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My name is Kunal Chugh- I am a co-founder at The Better Design Foundation, and in better times I work with students in underserved schools in Bengaluru - within the Teach For India ecosystem - helping improve the learning environment to build 21st-century skills.
Most of our students have parents employed in the informal sector and have been hit particularly hard by the COVID lockdowns over the past few months. The continued human-suffering in these communities is monumental and heartbreaking in its scale - malnutrition, domestic violence and mental health issues have seen a substantial spike with these indignities compounded by wholly insufficient institutional humanitarian support.
So far, we have helped Azim Premji Foundation and Teach for India distribute over 250,000 ration days worth of food to over 5000 indigent families - but large-donor funding has been stretched thin as a fresh wave of Coronavirus cases and lockdowns racks the country.
On the education front, the current academic year is moving online, and this is generating acute stress among students and families with no digital access. Parents are concerned about the continued education of their wards, and students are anxious about missing out relative to their peers, and under-stimulated by the continued stay-at-home orders. 60% of students enrolled in our classrooms only have access to feature phones and will not be able to participate in any online education offerings, including Teach For India's continued intervention - a massive blow to their social and emotional development.
Our goal is to comprehensively support 500 families with food, medicine and access to education over the next 3 months. To this end, we are raising Rs 30,00,000 to cover the costs of food aid, medication and basic smartphones with 4G access.
Most of our students have parents employed in the informal sector and have been hit particularly hard by the COVID lockdowns over the past few months. The continued human-suffering in these communities is monumental and heartbreaking in its scale - malnutrition, domestic violence and mental health issues have seen a substantial spike with these indignities compounded by wholly insufficient institutional humanitarian support.
So far, we have helped Azim Premji Foundation and Teach for India distribute over 250,000 ration days worth of food to over 5000 indigent families - but large-donor funding has been stretched thin as a fresh wave of Coronavirus cases and lockdowns racks the country.
On the education front, the current academic year is moving online, and this is generating acute stress among students and families with no digital access. Parents are concerned about the continued education of their wards, and students are anxious about missing out relative to their peers, and under-stimulated by the continued stay-at-home orders. 60% of students enrolled in our classrooms only have access to feature phones and will not be able to participate in any online education offerings, including Teach For India's continued intervention - a massive blow to their social and emotional development.
Our goal is to comprehensively support 500 families with food, medicine and access to education over the next 3 months. To this end, we are raising Rs 30,00,000 to cover the costs of food aid, medication and basic smartphones with 4G access.
Rs 6000 ($80) supports 1 Family!
Please help us do a little bit to help these 500 families through such incredibly trying times!
