SM Sehgal Foundation
- Location : Medchal/Siddipet district, Telangana
- Community Served: Children
- Focus: Social Assistance
Organization background
S M Sehgal Foundation (SMSF), founded in 1999 in India, operates in
close to 1000 villages in about 10 states across India.
The organization's mission
is to achieve positive social, economic, & environmental change across rural India in the areas of
food security, water security, and social justice, with a focus on the empowerment of women and children.
SMSF has 5 main program areas:
- Transform Lives one school at a time provides school children access to
drinking water, better sanitation facilities, a safe and conducive
learning environment, and digital and life skills awareness training.
The digital and life skills awareness training is additionally
provided to rural youth.
- Agriculture Development promotes sustainable livelihoods by
building the capacities of farmers, including women, on improved
agricultural practices
- Water Management encourages communities to harvest and store
rainwater for direct use and/or replenish groundwater
- Local Participation and Sustainibility creates awareness
among the communities and improves the last mile delivery of
government programs
- Outreach Development facilitates participation and positive social
change in rural communities by creating awareness and sharing knowledge.
A core pillar of SMSF's programs is participatory governance, which
enables people to direct their own development.
SMSF gets the project started by doing initial research
in the target area, securing local and government buyin, and
arranging for funding from donors.
The members of the local community are then
educated to enable them to sustain the project on their own,
and SMSF recedes into a background support role.
Project background
As part of the Transform Lives program,
SMSF put together a COVID safety package for schools that includes a
touchless hand-washing station, touchless thermometers, masks and sanitizers.
The package is funded by donors and
installed or provided free of charge to the schools.
Another aspect of the Transform Lives program is to provide Digital
and Life Skill Awareness to rural youth.
The Digital skills curriculum for this program
gives youth an opportunity to learn about the workings of
a digital devices, fundamentals of MS Office, browsing websites,
how to be email adept, and how to use search engines to gain
needful information such as examination results,
admission forms, job opportunities and details of government programs,
among other things.
The life skills awareness curriculum focuses on the development of
social and emotional skills; knowledge on health and sanitation;
and government programs, rights and entitlements, and
understand the workings of village level institutions.
Additionally, it addresses the issue of social resignation
among youth by providing an opportunity to develop a
positive peer culture, build self-confidence, share their
experiences, develop decision making abilities.
GKF contributions to SMSF
- 2020: (i) COVID-19 safety packages across 12 rural schools in Telengana
(ii) Covid support for 2nd wave in India
- 2022: Operating support for Digital and Life Skills Awareness Program
- 2023: Operating support for Umeed (rural schools) program