NELLORE: Anjana Rural Development Voluntary Organisation (ARDVO) formally launched a social business model for the first time in the state of Andhra Pradesh, exclusively for visually and physically challenged students.
The ARDVO celebrated its 10th Anniversary at the Town Hall in Nellore. On the occasion, minister for Agriculture Somired-dy Chandramohan Reddy, along with ARDVO found-er B. Siva Kumar and mentor Saatvik Suryajit Korisepati inaugurated the ARDVO’s new website and gave performance and achievement awards to visually and physically challenged members of the organisation who had excelled in various fields.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Siva Kumar said that ARDVO provides food, shelter and educati-on to the needy - visually challenged, physically challenged and orphans from most financially disadvantaged sections of the society. At present, the organisation is grooming and nurturing 30 such children. 27 of its former visually challenged students are well settled in jobs in public and private sectors.
Explaining about the social business model, which was launched on the occasion, Saatvik mentioned that through this social business model, ARDVO invests up to Rs 50,000 per visually challenged and physically challenged students to train and impart necessary skills related to formal communication and computer operations.
“ARDVO trains them as per the exact skill requirements of private and public sectororganisations, thereby enabling them to get regular jobs. After getting the job, these students willingly take a pledge to pay back a total amount that is 1.5 times the invested quantity in small monthly installments, which will be fully invested back in this social business project of ARDVO to provide an opportunity to more such disadvantaged students. In this manner, the social business model will be self-sustaining and will grow by leaps and bounds”, he maintained.
