The core philosophy at the largest glass company in India, Asahi India Glass Pvt. Ltd. (AIS) is ‘Doing good makes good business’. Corporate Social Responsibility is not another buzzword for them. They recognise that sustainable business development includes environmental and social considerations, which are an essential part of long-term business survival and growth – a belief shared by Youthreach.

In a unique initiative, AIS undertook several social and community development programmes that protect the interests of the communities in the vicinity of its manufacturing plants in both Rewari (Haryana) and Roorkee (Uttarakhand). In 2004, these interventions were clubbed together under the Integrated Community Development Programme (ICDP) as part of its CSR. AIS invited Youthreach to design, administer, and monitor the programme to over 3 lakh people from 120 villages surrounding its manufacturing units.

The Integrated Community Development Programme (ICDP)

Integrated Community Development Project- Bawal, Haryana

EDUCATION
Youthreach works extensively in the area of education with youth and children in 55 villages in the Rewari District of Haryana and 41 villages in the Narsan Block, Haridwar District, Uttrakhand with support from Asahi India Glass Pvt. Ltd., India’s largest glass making company. This has been made possible through running of school bus services and informal education centres for providing tutorial support and mainstream dropout students into formal education system. Through this programme we have empowered over 20,000 youth and women for a better future.

School Bus Service
School bus service has changed lives of many rural girls in helping them avail better education in a safer environment. Currently, 600 girls from 45 villages are availing this service annually for accessing higher and better education. A total of 6700 girls have enrolled themselves in higher secondary from the inception of the programme till date. Our school service has helped over 250 new admissions annually to classes 9 and 11 in our project villages!

AIS Unnati Education Centres
AIS funds 22 Unnati Education Centres for remedial and dropout education and have reached out to more than 4000 students in the last five years. Through the remedial educational programme tutorial support is provided to students enrolled at government schools. Drop-out educational centres provide an opportunity to youth who have dropped out of the regular school system, to complete their high school education through Open Schooling system.

Extracurricular activities

Celebration of National events and festivals
Students get together to celebrate all functions be it Independence Day or Republic Day, Diwali or Eid. Also paining competitions are held once a year to mark the celebration of Independence Day.

Educational Tour
Each year students from all the Unnati Educational Centres- Bawal are taken to Delhi and Jaipur for an exposure visit with an aim of creating awareness amongst the students about India’s rich heritage.

Annual Sports Meet
Sports meet is organised annually for the students of the Unnati Centres to promote recreational activities at the AIS Sports Ground. During this meet the students get an opportunity to visit the AIS factory premises and learn about its functioning and production process.

YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY
Workplace skills development programme
This programme aims to help youth to prepare them for a job. Under this programme the youth are provided with workplace readiness skills and etiquettes and basic computer education which would help them to gain a stable employment.

Maruti Suzuki Training Academy
Maruti Suzuki India, has initiated a 2 year diploma course on skills development for underprivileged youth in the age group of 18 to 23 years. The course is certified by the central government and Maruti has partnered with Youthreach to implement this programme.

The course includes 2 months of practical training which takes place at the Maruti factory, Gurgaon. Post the completion of the course, Maruti places the students who successfully complete the course in their factory or refer them to their partner organizations depending on the availability of vacancy.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING

Tailoring Unit
Youthreach has set up tailoring and sewing centres as part of its livelihood support programme for women. Training is provided to girls and young women in cutting and tailoring over a period of 6 months and the USHA curriculum is followed for the same. More than 200 girls are trained annually at the vocational centre for sewing and tailoring

Digital Literacy Programme
The programme aims to boost digital literacy among the underprivileged youth. Since the inception of the computer programme, we have been able to reach out to more than 800 youth.
A partnership has been formed with NIIT Foundation for providing professional certification to the youth undergoing the computer course under this programme.

HEALTH

Youthreach conducts camps in association with Max India Foundation, I-Care Noida, GVK Sansthan and Hari Om Agrasen Hospital, Rewari. Our partnership with I-Care Noida also helped us in conducting cataract surgeries for the needy patients. A total of about 10,000 people were impacted directly and indirectly through our health camps.

