Naandi Foundation, is a non-profit organisation in India aiming to eradicate poverty. It was founded in 1998, and works in the fields of children's rights, education, sustainable livelihoods, mid-day meals and safe drinking water.
Naandi sells safe drinking water on a subscription model. 12L/day over 30 days for Rs 60.[1]
It also runs Education Programme Called Ensuring Children Learn Programme. CEO of this foundation is Mr. Manoj Kumar. He is very active in the field of Development.
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The board of trustees of Naandi Foundation are Dr K Anji Reddy (Chairman), Anand Mahindra, Dr Isher Judge Ahluwalia and Maganti Rajendra Prasad.
Naandi works in collaboration with 1724 schools in the urban and rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu to improve learning levels of children under the ECL program. The Nanhi Kali Project, in partnership with K C Mahindra Education Trust, works to provide 10 years of formal school education to girl children with the aim to ensure that they gain competency in math, science and language. Under its Total Support approach, Naandi provides exam fees, uniforms as well as other social and academic support to the concerned girls.
The high impurity of water available in rural areas and high demand-supply gap calls for a plan to provide not only safe affordable drinking water, but also providing information to people living in these areas about good health and hygiene practices. To this end, water purification plants have been set up by Naandi in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan to treat chemical and pathogenic contamination.
This program is aimed at helping small and marginal farmers realize the full potential of their resources and skills by enabling them to tackle issues of land productivity, crop and pest management and marketing bottlenecks. It also helps economically backward youths by setting up employability finishing schools in partnership with interested corporates.
The projects in this programme are
The Araku Organic Coffee Project operating in the Araku Valley of Andhra Pradesh has provided the local tribal farmers an opportunity at a respectable livelihood by educating them in the use of natural resources management techniques and helping them market the produce. Similar project is being undertaken in Nagaland.
The defunct Life Irrigation schemes of Government of India are being revived by Naandi. The farmers form cooperative communities and acquire the control of the LI system once they are trained to operate and maintain it themselves.
Naandi works in collaboration with a number of departments of the Government of India like the Department of Education, Public Health and Engineering Departments, Integrated Tribal Development Agency, Andhra Pradesh State Irrigation Development Corporation and the Municipal Corporations of the cities of operation.
Notable institutions associated with Naandi for running and completed projects are Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Solidaridad, Netherlands, Coffee Board of India, The Coca Cola Foundation, Google Foundation, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Ernst & Young Foundation. In addition to these, numerous other consulting, technology and corporate partners also provide their financial, technical and strategic support.