Amba Foundation has an established non-formal education program, a multi-faceted health program, and the Delhi Government’s Gender Resource Centre and Suvidha Kendra under its banner. Apart from this, the organization conducts projects aimed at empowerment of the community, its development and mobilization. This includes legal awareness programs, advocacy of rights, product making by women for marketing & sale etc. Separately, Amba Foundation also acts as a facilitator of welfare schemes and projects introduced by the Government of India such as issuance of UID cards, widow pension schemes etc. Through this, the organization contributes in ensuring that the benefit extended by the Government reaches the ultimate beneficiary in full and in time. In a recent development, since 2011, an in house quarterly newsletter ‘Amba-Vaani’ highlighting the activities of the organization & local area issues is published by the team of Amba Foundation for readership of the local community & civil society. The funding for the above mentioned activities of Amba Foundation comes from the Government of India, CSR arm of various Indian corporate entities as well as donations from individuals and supporters of the mission. In the past, our project partners have included “Asha for Education” USA, Rotary Club, Canada, Hindu Society of Ottawa, Canada, “Noon.ch” Switzerland, HSBC ‘Helping Hands’, British Council, Sahitaya Kala Parishad, National School of Drama, Central Government of India for the Reproductive Child Health program, Delhi Kalyan Samiti, YMCA and Rotary Club, Delhi . Please read on for a detailed description on each of the activities carried out by Amba Foundation. A) Education and arts
• For an organization which was founded on a commitment to education, the Non-Formal Education (NFE) program is the core of Amba Foundation’s work. We provide non-formal education to boys and girls in the age group of 4-15 years, belonging to under privileged families. The objective of this program is to integrate students into mainstream schools and bring down the number of school drop outs. Since its inception in 1999, Amba has reached out to over 3,000 children, empowering them with education and awareness, in the process ensuring that they are not forced to start working at a very young age.
• We also conduct Adult literacy programs for women to empower them to read and write. Till date, over 500 women have been benefitted by this program.
• At our NFE centers, the focus is on overall development and holistic growth. Keeping this objective in mind, we have weaved in dance, drama, art and craft, and computer literacy into the mainstream curriculum. This gives the children a feeling of confidence, self worth and fulfillment. The children at our centres have won awards and appreciation for their dance and drama performances at various events held at India habitat Centre, YMCA NGO Utsav Mela, British Council etc. A most outstanding demonstration of the success of the education program is the fact that some of the children who studied at Amba Foundation are now associated with the organization in the capacity of peer educators or workers under various programs. B) Health programs
• As a part of its contribution in the field of health care services, Amba Foundation runs a Primary Health Centre at the Basti Vikas Kendra, Majboor Nagar JJ Cluster. Under this initiative, qualified doctors provide free health-care services and medicines; nearly 10,000 patients are attended to annually.
• In addition to the daily health care services provided to the underprivileged, bi-monthly health camps are an integral component of the health program of Amba Foundation wherein qualified doctors and specialists cater to patients for an entire day. The organization held a series of ‘Stree Shakti’ Health Camps in 2006-07, for which it won the ‘Bhagidari Award’ of the Delhi Government in 2007, presented by the Chief Minister Smt. Shiela Dixit.
• As a part of the health program, awareness camps are organized by Amba Foundation on reproductive health, hygiene, family planning and nutrition, diseases such as HIV Aids, Cancer, TB and Anemia. The Organization was also associated with the Reproductive and child health program of the Govt. C) Vocational Training
• Recognizing skill development & training as a key to economic empowerment of women & youth, certified training courses are conducted under our various projects. Vocational training is conducted in Basic Computer Applications and Cutting &Tailoring. Under this, certified training in ‘Computer Applications’ and ‘cutting and tailoring’ is imparted to young students and women of the community, who is turn educate the students visiting the NFE centres or take up jobs elsewhere which ensures them a steady source of income. In addition ‘Advance Computer Training Course ’has been started in partnership with ‘Habitat Learning Center’. Over 500 persons have benefitted under these training courses. D) Community Development Projects
• Recognizing the importance of Community participation & communication for effective pe*******on of welfare activities, Amba Foundation launched an innovative program of training a small group of youth from the Community in the field of reporting & writing. This group forms the editorial team of ‘Amba Vaani’, a quarterly in-house newsletter in Hindi. This newsletter reports on the activities of the Organization and issues associated with the community at large.
• Advocacy on safety issues, legal rights, Right to Information, Right to Education.
• Legal awareness programs and legal counseling is provided to community women on a regular basis. Lawyers & Counselors conduct community meetings to create awareness and educate them about their basic rights and laws protecting them. Awareness is disseminated on issues such as domestic violence faced by women, in light of the law framed in this regard.
• Formation of Self help groups- Women from the community are motivated to do small savings and form self help savings groups. They are also facilitated to open ‘zero balance’ bank accounts in scheduled banks, thereby linking them to the formal financial sector for thrift & savings .24 such self help groups have been formed with at least 17 groups doing active inter loaning among themselves.
• Market linkages for Income Enhancement- After completion of vocational training, students are linked with the market for jobs & self employment.In addition handicrafts & products made by the women are also marketed by the Organization at stalls put up during festivals & at Melas. Products such as hand made cards, paper bags, clothes, handicrafts, diyas etc sell well at these stalls. E) Linkages for Government Benefits & Welfare Schemes. The Suvidha Kendra under the Gender Resource Center project seeks to streamline access to government welfare schemes and entitlements. Under this project, vulnerable households are identified and provided assistance in accessing and acquiring benefits such as issuance of Aadhar cards, RSBY card, SJSRY scheme, Widow Pension scheme, Old age pension scheme etc. Over 2000 persons have been assisted under this program.
