Akshara
MUWCI's community engagement initiative
Empowering through education
Enhancing education through holistic service learning projects
Akshara is the local social-impact initiative of MUWCI, providing community interventions to a community of 2500+ in the Mulshi valley. Through Akshara, we strive to enable a quality school learning ecosystem through a continuous, holistic and comprehensive approach.
The Akshara team works from our campus and is part of MUWCI. Akshara is a partner for many of our service learning projects ranging from social entrepreneurship to public health to education.
About Akshara
Transforming rural education and empowering communities
Over the last 15 years, Akshara has undertaken more than 30 interventions in the neighbouring 12 villages under various programs, including the Equal Access to Opportunities, Janeev, Khelghar, and Setu – all key interventions targeted towards personality development, literacy and numeracy, remedial classes among K12 students across government school in the valley. Besides education, Akshara has also served village women by providing livelihood opportunities.
The project aims to address this foundational gap in literacy & numeracy and also impart 21st-century skills to rural students. E.g. digital literacy, communication, creative thinking, and collaboration. This will not only help to bridge the gap but also prepare the students in rural schools for the challenges of the 21st century. A partnering government will implement the project.
Our target community is rural students studying in government schools. Most students come from underprivileged backgrounds and do not have a support system at home, while government schools require external support to deliver quality educational outcomes in the valley.
Akshara is working on improving the following in rural schools of Mulshi.
- Digital literacy: Lack of exposure to 21st-century skills, e.g. digital literacy, financial literacy, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, etc.
- Exposure to experiential/constructivist methods and learning opportunities in schools.
- Enhancement of foundational literacy & numeracy skills among primary students in rural Mulshi.
- Provide support & promote ownership of schools by School Management Committees & village community.
To know more about donating towards Akshara, please visit our Donate page.
Improving our local communities
Akshara is working on the ground with rural schools of Mulshi to meet various goals
Literacy programmes
Facilitating exposure to financial literacy, digital literacy and critical thinking skills and enhancement of foundational numeracy skills among students in rural Mulshi.
Exposure & opportunities
Provide exposure to experiential and constructivist methods and learning opportunities for students in schools in villages around Mulshi.
Support & ownership
Provide support to school management committees and promote and foster a sense of ownership schools among the village communities.
youth studying within the country and abroad
%
of Akshara boys go on to take up a professional or vocational course
Akshara alumni have gone on to become UWC students
villages are part of the Akshara programme
reduction in drop-out rate for girls after 10th grade
Akshara girls are in vocational courses and 14 are working in their field of study
community centres and libraries have been set-up or reactivated
village has students attending 12th grade for the first time in memory
If it wasn’t for Akshara I wouldn’t have studied after the 10th grade, much less attended university. My parents’ mindset has completely changed now. They not only encourage my younger sister to study but also participate actively in her education.