Vitalising Communities

Creating Impact for Better Healthcare

Strive to create wholesome communities, with focus on emotional and mental health

Enhancing healthcare effectiveness through better infrastructure and hygiene

Programs

BKF’s direct community development programs focus on expanding reach and speedy execution through a trustworthy network of like-minded NGOs and Corporates.

The Foundation provides one-stop leadership for Program Management Offices (PMO), ensuring effective deployment of CSR allocations.

Our current programs focus on empowering school teachers and students to create curious learners and help them cull out a path towards a future they can only dream of at present.

Within Education, we focus on appropriate learning outcomes; building motivation for the learning process; fit-for-purpose technology & infrastructure and sustaining attendance in schools, a greater challenge post Pandemic. Integral to enabling quality education is, of course, the standard of teaching.

Our school engagement is designed to offer Healthcare and Environment, interventions on demand, making for a holistic and synergistic development process. Additionally, we also participate in direct development projects in the Healthcare and Environment sectors.

BKF plans to tap existing funding streams to back its initiatives, be it from corporates, business, government or the individual.

Our Programs

Education

One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world: Malala Yousafzai

India’s National Education Policy 2020 (NEP20) delineates a new school culture & multidisciplinary curricula, one that includes values such as empathy, human rights, equality, non-violence, global citizenship, equity and inclusion
NEP20 seeks to improve India’s progress towards achieving the United Nations’ SDG (Strategic Development Goal) 4, ensuring free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education of all children
BKF’s mission to bolster sustainable development lies at the heart of this. Its primary goal is to overhaul the service environment and culture of schools

Teachers form the backbone of any education system and play a formative role in shaping intellectual curiosity and keenness. Ensure they are part of a vibrant, caring and inclusive community of teachers, students, parents, principals and other support staff. The Foundation, therefore, strives to:

Strengthen Teachers Capabilities through Certification Program for 21st Century Teaching Skills for present teachers and make them future ready
Work on socio-emotional learning of teachers, critical for holistic development of the student child. Sensitise teachers to the potential of children from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds
Identify top students in Government schools and colleges as potential candidates for Teacher Training scholarships to build Capacity
Supplement teacher capability in areas of Health and Environment to enable holistic development
Maximise teacher ability vis-a-vis recruitment, deployment & service conditions, overcoming a one-size-fits-all approach. This would include digital literacy, performance management and other suitable tried and tested tools
Empower teachers so they are able to exercise autonomy in choosing aspects of pedagogy most effective for students

Launch of Capability Development Course for Teachers

The BKF Core Team was delighted to kick off its first project, ‘Classroom of the Future: A Blended Instructional Approach,’ soon after the Foundation took shape late 2021.

This was a Professional Development Program on Blended Learning Capability implemented for teachers at Vidya Bharti School, Ghaziabad, in collaboration with Socrates Foundation For Enhanced Learning 17-21 May 2022.

Forty two teachers participated in the 10-hour, 5-day, on-line capability building module that focused on digital tools to facilitate synchronous & asynchronous teaching. This was followed by a successful one-day peer review & group presentation.

A key outcome from the course was acquiring practical understanding of how blended learning can help students develop competencies such as autonomy, problem-solving, critical thinking and effectiveness. BKF’s journey with the Teachers and the School continues.

Why Blended Learning Capability?

Blended Learning Capability program helps teachers to implement blended (mix of synchronous and asynchronous) methods of teaching. It is a way to break down barriers to learning.

Pandemic 2020 drastically changed education methodology; many teachers had to familiarise themselves with new online technologies. But distance learning and digital tools don’t just belong to emergency teaching situations.

We are often lost on how Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can help us become more effective educators. We cannot assume that an effective teacher in a traditional classroom would be as effective in an online classroom.

Face-to-face and distance learning activity, often facilitated by technology, can constitute an effective blend for learning. Guiding teachers in the successful development of blended learning practices is the main goal of this course.

NEP 2020 {Section 24(3)(i)} highlights blended models of learning: ‘While promoting digital learning and education, the importance of face-to-face in-person learning is fully recognised. Accordingly, different effective models of blended learning will be identified for appropriate replication for different subjects.’

