Disha
 
Rapid industrialization of the Greater Noida region has brought upon the problems of migration and a lot of underprivileged youths - specially school drop outs, women, people living below the poverty line - do not have any chance of a dignified livelihood because they are not 'employable' and lack the skills required by new economy jobs. A stakeholder dialog with surrounding communities and local authorities threw up livelihoods as the most critical issue facing the region.

Moserbaer Trust in partnership with CAP Foundation and USAID has initiated Disha - a livelihoods programme that is aiming to create 1000 jobs in the region in the current year. Disha's vision is of creating 'Healthy productive young people in the communities that we do business in with special focus on disadvantaged groups.'
 
With this in mind, we first conducted market scans in the region to identify entry level job opportunities and the requisite skill sets required for those, designed curriculum to meet that need which included not only the technical component but also life skills training, basic computers and conversational English.
 
The technical courses currently being offered are
 
1)  Customer Relation & sales
2)  Office Assistant
3)  Hospitality
4)  Call Center Training
5)  Computer Hardware
6)  Desk top Publishing
7)  Information Technology Enabled Service
8)  Microsoft Unlimited Potential
 
The Project that was started in September 2007 has already trained and placed youth from the neighboring communities with a very encouraging results

As on February 2008

Its not just about numbers though, our biggest achievement lies in the way we have been able to touch lives and rehabilitate young people who came from the most disadvantaged sections, in the sparkle in the eyes of our young friends who are now proud contributers to the well being of their families and their dignity as valued members of society