of the realities of
life and they knew they had to work hard to escape them. In spite of all the hard work put in by them we knew that hardly any of those kids would ever
study beyond the 12th grade. Almost all of them would be forced to drop out after their 10th and would end up doing menial jobs in workshops and hotels
rendering all those years of education useless and all their potential wasted.
This is when we started thinking about starting a youth volunteer network that would enable our friends to help these children because we knew many
of our friends wanted to help out too.. Empowered education is all about preparing the kids for the future by helping them cross the language barrier,
by giving them the necessary exposure to the outside world and to keep them informed about their options and alternatives and finally to provide the
necessary help and support they require to keep going.
With the youth by our side we knew this was possible. And thus MAD was born.
Awards
This is the second award we are applying for. The Manthan Award results are not out yet.
Broader context
The culture of volunteering is still very young in our country. Its our dream that one day it shall become a small but inevitable part of everybody’s life. We strongly believe that if we all had just 2 hours to spare a week for the people around us, the world would be a better place.
Ongoing
I am one of the founding members of MAD and today it is a major pat of my life. I see myself working with this organisation for the rest of my life as an active volunteer and a National Body member.
What is your age?
21
How did you hear about this competition?
Through my friend Nitasha Kachru
| Adjunto | Tamaño |
|---|---|
| MAD.ppt | 905.5 KB |
 | mallikarjuna dijo: Hi Guys! you know its my story-- this is the story of bunch of students from JNU---we did it in 2000--- I know how it feels--- iam ... sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1141 días leer más > |
| jinxxedout dijo: Thank you.. And yes, we'll keep going alright.. :) ---------- Jithin J Krishnan sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1150 días leer más > |
| kahandja dijo: We support your effort and we are joing you, so tha together, we can be able to make a difference. peace and Keep going. Michel ... sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1152 días leer más > |
| jinxxedout dijo: Will do..And thanks for these kind words.. :) ---------- Jithin J Krishnan sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1177 días leer más > |
| jinxxedout dijo: Thanks for believing in us saglik.. :) ---------- Jithin J Krishnan sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1177 días leer más > |
| saglik dijo: ---------- That is the solutionsa?l?keverybody want sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1180 días leer más > |
| saglik dijo: ---------- That is the solutionsa?l?keverybody want sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1180 días leer más > |
| chijioke dijo: i am happy for you project, when i went through it, it taught me alot of time. as a change agent i look for changing more life. you are ... sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1180 días leer más > |
| jinxxedout dijo: Hey guys.. Thanks.. It is truly an honour to be picked from such a diverse and varied set of change makers.. Good luck to all of you, ... sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1181 días leer más > |
| TwinkleTinytot dijo: Congrats to everyone at MAD!!!!!!!!! sobre este Competition Entry. - hace 1181 días leer más > |
Comentarios
And, please do check out Mad's official blog site...
http://makeadiff.in/blog/
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Jithin J Krishnan
this is a great initiative, and has not come a moment late. i hope you can continue the good work, best wishes...
Thanks a lot ark :)
Nice work. Read your blog... This work will never go waste. Showing care to whom it really matters. Keep going. Make sure that the children grow up to have a happy life with dignity, different from their usual. My vote is for that. :) Next time you see them, give them that smile from me!
Thanks mate ...will pass on your love !! :)
it feels gr8 to be see the selfless work of the young volunteers of MAD getting the recognition it deserves....GO MAD!!!
its lovely to see the youth taking the initiative , especially in a country like india , with a vast majority of its people being uneducated...i hope tht ur organisation goes a long way in ensuring tht every child gets his or her share or rightfully desesrved edcation....It is indeed unfortunate that The Right To education which has been enshrined in the Indian constitution hs still not been enforced after decades of its framing.....every nuance of wht u do to make a difference , will definitely go a long way.Like they say , 'Little drops of water make the mighty ocean.
however , thr are a few questions tht i would like to ask plz do tell me hw u plan on expanding ur organisation considering the fact tht u are facing a paucity of funds??
Dear Julu
thnx for the comments....as an active member of Make A Difference , i think that i would be able to answer ur querry...
In recent times , thr has been a lot of awareness tht Mad has been able to bring about.these developments have led to the general public contributing their mite towards this noble cause.However , if u think in terms of financial backing up for the computer classes tht weare plan on implementing , thn v definitely face a paucity of funds .winning this competition would probably help us gain more recognition with the the world in general and in india in particular,so that we can go ahead with our plans-MAKING A DIFFERENCE,AND MAKING TOMORROW A BRIGHTER DAY FOR THEM....
hope tht answered ur question
do spread the word around
Hoping for the best
Juliana
wht is the age grp of th ppl who work in this organisation?does it include only the age grp 19-24?
Majority is 19-24. But MAD has many volunteers, above that age group as well. Like, I am 26. And there is no age limit..Those you are young at their heart, have the energy matching with that of our kids, and the patience are most welcome!!! My kids are street smart and you should feel and flow with their energy.
Oh yeah, the most important part is that you must be regular. Once you start the classes, you should be regular. The kids are expecting you for the 2 hours every week. You shouldn't disappoint them.
Make A Difference deals with probably the most important issue in society.. Why does inequality arise in society?
Because people have unequal opportunities.
This problem can be solved by furnishing kids with quality education from a young age up. Now, kids who don't have a family to support them cannot afford to have good education. That's where MAD steps in. The few hours that we spend with them every week can mean the difference between a life on the streets and a life like yours and mine.
Food is probably the most important basic necessity. But if you give an orphan food, it may run out today or tomorrow. Tomorrow, he might find himself on the streets with nothing to fall back on. But, if you give him education, tomorrow he can earn his own bread. For a country like India, where the rising number of the underprivileged is alarming to all concerned, this is the most ideal and sustainable plan...
