In Vrindavan, thousands of elderly widow mothers face the harsh reality of abandonment and suffering. With no one to turn to, many are left begging on the streets, exposed to heat, cold and rain,Donate so that Maitri can provide shelter, food, clothes and medical support to abandoned elderly mothers now. Give generously.Winnie Singh has witnessed many cases of widow mothers being abandoned on the streets of Vrindavan, one of the holiest places in India. “Children leave their mothers as soon as they become widows. The children start feeling the burden. This has become a practice in today's society that money comes first and everything else later,” says Winnie whose Maitri India, rescues widowed mothers from the streets of Vrindavan.Many widowed elderly mothers often end up living a lonely life and begging to survive on the streets. And Maitri aspires to take care of every widow in need of help, but because of lack of funds, Winnie and Maitri are in a position to do it."Elderly widows don't have shelter. They sleep in cowsheds over sacks. They don't have a blanket. Nights are really difficult for them," shares Winnie Singh. <img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/1abfb906-563b-4747-85b8-8af2071a2856.jpg" />Maitri aims to:<ul><li>Provide shelter and nutritious 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 and engagement around the struggles of abandoned widow mothers</li></ul>Why donate to MaitriWinnie needs your support to help those in need of food, healthcare and well-being. “Maitri urgently needs your support to provide nutritious food, clothing and healthcare to sustain these widow mothers who are prone to more illnesses as they age,” appeals Winnie. “You can become the family they were denied. Hold their hands so they don't need to beg ever again,” she adds. Let’s rescue abandoned widows mothers from the streets of Vrindavan and give them a better future. Donate now.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.

Help provide shelter, food, clothes and medical support to abandoned widow mothers of Vrindavan. Donate now

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

“The abusers insert a candle or fingers in the vagina of children torture them. If the children don’t relent even then, the abusers 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 the Society for Participatory Integrated Development (SPID), while talking about many heart-rending stories of trafficked children in red-light areas. In over three decades, the team of SPID led by Lalitha, has saved over 3000 children from the red-light areas in Delhi, such as GB Road, and many from clutches of sex trafficking. While Lalitha has also helped many women escape the clutches of being forced into sex work, the SPID is focused on rescuing children and giving them a better life.Sadly, many more children need to be rescued and need a loving home. SPID needs your support to carry on the mission, to move out of the small shelters that are subject to arbitrary rental increases or landlords’ whims, to permanent locations where she can rescue more children and give them all the love they deserve. Your support will give these children the care and upbringing they need. 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).“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 Lalitha. 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 to this fundraiser for permanent premises through Give, India’s largest and most trusted online donation platform. Help Lalitha give hundreds of children rescued from brothels a life away from violence and abuse. Donate 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

Help Lalitha to protect vulnerable children from trafficking by moving them to a safe and loving home

This is a sample description for Human Rights. For the purpose of testing I will use the word Human RightsHuman RightsHuman Rights.

Human Rights

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

Children

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 education. For the purpose of testing I will use the word EducationEducationEducationEducation.

Education

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 Healthcare. For the purpose of testing I will use the word HealthcareHealthcareHealthcare.

