Young Indian Futures is an independent, small-scale charity project, operating under the umbrella charity 'Dhammaloka Trust', which manages a number of JustGiving fundraising efforts initiated by various members of the Triratna Buddhist Community. Most of the projects are in India, and were started in response to a perceived need.......or passion!
The passion in this case, arises from the aspirations and extraordinary talents, of the young people themselves. They are amazing.......their idealism and courage communicates itself to everyone who works with them; but because of the entrenched inequalities of Indian society, their potential is blocked and disabled by caste (and gender) discrimination and poverty.
Through a unique network of contacts, they are invited from every corner of India to train, and supported financially, because their parents often have very little money to put towards their education. They come from the communities of followers of the great 'Untouchable' leader Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. These 'Dalit' communities number in millions - and these young people are deeply committed to their uplift, with the new skills they have gained.
At present, the main centre of training is the Aryaloka Computer Education Institute (ACE) itself run by a charitable registered trust. The Institute has been developed over the last 12 years, and provides a working infrastructure and pool of expertise. The work of their trained staff is supplemented by English teachers, volunteers, and specialist trainers from the West, most of them in contact through the Triratna Community in the wider world.
We are working to develop other training centres in other parts of India - Chhattisgarh and Kerala, 'seeding' them with the young people as they develop skills and qualities of leadership.
At Virya Technologies we incorporated lots of new features into the Young Indian Futures website - make sure you check out the blog, news section, JustGiving widget, and of course sign up for the newsletter! We also set up Google Apps for the team to manage their emails and documents. As a Dana project (generosity) we quote for the project as if it were a normal commercial job, and the customer pays what they're able to afford, the rest we treat as a donation to that charity or organisation.
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