Bhubaneswar: Odisha-based social development organisation- AJSA (Anchalik Jana Seva Anusthan) received the National Level Spirit of Humanity (SOH) Award for Education Category in Mumbai.
The SOH award recognizes organisations whose work has already had a significant impact on some of the world’s most pressing problems and who are committed to acting as critical catalysts of transformational social change.
Spirit of Humanity follows a stringent 3-step evaluation process in order to identify the Best-in-class NGOs from across the country.
Thought leaders from corporate, government, academia, social and CSR sectors unite at Spirit of Humanity for rendering their knowledge & expertise in evaluating the social impact created by participating organizations and they choose the best of the best NGOs in 5 different categories including Child Care, Education, health, women’s empowerment and social impact.
“We are honoured to win both the National Level and Regional Level Spirit of Humanity Award 2022. Since the last many years, AJSA has been working relentlessly, impacting the lives of more than 1 lakh children and young people. It is truly thrilling and gratifying when our efforts and initiatives get recognised. It is recognition of the hard work put in by all the stakeholders within the organization and our supporters”, says Manoranjan Behera, honorary Director of AJSA.
While speaking about the award Pooja Srivastava Divisional Legal Manager of Stock Holding Corporation said our association with AJSA is since 2015 and it has been a fruitful journey.
I am extremely proud of our work and the children of AJSA and we are thankful to the dedicated barefoot teachers and team members of AJSA for all the incredible work they have been doing, she added.
It is noted that- AJSA has been working for more than 3000 tribal girl children, school dropouts, child labourers and education-deprived children in the tribal hinterlands of Kandhamal, Kalahandi and Bolangir districts of Odisha and providing basic primary education in a bilingual and joyful learning process at 30 Bridge schools cum Children Learning and Development Centres (CLDCs).
Through the help of Village Education committees AJSA has also created 40 Child labour free, Child Sexual Abuse free and Child Marriage village free villages and educated over 10,000 children and menstrual hygiene and child rights.
During COVID AJSA has reached to the children through innovative initiatives like Cycle Libraries, awareness drives, psychosocial counselling support and provided education facilities by maintaining COVID-appropriate behaviours in difficult-to-reach areas.
Currently, AJSA is also directly working with over 2 lakhs people through its different development initiatives and community-based sustainable models on Sustainable Livelihood, Gender Equity, Education, Health, Disaster Risk Reduction and to drive climate action, democracy and civic engagement.
The 11th edition of Spirit of Humanity concluded with a grand finale held recently at Mumbai.
The event was attended by more than 2000 corporate leaders and representatives from Government, NGOs, think tanks, academic and research-based institutions.
The event recognized 16 regional winners and awarded 5 National winners, which were shortlisted from over 100 final entries and over two thousand nominations.
The national winners received a prize amount of 1 lakh each, a trophy and a certificate of excellence from thought-leaders and industry experts. Honourees were selected based on their excellence and life-changing work at the grassroots level.
