theculturalconnect.com | The Learning Foundation India

Non-Profit

The Learning Foundation India

Founded

2004

Website

www.tlfi.org

Location

Haryana, India

Ethnicity

Indian

About the Non-profit

The Learning Foundation India aims to achieve its goal of reaching 78 million children through the mobilization of volunteers on large scale. This seemingly impossible goal can be attained through the mobilization of underutilized assets. Such mobilization demands a unique organization, that itself observes network principles. Toward this end The Learning Foundation India is organizationally distinct:

We are completely volunteer-driven, egalitarian, open-source
Volunteers contribute time towards actual teaching, training, coaching, strategizing, organizing, coordinating and mentoring
All members of the organization or well wishers contribute only underutilized assets
We do not solicit any financial aid from volunteers

Essential underutilized assets that we seek to mobilize are :

University students' intelligence, pedagogic skills, and free time during university holidays
Children's attentiveness, curiosity, affability, and willingness to learn
Classroom space available in schools and civi centers, free during school holidays
Home stay hospitality provided by local families taking in the volunteer teacher(s) as family members

The Learning Foundation India believes that in order for the essential underutilized assets to be mobilized on the grand scale envisioned above, other assets must be included. For maximum scale, sustainability, and impact, these additional assets should be underutilized network assets whose inclusion would at once promote the mobilization of the three volunteerism assets above as well as the donors' interest in extending their network. Examples of such assets are:

Prestige, social recognition (newspaper articles, awards, medals)

University credit for teachers in training performing their practicum with TLFI

Computers donated by large firms in India and worldwide discarding outdated equipment

Mobile telephone time offered to volunteers

What is the Story behind The Learning Foundation India?

Two young men who grew up in villages halfway across the world from one another met at the University of Mauritius in June 2003.

Adam Tolnay, born in Romania and educated at Harvard, the London School of Economics, and Georgetown came to the fair isle in the Ind ian Ocean to investigate the attempt the Maurit ian government was making to leapfrog from sugarcane and textiles into the knowledge based economy. While a sophomore in college, Adam had started Learning Enterprises, a non-profit corporation dedicated to the opening of the eyes of rural children in developing countries to a wider world by organizing volunteer-run English and IT programs. Currently in it's 13 th year, Learning Enterprises has sent approximately 300 volunteers to villages in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, China, Mexico and Mauritius.

Baljinder Sharma, born and educated in India, had come to Mauritius some years earlier to start a school to teach computing to talented Maurit ian youth. Baljinder's pioneering spirit and enterprise has led him to not only run the School of Advanced Computing, but also other IT related ventures in Mauritius. His entrepreneurial streak and unlimited energy saw his company's activities, as an IT Services provider; expand to mainland Africa, US and back home in India. He studied Electronics and Communications Engineering at the Regional Engineering University in Rajasthan and later graduated with an MBA from the University of Mauritius.

His expertise, focused on the political economy of development in the age of the IT revolution was sought out by policymakers and the media alike.

This meeting marked the beginning of an active collaboration, as Adam and Baljinder published a number of papers on IT and development issues. This partnership led the two of them to imagine how the hopes, dreams, skills, and potential of the 58 million children left outside the formal educational system in India might be realized, to the benefit of the children, their families and India. In thinking through these issues, Adam and Baljinder were inspired by Rahul Gandhi, who asked them to not only dream big, but create an organization that would have be effective, efficient and provide impact to where it matters, to the lives of children. Alam Kasenally reminded them not to lose the principles underpinning the success of earlier enterprises Adam and Baljinder had engaged in: fostering creativity and cross cultural exchange, spreading the spirit of volunteerism, and providing a substantive and rewarding work experience for young people. With this in mind, in autumn 2004 Baljinder and Adam began to outline the mission and strategy and structure of the organization that became The Learning Foundation India.

