Testament20230418

Prasad Yalamanchili Foundation

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Contents

The Prasad Yalmanchili Foundation design, supports and implements philanthropic efforts aimed at generating immediate and long-lasting tangible benefits.

Foreword

The goal of our philanthropic efforts is straightforward: to help the less fortunate in an effective and long-lasting manner.

Since the early 2000’s, we have supported a wide range of philanthropic efforts in India, from vocational training to rural village latrine construction. And the common factor in these efforts is a high certainty that the intended benefit reaches the intended beneficiary.

Finding, evaluating and supporting these these projects has not been easy: while most philanthropic efforts are well-intenioned, their ability to achieve the desired goal over a period of time is a rarity. To us, providing financial support to projects with low ex-ante success rates means depriving potentially better projects of needed funds.

This has required us to become deeply involved in most of our projects - not just as financial supporters, but also as project designers and implementers. We are a small organization, but our diverse professional backgrounds and life experiences have allowed us to achieve some measurable good.

Our efforts have focused first-most on improving the well-being of women. We believe strongly that Inequality is still pervasive inspite of immense economic and technological progress. And we feel that it is our duty to try to move society in the right direction. Our philanthropy to date has delivered positive change, but there is still much work for us ahead.

Opportunity

Opportunity

As India’s economy was taking off in the 2000s, we identified an opportunity for women without extensive education to participate in this growth. We saw a dearth in textile products to meet growing consumer demands and widening tastes. And we knew that equipped with the proper skills, determined entrepreneurs could fill this gap with their own products.

In 2008, we designed, funded and implemented our first vocational training program in the Vijayawada environs. The course is open to women of all backgrounds and teaches them a broad set of tailoring and embroidering skills - both by hand and with a sewing machine.

At the completion of the course, they receive a certificate that confirms their qualifications. This certificate not only enables them to seek employment as a seamstress, but it can also be used as collateral for a bank loan to obtain their own sewing machine. The location of our training program changes every year, in order to prevent each local labor and product market from becoming oversaturated.

Over the past 15 years, our program has trained over 1,500 women. The impact on participants has been life-changing: the combination of learned skill and access to a sewing machine has enabled our participants to boost their standard of living both immediately and significantly.

Equally important, their income and entrepreneurial endeavors have raised their status within their families, as family members see their potential realized. Not only has enhanced income generation improved their standing vis-a-vis male family members, but the process of learning and applying a skill has also motivated their children to apply themselves in school.

One girl from Katur was in tears while telling that, she refused any marriage proposal till she could stand on her own legs before the marriage. This program gave her confidence for livelihood and need not depend on her husband, who is not sure how much he will take care of her and children.

Sanitation

Sanitation

In 2014, we were approached by Gitam University to provide financial and technical support for a latrine sanitation project in the Medak district.

We fully funded the initial pilot to test a novel enzyme process that convert human excreta into water and organic minerals.

The strength of this design is that enabled safe latrine deployment in rural areas that lack capital to implement extensive sewere infrastructure.

The pilot project was well received. And the pragmatic latrine design and our ability to construct safe enclosed latrines in an efficient manner garnered the attention of the provincial government of Telangana. They decided to partner with us and subsidize the next phase of the project. Over the next few years, we deployed over 3,500 latrines across almost 40 villages in the rural environs of Hyderabad.

We take access to latrines as granted and rarely think about the value of this benefit. In rural India, having one’s own latrine is an immense status symbol for several reasons. Firstly, access to latrines in the home signficantly increases public safety for women. To us, this might be the most important benefit of all. cant benefit for the entire community.

Secondly, there are signficant time savings of not having to walk to a public latrine - time that can be reallocated to more productive uses. Thirdly, less dependence on public latrines reduces the spread of disease, especially deadly infant diarrhea. Similarly, less open defecation results in less contamination of drinking water, which is a significant benefit for the entire community.

Women and girls face shame, loss of personal dignity and risk their safety when there is no toilet at home. They have to wait for nightfall to relieve themselves in privacy. Guaranteed private access = personal safety and dignity.

Health

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