Healthcare

We at Myna Mahila are irked by women’s untapped burning potential. When they can do so much, but are chained due to no fault of their own. We believe that women in India have as much potential as women around the world, but it is unrealized. Taboos around their bodies kept them silent even when they suffered miserably. Hence, three slum community leaders and Suhani founded Myna Mahila Foundation for women in slums to speak up openly about the issues they were most afraid to discuss aloud like the chatty “Myna” bird. Our goal is to bring these women with incredible potential at par with others in their generation around the world. We need to support them to be at a fair game – that is first providing them with the basic amenities they need to grow. This is the power Myna Health brings.Myna is a grassroots based organization, run and managed by its beneficiaries in slums and has three operational units: <ol><li>Myna Health</li><li>Myna Employ </li><li>Myna Research</li></ol>Since it was founded in 2015, Myna Health has been providing women with health education and access to affordable menstrual health products at their doorstep. With its core beliefs around providing women with financial independence to truly empower them to make decisions. Myna Employ also generates employment opportunities and employability skills for girls and women in urban slums. Myna Research focuses on Myna’s data-driven approach which helps us make strategic decisions, based on data interpretation. Overall, Myna Mahila shifts women’s health behavior, builds their confidence and provides means to achieve financial freedom.Over the past 5 years, Myna has reached out to over 5,50,000 women at the doorstep in the urban slums of Mumbai. We have changed the menstrual hygiene behavior for a majority of these women across 15 slums. Myna has manufactured 12,96,105 pads and distributed 2,25,300 pads at the doorstep. We have more than a 90% repeat customer rate because of the personalized attention each woman receives. Through our "Sponsor a Girl" program, we have supported more than 4,300 girls to receive menstrual hygiene education and kits since 2018 and more than 8,500 girls and boys through our ‘Teach Menses India’ program. In all, we have more than 10 ongoing projects.Myna Mahila Foundation is honoured to be one of seven charities chosen to benefit from donations marking the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle. Myna is a celebrated organization and has been recognized by Forbes 30 under 30, the Queen of England, Queen's Commonwealth Trust, David Beckham and been featured on leading media outlets such as CNBC, BBC, TIME, Vogue, Glamour, NDTV, The Quint, Forbes, Times of India, Hindustan Times, Better India to name a few. We have also received the Mother Teresa Youth Memorial Award, and are a Finalist for the Cisco Global Citizen Prize. We are scaling our current reach of 550k women to another 2 Million women and girls from low-income families between the ages of 12 to 45 by 2025. Myna is engaging with girls to improve their health, employment and social outcomes.