Objective

The objective of this Capability Development program is to equip beneficiary teachers with necessary strategies, skill sets & tools to help them engage students in a way that brings instrumental changes in conceptualising, designing, and implementing innovative, technology-integrated blended classrooms. It also enables learning modules to bring about transformative change across classrooms of the 21st Century.

Capability Course Details

The 12-hour, 10-day training at Vidya Bharti School was divided into 2 parts:

Part I (10 hrs over 5 days): Teachers learnt about hybrid learning framework & teaching strategies for blended learning classrooms. They were introduced to digital tools used to facilitate synchronous & asynchronous teaching. They designed activities to encourage group/individual participation and learned to integrate these into their lesson plans

Part II (2 hrs): Teachers presented lesson plans using the new strategies and tools; the plans were then evaluated and peer reviewed followed by feedback assessment

Outcomes

The course helped teachers acquire practical understanding of how blended learning can help students develop competencies such as autonomy, problem-solving, critical thinking and effectiveness. Participants were at ease with blending distance and face-to-face pedagogies.

Key outcomes:

Lesson plans enriched with new tools and strategies, which will positively impact teachers’ work experience and professional effectiveness
Manage diverse ICT tools, apps/platforms
New tools for student-centred teaching approaches & competency-based education
Explain concepts in diverse ways, leveraging available digital resources
Involve students in blended opportunities for reflection, discussion, investigation, practice & assessment. Personalised, enriching student learning experience
Design blended learning activities

Healthcare

BlueKare Foundation helps to address some core challenges faced by India’s healthcare sector, starting with the community of schools. These dovetail with our initiatives in the Education and Environment sectors as also link up with the United Nations’ SDG (Strategic Development Goal) 3 on Good Health and Well Being.

We undertake well-calibrated programs to meet the following objectives:

Health Education: Enhance awareness of basic healthcare issues (physical, emotional and mental health) with special focus on school teachers, students and parents
Teachers Healthcare Insurance: Improve affordability of quality healthcare for teachers by leveraging structured or custom-designed insurance cover
Hygiene is Health: Adequate and safe health infrastructure in schools, such as working toilets; potable water; clean & attractive spaces, libraries, sport and recreational facilities
Project Opportunities: Direct development programs with Corporates and other organisations

BKF continues to search out new avenues to make an impact on quality healthcare for the average Indian.

Environment

BKF involves the immediate and wider community in critical areas of the environment, building awareness and initiating/ supporting projects to Build a Sustainable, Cleaner Planet.

Focus areas include:

Renewable Energy: introduce alternate sources of energy in schools, and nearby communities (SDG (Strategic Development Goal) 7 Affordable & clean energy)
Water Conservation: Put in place systems to enable conservation of rain water and/ or ground water, an increasingly scarce commodity. Tie in with government watershed management programs where feasible (SDG 6 Clean, accessible water for all)
Support Tackling carbon footprint/ pollution: Tree plantation of native species in and around schools, nearby centres and the wider community. Create awareness of the multiple benefits (SDG 11 Sustainable cities & communities)
Waste Management: Encourage the community to adopt a pro-Earth attitude. In particular, work towards reducing plastic pollution; avoid accumulation of plastic waste and minimise single use plastic (SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production)

Impact Assessment

Impact assessments help NGOs, funding agencies and other organisations to evaluate the success of their projects. They also help make evidence-based decisions along the way.

BKF recognises the need for coordination with clients, and NGO Partners, to ensure preparation of technical reports, SDGs alignment, benchmarking, timely client interactions and report presentation to senior corporate management.

BlueKare is putting together a team for impact monitoring, one that ensures quality at each touchpoint - needs assessment; curriculum/ content design; trainer expertise and content delivery. We are working with culturally aligned organisations to enlist and train suitable people with a view to achieving scale.

We adopt best practices, define expected outcomes, making them specific and measurable, in areas such as:

Student Proficiency (improvement in grades/ pass percentages, comprehension, IQ)
Student Competence in Digital / Computer skills to enhance learning curiosity
Attendance (better student and teacher attendance)
Student Enrolment (more students enrolling in schools)
Student Behaviour (social/ emotional stability and enthusiasm to learn)

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