Yahoo Employees Foundation (YEF) grants $ 40,000 to Vibha

Grant bestowed on – Sikshana- one of Vibha’s key Education projects in India

Sunnyvale, CA, October 27^th, 2009….Vibha, a volunteer run, not-for-profit organization focused at childhood education and healthcare, today announced a notable grant of $40,000 from Yahoo Employees Foundation (YEF). This grant from a global organization has furthered and leveraged Vibha’s efforts in supporting childhood development projects in India.

YEF, one of Yahoo! Inc’s social responsibility programs is a grassroots philanthropic organization that brings together the talents, time, and financial resources of Yahoo! employees to serve the needs of communities around the globe. The grant has been allocated by YEF to facilitate Vibha’s effort to scale up Sikshana– a project aimed at improving the learning levels in the public education system.

Sikshana which started out in 2002 in Karnataka with 3 public schools, today works with 134 schools supporting around 19,000 children. An additional 166 schools are in the pipeline with the onset of Phase IV of this project, taking the total reach of the project to more than 43,000 children.  The YEF grant will be used towards supporting 40 schools in the Phase IV expansion, reaching 5000 children.

In addition to playing a major role in this scaling up effort, Vibha has also facilitated, and provided the financial support towards replicating the Sikshana model in Andhra Pradesh. This will be initiated through another Vibha supported organization called Gandhian Organization for Rural Development (GORD). Using structured problem solving methods Sikshana has created a cost effective solution to address the shortcomings of individual schools, by spending about $12 per child per year to augment the government expense of $130 per child per year.

This grant is the result of consistent effort of a team of Vibha volunteers who closely communicate and research with various foundations and organizations, who have the scope to fund social development projects and organizations. Speaking about this grant, Sandhya Acharya of  VIBHA said, “We are really pleased to have the support of YEF. We are excited we will be reaching 5,000 children with this $40K grant. The win reinforces our confidence in Sikshana as a project that can deliver and make a long lasting impact. Kudos also to the grants team for working through the year persistently and putting together a great application for this.”