Case Studies | NKN |
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Gyana ‘O’ Soochana Kendra S B Gopalpur
A graduate in Arts from Shri Shri Jagannath Mahavidyalaya Rajanagar and daughter of a small time business man Shri Akshaya Jena, in Kankadia, Dist- Kendrapara, Ambikarani joined the Nasscom Knowledge Center at GSK Sanabadagopalpur to get trained on IT Skills and successfully completed it in 2006-07. With the certification she received from the Center , she feels that it has given her the confidence to work with any new developmental agency. This training also helped her a lot during the time of her joining as a facilitating volunteer in Indian Red cross at Balasore where she joined at a salary of Rs. 3200/-. Today she works as a community motivator in iconcept, Bhubaneshwar, a Developmental expert Agency, as a part time worker. Ambikarani Jena’s confidence is well evident as she begins her day’s work. NASSCOM Knowledge Center - Shiroda
NASSCOM Foundation organized a self-employment training program to make different Items from wool at the Nasscom Knowledge Center in Shiroda village.. Miss. Rakhi Kabre, a master trainer imparted training to 8 girls for 25 days. On completion of the training 2 girls have already started their own set up and are now earning a decent income for themselves and their family. They have also started training classes to impart training to more people in their local community and help them become self sustainable. Such training programs will definitely encourage the local community and ensure their participation. Story of Jagdish Arjanbhai Rabari My name is Jagdish Arjanbhai Rabari. There are 6 members in my family, which includes two brothers and two sisters. My parents do cattle rearing. I left my studies last year as I failed in 9th standard. Thereafter I thought of joining computer class in Manipur by SEWA Academy of M.S Office. I started the course in the computer class first batch in the month of March. Meanwhile our record was also taken, in which I told that I had left education after 9th standard, So Nishaben and Computer class sir made me understood, and that is why I again started studying. Today, I am very happy after starting my studies. I found it very difficult to again start studying, gradually I understood the importance of education, and then started studying with interest. Now I want to study 10th standard. I also want to continue with D.T.P course. Today I am very happy.
My name is Rajnikantbhai Bhailalbbhai Suthar. There are six members in my family, where my father is a carpenter, and mother stitches quilts. My wife has given M.A exam and wants to do B.Ed. I have two children. I work as a safety engineer in E.S.C department in L&T co.. I did not know computers so I had to take help from other people when they were free which wasted too much time. When my work was going on at Manipur site I came to know about the computer class run by SEWA Academy. I personally met the teachers, and then started the computer class. During recess at the work place I used to attend the computer class. Now I can do my computer work on my own without anybody’s help. Now I make record, date wise reports, monthly reports, contractor report and material stock on my own on the computer. I prepare all these things in excel sheets. I am thankful to SEWA Academy for fulfilling my wish. I have taken training of Ms. Office course provided by SEWA Academy and NASCOM Foundation - Bhanu Govindbhai Gohel I am married. I was interested in doing a job but as I have no knowledge of computer was not able to do. Initially I used to go to Airtel company to do seal paching with which I also had to do mopping and sweeping for which I used to get Rs. 1500. Now I work as a receptionist in dental college and earn Rs. 2200 per month. This is all because of SEWA Academy, due to which I got knowledge of computers and so can help financially in the house. Now I can save from my income. My name is Chandrashekhar Sudhakar Thube and I am 22 years old. I am a Maharashtrian. I study in dental college as well as work. There are 8 members in my family, I have 5 sisters, my father is a teacher and mother is a housewife. My mother tongue is Marathi and I had some knowledge of computers from the beginning. I started computer course at the Manipur center, which is run by SEWA Academy and NASCOM. The teacher helped me very much and he gave me training in Hindi. I got to know many new thing after joining the course. After learning computers at SEWA Academy now I can do my work nicely and fast. I wish to learn other computer courses. Mainly I want to learn Tally Accounting Course and I want to do that from SEWA Academy only. My name is Ramilaben Dhulabhai Gohel and I am 26 years old. Right now I work as a village worker in Panchayat where I get Rs.1000. I do health related(Polio, blood test, malaria) and survey work in the village. I wish to do advance course as I am benefited with this basic course. I have selected D.T.P course. After completing this course I want to do course related to designing and I want to do this course from SEWA Academy only. NASSCOM Knowledge Center in Udan Village, Dolkhamb Thus by adding value to an existing setup, NASSCOM Foundation could reach out to several such agri-entrepreneurs to help build not only their own micro-enterprise but also help local communities with much needed skills development as well as help entrepreneurs like Sunil to morph into social entrepreneurs. Women’s empowerment and skills development Muslim girls with traditional skills of mehendi had enrolled with the NKN Telecenter in old Hyderabad city, supported and managed by an NGO called Technology for the People (TFTP). These girls were forced to drop out of school as they had to earn a living. TFTP brought in a new