Anjali Dave

Iman Sayed

Sakshi Shah

Suhani Jalota

Nicole 

 Sweta

Myna Helpline - Tabassum

Myna Mahila Foundation

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

In India, more than 320 million women do not have access to basic health and hygiene needs like menstrual needs, compelling them to drop out of school and the labor force.More than 250 million Indians do not have access to the internet and have not been able to work from home or attend school during the COVID19 pandemic.  A mere 23% of women are part of the labor force in India today, setting the norms for women too low.There is a lack of data on women living in slum-communities across India. This includes women living in urban slums and rural communities. Additionally, there is a lack of standardised metrics to measure health and employment of women living in informal settlements and women from low-income families across India. Myna Mahila is committed to enable, educate, enhance and empower women from low-income families to take charge of their bodies and prioritize their health so they can be confident, independent and healthy through data-driven and sustainable digitized initiatives.  
 We are empowering women by improving access to health and hygiene products, and shifting health behaviours in the following ways:  1.Myna’s Health Centres: The women-only Myna centers are located in the slum communities, amidst the needy women and children. The centers provide:<ul><li>Education sessions through the Myna Health Education and Empowerment Series (MHEES) which includes sexual reproductive health, diet and nutrition, and mental health</li><li>Access to health and hygiene products like sanitary pads, medicines, etc. </li><li>Tele-health services</li><li>Life skill sessions and vocational training sessions to employ women. </li><li>They also serve as pad production and packaging of sanitary and maternity pad units</li></ul>Hence, women do not need to travel long distances to access health and hygiene products or services and have access to employment opportunities within their communities.2. Women’s Health Product ATMs: The ATMs will have affordable, high quality and locally produced women’s health products on display behind a clear glass pane providing direct and customizable access (as per flow).<ul><li>There will be a TV screen on the ATM that will share educational content and women will have the option to purchase products like a single pad or pad packets as per their need. </li><li>The absence of shopkeepers will grant women the openness to make their own choice while purchasing the product of their choice. This will also help reduce taboos and shame around women’s health in India, which will contribute to safer health practices.</li></ul>Hence, the Women’s Health ATMs will contribute to improvement in overall women’s health. 3.Doorstep access: Our Door to Door model helps us grow our sales networks and create last-mile access. <ul><li>Our pad production women create awareness about women’s health and sell women’s health products. </li><li>They observe the surrounding environment, behavioural traits, and probe accordingly. </li><li>Women go Door to Door and create awareness about women’s health and encourage women that use a cloth, to use pads. Our pad production women guide other women in the slum communities in their neighbourhoods. </li><li>Our women are motivated to address the problem, her basic literacy skills and understanding of the need of this initiative, how comfortable she is to talk about the topic freely, her communication skills and how well she knows the area. </li></ul>The doorstep program generates employment and helps women build life skills like public speaking, data collection, surveying, and sales of women’s health products. Each of these features will be available on the Myna Health Application and Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS). The App and IVRS are one-stop access points to access women's health and hygiene products. The following features will be available through the App and IVRS: <ul><li>Girls will receive education on health and nutrition, sexual and reproductive health, and mental health </li><li>Private consultations to ensure that girls can reach out to a doctor if they are facing any health issues.</li><li>Ability to purchase women’s health products online.</li><li>Women’s Networks (in development): To create a safe space for women and girls to freely talk about their health and hygiene with each other in themed groups. </li></ul> 
 Over the past 5 years, Myna has reached out to over 5,50,000 women at the doorstep in the urban slums of Mumbai. We have changed the menstrual hygiene behavior for a majority of these women across 15 slums. Myna has manufactured 12,96,105 pads and distributed 2,25,300 pads at the doorstep. We have more than a 90% repeat customer rate because of the personalized attention each woman receives. Through our "Sponsor a Girl" program, we have supported more than 4,300 girls to receive menstrual hygiene education and kits since 2018 and more than 8,500 girls and boys through our ‘Teach Menses India’ program. In all, we have more than 10 ongoing projects.Myna is a grassroots based organization, run and managed by its beneficiaries in slums. We are scaling our current reach of 550k women to another 2 Million women and girls from low-income families between the ages of 12 to 45 by 2025. Myna is engaging with girls to improve their health, employment and social outcomes. The shift in behaviours can start from home. We first activate the channels to reach the 2 million women, then we initiate them through education awareness programs to increase adoption of the services provided and then ensure the shift in health behaviours sustainably through digitised initiatives. To measure the shift in health behaviours, we will be tracking the outcome and impact through data captured on the Application and IVRS.

