The Akshaya
Patra Foundation has won the ABP News Positive Award 2015 for being a symbol of
positive change in society. The organisation received the award in a ceremony
conducted in New Delhi on 10 December.
The ABP News
Awards recognise the notable work individuals or organisations do for the
welfare of the society. The awards were
presented in 11 different categories. From each section, five contestants were
chosen for the final rounds. The finalists were then judged by a panel of five members.
The ABP
News Positive Award 2015 was carried out mainly through three stages- inviting
entries, compiling a list of top 50 entries and finally selecting winners by
the jury. While choosing the final
winner, public voting was also taken into consideration.
To get the full coverage on the latest NGO news awards, tune into
the ABP news channel at 7.p.m. on 19 December, 2015.
It’s been many
years since the empowerment of women became a global issue. But we still a long
way to go before women truly have equal standing in society.
Empowerment of
women should start from childhood, and education is the best way to achieve
this. An opportunity to attend school
can instil confidence, improve intelligence and provide independence to girls.
However, the
reality is, unlike boys, girls are not getting the opportunity to attend
schools.
The steps taken
by Indian Government to make education a fundamental right for all children, has
helped improve the situation and has also helped provide education for girls. This
was how programmes like National Program for Education of Girls at Elementary
Level’ (NPEGEL), Mahila Samakhya Program’ and ‘‘Kasturba Gandhi Balika
Vidyalaya Scheme’ were introduced in India.
NGOs too have worked
relentlessly to empower women in India. The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a top NGO
in India has always stood for the welfare of girls and women. The Mid-Day
Meal Programme, run by the organisation has helped bring millions of
girls back to school. Besides this, the organisation provides employment to
hundreds of women across its 24 units, thereby giving them regular income and
higher standing in society.
Like Akshaya Patra, each one of us can also make
a change in lives of our girl children.
We can make a small contribution to send our daughters to school. With
this small effort we can transform the lives of entire generations of women.
"To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very
humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of hunger and deprivation is to
dehumanise them.”
---- Nelson Mandela
Happy Human Rights Day!
December 10 is Human Rights Day. It is on this day; 63 years back
the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR). Though the Human Rights Day was an outcome of the World War II, protecting
human rights still remains to be one of the main focuses around the world. This
is thanks to the non-profit organisations that have dedicated their time and
work to expose different issues affecting humans and initiated actions to
protect and support human rights all these years.
Human Rights Day 2015 is dedicated to the 50th
anniversary of the two main covenants on Human Rights- International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
While the 2014 theme of Human Rights Day - ‘Human Rights 365’ or
celebration of ‘every day as Human Rights Day’ is still going on, the focus this year will be spreading awareness about
the four freedoms – freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want
and freedom from fear. These freedoms
form the basis for the International Bill of Human Rights.
This year, the United Nations is also conducting events to honour
the memories of its two major advocates Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor
Roosevelt. The four freedoms were first voiced by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in 1941 and his wife Eleanor helped add these rights into documents.
In India, protecting rights of children has been taken up
enthusiastically by a non-profit organization called The
Akshaya Patra Foundation. Delivering nutritious mid-day meals since 2000, the
organisation tries to protect children from poverty, hunger, malnutrition and
illiteracy.
Starting the efforts with feeding 1,500 children 15 years ago, the non-profit
organisation now feeds free mid-day meals to over 1.4 million children in 24
locations across 10 states. However, the
non-governmental organisation wants to reach 5 million children by 2020.
The menu is designed to include all the nutrients for children’s
growth and also to suit the local palate. The organisation has custom designed
meal distribution vehicles to keep the meals warm and fresh till they were
delivered to the children.
These measures have helped improve school enrolment, class attendance
and children’s performance. Studies have also shown that children were able to
concentrate better in class after they started eating the Akshaya Patra
meals. This initiative has helped bring
hope to over a million underserved children in India.
The work that Akshaya Patra has undertaken shows the ongoing efforts
to secure children their basic rights in India. This Human Rights Day, let us
stand together and fight the issues that Indian children are still facing.
