Education

The Kusuma Ratna Fellowship helps 300 bright higher secondary school students from underprivileged backgrounds to gain entrance into higher education courses, through the provision of a stipend, workshops on communication and life skills and mentoring support.

The Kusuma Udayan Shalini Fellowship gives assistance to 410 needy and exceptional teenage girls and young women to pursue higher education, with the goal of transforming them into true Shalinis (Dignified Women) and responsible world citizens, through the provision of a stipend and attendance at residential camps where they are taught life and social skills.

The Kusuma Young Achievers’ Award provides 1,200 meritorious students with financial and non-financial support to pursue higher education in the Warangal District of Andhra Pradesh, through the provision of annual course fees, tutorial support and career guidance.

The Mobile Science Laboratories project promotes a better understanding of scientific concepts among 25,754 government school students across 70 schools in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.  The students are given the opportunity to participate in science experiments within the classroom environment, which are led by visiting teachers who bring equipment to schools that have no science facilities or laboratories.

The Udaan and Pehchaan residential learning programmes at Sarvodaya Ashram, Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh.  They deliver access to the formal education system for 542 girls and teenagers from poor and marginalised communities, who have not had the opportunity to attend or stay at school.  Udaan enables young girls at the primary school level to complete a bridge to middle school and Pehchaan enables older girls to complete middle school in order to get mainstreamed into secondary school.

The Kusuma School of Biological Sciences has been established in 2011 at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, to create and develop new teaching and research programmes at the under-graduate and post-graduate levels in biology, with an emphasis on infectious diseases and non-communicable disorders.

The Kusuma Mid-Day Meal project provides good quality meals to 14,000 underprivileged children via a public-private-partnership with the government in Nayargh, Orissa and Medak, Andhra Pradesh and it aims to meet the children’s nutritional requirements and motivate the parents to send their children to school, thereby improving enrolment, attendance and academic performance.

The Mid-Day Meal Kitchen project will construct a centralised kitchen in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa in 2011-2012 and subsequently deliver mid-day meals to 100,000 children studying in government schools from 2012-2014.

The Teacher Professional Development in Secondary Science and English project in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, aims to improve the classroom practices of 242 teachers of Science in Classes 9-12 and improve the academic performance of 20,000 students.

The Education Advancement Through Livelihood Trainings project will enhance the employability and employment prospects of 3,000 adolescents in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, who drop out of school through the provision of vocational training and educational coaching. 

The Centre for Youth and Social Development's Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) Rollout for Quality Secondary Education project in Sambalpur, Orissa and Vigyan Foundation's Parwaaz: RMSA Rollout for Quality Education project in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh, both aim to strengthen school management and development committees in secondary schools to enhance the quality of education. 

The Conducive Learning Environments and Facilities for Secondary Science Students projects in Sambalpur, Orissa, aim to improve science results in secondary schools by supporting the refurbishment and equipping of science laboratories, the provision of science kits for students and science teachers and the training of science teachers to deliver interactive science teaching.

The Science Museum Learning programme in West London aims to provide 3,960 primary pupils with the chance to attend a facilitated visit at the Science Museum as well as delivering practical and interactive science training to 900 teachers. Outreach visits in prisons will take place where science demonstrations will encourage positive behaviour and raising self-esteem for 125 inmates and 700 of their family members.

The Thomas's Schools Foundation's main aim is the advancement of education. Through the ICT homework clubs programme 165 primary pupils will develop the skills and confidece required to complete their homework on line. The programme will focus on the Mathematics advancement of the pupils.

Children At-Risk

In partnership with Sadhana, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the Juvenile Justice Department and UNICEF, The Trust is supporting the roll-out of Saarathi training for frontline workers in child welfare and development agencies in Andhra Pradesh. 

Kusuma Seva provides food, shelter, education and medical care to 20 orphaned and semi-orphaned children in Sambalpur, who reside together at a Vikash Vidyalaya Foundation home and are educated at a nearby government school.

Building Open Sharing Resources develops tools and practices that enable open sharing communities to collaborate globally, with the goal of creating open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities around the world.

The Centre for Internet and Society works to shape the Internet, and its relationship with the current political, cultural, and social landscapes by promoting the reform of copyright law and implementing electronic accessibility standards. 

Research and Advocacy

The Kusuma Research Fellowship aims to encourage research into education and develop the capacity of young Ph.D and M.Phil graduates through a modular training and mentoring programme in collaboration with a leading Indian university or higher education institute. The Fellowship is a modification of the Kusuma Young Researcher's Award and will enable 5 individuals to complete research into topics relevant to The Trust's strategy and disseminate their findings in international peer-reviewed journals.

A pilot study carried out by Pratham Education Foundation will assess the status of education in the Sursa Block of Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh and obtain methodologies and tools that will help scale up the project for a larger study across the two districts of Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh and Sambalpur, Orissa. 

Our past projects are presented below:

iPartner India aims to create a more just and equitable society in India, by providing a networking platform, which connects donors to inspiring charitable projects. 

Kusuma Young Researcher's Award was a national competition which ran from 2009 to 2011 and encouraged academic research into relevant issues affecting children and education. The project has now ended. 

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences developed Saarathi, a training manual which is used to improve the counseling skills and legal knowledge of frontline personnel working with vulnerable children.