WATER & SANITATION
Youthreach has been actively addressing the need of the rural population to provide improved sanitation facilities. Under this intervention Youthreach has been constructing and renovating toilets at its Unnati Centres in order to make then accessible. This has resulted in reducing the open defecation in the targeted villages and school dropout rate of girls. Regular awareness workshops are organized for the students on safe sanitation and hygiene practices to ensure sustainability of the intervention.

Toilet Construction and Renovation
Youthreach has constructed and renovated toilets at Unnati educational centres with support from Chanana Welfare Foundation, Impact , Zurich and Turners and Townsend. The main aim of undertaking this intervention is to reduce the dropout rate and absenteeism amongst girl students, reduce open defecation in the villages and bring about a behavioral change modification amongst the beneficiaries.

Reverse osmosis water treatment plant
Reverse osmosis water treatment plant was set up at Harchandpur village for providing the community with purified safe drinking water at an affordable cost. The plant is running and being maintained by the support of the community members themselves.

Integrated Community Development Project- Uttarakhand
The Integrated Community Development Programme has been running successfully for the last 11 years at Narsan block of Haridwar District. Having started with 4 villages in 2006, we are now spread in 41 villages. In the last decade the programme has been able to touch more than 5000 families.

Key Intervention Areas in Roorkee

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
This is one of the major programmes under the AIS-ICDP and aims to empower women in order to make them active decision makes in their families and help them start an enterprise for income generation. The Programme has touched more than 4000 families and has significantly contributing towards women upliftment.

SHG Formation & Enterprise Development
This intervention focuses on the process of SHG formation, providing micro-credits and assisting the women to set-up their enterprise & maintain accounts and finances. Since the inception of the project Youthreach has supported about 3500 women to own enterprises after availing micro loans.

A revolving fund was created under the project with the financial support from Asahi India Glass Ltd. Loans are provided to the SHG members from the revolving fund at 1% interest to help them set up an income generating activity. Since Inception, this project has disbursed a cumulative amount of Rs. 372, 024, 25.

ADULT LITERACY
Adult literacy programme was started to improve reading, writing and arithmetic skills of illiterate women and promote empowerment and self-sufficiency among the women.

An 18 month curriculum, developed by Nirantar, is implemented that focuses on basic reading, writing, and math skills. Local women with a 10th grade education or higher serve as instructors for the programme and classes are held Monday-Saturday for two hours each day. Youthreach runs adult education centes at 11 project villages.

EDUCATION

School Bus for girls
Nearly 1000 girls from eight villages have accessed the bus service since it started in October 2008 in Roorkee.

Educational Centre
Youthreach initiated educational centres for girls in 2016 which aims to provide remedial education to the girls who are attending government schools and educational support for out-of-school girls. The out-of-school girls are enrolled under NIOS to help them appear for class 10th board examination. A total of 170 girls from 6 villages are enrolled in education centre across 4 villages.

HEALTH
Youthreach works extensively to assist people access available health services through organising general health camps, dental camps, immunization camps, eye camps, awareness sessions and diagnostic camps.

Youthreach has formed partnerships with key health services and organisations (Max India Foundation , Roko Cancer Foundation, Dr. Shroff Eye Centre, Bella Healthcare Charitable Trust) to provide high quality services to its people though the various interventions

WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE (WASH)

School Sanitation Programme
Under the school sanitation program 20 Government primary schools were selected for intervention. The objective of this program is to ensure cleanliness of the toilets in the selected school. Cleaning of toilet complexes has given 2148 students safe access to the toilets and provided a sense of security to the girls.

Renovation of Toilets in schools
Saraswati Government Girls Inter College at Jhabreda is the only girls inter college in Narsan Block and currently, 1100 girls are studying there. The school had seven toilets for 1100 girls out of which only three were operational. There Youthreach renovated existing toilet complex in the school premises and constructed drinking water and hand washing station for girls.

Workshop for adolescent girls
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) workshop was conducted with adolescent girls in six project villages. The workshop primarily focused on menstrual hygiene management. The rationale behind conducting the workshop was that every adolescent girl must have awareness, knowledge, and information so that menstruation is understood and can be managed safely with confidence and dignity.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING

TAILORING AND EMBROIDERY TRAINING PROGRAMME
Youthreach runs two Tailoring and Embroidery Training centres. Each year about 120 girls complete their training.