Society of Community Health Oriented Operational Links
Vriddha Mitra (Friends of Older People)
- Gold Certified 2023
- 80G
- 12A
- CSR-1
About
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Headquarters
Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh
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Since
2007
Society of Community Health Oriented Operational Links, popularly called as SCHOOL is a not-for-profit organization registered in 2007 under Section 8 Read more of the companies act. Along with a registered office in Gwalior Madhya Pradesh, we have offices in Pune and Mumbai (Maharashtra) Delhi, Bhopal (MP), Bhitarwar, Gwalior district (Rural -MP), Varanasi and Hardoi in Utter Pradesh, Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Giridih in Jharkhand. SCHOOL is working through its flagship program ‘Vriddha Mitra’ in 6 geographies Pune, Mumbai, Bhopal, Gwalior, Varanasi and Delhi.
Issue
‘Vriddha Mitra’ aims to reach out to every elderly person in India, with a special focus on the most vulnerable and the needy. Vision: To build an age friendly ecosystem for the elderly population in India. Mission: To provide integrated solutions for the challenges faced by the elderly populations with a continued vigour of empowerment and equality. Problem statement: Our experience and understanding informs us that older age group is invariably associated with health problems accompanying several socio-cultural, economic, and psychological challenges faced in their day to day life. Socio-cultural: Nuclear family patterns are resulting into lack of social security – further causing isolation and loneliness. Economic: Lack of pensions and any kind of livelihood resulting into inability to avail nutritious food, health services, medication etc. Psychological: Lack of sensitivity among family members, lack of self-care, depression and anxiety are common aspects affecting their mental wellbeing. Fear and stress of being dependent on others is also a challenge And thus, we created ‘Vriddha Mitra’ which means friends of older people. Today! We as ‘Vriddha Mitra’ feel we are living the lives of elderlies by being with them, by finding solutions to their challenges and by bringing to fruition their small wishes, which unfortunately are turned down by the very generations that got nurtured by these same elderlies. For us, turning ‘ageing’ into a positive experience means extending all care, support and services to them in their own homes and ensure that they feel loved and cared for. Hence, we do not displace them and take them to old age homes, but provide everything in their homes and locality where they are staying. We call this, 'Last Mile Connectivity', which means remaining connected with them till their last mile of life. This includes care and support in their day to day life, health care services at home and within the community, and also linkages with different social security entitlements, schemes and programs for long term financial support and reduction of expenditure on health care services.
Action
The journey: how ‘Vriddha Mitra’ started! It was in 2018, SCHOOL decided to work with the older people, aged 60 years and above. While the immediate thought, like every other organization was to start an old age home, it was impossible to accept that in a country like India, we should focus on 50 or 100 elderlies, a handful of them when we clearly saw the challenges of elderlies in the entire country. This set our minds thinking and we decided to set up a model which will help us reach larger elderly population. And as we went on developing this mechanism, we realized that the following aspects helped us: • We found that no elderly ever opts to live in an old age home or a Vriddhashram • Every elderly person wants to live and age in their own home, amidst their loved ones, family and friends. • We also felt that each and every age-group in our country has some kind of family based and even government served support system, starting from newborn babies to young children, to adolescents, youths and women, there existed no cadre for older people.
Demographies Served
Cause Area
Impact
Through 'Vriddha Mitra' program, SCHOOL is reaching 47500 elderlies in 6 locations of India, wherein each elderly's life is touched on a daily basis through daily home visits in their own homes. We endorse the concept of 'Ageing in Place'. We extend essential services and essential supplies through community-based (home visits, companionship and community level activities) interventions through the trained Vriddha Mitras.
Vision & Mission
To bring about inclusive development to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs). Our Vision: To work with vulnerable populations in ensuring good health and wellbeing as the last mile by addressing every single social determinant.
Donor History
Azim Premji Foundation
Give India
SBI Capital
Yardi Foundation
UNICEF India
Programs
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Vriddha Mitra Https://Www.Vriddhamitra.Org/
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Vriddha Mitra (www.vriddhamitra.org)
After studying various elderly care models globally and in-country, we inferred that while ‘social care’ and ‘relationship-based services’ are some of the prominent care-giving models in UK and Europe, wherein the elderlies are provided services at home, by way of social security benefits or have the opportunity to purchase care, here in India we do not have any such model and all institutions working in elderly care space are providing institutional/ residential care to the elderlies.
Hence, considering the scale of elderlies in India, we decided to endorse the concept of ‘ageing in place’ and conceptualized a community-based model with clear focus on extending companionship and support at home, and bringing all possible services within the community, so that the elderlies do not have to travel outside for any services, except for diagnostics or equipment-based services. Accordingly, the first community-based project was rolled out in 2 slums of Pune city. Further to this, in April 2020, these interventions were extended to 8 wards and 5500 elderlies in Pune city. In February 2021, the community-based projects were rolled out in Bhopal and Mumbai, and in April 2021 in Gwalior. In 2024, we started in Varanasi, and the most recent location is Delhi, which is covering 800 elderlies.
Impact Metrics
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Health of the Elderly People Tracked
Program Name
Vriddha Mitra
Year-wise Metrics- 2019-20 642
- 2020-21 5300
- 2021-22 11000
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0
Year-wise Metrics -
Health of the Elderly People Tracked
Year-wise Metrics- 2019-20 642
- 2020-21 5300
- 2021-22 11000
Theory of Change
Community Based Mechanism (Field projects)
It encompasses our community based comprehensive support model, which has been tested in 2 slums of Pune city, further scaled up to 65 more slums in Pune based on the request of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). This model has also been scaled up to 4 slums in the cities of Mumbai and 15 slums in the city of Bhopal and one block in Gwalior district of MP. Today, the direct reach is 11000 elderlies in 86 slums of 3 cities and 15 villages of one block.
