Empowering Communities, Scaling Impact
It has been a remarkable yet difficult journey for Anjlee Prakash. As she went about giving underserved communities access to a learning environment that accepts diversity, nurtures creativity and builds an ability to shape one’s future, it took her two decades to scale her initiative to 1,400 committed employees from 10 members in 2002. "Since inception, we have empowered 1.8 million students, 2.2 million teachers, 6.8 million community members and became a member of global consultative groups," she says.
While it is still challenging for many companies to scale up sustainably, Learning Links Foundation has overcome this by demonstrating evidence-based change, winning government buy-in, adopting data-backed approaches to deliver impact, and leveraging this success to seek funding for expansion. One of the company's programmes, which was launched in 30 schools of a Tamil Nadu district in 2016, is now operating in five states, impacting over 1,000 schools.
The visibility and social impact become evident when a foundation secures funds from top companies. “Our primary funding source is grants, and our main investors include Ashok Leyland, Amazon Development Centre (India), and Dell Technologies,” says Prakash. Prakash started this foundation with a vision to create a visible impact. Today, more than 90 per cent of teachers in intervention schools have demonstrated higher teaching efficiency in their classroom practices.
Additionally, approximately 75 per cent of skilling programme trainees have found employment or are pursuing further education in areas of their interest. Furthermore, the foundation has empowered over 13 million beneficiaries with financial literacy skills across 19 states in the country.
