About the Project
WHY MAD?
There are 2 million children growing up in orphanages and street shelters in India today. They are there because of no fault of their own.
If we do nothing today, tomorrow 94% of them won’t study in a college.
Make A Difference is India’s largest youth teacher network that provides a platform for high-potential college students to make a difference; 10 children at a time.
MAD today deploys 1300 trained and motivated young teachers every week to teach 3500 children in 19 Indian cities.
THE NEED
A typical street shelter has an average child to adult ratio of 1:25.
The average child to adult ratio for most of us has been 2:1.
The adults we have around us when we’re young play a pivotal role in our overall development.
So much so that, 60 percent of a child’s academic achievement is determined by factors such as poverty, homelessness, lack of employment opportunities and absent parents.
Our children are affected by all these issues.
As a result, 72% of them would have dropped out of school before completing standard 10.
THE SOLUTION
What support DO parents provide to their children?
Emotional safe space.
Exposure to the world.
Motivation and self belief.
When provided the right exposure, given the right support, motivated at the right times, and cared for, our children will start performing as well as any other child anywhere.
MAD PROVIDES
- One on one attention and support.
- Dreams to aspire to.
- Life-skills and academic support.
THE BOTTOM LINE
What Children at Risk need are not second-hand clothes, or left-over food.
What they need is a long term support system that will help them realize their true potential.
Make A Difference is NOT an NGO that facilitates token volunteering during one's college life. MAD is a platform for young people to be catalysts of change.
MAD is a movement of young people who have stopped cribbing about the short-comings of the system, and now have actively taken up changing it for good.
Help us reach out to every child who needs us. Vote for us.
Project Action Plan
Project Action Plan
1Identify centers such as orphanages, street-shelters and poor homes, wherein under-privileged children live. Talk to center authorities about what MAD does, and sign a Center Agreement Form, where the center agrees to give MAD the necessary time slots.
Identify centers such as orphanages, street-shelters and poor homes, wherein under-privileged children live. Talk to center authorities about what MAD does, and sign a Center Agreement Form, where the center agrees to give MAD the necessary time slots.
Located in:,
2Make presentations in colleges and corporate houses. Invite registrations and organize a recruitment drive. Employees from corporate houses are urged to be 'Friends of MAD' wherein they support the MAD chapter of their city by regular monthly contributions.
Make presentations in colleges and corporate houses. Invite registrations and organize a recruitment drive. Employees from corporate houses are urged to be 'Friends of MAD' wherein they support the MAD chapter of their city by regular monthly contributions.
Located in:,
3Provide training to volunteers, and assign them to pre-determined time slots at the centers.
Provide training to volunteers, and assign them to pre-determined time slots at the centers.
Located in:,
4Provide books and support material for volunteers. Integrate them into MadApp and start classes.
Provide books and support material for volunteers. Integrate them into MadApp and start classes.
Located in:,
5Organize leadership development conference mid-year to help city teams deal with problems that might have cropped up on ground.
Organize leadership development conference mid-year to help city teams deal with problems that might have cropped up on ground.
Located in:,
Why should you vote for this project?
- - MAD empowers the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future-children. Invest in their development today, and you'd have invested in the development of a nation. MAD currently delivers solutions in 19 cities, by the end of 2013 they hope to work in 40 cities, but they need your hlep to get there.
- - MAD's English program helps Indian children Rise-a student's employability goes up by 400% if s/he can communicate in English effectively, plus his/her confidence and ambitions are boosted as well.
- - MAD provides a space for young people to step in, lead and make a difference in their communities. By providing on-ground exposure, actively initiating dialogue and establishing a culture of entrepreneurship, MAD transforms youth in a potent social movement to strategically impact cihldren at risk around India.
Who will this help Rise
Under-privileged children in India.
How will this help them Rise?
ENGLISH PROGRAM
MAD teaches English for 2 simple reasons
1. A students employability goes up 400% if he can communicate in English effectively.
2. Ability to communicate in English makes a student more confident and ambitious.
Children living in orphanages or street shelters mostly attend vernacular medium schools. If, they pass out of 10th standard, chances are they will not be able to read one full sentence in English.
Curriculum Followed: Cambridge English for Schools
This five-level course for young students has won worldwide praise for its innovative approach that really works. It was the first course to be fully based on CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) principles.
PLACEMENTS PROGRAM
MAD’s Placement programme focuses on experiences and exposure:
A child is inspired to study when he is aware of the opportunities education gives him. Family is a huge source of motivation to a child in his early years of learning and the regular outing with family to local fairs, movies and planetariums play a vital role in expanding his horizon helping him decide what he is passionate about.
Our children do not have regular access to their parents, so we ensure we provide such inspiring events in theirs...every month
LIBRARY PROGRAM
Reading is a fundamental tool to a child’s growth. Yet, reading is not a skill that is prevalent among Indian children.
Only 53.4% children in Std 5 can read a Std II level text. This suggests that even after five years in school, close to half of all children are not even at the level expected of them after two years in school. (ASER 2010.)
MAD’s Library Project:
- Creates a safe happy space where our children discover the joy of reading.
- Engages children at a very early age
- By gradually building up a child’s reading skill, expands horizons, exposes children to better ideas and boosts their confidence.
- Improves command of English and hence performance in academics.
Project Champion
Jithin Krishnan
Director of Communication at Make A Difference.
Project Location
This Project Needs
Funding
₹3850000
Vineet Chaturvedi
1 year ago
We are involved in a project where we support a Govt.School but due to lack of support from Govt.teachers we want to Volunteers to teach the poor students, can we get some support from your Make a Difference programme.
Krishnaraj Mahadevan
1 year ago
@kalpana sharma. MAD has hundreds of selfless volunteers and is not a one man army, it is one big army :)
kalpana sharma
1 year ago
one man army may be impressive for you but its dangerous for the project because if he deserts the project , it will fail. what is needed is vast base of selfless volunteers to keep the project going jithin or no jithin.
sonia patel
1 year ago
hats off to you Jithin, as director branding and communication you have really built this make a difference to a national brand. congratulations you are a one man army. i too run a school for poor children in Delhi. well done.
Navaneeth S Pai
1 year ago
All the very best to you..!!! Im working in a company called Edyounet Technologies, where my CEO's AIM is quality education across India. check out www.edyounet.com for more details. You can reduce the cost of well reputed teachers across your branches through our platform. :)