"My son used to kick me when he was in my womb. Why make an issue when he kicked me in my old age?" reasons a very forgiving Shakti Dasi. The widow travelled 2300 kms from Tripura to Vrindavan after her only son violently beat her with a burning plank of wood and broke her knee one evening. She had to leave behind the business she had built with her husband who had died a few years back. Shakti ended up on the streets of Brindavan begging for food and shelter. But when Winnie Singh of Maitri saw Shakti in a frail state in tattered clothes, she brought her to the shelter home where Shakti gets food, care and medicines. What more, with Maitri’s intervention, Shakti reconciled with her son - and daughter-in-law, and now travels home to Tripura twice a year to spend time with her grandchildren. But she is not leaving Maitri, as this has become her family.Not every elderly widow who comes to Vrindavan after being abandoned by her family gets as lucky as Shakti. Many of them often end up living a lonely life and begging to survive on the streets. Maitri aspires to take care of every widow in need of help.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/ce101369-528c-4d37-bc1d-1118b9925af3.jpg" />Maitri’s Project Jeevan to the rescueAbandoned, elderly widows are the amongst the most vulnerable in India. After being thrown out of their often abandoned by their own children and are forced to beg for food and shelter. “Through Project Jeevan, Maitri houses aging widow mothers in two ashrams in Vrindavan and Radhakund (Mathura), providing them with wellness and well-being. The programme also reaches out to widow mothers beyond the ashrams with fruit, milk and healthcare services,” explains Winnie Singh, co-founder and executive director, Maitri India.Save homeless elderly widows from begging on the streetsMost widows who make their way to Vrindavan are abandoned by their families, often after years of abuse. They come here hoping they will spend the rest of their days in prayer and devotion. But most live in impoverished conditions on the streets and in dingy rooms. Since poor living conditions often cause a wide range of health ailments, including respiratory infections and chronic conditions, Maitri comes to their rescue through its Project Jeevan.The project aims to:<ul><li>Provide meals leading to improved health and wellbeing</li><li>Make physical and mental health services accessible</li><li>Offer necessary quality aged care and assisted living support</li><li>Increase awareness on and engagement around the struggles of abandoned widow mothers</li></ul><img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/1abfb906-563b-4747-85b8-8af2071a2856.jpg" />Project Jeevan needs your support to help those in need of food, healthcare and well-being. Donate now.“Maitri urgently needs your support to provide food, clothing and healthcare to sustain these widow mothers who are prone to more illnesses as they age,” appeals Winnie.Maitri believes in a woman’s right to dignity in life and death, more so a mother. Our help will enable Maitri to save hundreds of abandoned widows from a life of begging, and restore the respect, dignity, and identity they deserve.

This Navratri, save abandoned, elderly widow mothers of Vrindavan from begging on streets

“They insert a candle in the vagina, fingers are inserted (in the vagina) and tortured, and if children don’t relent even then, they put chilli powder so that children will say “yes” because of the burning of the skin… There are teeth marks on their bodies, and their vaginal parts are burnt. When children stay in these conditions, it is painful even to hear,” says Lalitha SA of Society for Participatory Integrated Development (SPID), in course of talking about many heart-rending stories of trafficked children in red-light areas.In over three decades, the SPID led by Lalitha, has saved over 3000 children from the red-light areas, many from clutches of sex trafficking.Sadly, many more children need to be rescued and in need of a loving home. But Lalitha needs our support to carry on the mission, to move out of her small facility so that she can rescue more children, house them in a permanent location and give them all the love they deserve. Your support can help her give these children the care and upbringing they need. Donate now.Donate easily through UPI, all debit/credit cards and net banking. Charitable donations to this fundraising campaign are tax exempted under 80G of the Income Tax Act (India).A movement to protect vulnerable childrenAs a social worker, Lalitha has worked for decades in GB Road, the red-light area of Delhi and helped many women escape the clutches of being forced into sex. But it was the exploitation of children, many of them hardly ten or twelve or even less. The SPID has focused on rescuing such children and giving them a new life.Lalitha plays a vital role in the survival and safety of vulnerable children in the red light areas. As SPID is almost entirely dependent on donations from the public, we can support and strengthen SPID’s mission to save children. Donate generously.Donation to SPID’s fundraiser on Give.do“I have limited funds and very limited space, and if I had the funds, I would be able to rescue many more children and provide them with more comfort. With folded hands, I plead with you that you help us with funds in large numbers and support us in providing us children with a decent life. Become a part of the mission,” pleads LalithaDonate to this fundraiser by Give, India’s largest and most trusted online donation platform, to help Lalitha give hundreds of children rescued from brothels a life away from violence and abuse.NGO's 80G number: AADAS3217RF20212NGO's 12A number: AADAS3217RE20214

