Project Hope 1 : Sangram


	Thought Leadership Through Inclusion

Project Hope 1 Project Hope 2 Project Hope 3


	Project Hope 1 : Sangram

Skoch Development Foundation, keeping in mind the inclusion objective, has adopted a school - Ane Moriam - in a remote village called Sangram in Arunachal Pradesh that borders with China. Sangram is geographically challenged and is connected only by road distance of about 40 hours from Guwahati. Inhabited by tribals, living on a subsistence economy, having no formal means of communication, Ane Moriam is attended by about 360 children. The dropout rate is so high that only about 10 students remain who pass out the 8th Standard, that too mostly boys. Skoch Development Foundation has set up a computer lab with its own resources. The objective is to encourage students to adopt a new medium so that they remain motivated and take interest in studies. The computer lab will soon have V-Sat connectivity, opening up a whole new world to Sangram. The project – HOPE 1 – the first in the series is expected to digitally and socially include the community in order to ensure that more and more students qualify the Senior Secondary School examination to become part of the national mainstream. HOPE 2 is proposed to be set up in village Darkaan in Uttarkashi District, at an altitude of 7,000 ft in Uttarakhand. This will pursue the objective of women empowerment through digital, social and financial inclusion.


	Children of Sangram participate in Skoch Summit 2008 India@Work

Skoch Development Foundation sponsored the participation of Children of Sangram Village during Skoch Summit 2008. The theme of the summit was “Ideating Third Generation Reforms”. While the key policy makers, practitioners and industry from across the country deliberated the nature of reform required for empowering rural India , the children from this remote village enlightened the audience regarding their experiences and how natural disasters impacted their livelihoods. For the first time in their life, the children got an opportunity not only to visit the capital of country, but also interact face to face with the ministers in govt. Of India, top civil servants responsible for rural transformation, industry and practitioners. The interaction with the grassroots children provided valuable and much needed inputs regarding the ground realities to the policy makers.


	Children of Sangram get an exclusive audience with Shri Mani Shanka Aiyar, honorable Minister for Panchayati Raj


		& Development of North Eastern Region

	The honorable minister invited the children of Sangram to his residence for breakfast and spent time with them understanding their aspirations and the expectations from the minister. They also invited the honorable minister to visit their village and see how they were perusing their education despite all the adversities. The minister kindly agreed to visit them at the first available opportunity. Skoch Development Foundation was congratulated by the minister for providing opportunities the village kids for being mainstreamed into the society through imparting ICT skills and arranging for the educational visit


	Audience with Shri Wajahat Habibullah, honorable Chief Information Commissioner

Majority of people in India now understand the potential of Right to Information in empowering citizens of the country to seek accountability from their government. For the group of children who has come from one of the remotest areas in the country, spending an evening with the honorable CIC was the most valuable experience of their life. The commissioner explained them that the entire country was their home and all the government officers were obliged to respond to their information needs under Right to Information. The children enjoyed tea and snacks at the residence of CIC and also presented flowers to the CIC as a token of their gratitude. The kids went home more empowered with better knowledge of their rights and the potential of Right to Information Act.

As an effort to make the children familiar with the history of India, Skoch Development Foundation arranged to have the children visit Agra and see Taj Mahal and other monuments of historical value. SDF endeavors to scale up the initiative into more villages of the country. Any organizations seeking to partner with us are most welcome in making the Inclusive development a goal rather than rhetoric


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