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Through education and community development, Villy Doctor has been changing lives in rural India
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Kubbra Sait, actor, host & writer |
For over two decades, Bandra resident Villy Doctor has been on a mission to break the generational cycle of poverty in the villages of India. In 2002, she founded Light of Life Trust (LOLT) with this aim and has been transforming lives of underprivileged rural communities in five states.
“Children are suffering today because of lack of education and opportunities to grow and develop themselves. We visualise that in the villages when we have education for the secondary level, then they will be able to complete the board exams and pursue a career,” explains Doctor.
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Light of Life Trust's work started with just about 25 children in Karjat, and today has benefitted 6,00,000 kids |
The NGO’s work helps rural children to pursue education and pick a profession according to their aptitude, abilities and interests, creating sustenance for themselves as well as for the family. The aim is to move rural families away from living under the poverty line.
LOLT’s work started with just about 25 children in Karjat, and today has benefitted 6,00,000 kids in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha. With two main verticals, Anando and Jagruti, the NGO has helped rural people with education and made them independent.
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Farmers were gifted fruit-bearing saplings that help generate a substantial income |
“Through project Jagruti, we have helped create empowered communities with children who are trained in vocational skills as well as life skills,” explains the founder and managing trustee.
Their Anando project is all about the joy of education. It gives children educational possibilities after class eight, which is when most students drop out. “They are reinstated back into the programme, and they continue till they complete the 10th standard board exam,” she explains. Post that they are guided with a particular profession or a skill training programme and are nurtured to continue, enabling them to become salary-earning professionals.
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Education has been the most important element of the NGO's work |
Project Jagruti focuses on development and empowerment of the communities in the villages of India. “The word Jagruti means awakening, and this is exactly an awakening that is needed in rural India. So we have life skill training and vocational training programmes like computers, tailoring, sewing, beauticians’ training, auto repairs, air conditioning repairs, etc. These are relevant and useful in rural India,” explains Doctor.
The NGO provides mobile medical vans at several locations that move around the villages creating a doorstep health service, a useful intervention in villages where people walk miles to reach a clinic or a hospital.
Over the years, Doctor realised that there is also another way to make the villagers self-sufficient, which is by aiding them in farming. “The existing produce was suboptimal and so we shared newer information and techniques and gifted them fruit-bearing saplings that help generate a substantial income,” she explains, adding that 6,000 farmers have benefited from this.
All of this work has reached deep in the rural pockets through hundreds of centres and has improved the lives of lakhs of people.
Kubbra Sait, actor, host and writer, shares, “What stands out for me is the effort and energy that Villy Doctor personally puts in along with her entire unit who does seva with the focus on education, teaching people life skills, teaching people skillful work. Her work not only has enabled rural people to get educated, but has also equipped them with life skills, which ensures sustainable livelihoods. Her work has ensured that not just individuals, but also their families benefit and grow, giving them an opportunity to live an empowered life that they hadn’t imagined.”