lease of life when they combined education with an alternate livelihood skill for these girls that motivated their parents to allow them to attend classes at this centre. In about six months, the girls not only learnt animation skills as per industry standards but also started to do well in academics. One year into the program, many girls have now completed their tenth class and are also churning out production work for an animation company that helps them earn anything between Rs.3000-8000/- per month. All this would not have been possible without the combined efforts of an animation company called Star Features and TFTP supported by NASSCOM Foundation. This partnership is a good example of how industry along with non-profits can innovate solutions, based on the needs at the grass root. NASSCOM Foundation would be delighted to partner with many other corporates to find similar solutions for rural and grassroot communities. March towards self-reliance for fishermen in Tamil Nadu S. Premkumar has managed to provide a fresh perspective to several fishermen in the Vellore and Thanjepuram districts of Tamil Nadu where he is managing an NKN telecentre with support from Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW). This centre was started to bring in services to rural community based on their needs also stemming from a necessity to catalyse change in the lives of the rural fishermen communities. While running the NKN telecentre, Premkumar has been able to interact closely with his community and understand their needs and challenges better. He also knows that given the adequate support, communities can very innovatively solve their own problems. In the village of Alambarai, fishermen spend most of their hard earned money consumption of alcohol. Premkumar with the help of other NKN telecentre managers was able to motivate one of these fishermen to visit the telecentre and access different information and services available. As Premkumar now fondly recalls that that particular fisherman not only visits the centre regularly for local information and takes formal training in IT literacy, but has becoming a champion to not only propagate the advantages of accessing such telecentres, but is also advising his fishermen friends and community members to save their money wisely. He has mobilised other fishermen in his community to spend time and learn at the NKN telecentre. Windows” opened doors for this young IT trainer in Belgaum. Mahesh Akkatai Appaji lives in Athani in Belgaum district of Karnataka. He is a young man with dreams and aspirations like any other. His family is poor and illiterate, but what makes his background different is that his mother used to be a ‘devdasi’. As she grew older, she had no means to support herself and her only child Mahesh. She somehow managed to eke out a meager living working as a field labour. But she dreamed big and did not want her son to be held back because of his origins. She enrolled Mahesh with Vimochana Sangha, which works for the upliftment of ‘devdasis’ and their families. At Vimochana, Mahesh got a good education and was well looked after in their residential school. Mahesh completed his Bachelors in Social Work, given his background, his inclination towards social welfare. Building IT skills to improve lives of rural youth. Susil Panda is the middle child in a small farming household consisting of 5 members in the Ektala Village of Jajpur district in Orissa. Until recently their father was the only earning member of the family till Susil decided to chip in. But opportunities in his village were scarce. After completing his senior secondary examinations he took admission in a private computer institute. But Susil was not satisfied with the quality of education imparted there. He then visited an NKN Telecenter managed by Gyaano Soochna Kendra (GSK) at Bilipada where he got trained on IT skills using the Microsoft Curriculum. His newly learnt skills along with the certificate provided by NF & GSK helped him get a job with Dibyani Food Industries in Himachal Pradesh as a Purchase and Maintenance Store In-charge. Susil says, “This training is a great opportunity for rural youth to gain skills and get good jobs in the future. NASSCOM Foundation can spread this education opportunity to more areas and improve rural life in Orissa.” Thus industry and professionals can join hands with NASSCOM Foundation in providing trainers, mentors and dedicated volunteers who can impart their knowledge to rural and grassroot communities through NF’s skill building program. Telecentres becoming a hub to address community needs. Pondicherry Multipurpose Social Service Society (PMSS) started a pilot programme at Davanampottinam and Cuddalore way back in Nov 2005. When the programme was extended to other regions of Pondichery, Cuddalore and Karaikal, these centre breathed new life to these small coastal villages. With NASSCOM Foundation’s support as Father Amalados points out, PMSS conducts need based trainings through the NKN telecentres. Literacy programmes, health awareness campaigns and the most effective SHG training programmes carried out through the NKN telecenters have been able to build a trust been the NKN telecentres and the community. Today, women, SHG groups and youth members from the community depend on these centres for training, IT skills, employability skills, job placements and even exercising their Rights under the Right to Information Act. Father Amalados of PMSS believes that in the near future, these telecentres with become central to the lives of the communities and he plans to build new local partnerships and alliances to make these telecentres more relevant and responsive to the communities’ needs and demands. Industry can contribute by donating hardware and money to help NF