| Founder(s) | Jithin C Nedumala, Gloria Benny, Sujith Abraham Varkey |
|---|---|
| Type | 80G |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Location | Cochin, Kerala, India |
| Area served | India |
| Focus | Education |
| Method | English, Computers |
| Motto | Bridge the inequality in society through education |
| Website | www.makeadiff.in |
MAD, aka Make A Difference, is a youth volunteer network, working with orphans and unprivileged kids in India. Made up of mostly youth volunteers, MAD imparts English communication skills to children in orphanages, street shelters and poor homes.
From 2010, Make A Difference is using Cambridge University Press material in their classrooms. The English project takes learners from starter to intermediate level using the Cambridge English for Schools series of textbooks.
Currently, around 910 Make A Difference volunteers teach close to 3000 kids in the Indian cities of Cochin, Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Vellore, Kolkata, Mangalore, Bangalore, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Chennai and Vijayawada. In Chennai, MAD partners with a local NGO, BHUMI (organization).[1]
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MAD was founded in 2006 in the Indian city of Cochin. The first center to be taken up by the project was the YMCA Poor Boys Home, Thrikkakara. The founding members were, Kavin KK, Jithin C Nedumala, Sujith Abraham Varkey, Santosh Babu, Gloria Benny and Jithin John Varghese. In the beginning there was no focus to the activities done in class. Overtime, a syllabus was developed in association with the TTF (Teacher Training Foundation) and then later on with the help of EZ Vidya. The organisation is involved in placements as well.
Make A Difference principally works in three areas.[2]
Classes happen while the school academic session is in progress, and usually lasts seven months across the year. MAD volunteers undergo training from professionally qualified teacher trainers before going to their respective orphanages and providing English communication skills to the kids.
A wide range of instructive and informative sessions including visits to hotels, factories, professional colleges as well as enriching experiences such as camps, arts and crafts workshops etc. are conducted.
MAD's English course is a five level program of 100 hours each. Every year the children go through 56 interactive classes of two hour duration. By the end of the 5th level the child’s communication skills will be at par with a private school student. Mad also have an active placements program that runs side by side to keep the children aware of their career options and keep them motivated to study harder. They have initiated a computer program in Cochin where there are computers in the ratio 6:1 installed in every centre which means every child will get half an hour of computer class every day.[3]
MAD works in