Make A Difference

Make A Difference
Founded 2006
Founder Jithin C Nedumala, Gloria Benny, Sujith Abraham Varkey
Type 80G
Focus Education
Location
Area served
 India
Method English, Career Awareness
Slogan Don't Stop BELIEVING!
Website www.makeadiff.in

Make A Difference is an organization dedicated to teaching children.

MAD volunteers implement projects that provide these children with the skills that guarantee employment, role models they can relate to and exposure that helps them dream big.

Currently, around 2100 Make A Difference volunteers teach close to 5200 children in the Indian cities of Cochin, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Vellore, Bangalore, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Gwalior, Guntur, Dehradun, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mysore.[1][2]

Origins

On an unexpected visit to a center home in Kerala, MAD's founders, who were college students then, were exposed to the inequalities in education. Children at shelter homes were bright and had aspirations, they realized, but did not have quite the means to succeed at reaching their aspirations.

The founders went back to the same center, YMCA Boys' Home Thrikkakara, and set up a library early in 2006, which marked the unofficial beginnings of Make A Difference.

The official registration for the organization was completed on November 1, 2006.[3]

Vision

Even the most vulnerable children in the society are able to realize Equitable outcomes

Most Vulnerable: Children who do not have a family to support them, children whose family is unable to provide a safe space to grow up in.

Equitable Outcomes:

Programmes

ED Support Programme (Education Support)

Placements Programme (Discover)

Infrastructure Project (Fortify)

Life Skills Project (Dream Camp)

Youth Development Project (Leadership x Design: LxD)

Innovation Hub

Organizational Structure

MAD is organized and managed at 3 different levels.

City-level operations are led, and managed, by a team of 'Fellows' who are part of MAD's Leadership Development programme. Fellows are part-time employees who may be in college or be working full-time elsewhere.

MAD is divided broadly into four regions geographically, and each region is composed of a Regional Team, most of whom have had previous experience in MAD as Fellows or volunteers. The Regional level provides support to the cities in terms of operational bandwidth.

The top-level consists of full-time employees that MAD recruits to develop strategy for programmes and support functions. Hiring is mostly done in-house from Fellows or Regional level teams.

Funding

Make A Difference receives funding from 3 primary avenues:

Expansion

MAD was initially operational in the city of Cochin, with 30 volunteers, reaching out to about 130 children in 2006. Since then, MAD has grown exponentially to establish chapters and operations pan-India.

Approach

MAD works on the model of empowering communities to take care of their own. MAD provides models that are implementable by youth in a community to address the needs of the vulnerable children of the very same community.

Recognitions

References

  1. ↑ http://www.newglobalcitizens.org/make-a-difference-mad
  2. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/michelle-obama-makes-a-difference/article872502.ece
  3. ↑ http://www.india.youth-leader.org/2011/09/%E2%80%98make-a-difference%E2%80%99-where-it-really-counts/
  4. ↑ http://www.cambridgeindia.org/news43.asp
  5. ↑ http://www.andrewlittlejohn.net/website/mad.html
  6. ↑ http://makeadiff.in/blog/contact/
  7. ↑ http://www.youthaward.org/winners/make-difference
  8. ↑ http://makeadiff.in/blog/contact/
  9. ↑ http://www.iyfnet.org/sites/default/files/2010_YAN_Global_Fellows.pdf
  10. ↑ http://www.ivolunteer.in/

External links