On this occasion,support human rights; support our
children’s rights. Serve a filling meal to children on this Human Rights Day and
help them to reach their goal.
Nearly 20 million young children in the world are malnourished and more
than one third of all child deaths come from malnutrition.In India, efforts have been going on to
tackle this problem. This was how The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a NGO
implementing the mid-day meal programme, was born. Starting its work as a NGO
in Karnataka back in 2000, the organisation is now spread across 24 locations
in 10 Indian states and feeds 1.4 million underserved children. The stories of hope
revealed by Akshaya Patra beneficiaries show the importance of food and
education in life and are also good enough to be converted into inspirational moral
stories for children.The initiative has received wide recognition and
people from different parts of the world have come forward to support the cause
and donate to NGO.
Most of these children come from low income families and the free
lunches have helped make a huge difference in their lives.While talking to the Akshaya Patra, NGO
in Karnataka, children have revealed how the nutritious meals have
helped them to concentrate in studies and set high goals in life. Having high
aspirations in life, these young students have served as inspirations for moral
stories for children.
Akshaya Patra beneficiaries have revealed their readiness to serve
the society as teacher, police officer or soldier. Sakshita, an 8th standard student
of Zilla Parishad High School in Patancheru, is a topper in her class and wants
to teach rural children; while Darshan, a 14-year-old student of the Government
Lower Primary School in Dasrahalli, wants to join the Indian Army.Harsha, a class IX student at The Government
High School in Shivnahalli, who lost his mother at a young age, wants to become
a police officer and help society. Though these children have acknowledged the role
of Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal in making a difference in their lives, the
organisation attributes its success to the people who donate to charity
generously.
The organisation provides innumerable options for people who want to
donate to NGO.Most
importantly, donating online can help save tax. A contribution of ₹ 500 or more
can get 100% tax exemption in India. Feeding a child a year costs only ₹ 750
and the organisation also accepts donations in the form of a kitchen equipment
or meal delivery van.
The NGO in Karnataka operates in six places and feeds 463,682
children from 2,629 schools.Two
kitchens- HK Hill and Vasanthpura are located in Bengaluru, while the other
four kitchens function in other parts of Karnataka like Ballari, Hubballi,
Mangaluru and Mysuru.Akshaya Patra
takes extra care to ensure that school children get all the nutrients needed
for growth. To make the meal more appealing, these kitchens have designed
special menus for Karnataka which include sambar, rasam, dal and rice.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation wants to serve more
school children in India so that classroom hunger will disappear for good and
all we get are goodmoral stories for children from all locations we serve at.
Childhood is one
of the most beautiful periods in life and every child should get an opportunity
to enjoy it. This is why November 20 is
observed as Universal Children’s Day every year! The whole idea behind this
celebration is improving children’s lives and making the world a better place
for them.
Living
conditions of children have improved over the past few years. However, some issues like poverty, child
labour and hunger continue to haunt our children. Nearly 400 million children
across the world still live in extreme poverty and do not get access to
nutrition or education. The most concerning part is that a majority of these
children live in developing countries, including India.
We are yet to
get rid of classroom hunger or malnutrition. However, nutritional status of
Indian children has improved considerably over the past few years and a major
part of this credit goes to the Government and NGOs like The Akshaya Patra Foundation.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a leading NGO in India, had been trying to improve our children’s
lives by distributing nutritious mid-day meals to school children in India.
Starting the initiative with 1,500 school children in 2000, Akshaya
Patra has succeeded in releasing 1.4 million children from the clutches
of hunger.
Interestingly,
these mid-day meals have not only helped improve classroom attendance, but also
have helped improve confidence in children.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s mission is to reach 5 million children by 2020 so that more
children will get an opportunity to eat
healthy and get proper education.
Children are the future of a nation. On this
Universal Children’s Day, join Akshaya Patra to fight
classroom hunger and return the right to education to our lovely children.
