For a mother who has spent her entire life loving and raising her child, being beaten and mercilessly thrown out onto the streets by her own son is too heartbreaking to overcome. But this is a common story among the elderly residents of the Guru Vishram Vridh Ashram. “I’ve seen mothers in old and torn clothes, their bodies smelling and their hands and feet rotting and covered in maggots,” shares Dr. G.P. Bhagat, founder of the ashram. These abandoned elderly men and women lay starving on the streets hoping for someone to rescue them from their suffering. But most people walk past them without a second glance. “Like this”, Dr. Bhagat explains, “many elders die on the roads.”Since 2003, SHEOWS (Saint Hardyal Educational and Orphans Welfare Society) has rescued over 10,000 elderly people from the streets and given them a home with care and support. The elderly staying at the ashram have all been abandoned by their families and have nowhere else to live. Your support can give them comfort after their abandonment. 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). Safe and loving homeFor 20 years, SHEOWS has been providing free shelter, nutritious food three times a day, clothing, medical care, recreation activities and emotional support to abused and disabled elderly people rescued from the streets of Delhi. The Guru Vishram Vridh Ashram has a dedicated rescue team that saves the elderly from the streets and gives them immediate medical care upon their arrival at the home. To tend to the multiple health complications of the seniors, the home has a medical facility with doctors and nurses, a physiotherapy unit, a pathology lab, a digital X-ray monitoring machine and a pharmacy to provide 24-hour care to older adults anytime they require assistance, even during emergencies. Dr. Bhagat prioritizes the health of the seniors and ensures that they receive three balanced meals a day based on their precise health requirements. Need for the fundraiserThe humanitarian mission of SHEOWS is making an impact in the area, as more and more people are being rescued and brought to Guru Vishram Vridh Ashram. To meet the financial costs of running the home, SHEOWS needs support to continue providing the residents with all the facilities that they need. This includes constant care and round-the-clock medical attention, nutritious food and maintaining a hygienic environment to keep the seniors in comfort and good health. Dr. Bhagat explains that as the number of residents is increasing, SHEOWS needs support for food and medicines. “I request you to help these elderly parents lead a peaceful life.”Donate now to help Dr. Bhagat continue caring for the 500 destitute elderly and giving them shelter, food, medical care and the will to carry on living despite their tragic abandonment by their families. Your support will enable SHEOWS to keep serving abandoned senior citizens and help them recover from the trauma of abandonment and life on the streets. “I have been serving these elderly as if they were my own parents”, shares Dr. Bhagat. “I want only one thing - their tears should vanish and they should have a smile on their faces.” To help Dr. Bhagat achieve this dream, your support is critical. Donate now to help SHEOWS care for more abandoned elderly. Donate to this fundraiser by Give, India’s largest online donation platform, to support SHEOWS in their mission to rescue the abandoned elderly from the streets and give them shelter, food, medical care, recreational activities and emotional support.

Help Dr. Bhagat care for 500+ elderly parents rescued from abuse and homelessness

Lakhs of cancer patients across the country are fighting against the dreaded disease with little support or help. Often treatment is costly which poor families can’t afford, leaving patients in a painful battle that they are bound to lose without medical care. Many families even sell their land and property to afford treatment, and still, end up losing their loved ones. “When such cancer patients come to us we stand by them. We hold their hands and assure them that they will get the treatment they need”, says Dr Amruta Tripathi, a compassionate oncologist at Charutar Arogya Mandal.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/3106c7e1-acda-4e73-8c96-ab4d45911f45.webp" />No mother should have to feel the pain of losing a child, no wife of losing her husband or any family member just because they’re poorDr. Amruta has made it her life’s mission to stand by those battling cancer alone, patients rejected by hospitals, forgotten by society. At Charutar Arogya Mandal, she and her team provide free, world-class cancer treatment to the poorest of the poor. But she cannot do it without you. Support her. Donate to ensure no one fights cancer aloneDonate 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).<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/c0358c75-eeb7-41a4-ba40-f4c87597e2dd.webp" />A growing crisis that goes unnoticedEvery year, tens of thousands of Indians are diagnosed with cancer and many of them cannot afford even the first consultation, let alone treatment. They are left to suffer till their last breath, often in isolation and agony.“These patients are in unimaginable pain. When they are refused admission everywhere else, they come to us. And I have resolved that I will not leave such patients. I will be there to hold their hand”, Dr Amruta says The moment cancer is diagnosed not just the patients but the entire family suffers. The cost of treatment is exorbitant and they can't afford it. But our doctors stand by these patients, says Dr Atul Haribhai Patel, Chairman of Charutar Arogya Mandal.At Charutar Arogya Mandal Dr Amruta and her team have treated over 30,000 patients free of cost since 2004, offering surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and even nutrition and post-treatment support, all as a nonprofit whose only objective is to support those suffering.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/8349db46-f194-4c6a-8052-141bb090db5d.webp" />Healing when all hope is lost“The biggest happiness for me is when I see a patient cancer-free. It means our treatment worked. That we gave someone their life back,” Dr. Amruta says, smiling.Each life saved is a miracle — a child who gets to grow up, a mother who gets to see her daughter graduate, a father who returns home to his family. But behind every miracle is a mountain of effort and expense.And now, the centre urgently needs equipment and resources to continue providing this critical care to patients from the most marginalised backgrounds.Your donation can save a lifeWith your support, Dr. Amruta can continue to provide free, compassionate, and quality treatment to cancer patients who have nowhere else to go.Your donation will help the centre<ul><li>Procure life-saving medical equipment</li><li>Offer advanced diagnostics and treatment</li><li>Provide holistic care from medicine to meals</li><li>Ensure no one is turned away for lack of funds</li></ul>Donate to this fundraiser by Give, India’s most trusted online donation platform, to support Charutar Arogya Mandal in its mission to provide support poor cancer patients who can not afford treatment.

