Empower Young Rural Women with Vocational Training

Since 2011, Muni Seva Ashram has been running the Vocational Training Centre where more than 3000 girls have been trained as Nursing Assitants and placed in various hospitals and clinics across Gujarat, an affluent state of India.

This is a residential campus providing skills traiing in holistic manner.  Each student is trained with tender loving care.

The following is only a partial list of the "All inclusive"  support to each and every student.

* Yogasan, Value Education
* Medical - (Vaccination, Haemoglobin, Sickle Cell Testing & Treatment)
* Life Skills (Menstrual Hygiene, Financial Literacy, Debates)
* English, Computers Classes
* Personality Development Class
* Interviewing Skills
* Job Placement & Followup

Recently one of the alumnus, Kerri (name changed to protect identity) send us a video.  This short video speaks volumes.  Kerri speaks in her native language, Gujarati.  English captions have been added so that her story can be conveyed to you all, who have been supporting centre since its inception 11 years ago.

When Kerri arrived, she used to get frequent seizures.  She was treated at the MSA's hospital - Kaliash Cancer Hospital and Research Centre.  More importantly, she gained the self-confidence which she so sorely lacked.  After her training, Kerri was given a placement at a Doctor's clinic in Vadodara, Gujarat.

She left the centre with new enthusissam, new zeal for life.

 You enable thousands of girls like Kerry to stand up on their feet and face the world.  Thank you.

Links:

• Kerri's Testimonial
• MSA-VTC Website

Muni Seva Ashram (MSA) is a not-for-profit that works tirelessly for the upliftment of the rural students to improve socio-economic conditions and providing high-quality employment by providing training in hands-on skills such as Nursing Assistant, OT Assistant, Phlebotomy Assistant etc.

We have trained 2934 students till November 2021. On November 7, 95 girls joined the 6-month residential training program.  This brought the total number of students currently being trained at the centre to 166. 

Just hands-on-skills are not enough to survive & flourish in today's ultra competitive environment.  To this end, the centre has dedicated daily 1 hour for personality development classes and every Saturday afternoon for imparting soft skills during which seminars and workshop are held for emotional balance, personality development, social skills, career counseling etc.

Financial literacy is the foundation of our relationship with money, as it is a lifelong journey of learning. The earlier you start, the better off you will be because education is the key to success.  Just earning is not enough, managing finances is at the heart of material well-being.

On 11th December 2021, Saturday, a workshop was held on Financial Literacy. Speakers were invited from ICICI Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of one of the largest commercial, banks in India.

Mr. Kamal Makwana, the Central Head/Centre-in-charge of the Vadodara ICICI Foundation and his colleague held the two-hour workshop.  The students learnt to manage their personal financial & management responsibilities, budgeting & basic savings, investing techniques, government schemes, risks & rewards and online transactions.

Links:

• Search Muni Sewa Ashram on Google/Click Here

As the second Pandemic wave hit India like a tsunami, hospitals ran out of Oxygen, ICU beds, and healthcare workers.  Our Vocational Training Centre trains rural youth to become frontline health workers.  For the past 14 months, they have been working at city hospitals that are overflowing with Corona patients.

These health workers hail from villages and stay in rented rooms in the city.  Typically 4 or 5 stay in a room.  When one of them gets infected with COVID, she has very few options.  She can not continue staying in the shared room, nor can she return back to her village where the entire family lives in a hut.

The VTC has set a standard to provide hand-holding support for 12-18 months after training completion.  We have decided to provide these girls complete support while they recover.

Here is the story of Karena (name changed to protect privacy), one of our Corona warriors.  After finishing training at our Training center she was placed at a well-known hospital in Vadodara. She had been working there for a year and a half.  She started showing symptoms on 20th April and asked the doctor for a leave.  The doctor didn’t even have the courtesy of paying for the RT-PCR test. On the 24th she paid 20% of her monthly salary to get tested.  It came positive.  She called her doctor for help.  The doctor denied it and told her to go to her home.  The doctor didn't even think how a Corona-positive patient could travel hundreds of miles to go to a rural village.

In a panic, she called us. We dispatched an ambulance the same day and provided her with isolation, shelter, food, and medical treatment - all at our cost.  We have many girls like Karena needing mental, emotional, physical & financial support.  We are so happy to lend them a helping hand.  It is indeed your donation that is making it happen. 

Thank you.

Muni Seva Ashram (MSA) has started Vocation Training Programmes (MSA-VTC) in 2011 as PPP (Public-Private Partnership) programme of Gujarat State Government. There were 15 courses were approved out of which MSA VTC started training related to Health care sector -  like  Bedside Assistant, Multi-Purpose Health Worker, Lab Assistant, BPO Assistant, Doctor’s Office / Admin Assistant, OT Assistant, Dialysis Assistant started in its existing facility of hospital KCHRC (Kailash Cancer Hospital & Research Centre). MSA-VTC has trained a total of 2583number of students till date in the healthcare vocation. 

Now MSA is on the cusp of entering the second, very exciting phase, that is, the start of its new campus where it will offer vocational training in Industry & Agriculture -Relevant courses apart from the health care sector. 

The new campus will feature co-ed residential facilities for over 400 students, 36 staff quarters and will have modern training facilities including classrooms, computer rooms, conference halls, workshops and laboratories for different vocations. 

The new facilities will allow introducing ~35 new vocational courses in four new sectors - Agriculture, Renewable Energy, Manufacturing and Construction. Most of the courses would be designed as per Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY2) guidelines. The new campus will allow ramping up the enrollment rate from ~260 students per year to ~1,200. Thus MSA will be able to train additional 6000+ students in the next 5 years.

Links:

• Virtual tour of New Campus

It is a proud moment for the Vocational Training Center (MSA-VTC) near Vadodara, Gujarat and all its supporters and donors across the world.

COVID pandemic has turned our world upside down and a little corner of India is no exception.  Ahmedabad, a large city in India has reported thousands of COVID infections and deaths.  The city was declared total lock-down with a curfew for the entire city.

Gujarat senior health secretary requested to send MSA-VTC trained students to help/support the medical staff and youth to volunteer to work at the government civil hospital in Ahmedabad.

The medical staff would provide necessary training, i.e::

• Maintain personal Care &  Hygiene
• Use of personal protective gear
• How to treat Covid-19 positive patients.

18 students were ready to serve as a volunteer at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital within the notice of 24 hours.   We were really proud to have these students who have shown courage and tried to work. 

Out of these 18 students 17 have tried for a week and came back but one student has completed an internship for a month & still working as COVID warrior in Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and earning 18,000/- month.