United Villages Children’s Foundation: Empowering Communities with Corporate Partnerships

The United Villages Children’s Foundation’s (UVCF) Gram Bhavishya Yojana (GBY) program focused on holistic child development and protection in semi-rural areas of India by empowering local communities. Through participating in the United Nations Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) program, GBY aimed to provide safe and accessible toilets in schools in an effort to increase student enrolment. A UVCF volunteer program officer assigned to assess the program’s impact learned that a key issue was that although corporations funded the construction of these toilets, they did not maintain them. The resultant unsanitary conditions led to declining enrolment, particularly by female students. With the objective of scaling the GBY initiative, the volunteer wanted to learn whether mutually beneficial partnerships with corporations could fund WASH infrastructure maintenance and ensure its long-term sustainability, while also supporting those companies in meeting their government-mandated corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environment, social, and governance (ESG) requirements. She also considered whether UVCF should explore alternative funding mechanisms, such as government grants or social impact bonds, to support ongoing maintenance.