Fourth Wave Foundation
We believe that the best way to safeguard the next generation is to understand and protect the rights that they have as children - the most important of them being their right to a safe and healthy childhood. We all know that as a family and as a community, we are primarily responsible for the choices that our children make. So, if we can bring inclusion and the true spirit of community living into our lives, our children will start creating a much better world for everyone to live in.
What is inclusion? It was Rabindranath Tagore who said it best: inclusion is not to wipe out the differences, but to unite, with the differences intact. And this is exactly what we've done in Karnataka. Our project Schools Where All Belong and its philosophy of inclusion enabled us to educate and mainstream over 60,000 children with disabilities into regular government schools.
What is the true spirit of community living? We're certain that you've heard of this African proverb: it takes a village to raise a child. Somewhere along the way, we became highly "nuclear" families. And the pandemic forced us to become islands. In today's unbelievably networked, complex and "socially-distanced" world, substance use and abuse has hit an all-time high. Today, Kerala is second only to Punjab when it comes to drug use, abuse, and addiction. We believe that the only way to tackle this menace is by activating the spirit of community living, wherein everyone works jointly to and implement the solution, which inevitably lies within the community. Through our project VENDA, we’ve proven this in many villages in Kerala, by providing the right direction and sustained support.
All our projects – Schools Where All Belong, VENDA, Cradle To School and never-the-less – advocate inclusion and safeguard the rights as well as the mental and physical health of children up to the age of eighteen.
Fourth Wave Foundation already meets nine of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals laid out by the United Nations for 2030.
Our key guiding principles: Evidence Based Solutions | Systemic Change | Community Ownership | Bottom-up Approach | Stakeholder Collaborations | Focus on Education, Empowerment, Diversity & Inclusion.
Do take a look at our projects and work with us to educate and empower children.