Deadline: 24-Apr-21
Wipro Foundation is inviting applications for its Education for Children with Disabilities grant program that supports education programs that leverage multiple sensory approaches in foundational literacy and numeracy curriculum and integrated rehabilitative therapies, in addition to focusing on building parents’ capacities, empowering them, and sensitizing numerous stakeholders, including teachers, schools, and communities.
The foundation support a wide range of NGOs serving different disability areas, integrating multiple models and approaches into aspects of education and development of Children with Disabilities.
Their partners employ diverse models, working on different disabilities such as visual, speech and hearing, locomotor, intellectual and developmental disabilities across geographical locations. Within the larger framework of their work, they have consciously encouraged early intervention and inclusive education.
Some of their partners specifically work towards systemic improvement around curriculum and teacher training to educate children with disabilities.
Guiding Principles
- Demonstrated Capacities and Commitment: The program supports organizations with a serious and long commitment to the education for children with disability sector through their past engagements
- Clear Organizational Objectives and Structures: The program aims to facilitate the development of stable educational CSOs that can engage with school education in the disability space in the long-term. Further, the aims and objectives in the area of education for children with disabilities are expected to align with the organization’s overall vision and objective. Structures and processes which facilitate smooth organization functioning towards organizational and program objectives should also be in place.
- Direct Engagement with Class/School Issues: While issues outside schools/classrooms, such as those related to therapies, community, nutrition/health, etc., are essential for effective education, they believe that to create effective educational NGOs that can have a systemic impact, a core education team that engages directly with the children and teachers within-class/school issues is critical
- Focused Approach: Education for Children with Disabilities requires some degree of specialized knowledge. Organizations should focus on a few closely related challenges of education for children with disabilities/ inclusive education
- Balanced Teams: If organizations have to develop and sustain over the long run, it is essential to have balanced teams of partners/co-owners who can provide constructive feedback and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Selection Criteria
- The organization should have met the statutory obligations such as the 80G, 12A, IT returns, and share financial records of the preceding three years.
- Organizations should have a minimum of 3 years of demonstrable work, understanding, and experience in education for children with disabilities domain.
- The operational model must include education for children in the age group of 0-18 years as the key component.
- Preference would be given to models which work towards inclusion, inclusive practices, efforts towards mainstreaming, and early intervention of children with disabilities.
- Preference would be given to organizations working with underserved, at-risk children, children of vulnerable and minority groups. Parents and the caregiver community are also considered essential stakeholders.
- The core team must include professional and experienced educators, therapists, community mobilizers, and counsellors.
- Engagement with the public system to bring systemic reform in the education for children with disabilities is encouraged.
For more information, visit https://sites.google.com/view/wipro-education-grants/children-with-disabilities?authuser=0