Nupur Bhardwaj & Lecin
Nupur Bhardwaj has pursued B Tech Computer Science from Delhi University and today at such a young age, she is the founder of LECIN- Let’s Educate Children In Need. Nupur during her college days had always been continuously involved beyond the classroom activities, and this is what led her to open LECIN.
How LECIN involved ?
In 2014, while in college, Nupur volunteered for a student-run organisation, and during this time period, she visited many orphanages and slums. She shares how the children there fascinated her and how she was able to make connections with them so quickly. Nupur was happy to get the chance of doing social service as a volunteer at the organisation but somewhere she always felt that she was not doing justice to the plans and innovative ideas her young mind had. So after working there for 9 months Nupur decided to leave that organisation and start something of her own.
Founder team
Nupur along with Ankush and Rohit her two friends and co-founders of LECIN started their own organisation in 2016. They did not have much idea as to how to run an organisation but they were determined to help the children in need by educating them.
They started visiting slums on weekends as they had their classes on weekdays. Initially owing to their engineering background they thought they will be doing the job and handling LECIN simultaneously but till the end of their graduation i.e 2017, they decided to run a full-time NGO. Till now, LECIN has worked with more than 1,500 children from low income communities in different areas.
Support from Pravah , Wipro etc
They started by creating a WhatsApp group followed by designing a logo for LECIN to finally getting it registered just at the age of 20. Nupur shares how after their training of 6-7 months they got a grant of 1.6 lakhs from Pravah. Also amongst so many organizations, LECIN was one of the few selected by Wipro under its program for young social entrepreneurs who work full time on registered NGOs all over India. Nupur mentioned in a conversation with us that how a lot of things changed for her after the Wipro fellowship.
obstacles
When asked about parental support Nupur shares how they have to face a lot of obstacles from their side at the beginning because of the myth that there is no earning in such social sector but however when they started getting fellowships and they asked their parents to visit their organisation they convinced them that this is the only platform meant for them.
Working structure of LECIN
On asking about the current structure of LECIN, Nupur shares us that she is currently running a pre-school in Okhla- Phase II focusing on early childhood education of children aged 3-6 years aiming to give them a good base to start their school education so that in the long run the number of dropouts can decrease.
Nupur shares how they promote community engagement in their program- Community Cycle, where they hire village women who are literate to teach basics to the children in their school. Also, she shares how they use the play method to teach them, they organise activities and fun games so that children develop holistically.
They also organise monthly meets for the parents where they can come and look and talk about the overall growth of their children.
Funding module of LECIN
We have individuals supporting individual youngsters/programs each month.We additionally run crowdfunding efforts and offer some hand-made material to raise reserves. Also, we apply for awards and associations offered by corporate and other non-benefit associations. Ideally, we will get our 12A and 80G declaration before the current year’s over, this will help us contribute for additional assets from corporates.
How lock down changed everything to LECIN ?
The Global Pandemic due to COVID-19 has no doubt affected every sector, on asking Nupur how did COVID-19 affected LECIN, Nupur shares that in pre lock-down times they use to have a 5 day school but now it is limited to only 3 days keeping in mind the safety of children. Also, she shares how many families got permanently shifted to their home towns due to lack of work and earning. However, Nupur shares that apart from the bad side some good things also happened during the lockdown.
LECIN did not stop during the hard COVID time also, they continued giving education online for which they taught parents how to use technology; apps like zoom, WhatsApp, google meet, youtube and many more.
Also, when they helped the families with rations they established a stronger bond with them. Nupur also tells that they opened a small children library- Pop-UP library in August 2020 from where parents can issue books for their children.
Also read : https://saffronumbrella.com/swati-mohan-nasa-scientist/
Future plans
On asking about the future plans Nupur shares that they are currently looking forward to hiring more women to empower them and increase community engagement, work on partnerships with state and central Anganwadis, motivate and support Anganwadi workers and open more schools in inaccessible areas.
How one can contribute in current campaign of LECIN
After working on Early Childhood Education for 2 years, LECIN is now planning to expand the horizon of our work by training more Anganwadi workers & pre-school teachers to ensure optimal and holistic development of young children from low income communities in different areas. This year, LECIN plans to provide quality early learning to at least 500 children.
you can do your bit at : https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-lecin-1
How to reach LECIN
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