With the aim to feed more children Akshaya Patra Hyderabad has extended its centralised kitchen unit. The additional section will house extra cauldrons along with a cold room. The NGO latest news covers that the Foundation had an inaugural ceremony of the extended section of the kitchen. The new section was inaugurated by Professor V.S. Rao - Director BITS Pilani, Hyderabad in the presence of Akshaya Patra Hyderabad representatives Satya Goura Chandra Dasa – Unit President, and Raja Hamsa Dasa - Operations Manager.
Presently, Akshaya Patra Hyderabad provides freshly cooked nutritious mid-day meals to 54,849 children in 454 government schools of the region. The Foundation has also been involved in feeding the children of Anganwadi centers. The current reach of Akshaya Patra Hyderabad in this feeding programme is 38,087 Anganwadi children across 176 centers. The extension of the kitchen will certainly aid in feeding the children of Hyderabad both in government schools and Anganwadi centers.
An estimate from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows
that nearly 1.2 billion people in the world are poor. Poverty is a huge issue in India too. The
Indian economy is growing fast, but the nation is still to wipe out poverty
completely from its soil. Poverty has a huge impact on people’s lives,
especially for children. With no income to even have a basic meal a day
children are forced to work to help supplement the family income. Thousands of
children in the country miss out their education to support their family.
Interestingly, there has been an improvement in this phenomenon since 2000,
when The Akshaya Patra Foundation,
an initiative founded with the motive that ‘No child in India shall be deprived
of education because of hunger’ came into existence. Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal scheme which was
kicked off with just 1,500 school children, at present, covers over 1.4 million
Government school students in India.
This NGO in India, through
all these years, has been working hard to ensure that underserved school
children get all the calories, proteins, minerals and vitamins needed to excel
in studies and succeed in life. Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal provides all
the necessary nutrition needed for a healthy growth in childhood.
The organisation owes a large
part of its success to its donors. The mission of The Akshaya Patra Foundation,
now, is to reach out to 5 million children by the year 2020.
Today’s children are tomorrow’s
citizens. Your contribution can help us build a healthy and smart society. To
support out the programme, join us and give your contribution to feed more
children and to remove hunger among children.
To know more how you can be part of Akshaya
Patra, visit Get Involve.
When we working in collaboration with so many
people we need to share information and our success stories. At Akshaya Patra, a reputed NGO which it’s
headquarter in Bangalore, we present all our stories to our stakeholders,
corporate partners, philanthropic donors, well-wishers and the general public.
Our main stories are the stories of hope, the stories of the beneficiary
students, teachers, employees and more.
In our endeavor to share inspiring stories The
Akshaya Patra Foundation has developed a new website called hopestories.in
that only carters to stories of hope. There are stories and videos of children
talking about their dreams and the mid-day meal programme. There are also
stories of teachers as well as parents sharing their thoughts on the positive
impact of Akshaya Patra’s school feeding programme. This is a refreshing
approach to spread awareness as well inspired people to participate in the
programme.
New stories and videos will be published
regularly to keep the website fresh and alive. We on a constant look out for
stories that will keep you glued to your seat. But, every child is unique and
every individual different and we have millions of stories to share as we move
forward. We encourage readers to visit out kitchen establishments in 24
locations across 10 states of India. One can also visit the schools we provide
mid-day meals. Write stories, click photographs and share it with us.
There is nothing better than reading real life
stories and getting inspired. And the real impact of the world’s largest mid-day
meal programme is what these stories are.
When you donate to an NGO like Akshaya Patra,
you are helping it run the mid-day meal programme and provide millions of
children with nutritious meal every day. That’s a social responsibility you
take in trying to make a difference and make the world a better place for
children. But do you know when you make a donation to support The Akshaya Patra
Foundation, you get 100% tax exemption.
Yes, you are hearing it right, there is 100%
tax exemption on the donation of Rs 500 or more you make to Akshaya Patra. Your
donations are eligible for 100% deduction under Section 35 Ac / 80 GGA of the
Indian Income Tax.
