Umang Foundation’s bags national laurel !!!

Umang Foundation’s bags national laurel !!!

Umang Foundation, is a Mumbai based NGO has evolved to prove time and again that it dares to make a difference to the society with its niche commitment, dedication and above all it keep faith in its team.  It has quite a few varied activities under its umbrella for achieving its goal but its primary focus has never shifted from activities related to education.  Team Umang believes that literacy in India is surely one of key contributors to its progress.. Due to its staunch belief in education being the future of the country, Umang Foundation launched its flagship project called “Promote Education- Ek kadam ujjwal bhavishya ki aur” in 2008. Thousands of students have till date have benefitted translating into  reduced dropouts from the schools. This has been vouched for by the staff of the beneficiary schools. This was the fifth consecutive academic year when Team Umang has again worked tirelessly for Promote Education. Team Umang with its unmatchable zeal entered the Limca Book of Records for distribution of the stationery kits to 9125 students of 31 schools in a single day.

Pooja Agarwal Goyal,  an active member of Team Umang stated that “the enthusiasm of our team is very infectious and each time it always helps us to do a little more the previous  time.  From getting the funding to sourcing the raw- materials to preparation of the stationery kits, Team Umang toiled round the clock for months for this mega event. The actual distribution happened on June 23, 2012 which was witnessed by the representative of the Limca Book for Records The efforts of more than 200 Team Umang volunteers made the stationery distribution seamless.”

Ashish Goyal – Founder and Managing Trustee of Umang  Foundation clarified that “We have a very meticulous progress by virtue of which we select the financially weak students as beneficiary. Our team conducts on-site checks before and after the distribution to eliminate any chances of mis-utilisation or any mal-practice whatsoever “ He also adds “This year marks a milestone for Team Umang as it achieves its long-cherished dream of distributing the stationery kits to more than 10,000 students in a single day. It has received the certificate and safely secured its position in the 2013 of the Limca Book of Records “

One of the excited Team Umang members expressed that “Whoever witnesses this event will have a recall of it for lifetime. The enthusiasm and the smiles of the student’s mermised us and we felt all the hard work over months was completely worth. The grandness of the event was just there to see. The team co-ordination and the support from schools was ace to just make it an ideal event. Actually this year we have distributed to 11500+ students although Limca Book of Records held 9125 as the final count which was achieved by the closing time of record creation.

With this achievement under the belt, Team Umang’s focus would now shift to identify another remote area like Ulhasnagar, where they can identify more such students and schools that are having similar needs. As Ashish Goyal, Founder of Umang Foundation, keeps reiterating time and again, “This event is a significant stepping stone to our ultimate goal of eradicating the drop-outs to near zero levels for all the primary and higher secondary students of these schools. We continue to strive to achieve such milestones and multiply them year on year.” And always he ends saying “Team Umang believes, there’s more to life.”

Distribution of Stationery Material among 9125 less fortunate students from 35 schools, entered into Limca Book of Records

Umang Foundation, a Mumbai based NGO has always believed education to be of paramount importance for the progress of the country. Every year Team Umang identifies schools with financially weak students and facilitates the supply of the stationery material needed for an academic year by them. This flagship project “Promote Education – ek kadam ujwal bhavishya ki aur” was launched in July 2008. With its belief and absolute commitment, Team Umang has been successful in reducing the volume of the dropouts of the students from these schools.

 

We are very happy that Team Umang’s hard work has been translated into results. Team Umang has not only progressively doubled the number of beneficiary students’ year on year since 2008, but also has witnessed reduced dropouts from school. This gives a sense of achievement and Team Umang only prays for this continued progress.

 

The primary focus of this project was to facilitate the requisite study materials to the students with weaker financial backgrounds. Team Umang had conducted a research prior to the project going live for year 2012 and had discovered that in the event they are able to provide the stationery required by these students it would significantly reduce the dropouts which the school(s) witnessed every year.

Hence, Team Umang decided to take up this task and this project has shaped up and moved to the next level from its infancy. Year on year, Team Umang’s endeavor was not only to identify more such deserving students but also work towards enhancing the participation of more such schools as beneficiaries so that through Promote Education – “ek kadam ujwal bhavishya ki aur”, it can dare to start the movement towards better literacy rate in India and the consequent progress of the country.

Since past four years, Team Umang has been dedicatedly working to the success of its flagship project. The following are the high level statistics of the progress of Team Umang since inception:

Year	No. of Beneficiary Students
Year 2008	550+
Year 2009	1,200+
Year 2010	2,050+
Year 2011	5,500+
Year 2012	11700+

This is the fifth consecutive academic year when Team Umang has again worked tirelessly for Promote Education. This year marked a milestone for Team Umang as it achieves its long-cherished dream of distributing the stationery kits to more than 9,000+ students from 31 different schools in a single day.  This day created a historic moment as officials from the coveted Limca Book of Records witness this event live to record it as the largest ever distribution in this category in the history of country. With this Umang Foundation has entered in the Limca Book of Records – 2013 edition.

