"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.

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.

“I used to be sexually abused repeatedly, and when I screamed in pain, they hit and threatened me with more violence,” says Priya (name changed), a rescued child sex worker. Priya was abducted by traffickers and sold into a red-light area house before she was rescued by Guria led by Manju. For over two decades, Manju has been rescuing young girls forced into prostitution across the country. She has been shaken to the core seeing some of the most horrifying crimes that young girls have to undergo. “You can’t imagine the state of girls forced into sex work. The girls are given electric shocks and burnt with cigarette butts just to get kicks out of it. And if they get pregnant, the "owners" kick them repeatedly in the womb so that the child inside dies…If you want to see hell, it is here on this planet where young girls are sexually abused,” says Manju.Manju needs your help to rescue more young girls from forced prostitution and reunite them with their families. Donate now.Guria’s work over the yearsBased out of Varanasi, inarguably the holiest place in India, Manju and her organisation Guria, fights the sexual exploitation of girls, especially minors, by taking on the traffickers head-on, and rescuing and rehabilitating them.Started in 1993, Guria has rescued over 5500 persons from slavery, sex trafficking, and child prostitution so far. It has also been instrumental in shutting down hundreds of places that housed trafficked girls and putting scores of traffickers out of business and in jail.For instance, in 2005, a Guria-led rescue operation in Varanasi's red-light area led to the freeing of 49 women and girls, including minors. Many of them were kept against their will. Some of the traffickers were also arrested and tried. Since then, Guria has rescued thousands of young girls.Manju and her husband, Ajeet Singh began rescuing girls from Varanasi’s red-light areas and then working to stop the sex-trafficking of young girls within Uttar Pradesh and outside. The organisation’s aim is to eliminate the sex trafficking of women, especially minor girls, end second-generation prostitution and child prostitution, and rehabilitate women and girls who are rescued from the trade. Manju has faced violent backlash from the traffickers and other vested interests, but it has not deterred her from carrying on rescuing young girls from trafficking. Rescue and rehabilitationBesides rescuing girls trafficked for sex, mostly from low-income families, from across the country, Guria fights on their behalf in courts and also provides education, food, vocational training, and other facilities until they are united with their families. But because of a lack of funds, Guria is finding it difficult to rescue more girls and also take care of them once they are away from the clutches of the traffickers. Take the case of Sameena (name changed), who was abducted from Uttar Pradesh all the way to Telangana. Guria took it upon itself to rescue the girl with the help of its own work and also the authorities. After months of rehabilitation, Sameena went back to her family and even completed her education. With your support, Manju can rescue many more young girls from trafficking and help them live the life of their dreams.

Help Manju rescue young sex trafficking victims. Donate now

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

Women Empowerment

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

Livelihood

Kat-Katha works with women and children living in brothels, who were trafficked/forced into sex work at a young age. Over the years Kat-Katha has been creating safe spaces and life choices for the women and their children to learn, explore, and come alive with a sense of connection, expression, and possibility.Registered under the Societies Registration act 1860, Kat-Katha was born on the streets of G.B. Road, the largest red-light area in the National capital region. Since its inception, Kat-Katha has been guided by the vision “To End Forced Sex work’. Our mission is to enable women and children living in brothels to live a life of their own choice and pursue their dreams with Dignity, Ownership, and Compassion. In a span of over eight years, Kat-Katha has worked with 1500 trafficked women and 200 children on GB Road through efforts in education, health awareness, counseling, and skill development. Our work is majorly in the areas of:1) Community Building: Deep understanding of the needs and building of trust in the community through research, festival celebrations, and awareness drives.2) Education: We enroll children in regular schools as well as have an after-school run on the top floor of one of the buildings in the red light district where academics, exposure, and life skill activities are conducted. We also conduct literacy classes for women inside brothels.3) Livelihoods: We have a delivery kitchen in Pandav Nagar, New Delhi, where women from GB Road, lead a culinary business called Maitri Meals, where women are trained on employable cooking skills and get a chance to earn a livelihood through it. We also conduct livelihood and skill development training for young adults from the community.The efforts by Kat-Katha have been recognized at several prestigious forums including L’oreal Paris Femina Women Awards, Times Now Amazing Indian Award, Mahindra Rise Award, Reebok Fit to Fight Award, Radio 98.3, Delhi ke Heroes,  and so on.

