Prakruthi – Educating and Enabling to Empower

The Founders

Prakruthi, a Bangalore-based non-profit was started by Mr. Pramod John and his family in a small accommodation in the year 1991. The project facilitated children and adults with non-formal education and life skills. The Community Based Training Centre (CBTC) came up in the year 2000 within the premises of Christ King Church at Byrathi village, located in the outskirts of Bangalore city. The aim was to cater to the employment needs of youth and children from surrounding areas.

About Prakruthi

Prakruthi – Educating and Enabling to Empower

Prakruthi enables less privileged children enhance their skills and earn a living through a satisfying employment. The Community Based Training Centre (CBTC) at Prakruthi has helped many individuals nurture their future.

CBTC takes in children and adults from the surrounding slum areas and provides them with supplementary education and required life skills needed for a dignified life. Both children and adults are trained on personal hygiene, soft skills and general knowledge.

The aim is to enable children and youth to meet the challenges of tomorrow by arming them with skills to combat the digital divide. The students form groups and education is imparted through group activities, which makes learning easy. To understand Information Technology better, corporate personnel are invited to share their practical experiences and knowledge with the students.

Prakruthi’s partnership with Smile Foundation

Prakruthi has collaborated with Smile Foundation for the Smile Twin e- learning Programme (STeP) at the Community Based Training Centre (CBTC). The youth are trained and placed with recognised brands and companies. This collaboration has helped Prakruthi develop the course curriculum of CBTC in a much better way.

Under Smile Twin e-Learning Programme, apart from the computer training, interactive sessions on soft skills and industry knowledge by practicing professionals are also successfully imparted to the students.

Success Stories

Lakshmi

Lakshmi hails from a poor family in Byrathi Bande. Her parents work as daily wage labourers earning barely Rs 5,000 per month, which is insufficient to take care of 9 family members. Lakshmi, a mature and responsible 22 year old girl, who after completing her Pre University Course (PUC), was searching for a job to share the burden of her old parents. On learning about Smile’s Twin e-Learning Programme from an ex student of Prakruthi, she immediately got herself enrolled in the course. At the end of the course, she got a placement with Airtel in Bangalore as a Customer Care Executive with a monthly salary of Rs. 7000. The course has not only helped her become self-dependent, she is now a great support to her family.

Mariyappan

Mariyappan has a Diploma in Education (D.Ed). Son of a coolie (porter), he resides in Bhuvaneshwari Nagar, Bangalore along with his parents. Mariyappan was interested in learning computers, but due to very low income, his family was incapable of affording the fees charged by the computer training institutions. A pamphlet distributed in the area served as a silver lining for him. He got to know about Prakruthi Learning Centre at Byrathi, where the course fee was very minimal. He got himself enrolled at in the Smile Twin e-learning Programme (STeP).
The Smile’s Centre helped him get a job at Café Coffee Day, Marathahalli in Bangalore as a Customer Care Ececutive – cum – Systems Operator with a monthly salary of Rs. 6000. He now has a stable job and also visits the centre to render voluntarily service.

Sheena Manual

Sheena Manual (24), a science graduate resides with her family in a rented house at Byrathi village. Her father works as a daily wage labourer and faces seasonal unemployment during the non-cultivation season. Sheena’s English was very poor, which was a big hurdle in getting a job. One fine day, Sheena got to know about the Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) at Prakruthi Learning Centre, Byrathi. In August 2007, she enrolled in the 6 months course, which included spoken English and Tally.
Smile Foundation got her a placement in the Customer Care Department of Croma, a retail electronic shop in Bangalore. Now she works as an Assistant Accountant and earns a monthly salary of Rs. 8,000.

Pavithra

Twenty three year old Pavithra, a resident of Chikka Byrathi village finished her Pre University Course (PUC), but could not continue her education due to financial constraints. Her parents earned their living by cooking food in private houses. They had no other source of income, so Pavithra wanted to take up a job and be of some help to her parents. The Twin e-Learning Programme provided by Smile Foundation at Prakruthi Learning Centre, Byrathi helped her get a job in Croma- retail electronic store. Six months of proper guidance helped her in learning basic computer skills and communicating in English language. There is a long way to go for an ambitious girl like Pavithra.