RCB Donates 160 Tablets
World Youth Skills Day 2020 was celebrated on July 15, and, like every year, the Rotary Club of Bombay in partnership with Salaam Bombay Foundation took the opportunity to continue our commitment towards ensuring access to skill training to the underprivileged youth. RCB donated 160 tablets to Salaam Bombay Foundation (SBF) for educating those who do not have access to smartphones.
The lockdown has affected underprivileged adolescents and their families to a great extent and has called for considerable physical, emotional and mental agility. For many of these children, this is compounded by the sheer lack of physical space in their homes, minimal light and ventilation and the scarcity of any kind of social interaction. Additionally, job losses faced by the adults in the household have put families under financial pressure, leading to the children dropping out from school and seeking odd jobs to meet financial requirements.
During different phases of the lockdown, SBF adapted its school-based model to an ‘@ Home’ skills training model. Through this model, the young students connect to a domain expert instructor over live web-based training sessions. The training deployed includes skill programmes such as Beauty & Wellness, Bakery & Confectionery, Home Appliance Repair and Jewellery Design. Additionally, students receive a 12-hour training in Financial Literacy through the Dhangyan App (Tata Capital). Through this programme, students have to learn key financial concepts like ‘Budgeting’, ‘Savings’ and ‘Banking’ among others.
This year, RCB donated 160 tablets to Salaam Bombay. This will further bridge the digital divide and enable seamless access to those students who are unable to access online sessions due to the unavailability of smartphones at their homes. The goal is to also extend the training to other family members that might benefit from learning a new skill in these difficult times and further engage into meaningful income generation activities within their own vicinity. Acquiring basic financial skills, especially at a time when the family is reeling under financial pressure, will enable students to make responsible money management decisions.
President Framroze Mehta said, “It is more important than ever now, to continue skill training for youth whose futures depend on it. While there are challenges, there are also myriad opportunities. Rotary Club of Bombay got on onboard this project because we believe that it is our collective responsibility to support such an excellent initiative. It would be good if other organisations too supported such initiatives.”
Gaurav from Salaam Bombay said: “We are sincerely grateful to you, Mr. Mehta and other members of the Gender Equality Committee, for always believing in SBF and supporting us with interesting and different ideas. Whether it is about taking skills like Robotics to less privileged students or taking forward the online skilling model in these testing times, Rotary Club has always taken a leap in supporting our ideas. This support of yours will in particular help those who don’t have access to smartphones.”