Help Dr Amruta provide life-saving cancer treatment to poor patients who can’t afford care

“During a visit to a nearby village, I found two abandoned babies left to die in a cowshed. Visibly fragile and covered in dirt, the condition of the little ones left me in shock. Moved by the sight, I inquired in the area and was told that these babies were left there by their own family after they were diagnosed with HIV. I immediately brought the babies back home. This was in 2001 and that marked the beginning of a two-decade-long struggle to save abandoned HIV+ children from dying on the streets,” says 70-year-old Mangal Shah, fondly addressed as tai by her 150 adopted grandchildren. Mangaltai founded Palawi with a mission to give abandoned HIV+ children a second chance at life and, more importantly, to right the wrongs that society had done to them. For over two decades, she has rescued hundreds of children off the streets and given them the love they were denied for no fault of theirs. She has given the children life-saving medical care and education while helping them lead normal lives.“It does not cost us money to give them the love they deserve, but the cost of medical care, food, shelter, and education is more than what I can shoulder on my own and I need urgent help,” pleads Mangaltai. Help 70-year-old Mangaltai save the lives of her 150 HIV+ grandchildren. Donate now. Every child deserves a futureHailing from the predominantly rural area of Pandharpur in Maharashtra, Mangaltai faced countless challenges and opposition from people in the area. “I was often told that these children are HIV+ and they are not going to survive long. What is the point of wasting money, time and effort behind them,” recalls Mangaltai. “But I told everyone I am not going to give up on any of these children. Every child deserves love and care. Every child deserves to have a chance at a future,” she adds. Narrating a story about a 5-year-old boy Mangaltai says, “We rescued 5-year-old Pranay (name changed) from a nearby village in 2005. He was severely malnourished, sick and had a gaping wound on his head. Seeing the baby’s condition and the maggot-infested wound, doctors gave him six months to live. But Pranay is now 22 years old, he is financially independent and leading a normal life with dignity. What would have happened if I gave up on him?” Mangaltai has faced severe discrimination all along her journey with Palawi, owing to her work and for standing up for the rights of HIV+ kids. She was driven out of schools when she tried to get admissions for her children. “The discrimination against our children was such that they were not even allowed to set foot in any of the schools in this area. We were left with no choice but to start a school of our own,” says Mangaltai.The healing power of loveAccording to Mangaltai, the love that children of Palawi receive is one of the strongest factors in their recovery and healthy childhood. “We are there for these kids throughout the day. These kids have low immunity and are prone to illness. Which is why we need to be extremely cautious. We need to have regular health check-ups to ensure they are safe and healthy. But all of this comes at a cost. A cost that I alone can not take care of,” Mangaltai says. Help Mangaltai change the lives of hundreds of abandoned HIV+ orphans and give them a loving home, medical care and education, so they too can live fulfilling lives in future. Donate now.

Help Mangaltai give 150 abandoned HIV+ orphans life-saving care, education and a loving home

Hamari Shala- This program was the result of a need-based assessment undertaken in 2019 with Ashraya parents, school teachers, children, drop-out students, to understand Ashraya’s progress and review the needs of the community and build a long term strategy. The key learning was that our community children lacked access to holistic development through local government schools and affordable private schools. The focus in these schools was purely academic which lacked contextual understanding of our community. After a lot of research and deliberation, Ashraya adopted the Open Basic Education model of the National Institute of Open Schooling, India which allowed us to have autonomy in the curriculum that we could create focussing on the practical and cultural context of the community.  ​  Ashraya provides hot, fresh, vegetarian meals to the children in its Education Outreach Program to combat pervasive food insecurity at home. All children in the program receive fresh vegetarian lunches. This hot, nutritious morning meal incentivises their attendance and punctuality at school and Ashraya. Additionally in the afternoon children also receive milk and fruits for further nutrition. Ashraya also provided monthly dry food ration kits with the support of various partners, each month during the COVID outbreak from 2020 to 2021. 

