Light Of Life Trust
A unique initiative catering to school drop outs in India, bringing them education, additional care and access to sustainable livelihoods
India has the largest number of out-of-school children in the world, approximately 5.55 crore (i.e. 36%) of whom drop out in the age group 11-18 years, of which 4.65 crore are from rural India (data based on NSS round 62nd,Schedule 10, July 2005 - June 2006) and are neither the focus of the Indian Government’s intervention in the field of education nor are they given due encouragement or support from their families, who are struggling to make ends meet.
The future of a young country like India is in the hands of this age group and hence the need to address the alarming issue of drop outs at the secondary school level becomes the key to the development of young India.
Light of Life Trust (LOLT) began to work with the segment that needed support in secondary education, providing support and guidance to first generation learners to break out of this vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy. Light Of Light Trust started this with a community center at Karjat, Maharashtra with 25 children and now has over 4000 children in over 35 centers across Maharashtra.It seeks to work with the children through a 3E Approach (Educate, Empower and Equip for Employability). LOLT does this creating a dedicated support system for the children from providing books and the means necessary to get back to school again to intensive counselling and home visits. They further provide remedidal support and career guidance. Through their Project Jagruti, LOLT also builds specific skills capability among young women through training in sewing, beautician courses, rural BPO initiatives, basic computer literacy, and agriculture training.
Go2C has helped LOLT set up a running solar microgrid for their Jeevan Asha Community Center at Tiware Village in Karjat, Maharasthra, by partnering with Aker Solutions, a Norwegian MNC, and securing INR 6 Lakhs from them toward bridging this need at LOLT. The Solar On-grid Rooftop System would soon be installed for LOLT, helping them save on electricity costs and develop sustainably in the long term. The system would help LOLT save about INR 2.5 Lakhs annually, which they could invest into building the livelihood skills of 844 children.