Commit 2 Change
- Location : Vadodara, Gujarat
- Community Served: Children
- Focus: Education
Organization background
Commit2Change (C2C), is a US based organization founded in 2010 whose mission is to
transform the lives of vulnerable girls by providing them
with access to education.
Most of the girls who are a part of the program are victims
of domestic abuse or gender discrimination. They are
first-generation learners, the daughters of farmers and
labourers who are raised with the belief that their marriage
prospects are more valuable than their education.
C2C works with a number of local organizations, mostly in India and Bangladesh,
and provides them with easy access to education and mental health support,
with the end goal being that they break through the cycle of
poverty and lead fulfilling lives. The long term vision is that these
girls will improve their self-worth; find well-paying careers;
support their families and lift the stigma that girls should not be educated.
Of these local partners, C2C works closely with an NGO called
Muni Seva Ashram, which is
a group of hospitals, schools and social institutions spread over
1,600 acres at the periphery of Vadodara, Gujarat, India.
The Muni Seva Ashram runs a full-residential institution for girls
called the Eklavya Model Residential School (ERMS).
Every year, after grade 5, students are admitted into ERMS via
a National-Level entrance exam that has been specifically designed for the tribal community.
Project background
The TechLab program, administered by C2C, is offered at ERMS.
The TechLab's focus is on underprivileged girls in grades 3-11 and
providing them with the opportunity to develop their abilities in the
STEM & IT fields.
The classes are provided after school.
The TechLab expects to enroll approximately 100 girls between Grades
6-11 at ERMS.
The program runs over 3 years (3 phases):
- In the first 10 months, the program focuses primarily on digital literacy
and familiarizing the girls with computers, internet, email and browsers.
Subsequently, they build on these digital literacy skills and learn
applications such as MS Office Suite, and blog writing.
-
In the second year, the girls are provided with an introduction to
programming and Scratch by curating information from sources such as
The Khan Academy, YouTube, Teachers notes, reference books, etc.
They are also introduced to Javascript. Only about 60% of the
girls from the first year make it to the second year.
-
Only 20%-40% of the girls are promoted to the third year of the program.
In this year, they primarily build on the curriculum prescribed by
Code.org and build static & dynamic websites/web apps and mobile
apps geared towards solving a real-life problem faced by their
community or general population using multi-tier application architecture.
GKF contributions to C2C
- 2020: (i) C2C's TechLab program at Muni Seva Ashram, serving
serve 100 girls, from grades 6-11.
(ii) support to provide relief for Covid 2nd wave (food packets, sanitizing equipment)
- 2021,2022,2023: C2C's TechLab program and English, Vedic Math programs at 2 schools in Gujarat, serving underprivileged girls