With this achievement under the belt, Team Umang’s focus would now shift to identify another remote area like Ulhasnagar, where team can identify more such students and schools that are having similar needs. This event is a significant stepping stone to Team’s ultimate goal of eradicating the drop-outs to near zero levels for all the primary and higher secondary students of these schools because of weak financial condition of families having background as daily wager, helper or home maid. Team Umang will continue to strive to achieve such milestones and multiply them year on year.

More Pictures are available on:

• https://picasaweb.google.com/100954234623103052097/PromoteEducation2012June232012
• https://picasaweb.google.com/100954234623103052097/PromoteEducationJune232012Selected

You tube Video Link:           http://youtu.be/YBn9EOfD2D4

Umang Foundation enters the grand finale week of its flagship project – Promote Education

Umang Foundation enters the grand finale week of its flagship project – Promote Education

Umang Foundation, a Mulund based NGO has always believed education to be of paramount importance for the progress of the country. Every year Team Umang identifies schools with financially weak students and facilitates the supply of the stationery material needed for an academic year by them. The flagship project under which this is carried is called “Promote Education” which was launched in 2008. With its stanch belief and absolute commitment, Team Umang has been successful in reducing the volume of the dropouts of the students from these schools. Mr. Ashish Goyal, Founder and Managing Trustee of Umang Foundation proudly claims that “We are very happy that all our hard work has been translated into results. As Team Umang has progressively increased the number of beneficiary student year on year since 2008, we have actually even witnessed reduced dropouts. This gives a sense of achievement and we only pray for this continued progress.”

When asked about the plan of action for execution the current academic he said “Oh, we are already in the action-packed week of our project. This week we plan to prepare the stationery kits to be distributed. Over a hundred, dedicated Team Umang volunteers are very excited and enthusiastic to participate in the assembling of the stationery kits. No doubt, its a back breaking work but the members are extremely determined and hard working. Next week June 23, 2012 will mark our grand finale. More than 10,000 students will be the beneficiaries and we consider ourselves lucky to be able to witness the smiles on the faces of the thousands of the beneficiary students for one more year.” On being questioned about the adopted strategy of funding his calm reply was that “We use to get worked up and hassled earlier when it came to arrangement of funding but now we simply have learnt the magical effect of compounding of small amounts. For the collection of this year’s stationery kit distribution,  we have simply tried to explain that  a decision to contribute less than one rupee a day will secure an entire academic year of a needy student. This concept has been well received and people including individuals and corporate have realized that the otherwise insignificant one rupee has a such a profound compounding effect !! The response we got has left us spell bound. At Umang Foundation we believe that there’s more to life....Similarly, we had promised every contributor that there’s more to your rupee and June 23, 2012 will witness how truly have we lived our promise !!    

Promote Education by investing a rupee...

Umang Foundation says – “Promote Education by investing a rupee!”

Since 2008 Umang Foundation, a Mulund based registered NGO, has been focusing and working towards promoting education through its various initiatives. One of the key project of Umang Foundation is “Promote Education” under which the financially weaker and under-privileged students of the identified schools are provided with the stationery kits for the entire academic year. As June marks the beginning of the academic year with most of such identified schools, Team Umang is geared to provide this assistance to more than 10,000 such students this year.  Team Umang has its volunteers from all walks of life.

Amrit, a young enthusiast student says “Umang Foundation has helped me understand the value and underlying power of a rupee. I mean, can you imagine just one rupee which sounds so insignificant can actually secure an academic year for a student? While I cribbed about my always insufficient pocket money, I can’t believe that a rupee when rightly used could have such a magical effect. I am so excited and can’t wait to be there for this stationery distribution drive of Umang Foundation in June 2012.”

Vivek Dehariya, an IT professional and member of Team Umang said “Oh, this is one event I never like to miss. This year also I am looking forward to actively participate in and gather more cherish-able memories by witnessing thousands of happy fulfilled faces of these needy students.”  Laju Dalal, a working lady and member of Team Umang was overwhelmed with her experience during the previous year’s drive  stated that “Once you experience this joy of giving, am sure you cannot resist participation in this drive year on year even though it involved back braking work and endless tireless efforts for months to be this together. You just want to do everything possible and that too for a NGO like Umang Foundation is like cherry on the cake.”

Ashish Goyal, Founder of Umang Foundation, when questioned about this initiative, stated that “Team Umang works very committed and dedicatedly throughout the year for this stationery distribution drive which is typically carried in June. We have always believed that education is paramount for every child and hence “Promote Education” has always been one of our key initiatives. There is a lot of homework involved but Team Umang always makes it possible to progressively increase the number of the beneficiary students, year and year. He further said that “This June too, Team Umang is geared up to double the number of beneficiary students from that of last year. I pride the efforts of Team Umang and keep my fingers crossed.” He then smiled and concluded saying “In this harassed inflation environment we are here to re-define the value of One rupee ....like the belief of Team Umang is -  ...there’s more to life... we would also say  ...there’s more to your rupee...”