The Tribal Collective

Organisations working at grassroots and that too in remote geographies like the mountains, forests have often struggled with mobilizing the necessary support, finding an audience to share their stories and challenges.  While every part of the country has one or more civil society organisations at grassroots, the struggles have often led to a vulnerable position in terms of cause, influence and policy change as they continue to create impact with quality and consistency in close proximity to the problem areas.

The Rural and Tribal Collective was set up to impact the learning of more than 100,000 children residing in remote geographies of India as response to Covid-19 situation in 2020. The program was set up to create avenues for children to continue learning despite the indefinite school closures; to build 21st century skills in them rooted within the contexts they live in; to encourage the community at large to facilitate learning for the children in their care. A number of civil society organizations and community-based organizations joined hands to form this collective and ensure learning continues across rural and tribal geographies. From the Lower Shivaliks of Uttarakhand to the conflict regions of Chhattisgarh – the organizations leveraged the power of the community to ensure continuous learning for children. A collective,comprising 20 organisations in remote geographies, has been working towards supporting children in the most effective manner with key focus on organisation building, mobilising resources, building narrative around issues.

Over a period of 6 months the collective is now functioning to achieve the following objectives:

1. Collective action and collaboration between organisations working in remote geographies through partnerships, shared projects.

2. Creating a support system towards organisation building to amplify the impact on ground through financial supports, resource sharing.

3. Advocacy around issues in remote geographies through case studies, research, communication strategies.

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Any documents like articles, media features, research papers mentioning/featuring/relevant to both, the program and organization.

• Vidhyalay Udhyam Association:-

  • MEDIUM

• Samanta Foundation:-

  • SAMANTA

  • IASSW-AIETS

  • TIMES OF INDIA – INDIA TIMES

• InSIDE North East:-

  • THE BETTER INDIA

• Karunodaya Foundation:-

  • KARUNODAYA – FOUNDATION

• Shiksharth Trust:-

  • TIMES OF INDIA – INDIA TIMES

  • HINDUSTAN TIMES

  • BHASKAR

  • GRIN NEWS

  • GRIN NEWS

  • TIMES OF INDIA – INDIA TIMES

• Kshamtalaya Foundation:-

  • Youtube: Channel

MFE is supporting the following organisations from the collective:

1. Vidhyalay Udhyam Association – focuses upon the young learners in tribal and rural  geographies specifically living with limited resources and unable to achieve their highest potential. Currently they are working in tribal villages of Udaipur and building ‘community maker labs’ to enable students at the last mile reach of villages. Through maker lab students identify/discover their potential through creating/innovating products/services for their villages.

2. Samanta Foundation – Samanta Foundation has been working with Forest Communities since 2018. They work in and around the Rajaji National Park and Tiger Reserve in the Lower Shivaliks in the state of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. The communities comprise pastoral nomads – Van Gujjars and Taungyas. They work with the children from the Communities in Forest schools and learning spaces in the region. Their focus is on access to education for children.

3. InSIDE North East – InSIDE-North East under its flagship program Gun2Pen works in remote tribal geographies of Manipur, North East India – it primarily work with young people, women & girls for their empowerment through education, skills training, micro-enterprise support, and also peace building program.

4. Karunodaya Foundation – Karunodaya works in Gaya district of Bihar, it focuses upon the problem in primary education identified by Niti Aayog, Gaya has been identified as one of the aspirational districts by the NITI Ayog based on low development indicators including poor education indicators.  Karunodaya works for improving students’ learning outcomes, minimising dropouts via running after schools programs in Gaya and Begusarai districts.

5. Gramothhan  – Gramothhan is a non profit organization working on Quality Education for all Rural and Tribal Children to Build an Empowered Society. Currently they are working in Sonepur District of Odisha. Their target group are Primary children up to 5th standard and youth  and current activities are Community Learning center, school transformation program, Library and Youth Leadership

6. Shiksharth Trust – Shiksharth is a not for profit working for children from conflict areas and adverse geographies ensuring safe spaces and excellent education through contextual education solutions. They are currently operating in Sukma, Chhattisgarh, a tribal region in Central India suffering from conflict because of left-wing extremism.  Shiksharth current work is focussed around Access to schools for out of school children, access to safe spaces for conflict affected children and access to contextual learning opportunities.

7. rZamba – rZamba (meaning a bridge in Ladakhi) is a Trust registered in Kargil, one of the twin districts of Ladakh, known for the beautiful naked Mountains of the Himalayas, the harsh topography, long freezing winters and also the three indo-pak wars being very close to the borders.  rZamba is presently working on three major initiatives-

   1. Whole School Transformation.

   2. Women and Adolescent girls’ Health and Sanitation.

   3. Youth and Women Leadership Program.

8. SwaTaleem Foundation – SwaTaleem Foundation works to increase decision making and foundational skills in adolescent girls by implementing a transformative design process where teachers, learners and community leaders choose and address educational challenges in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalyas (KGBVs). Currently we are working in 6 KGBVs of Mewat and Panipat with an MoU with Haryana Government to work with all 31 KGBVs across Haryana in 5 years.

9. Kshamtalaya Foundation – Kshamtalaya was envisioned and conceived after having witnessed the large spread inequality and inequity in the education system in the tribal-rural block of Kotra, Udaipur. There was an emergent need to bring in a qualitative shift in the educational ecosystem of the area. The literacy rate of the area is less than 25% whereas the literacy rate for females is less than 12 %. There was an emergent need of building local leadership to improve governance and bring more accountability in the system. Kshamtalaya’s intention is to demonstrate how schools in rural India can be used as hubs for community-led sustainable development. Kshamtalya’s Vision: All children will realise their true potential through meaningful, relevant and compassionate education.”