Integrated development for youth and adults

The story of VIDYA started in 1985 when its founder, Rashmi Misra opened her home to educate five young girls whose parents couldn’t afford to send them to school. 26 years later, VIDYA has touched the lives of approximately reached children, youth and women of over 2,00,000 families from the poorest communities of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Goa.

The journey of VIDYA is a story of people giving back to people. VIDYA today is a movement of social change that focuses on seeing every less privileged child gets a sound education, every youth achieve his dream and every women be empowered to act as an equal citizen.

The VIDYA culture is to give, help, empower, build confidence and see the positive in every challenge. Our effort is to provide a holistic integrated education and to empower our students to take back the learning to their family and community to treble its effect. For instance, in our English learning program, the students are also required to train in Computers and Life Skills and are in turn expected to hold lessons for their mothers in the evenings. Our NIOS programmes helps drop out youths to dream bigger and provides them with the tools required to become into the leaders of tomorrow. The potential of our women is boundless – they come to learn but became entrepreneurs, highly skilled, educated, aware and very confident. VIDYA has truly transformed the communities that it works in.

The dedication and sincerity of the VIDYA teams is the reason for its success. The name VIDYA has grown to be synonymous with stories of incredible transformation and our wide spectrum of integrated programmes clearly speaks our mission, which is to educate, empower and bring social change. "To be a significant force of change for India’s less privileged." To educate and empower the less privileged through integrated methods and to initiate and implement progressive social change. VIDYA activities can broadly be divided into 2 main areas:

-  Education and
-  Empowerment

VIDYA’s approach to Education is to offer a holistic all round development programme that covers pre-schools, primary schools from classes Nursery to V and a senior secondary education for drop-out youth to prepare them for further study or a vocation.

VIDYA has built a role-model School, the VIDYA School, in Gurgaon, to provide the less privileged children the opportunity to attend the best universities in the country including the IIT’s. The School is an embodiment of all the values that VIDYA believes in and stands tall with 75,000 square feet of covered area on 5 acres of land in DLF Phase III. It offers the children day-boarding facilities with the best possibilities of an all round education. Our commitment is to make this VIDYA School a centre of excellence.

For young girls, youth and women VIDYA conducts several programmes in rehabiliated communities that empower and build capacity, covering an integrated development in education, awareness, Health, Skill Training, Micro-Enterprise, Income Generation programmes and Vocational Training.