This Navratri, help Lalitha give kids rescued from abuse in red-light areas a safe and loving home. Donate now.

“What will happen to them after me? I am 80+. I spend sleepless nights,” worries ex-Air Force officer, Group Captain AC Barua while talking about the future of the 28 destitute women under his care. “They have nobody in this world, sometimes they don’t remember their own names. They are absolutely alone,” he informs us as he goes from one room to the other meeting all the women who live at Seneh, the only home where they are loved and taken care of. After fighting for his country all his life, this octogenarian is now fighting to rescue homeless and abandoned women from dying on the streets. But he cannot do it alone. “Everyday I keep on getting calls from here and there. ‘Oh! there’s a woman lying here. Can you help?’ But I don’t dare to go and help because I don’t have the money. I don’t have the resources, our resources are very limited,” explains Gr. Capt. Barua who is lovingly called ‘Sir’ and ‘Deuta’ (father in Assamese) by the residents of Seneh. With your help, 80-year-old Group Captain Barua can fulfill his mission of rescuing abandoned and homeless women from dying on the streets, alone. Donate nowDonate easily through UPI, all debit/credit cards and net banking. All donations to this fundraising campaign are tax exempted under 80G of the Income Tax Act (India), &amp; 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (USA).Seneh- a home filled with love, care and hopeThe residents of Seneh often don’t remember who they are, where they have come from. Many times these are women with mental health conditions and considered being a witch due to superstitious beliefs and beaten up as a result. They are victims of domestic abuse or widow mothers who are considered to be a burden on the family. Group Captain Barua has not only rescued them from critical conditions, he has provided them with urgent medical care, food and above all, a free safe shelter where they can live with love and care. Among these residents is Sarala Kalita who fled to save herself from the tortures of her alcoholic husband only to face neglect and trauma from her brothers- and sisters-in-law. “Both my brothers and their wives urged my father to leave me somewhere as they didn’t want to take care of me anymore. One day my brother’s wife didn’t even let me have food at home. She just wanted me to leave and go away. So that’s why, my father got in touch with Seneh through someone, and handed me over to Sir to take care of me,” says Sarita who has found joy in living at Seneh. “Coming to Seneh, it felt like I got a new life altogether. Sir has given me a harmonium. I love singing. It makes me forget everything and takes me to someplace else entirely,” she adds. More women like Sarala can find their way to a loving home like Seneh. All they need is a little bit of your kindness. “It is difficult to make both ends meet”To sustain their daily expenditure, Capt Barua needs approx ₹3 lakh a month and arranging the funds is a mammoth challenge for the NGO. “Our expenses are growing day by day. Residents are growing older, their sicknesses are increasing. At times we have to give them special food. They require more care so we have to get more employees. About half of them require leading around, 1-2 has to be fed also. It will be very difficult to sustain it unless we get help,” he added. One act of your kindness can save these abandoned women, with no one in this world, from struggling on the streets to survive. At 80+ Gr. Capt. Barua cannot sustain Seneh on his own. “With folded hands, I appeal to all. Please come and please help us. Let us help these people, these old people who have nobody in this world. They are dying. They will die on the streets,” he urged. Donate to this fundraiser by Give.do to support retired Air Force officer, Group Captain Barua in his mission to rescue abandoned and homeless women from dying on the streets.

