/ -- TurningLife Foundation is an NGO based in Noida, providing education to underprivileged children to prepare them for formal education and schooling in the future.
The organization's story began in 2014 when its founder, Ashish Mittal, stood as a first-hand witness to an incident that wasn't new to construction sites, yet barely made the news. A toddler fell to his death from a temporary elevator shaft, only to be found sinking in a quagmire 3 days later.
It is the taxing nature of manual labour at these sites that renders parents helpless during working hours. Since all the adults in the family are busy working, the children are forced to stay in or near life-threatening conditions, unminded. Construction sites are hazardous even for the more careful adolescents and young adults, as they breathe in toxic fumes and concrete dust.
In order to support underprivileged children living at these construction sites, TurningLife Foundation collaborated with Gulshan Homz, the Noida-based real estate developer, to setup and start its first set of schools at their construction sites.
Talking about the collaboration, Ashish Mittal said, "Developers like Gulshan Homz are great examples of giving back to society and contributing to the pressing causes that affect children across the world."
The journey so far has been a challenging one; the initiative which was started with 2 schools in Noida, soon had to change its model as the kids didn't turn up due to personal difficulties. Diving deeper into the issue, we realized that food is the biggest motivator for children who can barely feed themselves. It was obvious that the thought of education became ancillary.
To tackle the issue, the foundation has taken many initiatives like providing mid-day meals. Since the initiation, the organization has been able to positively impact the lives of 500+ children.
Although there are challenges yet to be solved, TurningLife is now focusing on scaling the initiative to increase its reach. The foundation wants to operate on a tri-party model, wherein, it can partner with developers to provide the necessary infrastructure, collaborate with college volunteers to manage the day-to-day operations and tie-up with corporate organizations to offer CSR funds to run the schools.
"TurningLife is actively looking out for enterprises, who can come forward to support the initiative and bring about a sense of happiness and fulfillment for these underprivileged kids," said Ashish Mittal, in a concluding statement.
About TurningLife Foundation
TurningLife Foundation is a Noida-based Not-for-profit organization which partners with developers to provide education to the impoverished children of labourers at construction sites. The organization is looking to scale nationwide with the support of corporate entities and developers.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)