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Jithin J Krishnan
Education is the only thing that can really make a difference. You guys are doing a wonderful job....
Thank you Kenny,
And you said it.. Nothing can be a more sustainable resource than the education that one is provided with..
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Jithin J Krishnan
WAy to go MAD ......MAD rocks!!! Yahoo MAD...google MAD for votin in!!! ...........go MAD!!!!!
Dear Jithin,
It is excellent work. Best wishes . It is apt time work .Since it is a strees releasing to volunteers.
with thanks
nocer premalatha
Thank you Ma'am... Your support is much appreciated here @ Mad...
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Jithin J Krishnan
This is a great organisation and can certainly be called a change maker. I hope their work are awarded and hope that "MAD" will be able to grow and bring changes to many more underpriviliged children and youth in India.
And yes, we share your same dreams.. We are in the process of expanding to more cities.. But still, the underprivileged crowd in India amounts for a large number.. Hopefully, some day, we will be catering to a sizable number of the same...
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Jithin J Krishnan
hi.....all....out thr @ MAD........we discussed MAD in my session.....my students are interested....i have given thm the format...they may vote for u.......wen i said this is the sole entry from india,there was an applause...we r proud of u.......hats off to u from us all @IES.....
Hey Shiju,
Tell your students that their, and their teacher's ,support are well appreciated here @ Mad...
And yeah, we're elated to represent our country in this competition..
:)
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Jithin J Krishnan
Good work. Continue to do so
We will, thank you... :)
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Jithin J Krishnan
One thing I have to say about MAD, is that the volunteers in this program are enthusiastic, passionate and extremely resourceful.Many of my friends volunteer their time and talent into this wonderful and very innovative program. Not only are they touching the lives of many children in our city but also the children hav a big influence on their teachers too......
all in all, Keep up the good work, and....keep inspiring!
Will do.. And thanks for the support.. :)
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Jithin J Krishnan
In three years, MAD can say wth fierce pride that we have metamorphised from a group of youngsters who set out to Make a difference in the cruel society around us, to a mature group of peers that can be rightly called MADE a DIFFERENCE..and will always continue to do so.if nothin, dont we owe it to our kids?
So well said Nikhil !! thanks a lot :)
The whole idea of MAD sounds crazy and in fact I would take it as a Mad endeavour to start such an organisation but it kinda really worked out and its Hats off to those Volunteers makin it happen all the way.I guess what keeps them goin is the overwhelming joy, satisfaction, pleasure and the smiles on those little faces .The fact that they are makin a lotta difference to the lifes of a lotta of kids is somethin they gotta be proud of......................
so keep it goin guys
You nailed it Eobin!!
I keep going back again and again precisely because of that fact.. Sometimes I even feel that two classes aren't enough... And I guess the volunteer benefits as much as the kids do in the process...
Though, if I may, the name might sound crazy.. But the idea makes perfect sense to me..
In fact, it makes perfect sense in a society where half the social conflicts are caused by inequalities which quality education can eradicate permanently...
So, till that day comes, we're staying MAD...
:)
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Jithin J Krishnan
Hey guys
great job. Hope you guys hit the skies when the result are announced.
Antony Alapatt
Hey Antony,
Yeah, we hope so too.. All of us here are keeping our fingers crossed...
Thanks for the support...
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Jithin J Krishnan
Hey, thats a great job, keep going!!!! All the best!!!
Will do, Shanthi.. And thank you for the wishes... :)
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Jithin J Krishnan
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Nitasha T. Kachru
make a difference.....and hence make a nation....
there are some who watch things happen...there are some who wait for things to happen...and there are some like jithin who make things happen..........
all the best......god bless
Nearly 3 years with MAD..... lots of teaching, even more learning.... For me nothing till date has felt better than the MAD experience.... I sincerely thank all of u for all the support! GO MAD! :)
Make a Diff is well planned, coordinated and their ideas are really innovative. I give full support to them. They really care for social upliftment.
its jz amazin to see hw far we've come..
GOD bless...
the MAD organization has helped the poor children to have a bright future n even helped the youth by letting them do something for the welfare of many children.
Precisely Richa....
In fact, one of our objectives is to make today's youth aware of their social responsibilities...
And, in that process, outgrow the stereotypes into which they are cast into these days...
Thanks for the support..
:)
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Jithin J Krishnan
Great job! Am sure you're making a BIG difference in destitute children's lives.All the best! :-)
Thank you Vaishnavi.. The support is appreciated.. :)
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Jithin J Krishnan
May this award gives you more energy to cover the entire World.Vimal G.Kumar,KOCHI BOOKS
Hey Vimal,
And yeah, hopefullly, one day we'll get there... :)
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Jithin J Krishnan
Its a real inspiring deed you people are doing.
You have started from the roots of social inequality by your noble move to educate these deserving children.
This has and will,surely make a difference for these children.
Hope you get all support for your great work.
with love,
a well wisher.
Hey...
Thank you for believing in our project... And for comprehending what the root cause for our project is....
The support is much appreciated by all our volunteers...\
Keep believing...
:)
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Jithin J Krishnan
Hey guys...keep up the good work..!!
K Anna... We'll keep at it.. ;)
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Jithin J Krishnan
Hi,
Keep at the good work! Very proud of MAD!!!! :-) MAKE 'EM SMILE...even more!!!
Will do Shilpa,
Thanks for the support,
It is appreciated by our volunteers.. :)
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Jithin J Krishnan
2+ years in MAD were [still is n foreva will b] the most gratifying moments in moi life, fillin me with a gr8 feelin of accomplishment :) ... an enlivened group of volunteers and an awesome bunch of kids we teach ... Priceless !!!! :) GO MAD !!!!!