At just 18 years of age, Beant is no stranger to social work. She got her first taste of it at the age of 11 as an Adolescent Peer Educator, and was hooked! As the primary driver of Ambuja Foundation’s Women Empowerment Programme in her community, Beant is a busy teen – juggling social work duties, studies in Tally, household chores and of course – all important time with friends!

Hem Raj, a 37 year old farmer, faced one big obstacle in his farming enterprise – getting his produce to market! With no road out of his village, the only way to sell goods, was to ‘walk it out’ – loading produce into baskets that they lugged up hills to the nearest bus stand. It was back breaking work and by the time they reached the market, produce was severely damaged.

The women of Bhadrapali mean business. Once restricted to their homes, today every woman in the community is an SHG member, and earns their own income. This ‘women’s movement’ has caused a wave of change, with the women transforming the community into a ‘Model Village’. Juggling a multitude of tasks, these women are a force to be reckoned with!

In Chirawa, Rajasthan, most of the women are bound to their homes, with families bestowing the responsibility for earning an income on the men of the house. But 19-year-old Monu decided to buck the trend by pursuing a career in Food & Beverage.

The young farmers of Una block in Gujarat, are on a mission. They have united in their effort to turn their farming enterprises around, creating new opportunities for their members and enhancing profits along the way, by forming the Dhanvantri Farmer Producer Company.

When 2 auditors from the Government Health & Sanitation Department visited Bharseli in 2020, they made a bee line for the ‘kuccha’ houses - avoiding the ‘pukka’ ones which were sure to have toilets. But they were shocked to find toilets in the kuccha houses too – and that they too were being used.

With an objective to support India’s young generation in obtaining job-relevant skills and livelihoods, Ambuja Foundation has imparted skill training to over 88,000 youth with a placement rate of 76% from rural and semi urban areas across 10 States of India, via its SEDI (Skill and Entrepreneurship Development Institutes).

Vikram Chouhan, Principal at SEDI Udaipur, has a problem on his hands. Hotels across the state have been calling him to fill 500 new jobs in the hospitality sector, and he simply doesn’t have enough trainees to fill the jobs!

Sanjib (name changed) is a long haul truck driver who, like most other truckers across the country, spends an average of 12 hours on the road – driving freight over long distances and spending months at a time on the road. Irregular schedules, long hours, little physical activity, limited access to healthy food on the road, and stress make healthy living a challenge for long-haul truck drivers.

Setting an example of self-reliance, good infrastructure and scenic surroundings, Ambuja Foundation’s adopted core village - Mangi in Chandrapur, Maharashtra - was awarded the R.R Aba Patil Smart Village Award at the district level. Being Open Defecation Free, having a well maintained drainage system, safe drinking water supply, quality road network, 100% vaccination of community members and a widespread ban on plastic, scored brownie points for Mangi to be declared ‘Smart.’

When it comes to community development, the selection of the right ‘Leaders’, can either make or break a project. Ambuja Foundation’s veteran rural development professionals, Ravi Nayse, Vice- President (Skills) and Manov Maity, Area Program Manager have a lot to say on the topic, simply because the success of their work relies upon it, so heavily.

Ravi Nayse, Vice President (Skills) at Ambuja Foundation, has spent over 28 years in the development sector and, in his diverse and varied role at Ambuja Foundation, he has noticed a pattern. One which often sees an ‘exit strategy’ for programs, but where finding an ‘exit strategy’ from a community proves difficult …