Living Upto Challenging Times
Education – Virtually delivered
During 2020-21, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the schools to shut. However, during this time, Manipal Foundation partnered with Mahamaya Foundation to create a well-structured LIBRARY of lessons aggregating to about 1000 hours for the students of classes 9 and 10 studying in Kannada (500 hours) and English (500 hours) medium schools. The students can access this through You tube based on privileges given to them. Our students of the Virtual Classroom Learning Program were greatly benefitted through this.
During the first quarter of the current year, the COVID-19 pandemic continues unabated resulting in large disruption of schools. The State government of Karnataka, where we are largely present, are working out the details of how the schools can be opened in a staggered manner Realising that the children in these schools, should be provided access to quality learning support, Manipal Foundation, in partnership with Mahamaya Foundation continued to impart lessons to the students of Government, Aided and poor private schools, virtually. In this mode, the faculty associated with Mahamaya, deliver classes covering the various subjects in a classroom, which is recorded. These recorded sessions are made available to the children over YouTube, which they can access through their personal devices, with independent log ins.
Early May this year, the State Education Department of Udupi district, Karnataka, approached us to take this program to the students of ~ 220 schools across the district This initiative was based on excellent feedback from the students/head masters of our beneficiary schools studying in classes 9 and 10,This program delivery commenced on June 15 had received. Approximately 20,000 login credentials for students from many schools have already been created till date (20 days). The students have started viewing the lessons which are being uploaded on YouTube. We already have more than 1,00,000 views as on date, which indicates that students are taking this very seriously.
We have the capacity to reach many more students at remote locations too but we face the challenge of lack of smart phones with internet connectivity. We are hoping to overcome these challenges and are exploring innovative solutions
Healthcare
1-Vaccine Drives
While the world is fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic and may not be able to avoid couple of more waves, one of the ways that immunity can be achieved is by vaccinating our citizens. The faster we accelerate, hopefully, we can minimize the damage. Our public health system is unfortunately, not yet geared up to administer that many vaccines to our large population in a short period of time.
The problem is more pronounced and urgent when it comes to under privileged sections of the society, who apart from being vulnerable, are also hesitant. They are large in numbers and given their living conditions, cannot afford to maintain “social distancing very effectively”. Hence a very different approach needs to be conceived to vaccinate them.
Manipal Foundation has partnered with NGOs and corporates, who are taking initiatives and are working in their own micro circles to educate and gather the beneficiaries at a central point. Manipal Foundation has partnered with Manipal Hospital Bangalore, , who are now able to procure vaccines and are also mobilizing their staff to administer the first dose of the vaccine either within the hospitals or even at remote locations (school/ convention halls etc.) . Till date approximately 5,600 individuals in Bangalore have been inoculated through CSR funds and another 20000 are identified beneficiaries for whom we are seeking sponsorers
2-Adopt a PHC
Manipal Foundation has participated in “Adopted a PHC (Primary healthcare centre) initiative, organized by Centre for Wildlife Studies, (CWS) an NGO which works at grassroot level for the benefit of the forest animals and the people attending to these animals and staying these difficult terrains. Under this adopt the PHC program,CWS procures COVID safety kits, consisting of Medical supplies, medicines, surgical masks, N95 masks, gloves among others. This is to ensure that these COVID warriors are safe while taking care of the people coming into the PHC for care. As part of the contribution by Manipal Foundation, 15 Primary Health Centers in Udipi district have been equipped .
3-Short-term stay for children
An unfortunate outcome of the pandemic has been the loss of either one or both parents by many young children in rural areas. SOS Children’s Village of India, which has been providing long term residential and comprehensive care for orphaned children across “44 villages” across India, has been mandated by the Government of India to provide temporary shelter to such orphaned children. Manipal Foundation has partnered with SOS Children’s Village of India to support 20 children whose parents are affected by COVID 19 and need immediate care. These are children will be supported by SOS for a short term (a maximum of 6 months)till somebody related family member comes to take them back or these children get moved to the ‘Long term stay program of SOS” In this program, these children will be provided space to stay, Foodclothes, undergarments, mattresses, age specific activity and books. These children will be under the supervision of trained care takers.