Parikrma Humanity Foundation

Parikrma Humanity Foundation

Founded	2003[1]
Founder	Shukla Bose [2]
Type	Humanitarian Foundation
Location	Bangalore, India
Area served	Bangalore

Parikrma Humanity Foundation is a non-profit organization located in Bangalore, India.^[3] Parikrma addresses the growing gap in urban India between those benefitting from economic liberalization and those who are not, in which consequently only a minority of children in India can afford access to private schools where the content of education is of high quality and in the English medium. Children from slum and rural communities attend schools in the free government-run mass schooling system, where they only teach in the state language, which often proves insufficient in attaining job opportunities in a rapidly globalizing world.^[4]

The name Parikrma comes from a combination of two Sanskrit words, "pari" meaning circle, and "krma" meaning to complete. Parikrma strives to complete "The Circle of Life" by supporting children from kindergarten until they procure a job, thus ensuring that their students break out of the cycle of poverty.

Now in its 11th year, Parikrma runs 4 Centres for Learning and a Junior College for 1802 children from 99 slum communities and 4 orphanages in Bangalore. Parikrma is a nondenominational nonprofit that does not discriminate on the basis of caste, creed, or religion.

History

Parikrma was founded in 2003 by Shukla Bose, who left at the peak of her career as a CEO in the hospitality industry with 26 years of experience.

In order to establish Parikrma, she and her team personally visited numerous slum communities to understand the need and context of poverty in Bangalore, as well as to identify children who would potentially never have the opportunity to attend school, and convincing their parents that education could bring about positive change in their children’s lives.

The first Parikrma school began 2 June 2003 on a space rented on the rooftop of a Tamil-medium school with 165 students and 11 staff members.

Parikrma Humanity Foundation provides English medium education to the poorest from the slums of Bangalore, India. Built around the CBSE curriculum, education at Parikrma includes sport, art, music, theatre, dance and wide exposure to the world. Parikrma also provides each child 3 meals a day, comprehensive healthcare and family care.

The Parikrma Model allows for a child to be mentored right from Kindergarten till the child gets a job. Parikrma manages K-12 education, through 4 Centers for Learning and a Junior College for 1802 children coming from 99 slum communities and 4 orphanages. College scholarships are given to each child to complete professional education / training.

Educational Philosophy

Parikrma’s educational philosophy rests on "The Four Pillars":^[5]

• Empowering children by imparting superior knowledge, mental and physical skills, and good values
• Providing real-life experience and enhancing useful life-skills
• Self-expression through art, music, dance, and other creative forms
• Exposure to a wide range of knowledge, viewpoints, activities, etc.

Academic Focus and Programs

Parikrma has adopted the CBSE English curriculum, built around the concept of understanding and making learning fun and experiential.

Parikrma operates on a 360-degree development model, supporting various aspects of a child’s life. They provide three meals a day, comprehensive healthcare including regular health check-ups, immunizations, and counseling, and community support for parents, including de-addiction programs, women’s empowerment, wellness workshops, vocational skills, etc.^[6]

Parikrma also believes in an end-to-end (e2e) model in which they look after a child from kindergarten until they are placed in a job, ensuring that they break out of a cycle of poverty, which they call completing "the Circle of Life." Their Final Leap program aids a student in choosing the right professional course which matches their strengths and interests, or provides scholarships to pursue college or vocational training.^[7] Their Last Mile program provides a professional mentor while students acclimate to their first year in the workplace.

The Parikrma Edge

Parikrma schools boast 96% attendance, which is one of the highest in the country, with less than a 1% dropout rate. 98% of students go on to pursue a college education.

A key factor in the success of Parikrma’s model is establishing English language excellence. In order to accomplish this, Parikrma has an "English First" program in which teachers take the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and children enrolled in Parikrma begin with a unique 3-month English program that enables them to grasp the rudiments of the language and lay a foundation for English-medium learning.

Furthermore, sport is an integral co-curricular activity. At the basic level, they provide a physical training program that helps all children develop their motor skills and improve their physical conditioning. The United Parikrma Sports Program identifies talented children who are further trained in football, athletics and taekwondo, providing them an opportunity to compete at the highest levels. Parikrma also organizes a yearly, under-16 inter-school football tournament called the Parikrma Champions League (PCL).

The honing of aesthetic sense, be it music, dance, theater or art, is also something that is taken extremely seriously at Parikrma. Art is seen as an essential method in which children can express themselves.

Key Initiatives

Festival of Science: With a new theme every year, the primary purpose of the Festival of Science is to support a multi-disciplinary and critically engaging learning process. Each year, Parikrma reaches out to a cross-section of hundreds of children from several schools from international to government, to foster collaborative rather than competitive discovery. An immediate outcome of science festivals has always been an exposition of the findings, experiment results and children’s’ experiences.

The Parikrma Champions League: One of the most coveted inter-school football tournaments in Bangalore, PCL witnesses participation from the top school teams in the city, as well as from other states and country (in 2018 a Dubai team participated). Every year, PCL is conducted at one of the finest stadiums, with the best facilities such as an artificial turf, a players’ tunnel and an electronic scoreboard, while state-of-the-art technology (bone-density test) is used to determine their ages correctly to ensure fair play.

