Santosh is a student in 11th standard of the Govt Junior High School in Mamura village of Gautam Budhha Nagar in Noida. While he was still a young boy of 13 years of age, he got addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. However, his life took an unexpected turn for positive when he came in contact with the Nayee Roshni program run by Moser Baer Trust in his school. He reluctantly became a part of the program and gradually moved towards the path of transformation.

Today, as he sits in his school wearing a white t-shirt and cap with logo of Moser Baer Trust on it, he has a bright smile on his face and a composed attitude as he speaks. Santosh proudly narrates that he had quit all the bad habits that he was addicted to in last few years and now feels like a better person.

“My parents did not know about my addiction. I joined the course offered by Moser Baer Trust when they started their operations in my school. They taught us life skills like empathy, interpersonal relationship, self-awareness, etc. Gradually, I started turning into a better person. It is because of the positive impact of this program that I could get rid of my bad habits,” he says with a unique calmness in his voice.

The Moser Baer Trust, through its flagship program which began in 2009 and was renamed to YUDAI (Youth Development and Action Initiative) in 2013, has touched lives of more than 1,600 adolescents in a short span of last four years. The program is currently being implemented in four schools of Anuppur District of Madhya Pradesh apart from this.

And the success story of YUDAI initiative in Noida is no less astounding. In the first ever batch itself, 65 students came forward and became a part of the program and the current batch engages 71 students in Mamura village school. Santosh was a part of the first batch of 65 students who engages with YUDAI.

What is YUDAI?

As mentioned above, the initiative aims at instilling life skills in young adolescents and youth between 11 and 18 years of age, through direct engagement in government schools. During the year long duration, the students get an opportunity to explore themselves and learn to engage with their families, society and life-situations in a much more rational manner. This is achieved through sessions and workshops under expert guidance using techniques and activities like art, theatre, sports, etc.

Students are divided in two groups according to their ages, with the first group consisting of those between 11 to 14 years and the second consisting students between 15 to 18 years of age. The training sessions are conducted once a week for each of the groups on Tuesdays and Fridays respectively. These sessions are interspersed with workshops and field visits. In the past four years, the organisation has collaborated with National School of Drama (NSD), PVR and others to provide the students and opportunity to learn beyond the school boundaries. The students are taken out for film screenings and theatre workshops among several other similar engagements.

After completion of one-year training program, the best of the best are chosen to further train their peers. These students, who are called ‘peer leaders’ undergo a training program called ‘training of trainers’ before they begin with their task. Each of these students are also given a stipend of Rs 500 which helps then invest in their studies.

These peer leaders also go on to manage specific tasks like library, sports, etc. With this innovative model in place, Moser Baer Trust and its coordinates take up the role of facilitators while the students, through their own initiative, continue to manage everything in a smooth manner.

This self-ownership motivated these students to a level that they themselves began a six-months self-defense classes for girl students in 2017. Still in its first batch, over 60 girls between the ages of 8 and 15 assemble in school grounds thrice in the week after school hours for the training session. 20-year-old Rahul Kumar, who himself has been trained in Mix Martial Arts at INA, takes out time from his job as a delivery boy to conduct the sessions with the help of three peer leaders.

The training, which began as a student initiative, received support from Moser Baer Trust who have now started giving out stipend to Rahul and his support staff for carrying out the sessions. Eighth class student Nagma, who completed her one year course and is now a peer leader for the group of junior students, also takes out time to learn self-defense from Rahul.

Stories of change

Nagma is the only girl among total nine peer leaders in Mamura Village school this year. A confident and cheerful girl, she also has a lot to say about the one year training she got under YUDAI program. Nagma believes that her grades and class performance have catapulted for better after she underwent one-year training.

“I joined the program when I was in sixth standard. I found it hard to concentrate on my studies and ended up scoring average marks. It is amazing that ever since i became a part of YUDAI, i have now started getting second or third position in the class,” she tells me. When asked if she has also used her self-defense skills on someone yet, Nagma says she tried some moves on boys in her class with a fit of laughter.

Mohd Aslam, in-charge of library and Omprakash, in-charge of sports, have also observed positive changes in their lives following the engagement with YUDAI. They share that they have learned to be sympathetic towards others and have started helping their family members too. All five of these students aim to pursue higher studies and want to achieve something in life.

And the impact is not just limited to current-batch students. The YUDAI programs sustainability is proven from the fact that the student from 2015 batch, Neeraj Bharti, went on to join DS group as an employee and is now planning to take a professional computer course to polish his skills and open better opportunities for himself. Neeraj, who was a 11th class student when he came in contact with YUDAI, feels that he can actively interact and participate in office activities because of the training he receives in one-year under YUDAI program.

The initiative also came as a boon for the girls who are now being empowered because of the equal treatment and training that the receive. Young seventh class students Kumkum and Sakeena have begun to participate in sports like basketball, cricket and football which was earlier restricted only to the boys. The boys and girls are encouraged to participate together in activities which help in further breaking down the taboos and inhibitions among them.

If we look at the data, almost 65 percent of the students who are part of the program are girls. These empowered and aware girls and boys further help in mobilizing more students and taking more initiatives like we saw with the example of self-defense training.

The way forward

The Moser Baer Trust plans to reach out to more students and establish its Samarthya centres in more schools in coming years. Apart from YUDAI, they also run Digital Literacy Program (DLP) in different schools of Noida including the Mamura village school. Under this program, they offer basic to professional computer courses to school students absolutely free of cost adding to their skills.

Established in 2005,  the Moser Baer Trust is working in areas like Youth Development, Health, Education and Livelihood and continues to grow forward.

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Impact-Story is a series on development and CSR interventions leading to some impacts on the ground. If you have a project, innovation or intervention that has changed the lives of a few people or a community, please share a brief note at csr@ngobox.org. Our Team will get back to you after validating the information for a detailed coverage.