The inspirational story of 17000 ft Foundation |
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The inspirational story of 17000 ft Foundation |
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Frequent treks in the high mountains of Ladakh made the Founders aware of just how challenging life in remote Ladakh was. Remarkably, every village had a tiny functioning Government school, irrespective of the number of children in it. However, what distressed them the most was the minimal infrastructure in many of these schools. Not enough classrooms, no furniture to sit on, no playgrounds or even learning resources. They saw children everywhere going to school, even in -15 degC winters sitting on cold bare floors. The teachers were struggling to impart quality education to the students within the available resources.
The Founding team, along with volunteers, then drove long distances, camped in tents or stayed in homestays and even trekked treacherous mountain passes where necessary, to reach remote villages, just to understand the aspirations of the people, the challenges they faced and most importantly, the state of education delivery in the schools. Their survey of villages revealed the desperation of young parents for a good education for their children, a desperation that drove them to send their very young children alone to faraway towns to be enrolled in private schools, often dependent on the support of extended family or even complete strangers.
The desperation of the villagers for better education for their children, inspired the Sahus - to start a non-profit focussing on quality education to children near their homes in the remotest part of this country. They were joined by their long-time friend Dawa Jora, a Ladakhi businessman who was already involved in many charitable activities in remote areas.
Today the foundation works in 350+ schools across Ladakh and Sikkim. Hundreds of schools have a 17000 ft Library, Playground and classroom furniture. The foundation has pioneered an off-grid and off-network solar powered Ed-tech solution - The DigiLab which is installed in 200+ schools. The tablets from the DigiLab, enabled continued learning during the pandemic. A strong, dedicated team at Leh, Kargil and Gangtok is working round the clock to transform the schools into colourful, interesting learning spaces in the remote areas of the Indian Himalayan Region.
17000 ft is the highest our team has crossed on foot and the furthest we have travelled to reach our remotest beneficiary - A school in remote Ladakh which remains cut off from civilization for 6 months of a year due to harsh winters.
- Geo-mapping - recording of latitude, longitude and altitude of each of the 350+ schools of Leh district & needs assessment of these schools.
- Introduced Library Program in 30% Schools of Leh District, Set up 17000ft Libraries in the remotest schools with 500+ books of all the genres.
-Introduced Voluntourism in Leh District wherein volunteers visited the off-the-grid villages and spent their vacations constructively with the kids in the remote schools
- Introduced school children to volunteering in high mountains giving them a glimpse of the life of the happy children staying in the harsh, mountainous terrain
- Geo-mapping - recording of latitude, longitude and altitude of each of the 300+ schools of Kargil district & needs assessment of these schools - 15 titles translated to local Ladakh language - Bhoti with contextualization of the content and illustrations - 15,000 copies of these books distributed in all Govt. schools
- Replicated Library Program in 15% Schools of Kargil Districts, Introduced Early Childhood Education Program in Leh District
- Introduced School Transformation Program in 15% Schools of Ladakh.
-Each of these schools received a playground, Library and age-appropriate classroom furniture.
- Replicated Voluntourism in Kargil District
- Introduced Digital Learning Program in 12% Schools of Ladakh. A solar powered off-grid and off-network Ed-tech solution with customized academic content.
- Replicated Early Childhood Education Program across 15% Anganwadi Centres of Ladakh, Successful advocacy of merging of Anganwadi Centres and Primary Schools.
- Covid Outreach in 20% of villages across Ladakh with Health and hygiene kits for schools, awareness workshops and awareness posters,
- Piloted Tablet in Every Hamlet Program in 12% villages for learning @Home during the pandemic.
- Covid support to Frontline Workers across 45% of villages of Ladakh with health and hygiene kits
- Geographical Scaling with School Transformation in remote Districts of Sikkim with Govt. Scaling
- Systemic Transformation of Early Childhood Education across all Anganwadi Centres of Ladakh.
- Partnership with UT Government of Ladakh in its program of Improving Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Govt schools of Ladakh