They found immediate support from a rare and unconventional academic in India, who not only believed in education beyond the physical boundaries of the School but who himself is a dedicated technology user and an ardent believer in the revolutionary impact of technology in the delivery of education. Prof Pant, earlier a Professor at the prestigious Ind ian Institute of Technology and the founding Pro VC at India's largest Open University, prompted the two gentlemen to run a pilot in a village near Gurgaon. The pilot, which he himself shepherded, not only reinforced their belief in the possibility of their ideas but in the overall achievement of their mission. The story of the two proto-volunteers, the "Lillas", has not only inspired the children that they worked with, but has impressed the founders of TLFI themselves. You may share their experiences on the TLFI Blog.

What's the niche?

The founders of Learning Foundation India (LFI) believe that despite numerous laudable efforts, millions of Ind ian children and youth remain uneducated and undereducated. Any solution to this problem will require attention to individual needs, as well as vast reserves of goodwill, energy and vision. We believe these reserves lie in the minds and hearts of fellow Ind ians, and can be accessed through participation in an all volunteer network, committed to sharing these important resources. We believe such volunteerism can be organized on a very large scale, with very potent results if volunteers are empowered via the network way of thinking and acting. The basic principles of a network organization are: giving what you have, freedom and responsibility, connecting people, a dedicated staff, and fun!

Most notable achievements

TLFI has gone through an intense planning process, clarifying its vision, mission, strategy and action plan extensively before taking the first steps.

TLFI ran a highly successful pilot with a set of proto-volunteers in two villages near Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi, the capital of India. The two volunteers reached out to 100 children in Schools without basic facilities and successfully taught them basic English and use of Computers within a short period of four weeks. They presented their unique experiences at a the Commonwealth Conference in Goa in December 2005..

With this TLFI also ran two highly successful projects named 'Summer 2005 project' and 'Thar Endeavor '05' with a set of volunteers in several villages near Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state, India and in Thar Desert areas respectfully. The volunteers reached out to children in Schools without basic facilities and successfully taught them basic English and use of Computers.

TLFI is pending legal incorporation in the US and in India. It has identified villages, recruited staff, commenced it recruitment drive and is getting ready for its 'Mega Summer '06' rollout on June 1, 2006.

What's in store for the future?

The Learning Foundation India aspires to introduce the essentials of Computing and English language skills to 78 million uneducated school age children and youth in India through a volunteer-driven direct-impacting interactive learning program. We believe that exposure to skills such as Computing and English language will allow children lacking access to formal education to plausibly compete for jobs such as ITES Operators, Data Miners, etc., and enter the new economy.

Our vision consists of three basic elements:

A Six-Year mission directly impacting seventy eight million children
Annual Five fold ( 5X Factor) progress rather than incremental spread
A Basic Course on English and Computer Skills

The vision will be fulfilled by The Learning Foundation India offering Programs on Knowledge of IT and English (KITE) volunteer taught course fundamental to earning a livelihood in the world of tomorrow, to children who:

Are outside the formal educational system
Do not speak English with any degree of proficiency
Have not had access to computers

Who would you like to be contacted by?

The biggest difference between The Learning Foundation India and other service organizations is that we charge neither the children we teach nor the volunteers who teach them. Most other organizations either charge the students a participation fee will or collect a participation fee ranging in the hundreds, even thousands, of dollars from the volunteers. Learning Foundation India only asks that volunteers pay for their own transport to the villages where they will teach in. A host family will provide room and board free of charge, and volunteers may have to cover small incidental costs such as snacks or drinks at a local bar, as well as very inexpensive food and lodging during the four day orientation.

We are able to offer volunteers the chance to teach free of charge because we have very minimal operating expenses, particularly given our scope. Our minimal operating costs are covered by donations from individuals and corporations who believe in our program.
Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we do not have to ask potential applicants for money to cover our operating costs.

