Vidya & Child started in July 1998 to work towards providing a learning environment which can lead to a strong educational foundation as well as help a child in identifying the uniqueness within. It is a project managed by Jayaprakash Narayan Memorial Trust registered as a Public Charitable Trust in New Delhi, India. People, who believe in his ideals and the work that he did, have constituted the Trust in his memory.
Our Outreach
Vidya & Child reaches out to over 1200 children across its 5 centres (4 in Noida and 1 in district Siwan, Bihar). Of these a 1000 + are part of our Non Formal Education Programme which runs from Class Nursery to Class V, over 200 children from Class VI to Class X attend our After School Support Programme and our Foundation Programme caters to over 60 children from Class XI and above.
We catre to the entire education life cycle of a child's educational process and support the child till he/she finds a meaningful career.
Over the years, we have put in place a structured education model that is scalable and replicable. We have improvised to make our processes more efficient and our outcomes more effective.
Our Beliefs
Each child’s insatiable energy, determination to succeed and ever smiling face drives us to improve on our inputs and reinforces our beliefs.
• Every child has a right to be educated
• Every child has capabilities that need to be explored and channelised
• Every child dreams and yearns to learn, to make a place for himself in society
• We, in Vidya & Child, can through our small support help them explore their talents to translate into an improved and meaningful life.
Our Objective
To develop a creative learning environment for children and help them merge with the mainstream of society
Education at Vidya & Child involves mainstreaming children into schools for them to complete school education. This critical step is a platform from where children can then decide career paths and aspire for higher studies. It enables a child to access the vast opportunities of higher learning that are otherwise beyond reach. Vidya & Child is an opportunity wherein children are initiated into an academic environment and an equally strong creative learning process. Children who have been a part of this process are beautiful painters, kathak dancers, tabla players, can set up their own magic shows, tattoo artists as well as children who excel in Maths, Science and Languages. We strive for a holistic educational environment where academic excellence is as important as recognising ones strengths within.
Our Team - Teachers, Volunteers & Parents
Today we are a team of over 100 across our 4 centers catering to over 1200 children. Our teachers come from different backgrounds; but they all share a common passion and that’s what binds us all together. It is heartening to see that most of our first group of teachers who joined us almost 12 years ago continue to be with Vidya and Child. They are our backbone. The kind of growth that Vidya & Child has experienced would not have been possible without the love, commitment and efforts of its teachers. Vidya & Child is fortunate to have a dedicated team of teachers who have always given their 100% and more.
Volunteers are an integral part of Vidya & Child. They have supported us through their belief in our objectives, giving constant support and encouragement to our children and being there whole heartedly in all our programmes and activities every step of the way. Volunteers provide children with academic & morale support along with a big positive influence! They impart additional knowledge and help children strengthen their concepts. Children hold them in high esteem as they are their real life role models of where education can take them. Volunteers also expose the children to available career options & guide them accordingly.
Parents play a very important role in the entire school education process of a child. We pursue a very strong parent interaction program to help a child finish school education and find a suitable career path. We interact with the Parent community to • Provide feedback to the parents on their child’s performance • Ask them to increase support to their child for continuing their education • Intervene on health and hygiene and behavioral issues • Intervene on parent-child conflicts. Our focus is to build a strong long term relationship between the Child, the Parent and Vidya & Child.
Our Board of Trustees
Vidya & Child is run by Jayaprakash Narayan Memorial Trust, which comprises 8 trustees. Members of the trust serve in their individual capacities & not as representatives of any organisation or institution. Though they come from diverse professional and personal backgrounds they all share their compassion for the underprivileged child.
The Trustees work towards achieving the objectives of the Trust and envision that every child must go to school. They ensure transparency and accountability in the organisation. The team consists of professionals from different fields with varied experience which brings in fresh perspective to the various programmes and activities undertaken by the Trust.
The Trustees:
1) Dr Bimal Prasad; an eminent historian and former ambassador to Nepal
2) Mr P.P.Verma; Engineer from IIT Kharagpur and Stanford University, an entrepreneur and nephew of Sri Jayaprakash Narayan
3) Ms Supriya Akhaury; Chartered Accountant, Director at Vidya & Child
4) Ms Deviani Chatterjee; Over 20 years of teaching experience, Programme Director at Vidya & Child
5) Mr Mohan Kumar; Corporate Executive, Engineer and MBA from IIM Bangalore
6) Ms Ruchi Shah; Engineer and MBA, Associate Director at Vidya & Child
7) Ms Kakul Gupta; trained teacher, Associate Director at Vidya & Child
8) Mr Toshak Vaid; Entrepreneur, Engineer MBA from IIM Bangalore
Our Legal Status
• Registered as a Public Charitable Trust
• Registered u/s 12 A of IT Act as a Charitable Institution
• 80G IT exemption available to Individual Donors
• Registered under FCRA
PS: This page is updated as of September 2012