2023-09-29
Mental Health Program
All across Indian states, and more specifically in the Vidharba region of Maharashtra, the farmer suicide crisis has reached a critical emergency level. ...
2023-09-29
Women Empowerment
Our goal is to utilize the unused potential of women by helping them to form self-help groups and empowering them through various income generation ...
2023-09-29
Youth Empowerment
India is a youth led country, with 70% of people under the age of 40. 34% of India's gross national income comes from young people, but this percentage ...
2023-09-29
Environment
UVS focuses on five main domains: clean water, clean air, waste management, biodiversity and renewable energy. Our goal is to educate young people about ...
2023-09-29
Regenerative Agriculture
In view of the problems of conventional farming such as water scarcity, soil depletion and biodiversity loss, UVS wants to facilitate the transition to ...
Sustainable Development Goals
- Details
- Written by: Yannick Dimbu
- Category: Education
- Hits: 39
At UVS we aim to provide computer literacy to everyone. The purpose of our CAP4SCHOOL is to make students sensitive to computers, technical equipment and information and communication technology (ICT). To achieve the project goals, we arranged project activities such as computer education (extended to robotics), app development, and student participation in various software contests.
The program ran from 2014 to 2019, with a total budget of less than 1 Indian Rupee, UVS was able to achieve something that everyone could benefit from before the pandemic. As part of the CAP4SCHOOL project, we continue to teach and train local students about computers. Three students demonstrated their excellence in the “Microsoft Office Specialist Competition” by winning bronze and silver medals at the All India National Championships. Some remarkable achievements of this project consist of-
- Trained the students with Microsoft Office Specialist certification
- Won SJIIT Competitions for software development
- Won Idol of Washim award for Educational Work
- Trained students for Mobile Apps Development
- Interaction with International Schools
- Won All India level Microsoft Word Specialist Bronze Award
- Won All India level Microsoft Excel Specialist Silver Award
- Details
- Written by: Yannick Dimbu
- Category: Education
- Hits: 41
Through the school development project UVS is actively working to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on education that aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.
While the village's people have higher educational goals for their children, the school has barely changed in the last five years. Several youngsters from the hamlet now attend schools in the city since their parents cannot afford to send them to schools that provide English education. This has resulted in new challenges such as an increase in accidents as children travel to city schools every day, city schools charging high fees but failing to deliver on their promises in terms of education quality, negligence of the village's public primary school and misuse of the school premises for marriage events during school hours, and so on.
Above all, the Zilla Parishad Prathamik Shala Nagthana school is limited by a lack of resources and burdened with administrative chores that are handled by a tiny staff of five instructors and a headmaster. Students continue to be deprived of essential learning resources due to a lack of amenities such as a playground, books, organized interactive activities, and well-maintained infrastructure. This has resulted in substandard education, reduced attendance, and a transfer to city schools, resulting in a stall of Nagthana's general development owing to brain drain.
Volunteers from the University of Cambridge, Queen Mary University of London, IIM Kozhikode, and TERI School of Advanced Studies, among others, make up our highly ambitious and skilled team, which is dedicated to achieving the above-mentioned goals.
The village's youth are passionately participating in carrying out project activities, with guidance from the organization's founder and project team members. Teachers are being trained, meetings with stakeholders are being held, and resources such as books are being collected in preparation for the school's transfer. Students and teachers will benefit most from the initiative since they will have access to current resources that will make learning more enjoyable and enriching. The nearby communities will receive new business as a result of the school initiative. This will help boost community pride as the village's model school.
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- Written by: Yannick Dimbu
- Category: Regenerative Agriculture
- Hits: 40
UVS raised awareness of organic farming in Washim and thereby increased the crop productivity and incomes of farmers and villagers by promoting lower-cost agricultural alternatives. UVS organized training camps to teach community members about increasing their involvement in sustainable agricultural practices. In the context of the campaign, farmers learned how to tackle their current problems by building up their skills in sustainable agriculture development, entrepreneurship development, organic farming, horticulture, and online marketing methodologies. Thanks to our project, farmers started switching to organic farming and successfully formed farmer-specific self-help groups. A total of 200 farmers were taken on a field visit and separated into five groups for expert advice.