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Guiding principle of the organization

The Learning Foundation India will accomplish its mission of providing basic skills education to millions of Ind ian children each year, by taking a unique, technology enabled approach, based on three simple principles:

A Focus on Basic IT and English Skills
A Network of Volunteers and Supporters
A Unique Combination of Resources

1. Focus: Because LFI will be volunteer driven, and because we will be serving children during the short period of vacation between school years, we have constructed a focused, meaningful course in basic English and IT skills. This program, called Knowledge of IT and English (KITE), has been prepared exclusively for children with little to no proficiency in English, who are outside the formal education system, and have not had access to a computer. This focus enables program volunteers to deliver a high quality basic education, designed to provide children with the skills they would require to accomplish simple computing tasks, thereby increasing their chances for securing new economy jobs in the future.

2. The Network: There are millions of university age students, in India and abroad, who relish the idea of using their time off from school to improve the lives of others. These students are intelligent, caring, and motivated. As successful Learning Enterprises (www.learningenterprises.org) programs in other countries have demonstrated, these students not only fulfill their program duties as teachers, but they contribute toward improving the curriculum, recruiting and training their peers, and locating future teaching opportunities. TLFI has united the energies and talents of its volunteers through an ever growing, open source network, which enables the organization to have a large, unified presence without requiring a large, cumbersome organization.

3. A Unique Combination of Resources: The Learning Foundation India has identified a number of available resources, which on their own may have little impact, but when combined, produce tremendous value at little to no cost. The resources that LFI has identified and been able to combine include:

University students' free time and willingness to help
Children's energy, affability, and enthusiasm
Unused classroom space (during vacation time or after school)
Homestays for volunteers, offered by village residents.

The orchestration of these resources at a large scale is exactly what TLFI's network has been set up to do, and the reason a small organization can have a meaningful impact on so many lives in a short amount of time.

Goal yet to be achieved

The Learning Foundation India aims to achieve its goal of teaching 78 million children basic English and IT skills through the mobilization of millions of volunteers per year. This seemingly impossible goal can be attained through the mobilization of underutilized assets. Such mobilization demands a unique organization, that itself observes network principles. Toward this end The Learning Foundation India is organizationally distinct:

1. We are completely volunteer-driven, egalitarian, open-source
2. Volunteers contribute time towards actual teaching, training, coaching, strategizing, organizing, coordinating and mentoring
3. All members of the organization or well wishers contribute only underutilized assets
4. We do not solicit any financial aid

Essential underutilized assets that must be mobilized for the education program to succeed on any scale are:

1. University students' intelligence, pedagogic skills, and free time during university holidays
2. Children's attentiveness, curiosity, affability, and willingness to learn
3. Classroom space available in schools and civic centers, free during school holidays
4. Home stay hospitality provided by local families taking in the volunteer teacher(s) as family members

Learning Foundation India believes that in order for the essential underutilized assets to be mobilized on the grand scale envisioned above, other assets must be included. For maximum scale, sustainability, and impact, these additional assets should be underutilized network assets whose inclusion would at once promote the mobilization of the four assets above as well as the donors' interest in extending their network. Examples of such assets are:

1. Prestige, social recognition (newspaper articles, awards, medals)
2. Credit offered by universities to volunteers for demonstrating a commitment to social responsibility for their volunteer work with LFI
3. Computers donated by large firms in India and worldwide discarding outdated equipment
4. Tickets from home to village offered by Indian Railroads; mobile telephone time offered to volunteers by mobile operators

The identification, selection, and synergistic bundling of network assets to mobilize volunteerism are conceptually and practically difficult tasks. Yet it is these processes that will determine the success or failure of the entire endeavor The Learning Foundation India has set out for itself. To this end, Learning Foundation India suggests a network approach as well, namely The Learning Foundation India will simultaneously:

1. Seek pro-bono consulting services from McKinsey & Company and other innovative consulting firms
2. Glean suggestions, models from businesses that operate on a network model (Teach for America, Grameen Bank, Avon, fashion marketing)
3. Search out academics studying networks in disciplines such as economics, mathematics, marketing, immunology
4. Solicit ideas and suggestions from the worldwide community via an interactive website supported by targeted e-mails to volunteer organizations, our alumni associations including those of Harvard University, the London School of Economics, Indian Diaspora mailing lists, etc.

If you would like to contact TLFI, you can reach them at info@tlfi.org.

The Learning Foundation India

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