Pratham project to reward volunteers
Mumbai The Pratham Education Foundation has launched a new programme to reward volunteers for the foundations flagship programme Read India. Education for Education (EFE) will provide computer education to volunteers of Read India, a programme aimed at improving literacy levels among children.
In 2008-09 Read India reached out to around 33 million children across 252,000 villages through 405,000 volunteers. The volunteers are in the 18-24 age bracket and based in villages and towns where they help teach poor children.
Madhav Chavan, Pratham founder, says the programme is meant to increase the commitment of volunteers and strengthen Read India. Were aiming at compensation for our uncompensated workers and doing this in the form of education is more valuable than money, says Chavan.
In partnership with Intel, Pratham is running EFE centres where volunteers are taught how to use computer, including basics of operating system, Microsoft Office applications like Word and Excel and Internet and its applications, by young graduates. The Entrepreneurs, as Pratham calls them, are given two laptops which they carry to villages close to where they live. When they are not teaching the Entrepreneurs are allowed free use of the computers which will also belong to them after two years.
The EFE programme covers 108 districts across six states. The organisation hopes to increase this by another 100 districts. The EFE launch ceremony was attended by Rahul Bedi, Director, Corporate Affairs, Intel and Anupam Kher, Goodwill Ambassador of Pratham.