Policy-Advocacy
It focuses on dialogue at the national, state and district/ city levels on two aspects, one is increasing the uptake of existing schemes and programs and the other is introduction of newer and better policies and programs for the elderly.
Championing:
It involves two core activities, one, creating some platforms that help in promoting the cause of elderly and two, creating champions/ spokespersons of all ages to support and advocate for the cause of elderlies.
Livelihood/ productive engagement/ Life-long learning:
In this division, we highlight the need for work, and active as well as productive engagement of the elderly along with demystifying the perception that a person above 60 years needs to retire and live a life without new activities, skills or contribution to the country and self. This division reinforces the need of elderlies, to be engaged, have sense of fulfilment and achievement, and ensures life-long-learning.
Research:
There is a dearth of understanding regarding the challenges of the elderlies that emanates from scientific studies. Our community-based projects work towards improving the quality of life of the elderlies, and this is being scientifically captured. We also see a great need to initiate many more studies across the country for better understanding.
Milestones & Track Record
11,000 elderlies in 80 slums and two rural blocks (7500 in Pune*,1000 in Mumbai; 1500 in Bhopal; 1000 in Gwalior)
63% females and 37% males
8% of elderlies living alone (without any single family member)
12% of elderlies living alone (only with their spouse)
12% of elderlies have any kind of pension
We started with 2 slums in Pune city in January 2019, and today we are in 65 slums, reaching 7500.
The next two cities we expanded to were in Mumbai in Maharashtra and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.
In April 2021, we rolled out our first rural project in one block/rural area of the Gwalior district.
Key areas of working
Policy Advocacy
Dialogue at the national, state and district/ city levels on two aspects:
Increasing the uptake of existing schemes and programs Introduction of newer and better policies and programs for the elderly.
Creating Champions
Creating some platforms, champions, spokespersons that support, advocate and promote the cause of elderlies.
Livelihood
Active as well as productive engagement of the elderly along with demystifying the perception that a person above 60 years needs to retire and live a life without new activities, skills or contribution to the country and self.
Research
There is a dearth of understanding regarding the challenges of the elderlies that emanates from scientific studies. We see a great need to initiate many more studies
across the country for better understanding.
COMMUNITY BASED MECHANISM
Creating social support structure by establishing relationship with elderlies, their families and community as a whole.
Establishing community based comprehensive service delivery mechanism for basic care of elderlies and activating the public system to provide comprehensive
services to elderlies.
Building linkages with different schemes and programs to enhance inclusion.
Key challenges
Demand is huge for the community based services but the paucity of funds to achieve the desired goal is the biggest challenge.
Donor Testimonial
Ms. Bharti Dewan from APF: APF has been supporting Vriddha Mitra community based project in Pune since 2020, and is very impactful, this very aspect has encouraged APF to extend a new grant for expansion of this work to more wards in Pune starting from 1st January 2023
Krishna Kutty R, SBI Capital: “Excellent project targeting senior citizens from slum areas who face lots of problems. Happy to support these types of projects. Congrats to the team.”
Roshan Negi, SBI Capital: Great to see the unique project & the work being done by the SCHOOL team. Wish you all the best for continuing the same!!”
Shabeer P.K. APF: Fantastic ground level work. Reaching the most vulnerable and derserving community is commendable. Thanks for making the dreams of many a reality.”
Dipanwita Sengupta, Yardi Software: Vriddha Mitra project and their efforts at the community level, so as to ensure all services and support for the most vulnerable elderlies in the slums, is a very important and desirable intervention
Leadership Team
Demographics & Structure
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No. of Employees
100+
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Strength of Governing Body
5
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Diversity Metrics
60% women
M&E
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Internal, External Assessors
Yes
Policies
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Ethics and Transparency Policies
Yes
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Formal CEO Oversight & Compensation Policy
Yes
Political & Religious Declarations
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On Affiliation if any
No
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On Deployment Bias if any
No
Organisation Structure
Yes
Awards & Recognitions
SCHOOL-Healthy Ageing was awarded Covid Social Champion by CSR Health Impact Awards on 15th July 2021.
Registration Details
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PAN Card
AAPCS7951J
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Registration ID
U85100MP2007NPL019346
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12A
AAPCS7951JE20214
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80G
AAPCS7951JF20211
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FCRA
Not Available
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CSR Registration Number
CSR00001624
Location
Other Details
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Type & Sub Type
Non-profit
Section 8 (formerly Section 25)
Website
Financial Details
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2019-20
IncomeRs.16,715,000ExpensesRs.16,985,000Admin ExpensesRs.1,019,100Program ExpensesRs.15,965,900Tip: Click on any value above to exclude it. -
2020-21
IncomeRs.22,302,000ExpensesRs.21,063,000Admin ExpensesRs.2,106,300Program ExpensesRs.18,956,700Tip: Click on any value above to exclude it. -
2021-22
IncomeRs.49,251,000ExpensesRs.44,835,000Admin ExpensesRs.4,483,500Program ExpensesRs.40,351,500Tip: Click on any value above to exclude it.