Hinduja Foundation launches ‘iCare’: an interactive learning & engagement programme for Government school students & families
608 employees from 11 Hinduja Group Companies participated in the volunteer
from home programme
The volunteers conducted 197 online sessions and submitted 112 offline learning videos
from home programme
The volunteers conducted 197 online sessions and submitted 112 offline learning videos
which was uploaded on iCare’s YouTube channel
More than 5500 students were impacted through online education as part of this initiative
More than 5500 students were impacted through online education as part of this initiative
and the number has been increasing on regular basis
Hinduja Foundation, a philanthropic arm of the Hinduja Group, launches ‘iCare: Volunteer from Home’ initiative
that engages Hinduja Group Companies’ employees as COVID-19 warriors.
The mission was to reach out to the deprived and the underprivileged
students across the country and deliver quality education.
As part of
this initiative, employees of all Hinduja Group Companies including
Ashok Leyland, Gulf Oil, Bharat Financial, NXTDigital, Hinduja
Foundation and Hinduja Tech among others were given an opportunity to
interact with students of government schools and their families across
the country and engage with them in a wide range of activities through
technology based online and offline interactive modes.
With the
programme being underway, the foundation looks to progressively examine
the possibility of enhancing the scope of the program to support its
(Road to School) RTS target group of 80000 kids across multiple states.
The
programme covered more than 8 states namely -- Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana.
In order to reach out to students from different geographies, 6
different language preferences were offered wherein the highest number
of sessions were undertaken in Hindi, followed by Tamil.
Learning
Links Foundation, an NGO working with several of the Hinduja Group
Companies, also extended its support to the iCare program by
implementing all the on-field volunteering activities.
Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Paul Abraham, President, Hinduja Foundation said, “The
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been critical in the country’s
education sector where all the stakeholders are affected, the most
vulnerable are the children. Amid the physical closure of schools,
Covid-19 has also restricted their social engagements like meeting their
friends, family or simply playing outside in the playground, hence
affecting their overall development. The ‘iCare: Volunteer From Home’
program is one of its kind initiative that seeks to not just
constructively engage the volunteers, the children (4 to 8 grade level)
and their families, but also supports in helping children learn subject
based content, build crucial skills as self-confidence and self-esteem,
while advocating physical, mental, and social-emotional health a
priority during these challenging times.”
The
interaction of the volunteers under iCare program was through
technology whereby the volunteers, while staying at home, had a choice
to conduct 30 minutes sessions using live audio/video calls or
pre-recorded audio/videos sessions using commonly available
communication mediums, thereby ensuring accessibility to all the
beneficiaries.
As
part of this initiative, children were engaged in diverse activities
that focused on helping them learn subject-based content better and
build skills critical in these challenging times. These included ‘fun
with math’ activities and others that centred on the theme of COVID-19,
which were aimed at generating awareness on preventive measures to be
taken during the pandemic. In addition, story-telling sessions, poetry
sessions, mentoring sessions, wellness sessions and craft activities
kept students interested and gave a boost to their self-esteem and
confidence while also nurturing their physical and emotional wellbeing.
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