Detailed description

Rotary Club of Deonar has teamed up with Kotak Education Foundation [KEF] and Rotaract Club of Deonar to impart training to these kids over a period of 3 years. The children shall be trained in basic Tab use including use of common resources like Youtube, Google search, Playstore etc to explore & obtain the information that they want. Simultaneously KEF shall train the teachers at school to teach the entire school curriculum subjects through a Tab-based learning model. The entire 7th Grade students, around 105 of them, have been chosen as the pilot batch. Tabs have been provided to the 7th Grade school teachers as well. KEF shall be conducting a baseline study & thereafter endline studies at the end of each year. The members of Rotaract Club of Deonar will engage with the pilot batch children from time to time and mentor them. RC Deonar is confident that by merely exploring the world of information and free learning available on the internet, these kids will become more relevant

Community assessment: How the project team learned about the community’s needs

We did a thorough community assessment since this school is already part of our Happy School project and a plethora of work has already been done with them over the years. The background is as follows: Rotary Club of Deonar has been associated with Subhas Chandra Bose Vidyamandir for 8+ years. We have adopted this school under our Happy School Project. Over the years, we have donated various items and done various projects like medical camps, benches and desks, drawing competitions, mid-day meals, Storage racks, classrooms refurbishment, Self defense programs for girls, electrical fittings/fans, Green boards in the classroom, Smart TV, Science Lab, Aqua guard Water purifiers, footwear to students. Recently, during the pandemic, we distributed over 900 grocery kits.

Project impact: How the project will help the community after the project ends

Prayaas, a project of Tab distribution & training, at its very core is aimed at DIGITAL EQUALITY. The basic premise is that, if our kids have access to our high-end mobiles & laptops, then even these underprivileged kids deserve to have access to their digital devices. There cannot be a truly Digital India without the vast majority of children having a digital device. The idea is to make them both internet & tech-savvy, at par with our kids, digitally empower them with the world of information through the internet and thereby move towards a truly Digital India. This will ensure not only their progress but their sense of understanding and will have a huge impact on their overall development.

Sustainability: How the benefits of the project will continue afterward

The project fits completely into the angle of sustainability. We have identified the need of the community since these are kids whose parents are far away from the understanding of digital progress. We have strong ownership since the school is taking ownership of the tabs and our Education Partner is driving all the progress and development associated with the training. The ongoing training and support will be driven very well by our Rotaract partner. We are buying the tab that is locally available and our project is getting funded through a local CSR Partner i.e., Savex Tech. Last but not least...we will be measuring the progress on a sustained basis and will also be replacing the tabs after the 3 year period.