Education

1. Mother Baby Program ​  The program aims to decrease the child mortality rate and monitor physical and psycho-social parameters of infants. Through this program, weekly sessions are conducted with pregnant women to reinforce safety guidelines during pregnancy. The community believes in traditional ways of pregnancy and childbirth. These sessions help them maintain proper health and hygiene, especially during childbirth. Ashraya’s health team enrolls pregnant women in government hospitals and facilitates consultations with gynecologists and nutritionists. Ashraya also provides regular nutritional support during pregnancy which continues till the child turns 2 years old.   ​2. Counselling-  One of the objectives at Ashraya is to help students to understand their interests and strengths through ongoing support and mentorship. Moreover, to provide social and emotional support and nurture leadership potential. We also aim to increase opportunities for self-expression, confidence-building, and talent development among all the students. To this end, our trained clinical and career counseling team provides individual counseling, group sessions, family counseling and career guidance to members of the community.

Healthcare

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

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

Our Vision-Ashraya is dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable communities by expanding access to education, fostering holistic development, and building a healthier, more empowered future.Our Mission-​Ashraya works to advance equity and dignity for children, youth, and families from marginalised communities by addressing systemic barriers to education, health, well-being and skilling. We deliver integrated programs that include high-quality learning support, accessible healthcare, mental health counseling, and skills development. Our approach is holistic, trauma-informed, and grounded in long-term community engagement, enabling individuals to build resilience, &amp;pathways to self-reliance.Ashraya Initiative for Children works with residents of 8 urban slum communities, who belong to De-notified tribal (DNT), Notified Tribal, Mahar, Matang, Pardi and other marginalised communities in India. Stigmatized as "criminal tribes" under British colonial rule, these communities were categorized as inherently criminal, subject to surveillance, restrictions, and brutal repression. Accused of being thieves or outlaws by colonial authorities, this official labeling led to widespread social exclusion, economic deprivation, and a loss of their cultural heritage. After independence, while the Indian government officially De-notified these tribes in 1952, the stigma endured. Though no longer considered criminal, they continued to face discrimination, poverty, and limited access to essential services like education and healthcare. Many remained excluded from mainstream society and struggled to transition to sustainable livelihoods. Today, the legacy of marginalization persists. In Yerwada, Pune, a densely populated slum area, members of these tribes live in cramped, unsanitary conditions. The slums suffer from a lack of proper infrastructure, poor health conditions, and limited access to education and employment. Despite government schemes and affirmative action policies, these communities remain trapped in a cycle of poverty, unable to break free from socio-economic marginalization. The struggle for dignity, social acceptance, and basic rights continues to define their lives. With limited government aid and deep-rooted prejudices, many of these families live in extreme poverty. Their traditional livelihoods—selling old clothes, iron utensils, sweeping, and manual scavenging—provide a meager collective household income of less than Rs 150 per day, often supporting extended families of ten or more. They rely on illegally tapped electricity, communal outdoor taps that provide water only for a few hours a day, and overcrowded, unsafe public toilet blocks. In response, Ashraya focuses on empowering women and children as key agents of change. By investing in holistic measures and creating first-generation learners, Ashraya strives to transform and uplift these communities, providing them with the tools to build a sustainable future

Donations through Give Foundation, registered under section 80G of India's Income Tax Act, 1961 are tax-deductible.

Alisha Coelho

Ashraya Foundation for Children

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

This nonprofit is registered under section 80G of India's Income Tax Act, 1961. This means you can deduct 50% of the donation you made through your tax return.

In the academic year 2020-21, Ashraya had been focussing on curriculum development lesson planning, inclusive education, and counseling. The staff ensured that the students had scheduled timetables for school, after-school support, and extracurricular classes so as to maximize learning outcomes despite remote education. Ashraya comprehensively worked on a strategy to implement baselines/endlines remotely for the first time for the new academic year, designed to be aligned to the current modified curriculum and relevant needs. In the month of August 2020, Ashraya conducted its very first remote baselines through rigorous one-on-one online assessments to understand the levels of children to curate a needs-based curriculum that addresses the competencies of each child. Ashraya, in the year 2020 to 2021, had also fundraised for and has provided the community families with phones and data recharges which has gradually and promisingly led to the increase in attendance over the past few months. An end-line was conducted in April 2021 which showed that there was a 15% increase in assessment scores (Math and English) since the baselines in August. The results of each of the assessments were also discussed with each child and parent during the PTA meeting conducted this month along with tracking parents' attendance during each meeting. With 1325 hours of online classes per student on an average in the year 2020-21 we are working towards 100% retention of children in education in the academic year 2021-22.

