Problem & Solution
The problem
Globalisation is making only a minority wealthy in developing nations such as India, and in fact leads to greater hardship for the poor whose income does not keep pace with rising food prices. Forty per cent of the world's poor live in India, struggling to put two meals on the table each day. For them there is always deep recession, and to them the West is not in recession at all.
How can we ensure that the underprivileged do not go on being excluded from opportunities to escape from poverty and be empowered to develop their own family-supporting income?
This web site introduces one way that is already opening up new vistas for the poor.
The solution
Switched On is successfully teaching youth, children and adults computers and English - skills that lead directly to employment and lift families out of the poverty trap. We offer mercy by enabling the downtrodden to cross the digital and language divides so they can actually benefit from industrialisation.
Switched On has a proven, high success rate with 40% of youth achieving an income three to six times higher after just a one hundred hour computer course, and we are continually and creatively working to improve our courses and employment results. We are also striving towards the long-term "Holy Grail" of our centres becoming financially self-sustaining so they can be multiplied many times over with minimal dependency on further donations.
We want to support the Indian Government's aim to remove prejudice based on caste (class) by empowering the socially underprivileged to excel. Just as Mahatma Gandhi was inspired by ancient wisdom to correct social diseases and dream of a better India, we plan to teach good ethics towards work-attitude and integrity.
Switched On currently runs two centres. The first trains over a hundred underprivileged children and youth in basic computer skills. The other teaches English to a community of heart-breakingly poor Christian Burmese refugees who have fled cruel religious persecution. There are currently 40 studying our course. The Newboulds will soon be going to north-east India to live and further the work of Switched On, having been invited by the top level of Indian government to help develop ten Government-funded computer centres in needy areas. Through close collaboration with a local University and industry, and trialling new approaches, we expect to develop centres that will have high impact for the benefit of thousands of families.
About Switched On (International)
Switched On is a UK-based charity, headed up by four trustees and a secretary who together have backgrounds in IT, banking, law and overseas development work. They are supported by a growing team of IT experts with specialisations in hardware and software, who themselves work in leading-edge, tech companies. Switched On has numerous associations with organisations working "on the ground" in local development projects. Through these groups, Switched On is able to tailor its systems appropriately to the context of local communities.
How you can help
We continue to encourage contributions from individuals who commit energy, expertise and giving. So that the vision can reach its potential, however, it is imperative that we have at our disposal much greater financial resources and so we seek, in addition, the support of individuals, grant making trusts and businesses.