After fighting for India, former Air Force officer is now fighting to save abandoned women. Help him, donate now

This is a sample description for Community & Rural Development. For the purpose of testing I will use the word Community & Rural DevelopmentCommunity & Rural DevelopmentCommunity & Rural Development.

Community & Rural Development

This is a sample description for Livelihood. For the purpose of testing I will use the word LivelihoodLivelihoodLivelihoodLivelihood.

Livelihood

This is a sample description for Women Empowerment. For the purpose of testing I will use the word Women EmpowermentWomen EmpowermentWomen Empowerment.

Women Empowerment

ACCORD is a registered society that has been working with four tribal communities - Mullukurumbas, Bettakurumbas, Kattunayakans, Paniyas of Gudalur for over 3 decades, who have been identified as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) by the GoI. The stated vision of ACCORD way back in 1986 was “to ensure that the adivasis could participate in ‘mainstream’ society on their own terms in dignity and pride”. A vision that has guided us through these years and continues to be the beacon we follow even as a larger society around us changes. With this end in mind ACCORD set about building young leaders who could help their community to participate in modern society on equal terms. These young leaders formed innumerable village sangams which were federated in 1988 to become the Adivasi Munnetra Sangam -AMS. Today Accord acts as the organizational back-up and support for AMS

Donations through Give Foundation, Inc. a registered US 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Organization, are tax-deductible.

Donations through GIVE, a registered charity in UK, are covered under Gift Aid

Siddharth Muthu

ACCORD- Action for Community Organisation Rehabilitation and Development

This nonprofit is registered as a charitable trust under section 12A of India's Income Tax Act, 1961.

This nonprofit is registered under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010. This means it can accept donations from foreign nationals.

Create change with NGOs on Give.do! Explore 3,000+ NGOs dedicated to causes like human rights, animal welfare and healthcare. Your contribution matters!

Find the best NGOs in India on Give.do and Donate to Fundraisers

NGOs Listing page

“We are not scared to dream as we are in this together” - Badichi*22-year old Badichi, from the Bettakurumba tribe lives with her mother and her brother’s family in a small village in Erumad, Nilgiris. She studied up to 8th standard and had to discontinue her studies. Badichi then started working in tea plantations and occasionally with the NREGA program.Badichi and other women from her village were part of a daily wage labour system and struggled to make ends meet. Daily wages at local tea estates were seasonal while the work was back breaking. After plucking anything between 20 - 40kgs of tea leaves laboriously throughout the day women have to carry it to the nearest collection point.An enterprising woman, Badichi had been instrumental in the village savings scheme which has become a model for all the Adivasi villages in this region.At the same time Badichi and her friends kept noticing that their expenses were increasing. Vendors who came to sell apparel to them were charging them very high prices, but they didn’t have the capability to bargain. Also the other alternative was to travel to the town, which wasn’t easy for them as they would lose a day’s wage. They knew they were being cheated but wondered if they could change this. 
 While Badichi and her friends craved for an exposure for more opportunities beyond tea leaf plucking, they needed an assured and stable income, they felt self employment was an option but not their cup of tea. To run a business they knew they had to develop their confidence to negotiate a harsh world on their own terms with dignity and pride. They approached the Area team of <a href="https://www.accordweb.in/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">ACCORD</a> (a registered society which has been working with the tribal communities of Gudalur for the past 37 years). Coincidentally, the EcoFemme team (an organisation in Auroville and an avid supporter of ACCORD) visited Gudalur and held a session to discuss menstruation and eco-friendly options for women. This triggered an idea within Badichi and her friends to achieve their aspirations of self employment. Could some of them team up and start something?Badichi with 9 other women from the Kattunayakan, Bettakurumba, Paniya tribes with a common interest in tailoring and the will to do something different decided to take the plunge with the support of ACCORD. This led to the birth of <a href="https://justchangeindia.com/urumala/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">URUMALA</a> with 10 women as co-founders of Urumala. 
 At the end of the first year, the women who run URUMALA, have gone through an incredible transformation within themselves and with regard to their surroundings.Skilled craftspeople:From being novices, they now use start of art electric sewing machines. They have stitched over 5000 pads and received highly positive feedback from several leading cloth pads manufacturers and distributors in the country.Armed with a sense of purpose: None of them had travelled outside their villages and towns. After the field visit to Ecofemme, the women at Urumala have developed a view of the outside world and have reported an increased sense of agency and purpose. Increased autonomy: 95% of these women entrepreneurs have reported being able to be a part of the financial decision-making in their family, after they started URUMALA.Finding their voice: All of them have seen improved confidence in voicing their opinion both in their work and personal life. Their communication skills have improved manifold. Earning the respect of the community: The change in perception and attitudes in their families have percolated within the community as well. They are now respected by a larger cross section of people in their villages. The Ripple Effect: Elders from the community acknowledge the impact of Urumala across the tribal hamlets and have requested support to replicate Urumala.THE ROAD AHEADThe team at Urumala is keen to expand across dimensions. They would like more of their community to be part of this initiative. However to do this they need to make their business sustainable and need your help to achieve their dream.