“Under Section 35 AC of the Income Tax Act, the Central Government -
on recommendation from the National Committee for the Social &
Economic Welfare - has notified the Project “Mid-Day Meal scheme run by The
Akshaya Patra Foundation “as an eligible project for the allowing 100%
deduction of the contribution made by the Assesse.”
For every
donation you makes you shall receive a receipt of the same and a 100
per cent Tax Exemption Certificate from Akshaya Patra. Within 10
working days you will get the documents as said before which you can use to
avail 100% Tax Exemption for the current financial year.
And all it takes to help a child with food for
education for an entire is just Rs 750 and as it’s more than Rs 500 it is
eligible for 100% Tax Exemption.
There are more information available on the
foundation’s website. You can visit anytime not just for donation but to know
more about Akshaya Patra, how it works, the
governance policy, the financials and many more.
UNESCO commemorates International Literacy Day on September 8, every year. It is to bring awareness and promote the importance of education. India’s scene in term of literacy is not so desirable.
According to a survey, India's literacy rate increases ‘lethargically’
A 1990 study estimated that it would take until 2060 for India to achieve universal literacy
According to the 2011 census, India had a literacy rate of 74.04 percent
In the year 2014, the literacy rate of India increased by 10 percent
How is India looking forward to tackle the challenge?
It has to start from the root, the children. The Government of India launched ‘The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Hindi for Total Literacy Campaign was in 2001 to ensure that all children in the 6–14-year age-group attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010. The Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education are two important aspects of the campaign, meant primarily for children in areas with no formal school within a one kilometre radius.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, as an NGO runs the mid-day meal programme to provide nutritious food to the school children and promote education thus, providing substantial support to ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’. The programme has grown from feeding 1,500 children in the year 2000 to 1.4 million children in 2014. Today, this organisation feeds free mid-day meals to school children in 10,845 Government schools and Government-aided schools. The organisation currently has its presence in 24 locations across 10 states in India.
The not-for-profit organisation’s vision is—‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’. To achieve this vision, Akshaya Patra provides ‘unlimited food for education’.
The programme has brought back children to schools, increase attendance, decrease drop-out rate, and promote socialisation. All will directly impact in increasing the literacy rate amongst children in India.
How can you help?
You can be a volunteer to the NGO. You can support a child with mid-day meal for year. This activity will lead to successful implementation of the mid-day meal programme eventually resulting in children getting educated.
As we go deeper into the lives of the beneficiaries of Akshaya Patra, we learn how important the mid-day meal programme is in their lives. Let’s meet a few children to grasp the impact that the foundation’s effort is making.
First is Rahim, a hard-working student who dreams to be a doctor. He loves science and wants to a doctor so he can save lives. His father is an auto driver while his mother works as a housewife. To support the family, his mother does a few odd jobs. Despite the challenging financial state of the family, Rahim works hard in class and it has reflected in his marks. When free he plays and reads and also helps his mother in house chores. Rahim loves the dal (lentils) and fruits provided by The Akshaya Patra Foundation as part of the mid-day meal serve to his school every day. He compliments the service of the organization to society.
Another beneficiary we met was Rajesh who is fond of literature and loves to draw. His teachers are very impressed with his artistic skills and think that a formal coaching will help develop his talent further. And Rajesh wants to be a teacher. He thinks that mid-day meal programme really helps the families of children studying at the same school. He is grateful to the programme.
Now Pithali, studying in 4th grade, hopes to become an actress in Assamese movies and travel the world with her family one day. Her father, a seasonal mason sometime is without work for as long as 4-6 months. And her mother stitches mekhala chadars (a traditional Assamese outfit). A monthly income of INR 2500 - 4000 is difficult to sustain a family of five. So, the food provided by Akshaya Patra at her school is a great incentive to Pithali. She looks forward to Wednesdays and Saturdays when pulao, khichdi and kheer are served. They are her favourites.