- Details
- Written by: Yannick Dimbu
- Category: Regenerative Agriculture
- Hits: 40
In the context of this project, UVS provides services for sustainable agricultural cultivation to needy farmers on a non-profit basis as farmers in Vidarbha are suffering from low crop yields, decreased profits, poor soil health, and suicide. UVS has assisted minimum landholder farmers by providing a scheme under which tractors, cultivators, and rotavators can be used for farm cultivation on a non-profit basis. Farmers only need to pay for the diesel and driver charges of the used tractor. UVS also provides farming-related services such as organizing field visits and training sessions, water harvesting workshops, and soil testing camps. Approximately 207 farmers are now our beneficiaries availing the benefit of this scheme, running more efficient farms, and conducting more effective farming practices.
- Details
- Written by: Yannick Dimbu
- Category: Regenerative Agriculture
- Hits: 81
As the local population suffers more and more from the negative consequences of chemical farming such as air, soil and water pollution, UVS aims to promote the transition from chemical to organic farming. The goal of the Family Farmer project is to develop organic agriculture and local trade in the region of Nagthana. UVS wants to persuade farmers to work in organic farming, convince the local population to consume local and organic food and organize a good product sales system. In order to achieve these goals, UVS aims to create an online platform which will make communication easier and faster between farmers and consumers. Furthermore, UVS plans to create innovative sales systems attracting and retaining customers.
- Details
- Written by: Yannick Dimbu
- Category: Regenerative Agriculture
- Hits: 41
The program’s vision was to ensure soil conservation, stop soil erosion, recharge groundwater and create protected irrigation facilities. UVS worked in two regions with severely drought-prone areas; the Manora Region, where 5 villages were prioritized, and in the Buldhana Region where 3 villages were selected to conduct training camps. Furthermore, UVS worked with 2 villages in the Chikhali Taluka of the Buldhana District. UVS trained farmers and self-help groups on water harvesting techniques, and crop and water management. A total of 100 farmers were given the above-mentioned training and encouraged to practice water harvesting techniques in their own region. A total of 200 farmers were taken on a field visit for expert advice. We succeeded in implementing the gained knowledge in 3 villages to build a rivulet bunding and a contour bunding. In the second phase of the programme, self-motivated trained farmers-built contour bunding in the village of Savargaon without being managed or taking any financial aid from outside sources. A total of 30 farmers were given training on water harvesting, and 80 farmers were taken to field visits in various locations for expert advice by UVS.
Subcategories
Education
Our goal is to promote education and technological solidarity throughout the various communities. Keeping with this line of thinking Universal Versatile Society is working strenuously to provide a holistic learning experience to the underprivileged students at Nagthana to help develop a self-driving force of young minds.
Regenerative Agriculture
Our goal is to promote eco-friendly, sustainable and organic farming in local communities. As farmers are increasingly suffering from problems such as crop yields, decreased profits, poor soil health, and suicide, we decided to take action and educate farmers on how to tackle these issues.
Environment
UVS focuses on five main domains: clean water, clean air, waste management, biodiversity and renewable energy. Our goal is to educate young people about environmental issues in the domains mentioned above and motivate them to take action and to get involved in environmental protection.
Mental Health Program
Vidarbha region in the State of Maharashtra is an agriculture-intensive region, which has witnessed high farmer suicide rates in the recent past. Unfortunately, poverty, insufficient state aid and climatic conditions have led to an increase in farmers' suicides. We suspect that between 2016 and 2019 almost 8500 farmers have died by suicide, but no organization has reported real data, which leads us to a hypothesis that the figures are higher and that the factors risk are increasingly. The environmental and cultural crisis increase without prevention programs against depression and suicide.
The Mental Health Program aims to improve mental health conditions by providing care and rehabilitation services to the farmers. The Program has been designed to spread awareness, make assessments, and to enable the adoption of interventions to promote mental health; and especially prevent suicidal tendencies among the farmers and induce resilience to economic, social, and cultural problems.
Women Empowerment
Our goal is to utilize the unused potential of women by helping them to form self-help groups and empowering them through various income generation schemes. We aim to infuse women with legal, social and financial awareness so that they can not only gain economic and independence, but also confidence.
Youth Empowerment
India is a youth led country, with 70% of people under the age of 40. 34% of India's gross national income comes from young people, but this percentage needs to be increased urgently. Indeed, today's youth are an important resource not only for the development of economic prosperity, but also for social change. Despite this importance, millennials often face hurdles every day because their energy is not yet directed in the right direction.Youth empowerment in all developments is essential not only for national development throughout the country, but also for individual personal development. With this in mind UVS established a computer and information science institute called ‘Vidarbha Infotech’ in 2010.