Lodha Mentorship programme is a voluntary initiative by Lodha Foundation. As a Lodha associate if you volunteer to become a Mentor, Lodha foundation would connect you to a child, sponsored by the foundation. You would guide & encourage these children to follow their dreams. A little guidance today can help them built a better tomorrow.

Background
Lodha Foundation is the Lodha Group’s arm tasked with fulfilling its core value of ‘We will wholeheartedly contribute to our nation’s communities and its environment’. The foundation has significantly evolved over the last 3 years and is carrying out a vast variety of social works towards this objective. The company is contributing 2% of its annual profits towards the Lodha Foundation’s initiatives, which is one of the highest levels in corporate India. Strongly believing education can play a key role in the upliftment of people and thereby development of the nation, the foundation has initiated a scholarship scheme where the foundation will bear the school fees for over one thousand school children, based on their financial needs and academic performance. Though the foundation undertakes to bear the financial burden of the child, the children that we are trying to help may be some of the neediest in terms of their emotional and mental development. This is why there is a pressing need for the mentoring of such children. What the foundation is looking at is the all round development of the child. This is where the associates of Lodha can play a crucial role in the all round development of the child. By God’s grace, all of us are in a position of relative well being. I am sure we also have had the privilege of growing up in homes where we have experienced the love, encouragement, advise and at times rebuke as well, of our parents and elders in our homes. Thus, the Lodha associates are in a privileged position to bring about a qualitative change in the lives of these children. Most of these children aspire to become someone secure and big in their life. For these children, this is a very big achievement, from where they are to where they can be. Therefore a mentor can play a very crucial role in the lives of these children. Being a mentor doesn’t mean that one has to commit to all their time and energy to the well being and caring of a child. What this would entail is a helping hand to these children in terms of encouragement and motivation, a listening ear or a visit to them, which can make a world of difference to these children.

How it will work?
This is purely a volunteer effort on the part of Lodha associates. A willingness to be involved in such a mentoring role has to be expressed by the Lodha associate. Depending on the positive response by the applicant to the need for mentoring and the willingness of the associate to be involved as such, we would link up a needy child to an associate. Some guidelines that would need to be considered in this regard are:

• The mentoring would be gender linked, i.e. a male child would be linked up to a male associate and a girl child would be linked up to a lady associate.
• It is important to spend time with the mentee initially to know about their dreams, hopes, fears and aspirations. This would help the mentor to relate to the mentee in a very personal way. Later on the mentor could schedule for a regular connect with the mentee which could be once a month or fortnightly. This interaction could be personal visit or a telephone conversation. But it would be important to not to miss out on the personal visits.
• The mentor needs to ensure credibility. The mentee would look up to the mentor as guide, friend and as a role model. In many ways the mentee will try to imitate his/her mentor and therefore it becomes quiteimportant how the mentor presents him/herself. Also as representing the foundation, the mentor would need to protect the interests of the foundation as well in this matter.
• A key emphasis of the interactions between the mentor and the mentee would be the focus on the academic aspects of the mentees. The idea here is to ensure that the child is progressing well in his/her studies. If there are any problems that the child might be facing in this aspect, to find ways and means how best this can be sorted out and solved.
• Visit to a mentee should always be a public affair. The mentor should ensure that the visits to the mentee always happen where the mentee lives and with the prior permission of the house in-charge/parent/ guardian of the mentee. The mentor should avoid bringing the mentee home.
• Giving of gifts is not encouraged because in many cases the fact would be that the mentee live in care homes where other children would also be living. Not to be unfair to the other children living in such care homes, giving gifts to a particular child alone should be avoided.
  In conclusion, the positive role that a mentor can play in the life of a mentee cannot be denied. This role can help in improving the self esteem, the academic results, and the overall development of a child. The benefit from these relationships is also not a one sided one in favour of the mentee. There is also sense of personal gratification to the mentor from this relationship in the understanding that a life can be greatly enhanced as result of the support , love and care extended to these children and also to be a witness to the development of such a child.

Happy mentoring!!
You may please contact Pankaj Vishwakarma at pankaj.vishwakarma@lodhagroup.com to become an active contributor to this program or other activities of the Lodha Foundation.