Just imagine if these children are not provided nutritious meals every day. Their education will be affected and so will their dreams and aspirations. That is the reason why the mid-day meal programme of Akshaya Patra is really vital to the children. The food gives them the much needed nutrition for their healthy growth. When children are well fed, they get the energy to focus on education and pursue their dreams. The mid-day meal is also an effort to eliminate classroom hunger in India.
The
Akshaya Patra Foundation is a non-governmental organization headquartered in
Bengaluru. The NGO in India is feeding the
government school children through mid-day meal programme every working day of
school.
Non-governmental
organisations
(NGOs) or Charities are expressions
of people working for people. They are groups of ordinary citizens making
efforts to change lives for the better. NGOs come in different lights with an
array of activities depending on support, cause and values. The Akshaya Patra
Foundation is one amongst millions of NGOs in the world striving to make an
impact and transform lives of millions of children in India.
Akshaya Patra operates at its best working in
partnership with The Government of India and the state governments, with the
help of its supporters and staff towards professional ways of working and
effective, high-impact programme that provides mid-day meals to school children
in government and government-aides schools. It’s effective because its cause is
clear and the vision and mission are defined and imbibed by all associated with
the organisation.
The organisation is able to work to its
strength by mobilising the skills of its workforce. For Akshaya
Patra, its impact is proportional to response to the need and the bond
its builds with all involved with the cause. The trust of beneficiaries, school
teachers, trustees, donors, partners and all other stakeholder is the backbone
of the organisation. Its size and reach are just mere reflections to the
effort.
And anyone who wants to support needs to know
whether the organisation deserves it; does the cause needs it? and so on. To
make the decision easy Akshaya Patra has clearly explained its vision, mission
and programme it is implementing. It shares its impact study, progresses and
strategies in taking the cause forward. The organisation has explained the
motivation for its programme, how it works towards a positive change that is
eliminating classroom hunger. The Akshaya Patra Foundation works
with a strong internal system, and applies professional standards and codes of
conduct to its work. And of course its ultimate judges are the beneficiaries.
Akshaya Patra runs the world’s largest mid-day meal programme providing
nutritious food to more than 1.4 million children in India. It’s growing,
moving towards its mission of feeding 5 million by 2020.
Akshaya Patra in Bangalore serves as headquarters of The Akshaya
Patra Foundation in India. The organisation runs the mid-day meal programme,
providing nutritious food to children in Government and Government aided
schools. The programme got initiated in Bangalore, Karnataka and later expanded
to several other locations in the state as well as other locations in India.
Akshaya Patra serves mid day meal
in Karnataka at six locations. It has two kitchens in Bengaluru (HK Hill and
Vasanthapura). In other parts of the state there are one kitchen each in
Ballari, Hubballi, Mangaluru and Mysuru. All these kitchens are centralised and
provide for 463,682 children across 2,629 schools every day.
The centralised kitchen at HK
Hill kitchen is the very first kitchen of Akshaya Patra Bangalore, opened in
2000, and the other kitchens followed in quick succession. The menu of the mid
day meal in this region has been modified to suit the taste of South Indian. The menu has rice, rasam (a South Indian
soup), dal (lentil curry), sambar (lentil based vegetable stew) and vegetable
dishes.
Equipped with rice cauldrons and
sambar cauldrons the kitchens prepare nutritious food to be delivered on time
to all the beneficiary schools every day. The rice cauldron usually has the
capacity of at least 500 litres and sambar cauldron the capacity to cook 1,200
litres to 3,000 litres of sambar.
A standard process for preparing
the mid-day meal in Karnataka has been followed meticulously by all the
kitchens. This process is to ensure hygiene and quality of the cooked meal.
Adherence to the food safety standards is maintained at all times in all the
kitchens Akshaya Patra operates.
