U&I in this beautiful world: How this NGO has helped over 2500 underprivileged kids ace English

Jennifer is in Class X but she needs some special attention when it comes to learning English, Science and Maths. However, a volunteer working at U&I, a non-profit organisation, has been helping her like her learn these subjects easily after school hours. Like Jennifer, there are many children who need a little extra help or attention to understand whatever they learn in school. That's what the volunteers at U&I have been doing for the past eleven years across India.

Started by Ajit Sivaram and Satish Manchikati in 2011, U&I is an organisation that facilitates education for underprivileged kids and care for children with special needs. Aishwarya Ragunaath, who has been a part of this NGO for almost eleven years, started her career as a volunteer with U&I. She says, "Both Ajit and Satish were running an HR agency and one day, they found 15 children living in a locality right behind their office. Every day, they brought these kids to their office and started teaching them with whatever books existed with them. Initially, we found that a lot of children would drop out from school when they were in Class IX or X for various reasons. One of the reasons was that they found it difficult to learn English. Therefore, we started teaching them to read, write and speak English. From 15 children, the number of kids wanting to learn English and other subjects has increased to 300 in Bengaluru alone."

That's when Ajit and his team of six decided to call college students to volunteer for the purpose of teaching these students. Aishwarya explains, "We designed a programme called U&I Teach through which we collaborate with shelter homes, NGOs, schools and orphanages. This programme usually happens after school hours. Every volunteer must dedicate two and half hours to teach these children. Our team has designed a curriculum to teach these children who are at different levels of learning. Over a period of a few weeks, the volunteers will observe the impact and change in the learning of kids." So far, more than 3,000 volunteers across 33 cities have worked with more than 2,500 children under the programme. That's quite a big impact created by youngsters across India.

U&I also has another programme called Care under which the team assists in the care and rehabilitation of 85 mentally challenged and 100 special needs men at four Bengaluru-based, state-run residential facilities. "With nine members working full-time on the ground in these homes, we provide medical care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and grooming for the residents, many of whom have been abandoned by their families. Our volunteers spend time with these residents every week, giving them the social interaction that they crave. Our goal is for each of these differently-abled individuals to live to their fullest potential."

We were pleasantly surprised to know that the programmes run by U&I did not stop even during the pandemic. Aishwarya explains, "We designed a three months programme instead of the usual six months programme. From two and a half hours, we shortened our classes to one and a half hours because it is difficult to keep children attentive during online classes. Then, we started a 'donate your device' campaign under which people donated mobiles and laptops to children. These devices were later provided to children at orphanages, shelter homes and other places so that their learning was not disrupted. We divided the classes into different internet connectivity ranges — high, medium and low. The curriculum was also updated as per the time that was allotted for the kids and volunteers."