Anurag Garg

Kat-Katha

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Current ScenarioGB Road is home to 78 brothels where over 2500 women live along with their children. These women are victims of sex trafficking, abuse, and violence. Due to the ongoing lockdown, some of them left for their homes as business declined, whereas hundreds of them are stuck in dingy brothels as they have nowhere to go. The current times are especially hard on these women as they have no other source of income, negligible savings to fall back on, and little support from family and society to sustain themselves. Role of Government BodiesWithin two days of the lockdown, Kat-Katha and a couple of other NGOs came together with the SDM of Karol Bagh to ensure that the sex workers on GB Road have access to enough rations for the coming month. In all our relief drives, the local police and the SDM office support us in the procurement and distribution of supplies in the community. However, the majority of the women cannot avail Government’s subsidized food supply as they do not have ration cards and as of now, there hasn’t been any allocation of public relief funds for the area by the Government. Role of Local NGOs &amp; Why Kat-Katha?In these times, it is truly the onus of local organizations to leverage their deep networks and relations in the marginalized communities to reach out and provide relief support to the most vulnerable people. In a span of over 8 years, Kat-Katha has developed all the prerequisites to bring immediate impact such as a vast network in the community, a dynamic team of 100+ volunteers, and professional rapport with the local administration to facilitate smooth implementation of our plans. 
 Kat-Katha’s COVID-19 Resilience Project Experts predict it might take up to 6 months for social distancing measures to relax and 18-24 months for the economic conditions to revive. In this context, persistent poverty and lack of jobs in the near future would mean more women getting trafficked into sex work, lesser paying capacity of customers and more exploitation. Hence, Kat-Katha's Resilience Project is not only preparing to support the community during the lockdown but also for the economic aftermath that follows.We plan to work through the following initiatives: 1. Karuna Relief DriveWe have mapped close to 800 people on GB Road who need our support and we expect this number to double as the lockdown is relaxed during the next three months. Karuna Relief drive will primarily focus on providing necessary food and medical supplies to all these people. It would be carried out in three phases of which Phase 1 has already been implemented as an immediate response to the lockdown. Phase 2 will be carried out from May to July and subsequently Phase 3, from August to October.Under Karuna Relief Drive, we are distributing the following supplies.<ul><li>Ration Kits: Monthly Ration Kits for every person ₹660/kit for the next six months to ensure food security until economic activity resumes. </li><li>Infant &amp; Hygiene Kit: Monthly distribution of infant kits ₹850/kit (diapers &amp; baby food) and essential hygiene kit ₹105/kit (sanitizer, soap, masks &amp; sanitary pads) </li><li>Health Support: Health support of ₹250/family for the next six months to selected families as a lot of women have health ailments like thyroid, diabetes, skin diseases and low immunity due to the nature of their work and long experience of abuse</li><li>Cooking Gas: ₹200/month for refilling cooking gas will be allocated to each person.</li></ul>2. Livelihood PlatformWe plan to set up a Livelihood Training Centre on GB Road which will act as an alternative livelihood platform for the sex workers. Women will get a chance to acquire training in either professional cooking or product tailoring, depending on their interest. From an initial need analysis, we have received an affirmative response from over 40 women.The plan will be implemented in two phases.<ul><li>Phase 1 (During Social Distancing Norms) - Training will be held virtually in the initial months. We are setting up an online learning platform and ensuring smooth internet access for the trainees. We plan to enrol 10-15 women in the first two quarters i.e. Q1, May-July &amp; Q2, Aug-Sept.</li><li>Phase 2 (Post Social Distancing Norms) – We are planning to set up the skill centre on GB Road during Aug-Sept (Q2) and shift from online classes to the offline centre in October. With an operating skill centre on the road, we expect to enrol women in larger numbers in the last two quarters (Q3 &amp; Q4) making the total number of attendees approximately 50 by the end of year. </li></ul>We plan to pay all trainees ₹2500/month as apprentice fees which would act as a compensation for their outputs and an incentive for learning. We have already partnered with Craftroots and Goonj for selling women’s output in product tailoring. For the culinary business, we have our own successful venture, Maitri Meals. Finally, to make these initiatives truly a success, we plan to identity Community Leaders who will be responsible for<ul><li>Spearheading the mobilisation of their community into alternative livelihood activities. </li><li>Helping us in execution of need analysis and impact assessment on our relief drives and initiatives in the coming year. </li></ul> 
 What Have We Done So Far? As an immediate response to the pandemic and the following lockdown, we developed and effected the following initiatives on ground - <ul><li>Relief Drive (First Phase): Kat-Katha organized COVID-19 Karuna Relief Drive to distribute ration and hygiene kits to more than 600 people on GB Road for one month’s sustenance. </li><li>Digital Campaigns: Awareness campaigns to sensitize people on GB Road about the coronavirus pandemic driven by leaders from the community. </li><li>Need Analysis: Analysis of the situation on the field and designing of a comprehensive plan to support women and children.  </li></ul>Scope of Impact <ul><li>Providing necessities for survival : ration &amp; medical supplies to ~2200 women on GB Road ensuring no woman or child falls prey to hunger or disease</li><li>Preparing the community to face similar adversities in the future by providing alternate livelihood opportunities to the women on GB Road</li><li>Identifying Community leaders who will own and</li></ul>

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Save abandoned, elderly widow mothers of Vrindavan from begging on streets

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