Online education for vulnerable children during COVID19

Ashraya has successfully vaccinated 100% of Waghri and Sikhligar community adults for COVID through awareness and community mobilization. We thank our partners The VaxAll Initiative with whose assistance we could ensure the safety and well-being of the community.

Vaccinations of community during COVID19

Ashraya has helped provide more than 7000 meals and 2500 food ration kits through partner support and individual aid to 655 community members associated with us, from the Waghri and Sikhligar tribes residing in Yerwada, Pune, since March 2020. This also includes household utilities, sanitary napkins, soaps, sanitisers and masks.

More than 7000 individual meals provided along with food ration, health/hygiene and medical supplies in the last one year

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With the global COVID19 pandemic hitting India, our community people have been affected in more than innumerable ways. The government has advised the people to observe social distancing which means most of the crowded areas like markets and other business areas have had to shut operations. Since most of the Waghri and Sikhligars community livelihoods depend on selling clothes and selling utensils or vegetables within these markets, their financial status has taken a severe decline. Schools of children have shut down indefinitely to avoid the spread of infection among the children. As this measure has been implemented just before the exam term of the year, this has put a sudden halt to the children’s education. To follow safety measures, Ashraya has also temporarily suspended classes at the education centre.  The health centre, however, remains open to tackle any suspected cases and distributing medicines. Subsequently, this had put the teachers in a dilemma as to how to make sure there is no gap in learning outcomes till this situation passes. Hence, Ashraya decided that the teachers will come up with a plan to ensure that the children do not get a lag from their studies. Ashraya’s nutrition program aims towards providing 3 healthy meals to children every day to substitute their nutrition needs. Since the conception of the program, we have aimed to raise the BMI and haemoglobin levels of children most of them who are malnourished.  
 In the past nine months, the Ashraya team had put a lot of effort on how we can work with the children remotely and how we can ensure there is no loss of learning. Ashraya teachers have been conducting online video classes for older students of 8th, 9th and 10th standards.  The teachers have segregated the children into groups for English and Maths classes and each teacher has been giving worksheets with three to four hour’s worth of work for the children to be constructively engaged. The teachers are utilising platforms like Youtube, Google Classrooms for video sessions on other subjects, and giving them assignments/worksheets every day. One of our major challenges was the lack of access to phones/tablets/computers in households due to which many students were experiencing an academic lag. To tackle this, Ashraya conducted a donation campaign for old or unused phones/tablets which catered for devices for 5 families. All of Ashraya's students now have access to remote classes and e-learning and our academic year have officially commenced. A survey of the communities was done in the first week of March to find out which families require nutrition support. Based on that Ashraya distributed food ration to 209 families in the third week of March, for a month in order to support them in these challenging times. We supplied them with one month of Wheat Flour, Rice, Dal, Sugar, Oil, Tea and Biscuits. The Ashraya team additionally worked with local Police and health workers and took the necessary precautions and permissions to support the aforementioned activities. From identifying vendors, procurement of ration, transport, packaging, to finally distributing to all families while following the norms of social distancing, all the activities were undertaken with care and precaution. Ashraya has been supplying food ration and health and hygiene kits including sanitary napkins to our community families since March. We will continue to do so till this situation persists and need our partners to support for the same. Ashraya has completed 11 food ration distributions within the community and aims to supply food grains to the communities till they are financially stable. In the next few months, Ashraya will be consistently working on increasing the attendance of children from 75% to at least 80% in the online sessions and assignment completion. We will be working with the parents constantly for creating awareness on remote education and keeping their children safe and healthy at home. Ashraya will constantly followup with the door-to-door survey of community members’ health status and availability of doctors to them. However, we need to make sure all our staff is motivated and safe at the same time. 
 Ashraya aims to create the first generation of learners in their communities and ensure that they are financially stable. The Ashraya team has been ensuring that the Waghri and Sikhligar children have access to education, nutrition, health and documentation for the last 15 years. Due to COVID19, we have had to modify our programmes so as to cater to the communities needs of education, health and nutrition. We aim to ensure that children do not experience an academic lag and have access to all resources to study and work remotely. Our impact goals are:<ul><li>Ensuring each child has access to quality education with a focus on holistic practices and extracurricular education.</li><li>Ensuring that each child has a conducive learning environment and parental support.</li><li>Ensuring that each is happy, healthy and safe by focussing on eradicating malnourishment, diseases and focussing on mental health awareness.</li><li>Ensuring that the community is healthy and safe and economically self-sustainable.</li></ul>

Education and Health during COVID19

Help Dr. Bhagat care for 500+ elderly parents rescued from abuse and homelessness

Help Dr Amruta provide life-saving cancer treatment to poor patients who can’t afford care

Help Mangaltai give 150 abandoned HIV+ orphans life-saving care, education and a loving home

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