Plus Trust

Direct Impact • Women’s Service Initiatives 60% of the project ideas for RWE fellowships are about education, local schools, and improved learning outcomes for children in the community. What is noteworthy here is the continued interest shown by RWEs in establishing themselves as changemakers in their communities. Here are a few stories to highlight the fellowship outcomes: 1) Deepika Kunwar (RWE 2016) from Kherwada, Gujarat worked with the local school to bring in more active and creative methods of learning for children. She is completing her B. Ed. this year. Armed with her B. Ed degree, she plans to return to work when schools reopen. Her entrepreneurial spirit has prompted her to set up a small enterprise in tailoring Rajasthani outfits. She has approached Plustrust to accept her as an anchor to expand her work in her neighbourhood. 2) Laxmi Enve (RWE 2016) from Hoshangabad, Madhya Pradesh teaches children, and works to encourage women to form SHGs. Two of her girl students have been able to gain admission in an Adarsh residential government school, the first from her village. She is now confident of her teaching skills. Teachers from the school seek her guidance from time to time. She now works with children of 7th, 8th and 9th standards, helping them to discover their aptitude and also offers online classes. She can now support herself and her mother with the income she receives from teaching children and her modest tailoring business. 3) Vibha Devi (RWE 2018) from Muzaffarpur, Bihar continues to run her learning centre and has developed activities to build COVID awareness about safety and social distancing for children. Her struggles to access education inspires her to encourage and support children to study. She has also been invited to head a new school in her locality. This gives her a full time job that energises her. Her most satisfying accomplishment is writing poetry which she hopes to publish. 4) Poonam Parathe (RWE 2017) living in Pandhurna, Madhya Pradesh wanted to set up her local academy for physical fitness and training for children interested in sports. The fellowship supported her to start this initiative and continue her own training as a cricketer. She is now an established state-level cricket player. 5) Dr Minal Kadwe (RWE 2018) from Pandhurna, Madhya Pradesh is a practicing homeopath. She developed methods for educating adolescents and young adults on sexual and reproductive health. She has been able to spread awareness among young people in her locality. She is keen to anchor a CHE batch in her neighbourhood. 6) Meera Kumari (RWE 2020) living in Muzaffarpur, Bihar who works on gender issues used her fellowship to sensitize boys and girls about these issues through games and activities. She is now able to integrate these modules with her other professional assignments. • Wider Range of Fellowships In 2020 we began offering our Return to Roots (R2R) Fellowships. Women have been able to set up their micro social ventures on skill building for girls, making natural goat milk soap, developing ecologically safe sanitary pads for girls in the community and a local tiffin distribution service. In 2022, we launched the Pilot batch of Community Health Entrepreneurs to deliver basic diagnostic test in rural communities. • Income Generation for Fellows and Anchors Income generation was adversely affected by the COVID pandemic across India. It affected most livelihoods and that is where our Anchor Program and RTR Fellowships played a crucial role in helping people in communities to expand livelihood options and build skills to sustain themselves. Our estimates reveal that income of fellows and anchors increased by 20-120% for fellows and 5-30% for anchors with respect to 2019 levels. • Plustrust Anchor Network Our Anchor Development Program trains potential anchors and builds their capabilities to identify and work with RWE/RTR batches independently through Addas (hubs). They have internalized the core values of Plustrust and are able to retain the quality and intensity of contact, which is a hallmark of the Plustrust fellowship process. 14 anchors have been trained and we expect to add a few more soon. The anchors are themselves emerging grassroot changemakers and the network is useful to bring them together. • Collaborations With Anchors Our work with Anchors has led to collborations with them as they develop new innovative project ideas and need managerial guidance and mentoring . Examples of such work include the projec tto set up Makers spaces in KGBVs and leadership developemnt thorugh SOCCs. Indirect impact • Support grassroot Changemakers We have been working with the anchors to help them envision their work and develop strategies to mentor and guide fellows. These coaching sessions have helped the anchors to clarify their own goals and priorities. This in turn has helped them will prestigious new projects and well recognised fellowships. They are emerging grassroots changemakers and exemplars of what our fellows can aspire to be in future. As we wish to build a supportive ecosystem for women’s micro ventures, our anchors in turn make special efforts to reach out to the communities they work with and explain the unique features of our model. • Children Reached through RWE Fellowships (2020-2021) We summarise details of 23 fellowships given between December 2019 and December 2021 ( right through the COVID crisis) to demonstrate the indirect impact. Our efforts helped 1600 children during the pandemic in very difficult times. The engagement was more intensive with younger children with 4 or 5 regular interactions in a week. In these projects the children covered were in the range of 15 to 50 children With children over 10 years of age, the interaction was with larger numbers once a week or twice a month. In these projects the number of children covered was larger ranging between 60 to 150. • Community Outreach Total collective outreach as reported by our anchors was approximately 20,000+ including women, children, and adolescents. • Role Models of Women in Enterprise The fellowships have helped many women to step out of the shadows of a patriarchal society to pursue their own dreams. They have not only established their own individual identities but have also inspired young girls and women and are becoming exemplary role models for them and others.