Magic bus

Supported by: Wipro Cares

About Magic Bus

From 3000 children in 1999 in Mumbai, Magic Bus has transformed the lives of over one million children and young people living in poverty, taking them from a childhood full of challenges to a life with meaningful livelihoods. Magic Bus is one of the largest poverty alleviation programs in India, impacting 4,00,000 children and 35,000 young people in 23 states and 81 districts. We deliver sessions in close to 1,363 schools and in 1,961 communities.

It is one of the largest implementation NGOs. It has 10,000 motivated and trained staff and volunteers on the ground and had frontline staff residing in affected communities with a high level of trust. It has a strong management team and technology-enabled transparent processes. Teams work closely with government functionaries, panchayats, and local stakeholders.

Since the Livelihood program began in 2015, we have over 45 livelihood skilling centers and 7 entrepreneurship incubation centers in high-need strategic locations in India. Through these livelihood centers, more than 35,000 young men and women have been trained and more than 70% placed in jobs in the organized sector with an average salary of INR 12,000.

Locations

Magic Bus also works in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar with 8,912 children in 40 communities and 31 schools. We have networking and fundraising offices in the US, UK, Singapore, and Germany.

Magic Bus’s COVID-19 Response: Magic Bus has raised funds For COVID-Relief and Recovery program with support from corporates and intuitional funders. However, at the same time, some funders have curtailed CSR funding. This has affected Magic Bus by making it difficult to manage the backend and program staff. Around 10% of the staff (managers and above) have had salary cuts, in order to balance out this situation.

Magic Bus Core team quickly put together a program to adapt to the situation on field and reached out to CSR and Intuitional funders to support the ask.

1. 1. COVID Awareness and Prevention program & Relief program – distribution of ration kits, sanitizer and masks across India to underprivileged and needy households (62,509 households, further providing 21.1 million meals) and some PPE kits and sanitizers to healthcare providers.
   2. COVID Rapid Recovery program in Urban and Rural India to ensure income for out of work, returnee migrants, women, adults and youth.
      1. Recouping lost income of the underprivileged households who have lost more than 60% of income due to COVID-19 lockdown-induced instability, restoration of income in families to pre-COVID levels over 24 months – thereby, preventing them from slipping into deep poverty.
      2.  Preventing school dropouts, ensuring children have the intent to continue and complete their education – thus, ensuring regularity in attending school of children from the existing above-mentioned households
   3. Build social capital in the targeted intervention so that the institutions become resilient to the imparted families

   Due to lockdown, schools have been closed and transportation facilities are not available. At the rural level, village authorities too have restricted movement of villagers. Many do not have access to Android phones, and in some villages, internet connectivity is intermittent.

   Magic Bus adapted to this new normal. The curriculum and activity sessions were delivered with a mix of WhatsApp and physical face-to-face sessions to reach out to the children, parents, headmaster, teachers, and PRI in the communities.

   Other Programs

   Adolescent Program: Virtual sessions and small group sessions are being held for adolescents in Bangalore, through the WIPRO Cares partnership with Magic Bus India Foundation in supporting educational programs to empower 800 marginalized children studying in the government schools, around the Devanahalli, Karnataka, implemented by the 1 TMO and 3 youth mentors in the community. The team is able to reach out to mixed groups via WhatsApp, Zoom, WebEx, Google calls etc.

   Youth Skilling: Youth having access to Android phones are enrolled in the batches. Alumni groups are supporting mobilization of the youth. Batches and sessions are organized as per targets set by the adapted Virtual Curriculum. Some youths have been placed in jobs; few have received appointment letters and would join as soon as the situation gets better. The team has built a robust list of jobs available with employers in the market. They are ready to place youth as soon as the market opens. There are limited work-from-home jobs available.