establish more such partnerships. Several other NGOs as well as existing NGOs can thus setup newer centres and take this model to scale to reach out to more communities. Success Stories of Maharshi Kanad Village Knowledge Centre, Sagroli Dist. Nanded Maharashtra, Parshuram Damayyawar is a telecentre manager for the SSM run Maharshi Kanad Village Knowledge Centre for Sagroli Dist. Nanded Maharashtra Bhilawadi, a small town set on the banks of river Krishna, in Palus taluka of Sangli district has a population of 15,000. Over 70% population of the village depends on farming. Sugarcane, which had been a major cash crop for several years, has death bells tolling for the farmers now. One of the reasons behind this is the conventional practices in cultivation, excessive usage of chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides and water. Another reason is the encroachment of ‘nullahs’ that resulted in clogging of water in many areas which ultimately caused soil contamination. As a result of this, around two thousand acres of land has become useless for agriculture and the water turned saline i.e. the water now consists of large amounts of salts. Government initiatives in soil conservation also turned futile. At this stage, initiatives by the farmers, using simple siphon method with low cost maintenance is helping them to retain the land’s arability slowly. The youth in this area have formed a Farmers Club called ‘Shetkari Krishi Vikas Mandal’ under which a Rural Knowledge Centre has been set up by Suraj Foundation called Gram Dyan Kendra in association with NASSCOM Foundation. The aim of setting up this knowledge centre is to take this project forward to other farmers in the area. They would like to use ICT for reaching out to more farmers and also to get more scientific knowledge on the subjects related to farming. Deepak Walvekar of S.K.V.M. says, “We do not have sufficient funds and neither the farming community, as a whole, is able to generate sufficient funds for the work of this magnitude. We need help from large corporate bodies or anybody who would help us generate funds to complete the project.” NABARD treats the farmers club as a special case and also provides some funds for running the club. Sagar is a 10th standard student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Kagal, Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. He hails from a rural village Abdul Lat. It was during the summer and winter holidays he visited the NASSCOM Knowledge Center and learnt the basics of computers and internet technologies. He participated in the Oracle Foundation ‘Web page making competition’ and was placed 1st in the entire Pune region. His story in his own words. Few months ago, when I came to my village for the vacation, it came to my notice that the centre provides courses on computer education and personality development. My curiosity about computers made me join Gram Dnyan Kendra. Under the guidance of Mr. Ganesh Naykude, I have learnt many new things right from the basics of the computer to various internet technologies like surfing, email, chatting and the concepts of personality development. The knowledge that I have gained in Gram Dnyan Kendra made me participate in the ‘Web page making competition’ conducted by Oracle Foundation. I tried my best using all the creativity and knowledge and fortunately, I was placed first in the entire Pune region. I offer my sincere thanks to the foundation for all the support provided to me in acquiring various skills which would be helpful in my life. Story of Sunil, Tatyaso and Sandip Sunil, Tatyaso and Sandip have been childhood friends. They were born and brought up in a small village called Bhose in the Miraj Taluk of Sangli District. Being very poor, they could not continue education and dropped out from school. They could not find any opportunity to work in their village and for the past 3 years they have been looking for work. One day, Sunil read an article in a local daily about Suraj NASSCOM Foundation Gram Dnyan Kendra’s initiatives in providing livelihood opportunities to rural youth. They visited their office and were informed about the process involved and the documents required. They came back after 2 days with their photographs, school leaving certificate, etc. and filled in the application forms. The CSTI at Panvel was informed about the candidates and as a formality, they were asked to attend a written test and an interview. Later, they were joined at CSTI, Panvel from June 2, 2008. During the training period, they would be paid a stipend of Rs.2000/-- p.m. and upon the successful completion of the training they would be placed at various locations in India with an opportunity to earn a minimum of Rs.4,000/- to Rs.4,500/- in the construction industry. They are very happy now and feel that such initiatives have provided them an opportunity to earn a decent livelihood. They have promised to inform all their friends about this initiative and soon another batch of 13 candidates from same village is being sent to CSTI, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Panvel. Case study of Chandrakant Sakhare, Sagroli Dist. Nanded Maharashtra
“I had dreamed and I am on the verge of fulfilling my dream” – Sonal Chavan
Navita Naykude Leading Women’s Self Help Group Women Managed Knowledge Center Initiated by Mrs Lalita Goundaje |
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Hemant Ganpat Pingulkar 12th fail student from other backward class. He is from poor background family and his business is barber. He was not interested in his family business and seating ideally at home. He did not understand what to do and how to come out from that situation. He was a shy person and even don’t know how to speak with others due to lack of confidence.
