The secret of change is to focus all of
your energy not on fighting the old,
but on building the new.

Socrates

ELEVATE

Elevate is the flagship program of the foundation. It is a yearly hands on – intervention that provides a comprehensive learning package in English literacy for primary school children studying in government schools across Bangalore.

The curriculum employs the L-S-R-W model and has been designed in line with the CEFR Cambridge model. The sessions and teaching material seek to improve the communicative language production, reception, interaction and linguistic capabilities of children.

The program has five proficiency levels –Seekers, Finders, Discoverers, Enquirers, Explorers, where each level corresponds to a CEFR Level : Pre-A1, A1, A2, A2 (KEY) and B. Recognizing the variation in retention and learning levels of children, the program conducts an assessment for each child and groups them into one of these four levels accordingly.

This program runs through the academic year with daily interventions for an hour a day in each of the schools we engage with.

An assessment is conducted at the beginning and ending of the program to map the effectiveness of the intervention and also refine the OBLF methodology for an enhanced learning experience.

Kids are growing up on a digital playground
and no one is on recess duty.

Kevin Honeycutt, Educator

CTRL ALT LEARN

This program seeks to introduce primary school children to basic computer literacy. The sessions allow children to play with and learn from easy use software and applications. The applications are also based on the OBLF curriculum and allow the student to use speech recognition, text typing, etc to enable innovative learning experiences. This technology based intervention has been integrated into classrooms along with the Headstart program sessions conducted by the women coordinators.

Here is to strong women,
May we know them,
May we be them,
May we raise them.

KICKSTART

The kickstart program goes hand in hand with ‘Headstart’ the English literacy program and was curated to upskill and socially empower semi-educated women from rural Bangalore.

This intervention capacitates women and equips them with pedagogical, professional /social skills, and an understanding of critical issues [maternal health, safety, hygiene, sexual reproductive health, gender issues, etc] important to them so that they can play an important role in the communities around them. OBLF employs these women to conduct OBLF’s English and technological literacy programs in the schools we engage with.

The women are mobilized from the community and undergo a 6 month period of rigorous training to transform them into skill teachers. The women are categorized based on their teaching proficiency and performance and continue to receive refresher training every week for 4 hours to develop skills and ensure quality interactive classes for the children.

An impact assessment is carried out for these women coordinators to map their learning levels. Additionally, qualitative research methods have also highlighted the social and financial empowerment experienced by the cohort who are able to aspire to better life.

Enter into children's play and you will find
where their minds, hearts and souls meet.

Virginia Axline, Pioneer of Play Therapy

EDVENTURE CAMP

This is a 5 week summer program carried out in the months of May and June, to sustain and encourage creative and critical engagement with the primary school children OBLF works with around the year.

The purpose of the program is to allow children to revise their learnings from the English program while also learning new skills and hobbies.

For the summer program sessions, OBLF invites and collaborates with a plethora of educators, artists, CSR corporates, etc who curate and conduct special sessions on art, dance, drama, poetry, etc.

The program has been extremely successful and very well received by the community given the goodwill and trust built by OBLF with the parents and schools.

We find delight and beauty in the
happiness of children that makes the
heart too big for the body.

Ralf Waldo Emerson

DAAN UTSAV

THE JOY OF GIVING

An annual – and very important – event for us is the “Joy of Giving” week, or “Daan Utsav” as it is known now. Daan Utsav is a festival of philanthropy that aims at engaging people through “cts of giving” – money, time, resources andskills – spanning across the corporate, NGO and government sectors, schools, colleges and the general public. OBLF is a part of this endeavour and raises funds, resources and gifts for the primary school beneficiaries.

There is no power greater than
a community discovering what
it cares about

Margaret J Wheatley

Learning Centre for Young Children of a Migrant Waste Picker Community

We recently adopted a community of migrant waste pickers; and have created a Learning Center for young children of this community who have no access to education. All these children are between 3-10 years old and have had no exposure whatsoever to any form of education.

Under this project we have teaching program for the children of this community, where our group of committed teachers visits this community each week to conduct foundational learning classes for the children here.

Infrastructurally, our learning center, a make-shift, tarp-covered bamboo structure has started to come together before our eyes, built and modified with the engagement of the community; we have also engaged some of the women members of this community to help us run the operations of this learning center – and we have found that this community engagement goes a long way to create a sense of ownership and belonging in the community; we see a school with excited (and bawling) children form slowly, but surely.

Play is often talked about as if it were a
relief from serious learning. But for
children play is serious learning. Play is
the work of childhood.

Fred Rogers

Early Childhood Education Program

One Billion Literates in collaboration with Key Education Foundation is launching an Early Childhood Education Program that focusses on building strong foundational learning capabilities for children aged between 3-6 years. Starting with a pilot program in 5 schools in Anekal Taluk, from the Academic Year 2021-22, our plan is to slowly extend this to the entire network of the government schools we work with.

VOICES FROM THE GROUND

Stories have immense power and are able to communicate things that lie way beyond the spoken or printed words used to tell them. We would like to showcase the incredible journey of our women coordinators and students of the adopted schools!

Our Programs

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.