Parikrma AddressHealth Awards: In 2014, Parikrma and AddressHealth jointly developed the blueprint for a systematic awards mechanism that recognized various elements of school health to create awareness and motivate schools to become health promoting schools. Every year, schools from across Bangalore participate and are recognized and encouraged for adopting best practices.

Innovations Conclave: Newer paradigms of learning are now needed with respect to tackling the approach to education in India. Laying the emphasis on new ways of learning – Parikrma with Tata Communications launched one such initiative – the Innovations Conclave 2018. Under the aegis of Global Citizenship Education, schools in the city are recognized and encouraged further for adopting best innovative practices in education.

Impact

Alumni: The first batch of Parikrma students are now pursuing higher education and beginning to enter the workforce. Alumni from Parikrma are studying at various universities in Bangalore, such as the MR Ambedkar Dental College, National Law School of India University, KLE Law College, and M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology. They have also pursued jobs such as a dialysis therapist at Manipal Teaching Hospital, a software engineer at Cisco Systems, and as an assistant chef at the Hilton Hotel in Bangalore. Today, there are more than 300 students pursuing higher studies sponsored by Parikrma. These students are studying law, engineering, gaming, animation, design coding, paramedical courses, fashion technology and Parikrma has opened up doors for more creative and new age career choices. Parikrma students represent the country in Global Youth Leadership Summit in San Diego, and others do book reviews with schools from Seattle, London, and Norway.

Parikrma FC: A football club for the alumni and owned by Parikrma, the Parikrma FC is a testimony of children’s passion and respect for the sport. This club was born in 2013, when Parikrma Foundation provided a platform for talented footballers both students, alumni and staff to take their passion a step further. Parikrma FC started as a Bangalore Division C team, and after facing elimination in 2014, the young team of Parikrma FC, in the year 2016, at the BDFA Division B League, emerged as the unsuspecting champions of this year. They are currently Bangalore A Division team.

Expansion and Scale

Community Development: The Community Development Services team is manned by social workers with strong grassroots experience. What started as a small initiative today has transpired into a hugely successful programme – opening of bank accounts, self-help groups, skills and adult literacy training for mothers, counselling for addiction and mental illness, regular health check-ups – leading to changes in increase in incomes, permanent jobs, mothers who are now entrepreneurs, fathers who have come clean of all addictions and most importantly, children and women taking a positive social stand in communities.

Education Transformation Centre (ETC): Through ETC, launched in July 2014, Parikrma creates and offers teacher training modules to teachers, other NGO workers, school administrators and social entrepreneurs, fostering excellence in the teaching and learning process. The ETC is committed to resurrecting pride in the teaching profession by enhancing the teacher community’s self-worth and empowering them with the right attitude and skills to become powerful catalysts for nation building and universal change. The ETC began its operations in July, 2014. Teachers from 200 government schools are being trained and mentored to bring about change in the state education system, and Parikrma's goal is to influence 60,000 children through its Centres as well as the ETC.

Adopts a Government School: Parikrma has adopted a school in 2017 - the Maruthinagar Government School. Parikrma has signed a MoU with the Government of Karnataka to bring about a change in academics, and overall development of children and performance at government schools. Over 184 children at the school are set to benefit from this new initiative. There has been a 60% increment in enrollment and 80% attendance in the Parent Teachers Meeting since inception.

Volunteering & Mentoring

Volunteering at Parikrma: The diversity of our volunteers in terms of culture, ethnicity, age, educational background and occupation provides the children with invaluable life experiences, and through this exposure, they can truly become global citizens. Volunteers provide our children with positive role models, which they may be lacking due to their backgrounds. Since May 2003, Parikrma has had hundreds of international volunteers from across the globe, including the USA, Canada, the UK, Spain, France, Netherlands, Australia, Japan, and many more.

Mentoring at Parikrma: Mentors help mentees prepare for their future, exploring options, asking questions and helping to work out a path to achieving students' dreams. Mentors motivate, inspire and help students develop critical study skills. Mentors from leading IT companies, STEM, artists across fields have mentored children at Parikrma. Parikrma also works with business ambassadors, skilled individuals that often hold workshops and give talks on diverse subjects.

Accolades

• The Derozio Award for excellence in special education and social commitment.
• Governor’s award for exemplary social work in January 2007
• CNBC Digitalizing India Award 2016 for the category of Digital Innovation in Driving Social Impact
• CSR Awards for being one of the 50 Most Impactful Social Innovators in 2016
• Parikrma Humanity Foundation is now a chapter included in Cornell University and IIMB

References

External links

• Parikrma Humanity Foundation website
• For many corporate employees, volunteer work pays: The Hindu
• Non-profits from Singapore and India launch three-year modern education project in Bangalore: Connected To India
• Parikrma Festival of Science gets young minds to discuss energy crisis: The Economic Times
• Their Akka teaches them to dream big: The Hindu
• The Parikrma Champions League: Sportskeeda