When Hari Singh was just 16 years old, he lost his hand in a fodder chopping machine. It took his parents almost 1.5 hours to reach the nearest hospital on their only vehicle – a tractor! But the gentle Hari is far from bitter about it. Despite his challenges, he has become a passionate advocate of organic farming - dedicating his life to educating farmers about it.

Something different is afoot in Gir Somnath. An area prone to salinity and water scarcity, villagers across 15 villages have come together with Ambuja Foundation to enhance their water literacy and security.

Rural India accounts for nearly 69% of the total population, yet only has 26% of total hospital beds and 33% of total healthcare professionals. A popular way in the past to address this vast need, whilst ensuring last mile reach, was the Mobile Medical Van (MVM) model – with both the government, and private NGOs like ACF, running MVM programs to tackle pressing rural health needs.

Navjot Singh is a much-loved personality around the streets of Alampur, where he is seen daily delivering goods on his cycle rickshaw. People fondly refer to him as ‘Navjot Cycle Rickshaw Walla.’ But this was not always the case. When he was born with intellectual disability and bilateral claw hand and foot deformity, local people shied away – speaking in hushed tones they would say hurtful comments like ‘what a burden for the family!’ and ‘how can they manage with his behaviour?’

Villagers of Arjuni live nestled on the fringes of the Barnawapara forest and are primarily Adivasi tribals – relying on the gifts of the forest for their livelihoods. Here, the primary source of income is found in weaving traditional bamboo products – baskets, brooms, fans and other household utility and decorative items.

India is considered to be a county with the highest number of youth in the world! *As of 2022, India had more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. This means that India has the largest number of millennials and gen Z on the planet today.

Ambuja Foundation was invited by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to showcase its work on Women Empowerment at the G20 Ministerial Conference on Women Empowerment, held in Gandhinagar, Gujarat from 2-4th August 2023.

On the occasion of World Youth Skills Day, held on 17th July every year, ACF’s SEDI team organized a virtual event showcasing rural youth who are first generation skilled workers in their family.

Ambuja Foundation’s SEDI Chandrapur won the Best ITI Award under the Nagpur division awarded by the Department of Skill, Employment, Entrepreneurship & Innovation. There are over 870 ITIs part of the Nagpur division, out of which SEDI Chandrapur was the only one to win the award as a Private ITI.

AMK’s Priya Devi has done India proud, winning a silver medal in Basketball at the World Special Olympics in Berlin, Germany!

“What it is that I like about collaborating with Ambuja Foundation? They are hungry for more! They are agile and flexible, and we both share our hunger to do things differently and aspire for more.”

Given the multidimensionality of poverty, a combination of well thought-out interventions is required to address the many interconnected challenges related to development. Complex interventions are increasingly being implemented in the area of livelihood creation, rural development and community health as a means to jointly address the holistic development of the population involved.