India
The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India office opened in 2006. Our efforts focus on urban programs that improve education and health, and efforts to improve family economic stability through creative applications of microfinance. We work in target six major cities with 18 million urban slum inhabitants, including some 7 million children.
The goal of our work in India is twofold: We’re seeking immediate positive impact on individual children’s lives, and we’re also working to ensure that our investments support organizations capable of scaling their reach and sustaining their operations over time.
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India: Education
From early childhood through adolescence, impoverished school children in India face educational hurdles including poor attendance, high drop-out rates and radically uneven school quality. To help these children achieve the educations and skills that will enable them to break out of poverty, we fund large-scale interventions that:
- Help students achieve grade-specific learning levels through in-school and after-school academic support
- Promote better teaching processes, improved leadership and teacher capabilities, and more sustainable school operations
- Provide employable skills development and training
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India: Health
Millions of Indian kids dwell in urban slums that lack clean water, sanitation and access to basic health services. Malnutrition and other preventable health issues are common. To combat these issues, we support community and school-based health interventions in cities nationwide, working to create replicable sustainable programs that reach as many children as possible. We also work to apply innovative microfinance tools to improve access to basic water and sanitation services and infrastructure to improve the health of urban slum dwellers.
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India: Family Economic Stability Through Microfinance
We view microfinance as a tool that can help mitigate the instability that underprivileged Indian children face day-to-day. To promote family economic stability in India’s impoverished slums, we have committed more than $25 million in grants and equity investments to urban microfinance institutions (MFIs) working in urban neighborhoods. Our work in this area follows several tracks:
- We collaborate with MFIs to responsibly scale a range of services.
- We support MFI programs that help finance basic infrastructure services such as water and sanitation.
- We support the ongoing global initiative to identify rigorous methodologies and standardized metrics for evaluating the success of MFI programs in terms of both their financial and social performance.