Brief History
The Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation or MV Foundation (MVF), a registered Trust, was established in 1981 as a research institution on issues relating to social transformation, in memory of the eminent educationist and historian Prof. Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya in Andhra Pradesh. In 1991, MVF began working actively on the issue of child labor and released the first 30 children from bonded labor in Ranga Reddy district.
M V Foundation also extended its activities to the districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Mahbubnagar, Chittoor, Kadapa, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Anantapur, and Warangal districts of Andhra Pradesh as a direct implementing agency. Currently MVF keeps in touch with the program in all these districts through the Child Rights Protection Forums and offers technical support to them. MVF is gradually shifting its strategy from being a implementing partner to becoming a training and resource center to other NGOs in the country as well as the government. In this capacity it has worked in very diverse states such as Assam, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,Rajasthan West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and so on. It is also providing technical support to NGOs in Africa and Central America through the ‘Stop Child Labour Campaign’.
Approach
MV Foundation’s approach is based on a firm conviction that no child works and that all children in the 5-14 years age group must be in school. In other words it recognizes the inextricable link between the program for universalisation of education and abolition of all forms of child labor. It follows an ‘area-based approach’ as against a target based approach.
It seeks to address the rights of the entire universe of children- both in school and out of school- in the 5-14 years age group in its area of operation. MVF has been actively involved in elimination of child labor through universalisation of education and has so far mainstreamed over 1 million children from work and in to full time formal education till they complete class 10.
Strategy
Over the years it has evolved strategies that can be universally replicable. The Stop Child Labour Campaign, an initiative of Hivos, FNV, SKN, CONCERN and others in Europe, has acknowledged its strategy and has asked it to initiate similar programs in over 10 countries in Africa and Latin America.
Understanding the importance of teachers in every aspect of learning, MVF has also brought over 2500 government school teachers together under the banner of Teachers Forum for Child Rights.
Similarly, some of its strategies notably the Residential Bridge Course Camps which are instruments of change which help in mainstreaming older children, who have been out of the school system for longer periods of time, have been acknowledged and accepted by the Government of India.