HUManity: Bringing quality education to children at shelter homes in Vizag

Humanity Uplifting Mankind (HUManity) is an NGO working towards increasing access to quality education for children in shelter homes in Vizag. It is registered under AP Societies Act in 2019 and is currently associated with Five Child Care Institutions in Visakhapatnam. HUManity has been able to reach out to 150 children in the city through the efforts of  50 volunteers. 

HUManity intervenes at various levels to help these children from these Child Care Institutions (CCIs):

A)   At Improving Education Standards Level

1. Foundation Program: A basic program to make sure children are functioning at their level and understand the classes better.      
2. Exposure Program: A life skills program to equip these children with essential cognitive, personal and interpersonal skills. This will facilitate a smooth transition when they are moving out into society.  
3. Library Project: They have collaborated with Harper Collins India to set up libraries at these CCIs, ensuring the inculcation of a good reading habit among children.

B) Improving the Living conditions

Through extensive research of the CCIs, considering the guidelines of the Juvenile Justice Act, and understanding from the learnings of Guardians of Dreams, HUManity restores essential living conditions with corporate partnerships.

Volunteers at HUManity benefit through multiple programs, apart from being part of a like-minded community working towards a cause.

Expert Speaks:

It is a program through which experts from various backgrounds instill values into the volunteers to drive the change.

For the first session, Dr. Jaya Prakash Narayana ex-IAS speaks on the topic “role of values in driving the change”.       

In the second session, Mr. Subrahmanyam Goparaju, Ex-Senior Vice President and Director of R&D at Infosys, speaks on the topic “Being a Leader of Change, Leading a Change within”.    

The Inception of HUManity

Abhishek Paluri and Chanakya Karra, the co-founders of HUManity, have been associated with shelter homes in Vizag since 2013. Upon understanding the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) Report in 2019, which states that more than 50 percent of children hardly function at their levels, they figured out that most children at CCIs belong to this group of students who lack basic skills. During a conversation with each other, they understood the need to support CCIs with essential foundations and life skills to have the holistic development of children in need.    

Chanakya Karra has done his Master’s from Andhra University in the branch of Nanotechnology. He has been associated with Make A Difference (MAD) from 2013 as a volunteer, operations lead, and public relations lead. Later, he prepared for civil services while teaching children from low-income groups in Hyderabad.     

Abhishek Paluri has done his Post Graduation Diploma in Development Leadership at the Indian School of Development Management, Noida. He is also an alumnus of GITAM University. Before starting HUManity, he was associated with MAD in various leadership roles and taught at schools.

How to become a part of HUManity

One can be part of the organisation at two levels.  

1) Impact Level: People can get recruited as volunteers for a year after undergoing necessary training.

2) Support Level: People can actively donate to HUManity’s projects and also reach out to communities in order to build a sustainable support system. Thus, they can help the organisation reach closer to its vision.

Current Projects:

Owing to the pandemic, there has been a dip of 80 percent in donations to HUManity, resulting in a severe crisis at the shelter homes in the city. These shelter homes are in extensive need of groceries where the supplies usually last only for a month. Through the

HUManity is being supported by Pee Safe in providing sanitary pads to 100 children in CCIs of Vizag.       

Through the Donate A Device campaign, the CCIs are to be equipped with video-enabled devices to continue the learning of children.

All the donations to HUManity can be exempted under 80G of the IT Act.

Contact:

Abhishek Paluri – 9989994570

Chanakya Karra – 9908181213.

 Mail: contact@humanityorg.in