Parshuram Damayyawar, a 21 year old youth of Sagroli village could not continue his study after 1st Std due to extremely poor financial condition. In his childhood he joined his father as an agriculture labor to meet the daily expenses. By which he could hardly earn Rs.200/- per month. As a school drop out, he neither could read nor write anything. However, he was a clever and hard working boy. He earnestly wish to do some small business to stand on his own feet. However, imparting some technical knowledge and working capital was most essential for him. He decided to do screen printing business on small scale. By which he could earn some money by printing pamphlets, letterheads, invitation cards, envelops etc. However the biggest problem stood before him was of literacy which was very essential for him to do the printing business. 
Parshuram came at Kanad Village Knowledge Center and asked solution about his crucial problem. We enrolled him in the TCL program course. Then after, he daily came for two-three hours. He had taken good interest in the program. After continuous hard efforts of 3 months, he became totally a literate person. 
He started to teach other illiterate people also. Then he started his work in his little mud home at Sagroli. He takes order from the shop owners, individual customers of nearby towns and villages. Before joining the TCL course, he could merely get Rs.700/- p.m. After joining Kanad VKC, now he is earning Rs.2,200/- per month and extremely happy. Later he got married. Now he is living in Sagroli village with his wife, father and mother in his own house. He expressed wholehearted thanks to the TCL course of NASSCOM Foundation.
Archana Nakalekar
Gangadhar Pandilwar
Chandrakant Sakhare, a 25 year unemployed married youth of Sagroli village was unable to continue his study after 12th Std due to extremely poor financial condition. In his childhood he joined his father as an agriculture labor to meet the daily expenses. He joined SSM Village NASSCOM Knowledge Centre at Sagroli for an IT Course. He not only learned to operate a computer but also learned thoroughly about Photoshop. After successful completion of the course, he applied to Bank of Maharashtra for loan of Rs.50000/- for photo studio business. The bank sanctioned his loan on the ground of a certificate received from the
Center. He purchased a computer system, digital camera, printer for his business. Now he is fully engaged in providing digital photos to people of Sagroli and nearby 5 villages. He also smoothly edits video shooting files through computer system. Now he is earning Rs.5000/- per month and extremely happy. He is now living in Sagroli village with his wife, father and mother in his own house. He expressed wholehearted thanks to the IT course enabled by NASSCOM Foundation.
Sonal hails from lowest rung of society. All her family members and her husbands family members have been working as “Bhangi” (Toilet Cleaners). Her husband Rajesh also works for Suraj Foundation as a sweeper. When he heard about the Suraj NASSCOM Foundation Gram Dnyan Kendra he picked up courage and approached the coordinator of the centre. He wanted his wife to learn computers. Sonal has passed her 12th. And she started taking lessons in MSUP and General personality development. Having found she had a zeal for learning and her strong will to succeed, she was encouraged at all the times. She wanted to become a teacher. She was encouraged to learn school curriculum for lower classes.
Recently she encouraged her husband to take up something to do with computers. She approached SNFGDK and requested to enlist Rajesh for a computer course. Now he is being trained in Hardware and trouble shooting with computers. SNFGDK got around 120 computers as donation with initiatives from NASSCOM Foundation. These machines are being refurbished. Rajesh is being trained in cleaning the computers, replacing RAM chips and Hard Disks and Software installations. 
Mrs. Lalita Goundaje is a primary school teacher. She had always been interested in social work. Her husband runs an NGO ‘Snehjeet Prakashan’ a non-profit printing press. With the help of her husband Lalita managed to form of a group of about 10 women from Kupwad. Kupwad is like a suburb. Though it has a population of around 15-20,000, there isn’t a single good computer training institute. Most of the population consists of industrial workers, farm hands and small shop owners. There is no single internet café in Kupwad. Lalita is a keen observer. She observed the need for a community based knowledge centre. Through her husband she approached SNFGDK and expressed her wish to start a knowledge center. She even had a donor ready with a old computer. The computer belonged to a woman of Kupwad. Her daughter used to use it for college practicals. But it was almost a 12 years old computer lying in her house with no use. The lady willingly donated the computer.