Myna's Mission 2 Million

Myna Mahila Foundation, among other things, creates a network of young female entrepreneurs by partnering with self-help groups in urban slums that produce and distribute high quality, affordable menstrual hygiene products. Through our menstrual hygiene education programmes: Sponsor a Girl and Teach Menses India, we have been instrumental in streamlining adoption of safer menstrual hygiene management practices among underprivileged adolescent girls and women. Currently, we are assisting vulnerable families involved in the informal sector whose primary source of income is dependent on earning daily wages. Each of these families have members living in very close proximity, often in spaces smaller than 25x15sqft - without access to water to maintain basic hygiene. This is unfavorable to the families as COVID-19 is highly contagious. We have identified 600 families from four interior community pockets in the vicinity of our pad production unit. To address food safety, we distributed packed meals to 10000+ individuals. We further expanded the meal pack initiative into a ration distributing programme for coverage of daily meals to shift focus from daily distribution to resources till the end of lockdown period to minimize potential exposure of the disease amongst the staff and the community while collecting the meals. We have reached over to ~300 families through this project.There is a vast need to provide PPE for civilian use as well - the lack of protective materials such as masks, gloves and sanitizers in such dense clusters, where social distancing is not viable at all times, is detrimental to public health. The combined strategy of distribution of essentials, and sensitization will plug any gaps in effective addressal of COVID-19 among underprivileged community pockets. 
 We are adapting our response to COVID-19 by implementing an 8 point plan towards COVID-19 relief:Food/sanitary packet relief: Supporting ~300-600 families daily with ration and sanitary packetsCOVID sensitization: To understand disease prevalence in slums and providing awareness about facts around the disease and their local resources to help them manage it, we are reaching out to ~3,000 women (along with a group of volunteers making the calls post training)Women's Helpline: We have set up a women's helpline in the M-East ward area in Mumbai to record incidents of domestic violence cases, sexual/reproductive health issues, and anything else a woman wants to talk about during these times. Additionally We are alerting our existing beneficiaries and their families (thousands of slum residents) through WhatsApp groups and SMS notifications, about local resources, contact numbers, and tips.Face mask manufacturing and provision: We have a sanitary napkin manufacturing unit and a tailoring boutique that we are repurposing to make face masks and then distributing these masks along with the sanitary kits and to health providersOnline webinars: We have been optimizing our offline education modules and awareness sessions on online platforms to facilitate virtual learning around health and hygiene. Instagram Live and Zoom have been piloted for sessions. Stigma research with local informal health providers and residents: As part of a Stanford research project, we are surveying informal health providers and people around the stigma around COVID and social distancing, and how that is preventing access to care in order to increase local capacity to respond to the health shocks.Disease Surveillance: Data collection among community. This data is inclusive of comprehensive details on prevalence, symptoms, pattern of reporting cases and mortality rates (if any). This will help towards development of a projection structure stemming from a community perspective to understand transmission levels. As a result, community specific strategies can be developed for further adoption currently and in the future. Myna Mahila Mobile Health App: We have launched an app to promote awareness among women and girls on COVID-19 resources and managing periods effectively during the lockdown. 
 We would like to designate this as a pilot-to-permanent programme to expand our reach within the healthcare pipeline revolving around hygiene. At this time, this project will contribute towards relieving the burden from local healthcare networks by enabling reduced transmission at the community level thereby freeing up medical resources and facilities for the treatment of infected COVID-19 patients.

8 point project for COVID- 19 relief

With more than 320 million women in India without access to basic health and hygiene needs like menstrual needs, compelling them to drop out of school and the labour force, Myna Mahila Foundation (MMF) is on a mission to empower women by improving access to health and hygiene products, and shift health behaviours. Women are starting at the -10m mark (on a racetrack) in some of the most vulnerable communities in India. Without starting at 0m along with everyone else, they are compelled to a life with worse health outcomes.  
 Pledge a Period aims to increase access to women’s health related products, create awareness and bring attitudinal change by providing underprivileged girls and women with-<ol><li>Hygiene kit for a month which includes sanitary pads, underwear, face mask, sanitizer </li><li>Paper disposal bags for each pad </li><li>Education and awareness about Menstrual Hygiene provided in these ways:  </li></ol><ul><li>Virtual education through the Myna Mahila Health Application Dispensers for easy access to health and hygiene materials (such as sanitary pads, face masks, etc.) without any shame of having to approach a chemist shopkeeper</li><li> Sensitization Vehicle (Bus/Van) to provide sanitary pads and other hygiene materials for women, education, and awareness</li><li>Address livelihood concerns among the urban slum communities by creating tech-job opportunities </li></ul>4. Safety gear for our field team reach out to women and girls in the remote areas of urban slums 
 Women often lack an enabling environment to prioritize their health, and lack the willingness to shift their health behaviours. The Myna Launchpad works on a three step process : To enable women to have access to menstrual health products through every available means (whether it is at their doorstep, at a nearby chemist shop, at a local Myna centre, ATMs, or through the mobile application and Interactive Voice Recording System (IVRS) on any available mobile device). We first activate the channels to reach the 2 million women, then we initiate them through education awareness programs to increase adoption of the services, and then ensure the shift in health behaviours sustainably.

Myna's Mission 2 Million

8 point project for COVID- 19 relief

Pledge A Period

Help provide shelter, food, clothes and medical support to abandoned widow mothers of Vrindavan. Donate now

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

Help Lalitha to protect vulnerable children from trafficking by moving them to a safe and loving home

Disclaimer