URUMALA

<ul><li>The community finds itself at a crossroads. They have been able to participate effectively in mainstream society but they struggle to protect their traditional knowledge and culture.</li><li>Sense of community is giving way to more individualistic approaches making them being far more vulnerable to exploitation. This puts 3 decades of ACCORD’s work at risk. The most vulnerable are the youth – rampant alcoholism, suicides and mental health issues are increasing, with the pandemic exacerbating this. We are seeing the impacts of climate change with increasing emergency situations like flooding.</li><li>Hence, ACCORD has redefined the strategy. The focus of work has shifted to building a movement to develop Community Self Reliance. We aim to strengthen our youth to take responsibility at the village level and build a resilient community. This involves enabling youth to make decisions and implement ideas for their own villages as well as rethink their livelihood options by enabling them by giving them a choice, one of them being entrepreneurship.</li></ul> 
 Executing the Village Self Reliance Movement: Support the new young leaders to launch and sustain a movement for Village Self Reliance. A preliminary version of our strategy for Self Reliance has been developed which we seek to implement through young leaders.<ol><li>Creation of Village Self Reliance Fund: A fund to enable the young people to choose and implement various activities at the village level that will contribute to social cohesion, future readiness and resilience, and most importantly community well-being. Decisions to approve the application and process will be community-driven in line with their sustainable way of living. The activities will be like constructing a community hall, fish pond etc based on the needs of the village.</li><li>Support collective microenterprise ideas from the community: We intend to provide financial and technical support through our initiative called ‘Adivasi Innovation Hub’. The fund would ensure that the youth are encouraged to continue their new venture without facing an opportunity cost. Business ideas from the community will be supported as Proof of Concepts to check the viability of the idea before setting them up as microenterprises.</li></ol> 
 <ol><li>A cadre of young leaders who can be apprenticed under the present leadership.</li><li>Leadership in all spheres of community life is capable of dealing with the demands of a rapidly changing environment.</li><li>Strong and resilient village communities by revitalizing traditional ways of community living and solving their problems collectively.</li><li>Community-run enterprises will ensure a gradual shift in the economy of the villages which at present is dominated by daily wage labour.</li><li>Instil a sense of pride and confidence in the work they are doing.</li></ol>

URUMALA

Ignite their Future Today - Building Adivasi Self-Reliance

This Navratri, save abandoned, elderly widow mothers of Vrindavan from begging on streets

This Navratri, help Lalitha give kids rescued from abuse in red-light areas a safe and loving home. Donate now.

After fighting for India, former Air Force officer is now fighting to save abandoned women. Help him, donate now

Disclaimer