"Hey, What is ICHCHHA?"
ICHCHHA translates to desire. It defines the spirit that holds the organization together. It is the desire to learn, explore and grow. It is the desire to look within and change oneself. ICHCHHA is a community filled with change makers who constantly make the choice to be, and do more.
Our community consists of the students that the organisation stands to serve, the youth force that executes this dream and the families that support their dreams and aspirations. We are constantly learning and making memories together.
We are a family that makes mistakes, but never gives up on a better tomorrow. ❤️
"That's beautiful. What is the story, though?"
Back in 2016, fresh out of college, the Founder, Poorvaja Sundar had an idea to teach entrepreneurship to underprivileged students. She wanted to teach business concepts in fun ways that would be practical and easy to implement. ICHCHHA was born soon after. We started out with 1 school and 10 students as part of the pilot project. We were able to sell our products as part of a corporate gifting initiative and raised INR 35,000.
Post which, we also successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign for more than INR 1,00,000 by selling a range of stationery products named ‘Bachpan’.
In 2017, post a lot of brainstorming sessions, ICHCHHA realized in its 1 year of the pilot that for the students to absorb ‘Entrepreneurship’, a solid backing of academic knowledge is equally necessary. Hence, we began our journey toward providing holistic education to every child. This not only included academic know-how, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills but also exposure to competitions, workshops, events and so on.
We have also built a completely youth-based structure wherein every youth member who joins ICHCHHA stands to gain volunteer as well as leadership experience. This is also a great opportunity for the students of ICHCHHA to learn from peers and be inspired to push beyond their own limits.
"Woah, that's inspiring. What's next for ICHCHHA?"
/* Edit /Our Mission is to provide holistic education to every child through a youth-led movement.
Our Vision is to ensure no child compromises on their dreams and ambitions regardless of their circumstances.
Our Goal is to create a virtuous cycle of giving back. Our aim is that our very own students should grow to become self-sustainable leaders who come back to serve the organization or the community as a whole.
We hope to create a youth-led moment towards contributing to the education of the underprivileged by focusing on holistic development. /*Edit/
"Impressive! Who are your stakeholders?"
Students
ICHCHHA caters to students in the age group of 12-15 (7th grade to 10th grade) who study in Municipal schools and who belong to socially backward communities. Some of them, to extremely harsh backgrounds as well. The children you see living by the railway station and bathing in the downpour? Yes, they’re our family. They’re the heartbeat of the organization, driving and pushing everybody else to keep achieving. They’re indeed our biggest success and ICHCHHA is blessed to serve them.
Parents
ICHCHHA wishes to uplift the families of the students and aspires to exist as a support system that every associated member could possibly fall back on. By way of regular meetings with the parents, the team intends to dwell into their life stories and daily struggles and extend a hand in any way possible. Right from the recruitment of a father to save the family from going back to the village to encouraging the education of a girl child in an orthodox family. We’re there for them. We’re there for the greater good. We’re there as a support system.
Changemakers
ICHCHHA is a youth run organisation and deeply believes in the growth and development of all the change makers associated with the organization. For every academic year to be successful, the organization shouldn’t have focused only on the holistic development of the students but also added to the skill set and memory bucket of the change makers.