The successfully implementation
of the programme can be measured by the magnitude of the operations and the
numbers of children Akshaya Patra is feeding every day in India. The
organisation provides food for education to 1.4 million children from 24
locations in 10 states across India. With the vision that no child in India
shall be deprived of education because of hunger Akshaya Patra moves towards
achieving its mission of feeding 5 million children by 2020. From Akshaya Patra
Bangalore, It’s Akshaya Patra India now.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, as it expands
and grows needs to develop itself as a good storyteller. Why you may ask? The
answer is Akshaya Patra is an NGO working with many stakeholders. Trustees,
advisors, donors, philanthropists, corporates, well-wishers, Government of
India and the State Governments, general public, teachers and most important
children are parts of what make Akshaya Patra. The onus to share and build
trust, to get support by being transparent about the organisation lies with the
organisation. Keeping up with new trends and making content and creative
exciting have brought good results besides generating awareness. It has won
accolades and awards for the Akshaya Patra.
Recently The Akshaya Patra Foundation won
Silver in the Summit
Creative Awards (SCA) 2015 for itsAnnual Report 2013-14. It’s for the third consecutive time Akshaya
Patra has won silver. Moreover this year Akshaya Patra received Gold for a film
called ‘The Possibilities’ which projects the essence and importance of the
core activity of the organisation at SCA. The award is to honour small and
medium sized agencies for their contributions to advertising.
The entries are judged by experts who
evaluated one against others in their category. This makes it a though
competition, where the winner truly stands out.
This award is one of the achievements The Akshaya Patra Foundation has been
honoured with. Without good communication principles and plan it’s not
achievable. The idea is to use facts and figures as the real content
accentuated by creative presentation that makes it appealing to the audience.
As the organisation strives hard to expand and
feed more children, the need to educate and inform the people is of utmost
importance to garner support to sustain and achieve its goal. The determination
and commitment to generate healthy communication have resulted in major
achievements besides bringing the desired intent of bringing awareness and the
support needed for Akshaya Patra to keep working towards its mission of feeding
5 million children by 2020.
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) in
India implementing the mid-day meal programme across the country. The
Foundation began its service way back in 2000. Since then there has been no
looking back. Beginning with feeding 1,500 children in five Government schools
of Bangalore city of Karnataka state, the Foundation has strategically
increased is beneficiary base while also expanding to different locations. From
having kitchen at just one location, Akshaya Patra gradually moved on to having
kitchens at 23 more locations. Today Akshaya Patra is operational in 24
locations across 10 states.
Initially Akshaya Patra had only Centralised
Kitchen units but gradually the need was felt to feed in the remote areas too.
This made way to the adoption of Decentralised Kitchen format. As the name
suggests, The Centralised Kitchen
format of Akshaya Patra is a mechanised unit that can cook up to one lakh meals
per day. Centralised kitchen units are meant to for large scale feeding and
thus serve as node kitchen for a group of Government schools in and around the
kitchen location. The centralised format of Akshaya Patra kitchen is mostly followed
in urban and semi-urban locations. The terrain, accessibility and construction
challenges that prevail in remote locations make the decentralised format
suitable for such areas. The decentralised kitchens are run by Women Self-Help
Groups (SHGs) under the guidance and supervision of Akshaya Patra’s kitchen process and operations module.
The similarity that runs through each kitchen
while preparing meal for millions of children each is the strict and mandatory
process of maintaining hygiene, cleanliness and nutrition. How the Akshaya
Patra kitchens achieve this day in and day out? The answer is - compulsory
adherence to Food
Safety Management System in handling, preparing and delivering food to
prevent food borne illness. At present 10 of the total kitchens are ISO
22000:2005 Certified and the remaining are on the quest towards achieving the
same.
The
state-of-the-art kitchen of Akshaya Patra has received prime time slot broadcast
– ‘Shiksha Ka Mahabhog’
in the popular series Mega Kitchen of National Geographic Channel. A click at Akshaya Patra Kitchens will
provide you a detailed draft about the functioning of the kitchens in feeding
over 1.4 million children across India. Follow our online magazine : NGO in India
The
Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO in India works to eliminate classroom hunger
through its mid-day meal programme Akshaya Patra reaches out to over 1.4 million children a
day.
