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Lifting people out of unemployment

SUERGAS Sustainability
Chord, a non-profit based in Hyderabad India, is one of the community projects SHV Energy supports. Chord runs a range of programmes based around empowering people from underprivileged communities through education and training. Its Skill Bharath Programme is a development initiative set up to tackle one of the main causes of unemployment in India: lack of employability.

Skill Bharath operates in five districts, working towards a goal of training 7,000 people in employable skills. In particular, it targets vulnerable young people and school or college drop-outs.

The skills focused on in the programme are computers skills, driving, spoken English, tailoring, textile design, beautician skills and hotel operations. These job-oriented courses boost beneficiaries’ chances of being employed and becoming self-reliant, enabling them to build a better future for themselves. Nalli Surendra, a beneficiary of the Skill Bharath project, shares his experience.

“Every day was a struggle when I worked as a labourer for minimal wages. I lived with a sense of hopelessness and dread. The Skill Bharath Program was the learning experience that changed my life. The Driver’s Training course helped me land a job as a driver in Qatar. I cannot be more grateful to Chord for reaching out to people like me.”