"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

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

In the dark and dingy alleys of red light areas, injustice, pain and suffering run rampant. And the worst affected are the children who grow up in red-light areas and are subjected to constant abuse and violence. “The sight of a 12-year-old girl being gang-raped by a group of men near a house l haunts me to this date. I was filled with anguish and resolved to do something,” says Girish Kulkarni who has made it his life’s mission to rescue children from red light areas and give them a safe and secure childhood. In the last 3 decades Girish has saved over 1100 girls from a life of abuse in red-light areas, giving them a loving home, education and medical care. He has further supported over 20,000 children with a better life.Sadly, 250 of the children rescued from abuse and exploitation are HIV positive. The high cost of medication has left Girish struggling for funds. Your support can help him provide these children with 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), &amp; 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (USA). A movement to protect vulnerable children“Growing up in Ahmednagar, the experiences I had as a child witnessing the horrors of sex trade defined the path of my life. I had even seen my friend’s 15-year-old sister and 70-year-old grandmother being forced to do sex work for the price of a cup of tea”, recalls Girish. “I started by merely feeding and teaching children of sex workers initially with the intention of giving them some respite from the horrors of life of abuse in red-light areas. Gradually more and more mothers started coming to me and asked me to take their children away, even if it was just for a couple of hours,” he further adds.The work that Girish started in his youth gradually grew to become a movement, with many more joining his cause. His NGO Snehalaya to date has transformed the lives of millions. Girish’s work is crucial for the survival and safety of vulnerable children of sex workers. Snehalaya is almost entirely dependent on donations from the public and your support can strengthen his mission to save children most in need. Donate generously.The horrors of life in red light areas“The cruelty and abuse that children as young as 6 or 7 years of age face is something that I can’t explain in words. Young daughters of sex workers are made to watch their mothers being raped, are brutally assaulted and forced into sex work. No child deserves to grow like this, Girish says in anguish.Sad reality of life for children growing up in red light areas is that they are deprived of even the most basic needs like proper food, safety and education. Moreover, a majority of children rescued by Girish are diagnosed HIV positive. The task of securing medication, providing them quality education and much needed nutrition is one that requires constant support from donors. Moreover, the increase in healthcare cost has left Girish struggling to keep his home for children going. But your support can enable him to give his children a loving environment and save many more who still remain trapped behind closed doors.Donate to this fundraiser by Give, India’s largest and most trusted online donation platform, to help Snehalaya give hundreds of children rescued from red-light areas a life away from violence and abuse.

Help Girish give 250 HIV+ children, rescued from abuse in red-light areas a new life

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 Environment For the purpose of testing I will use the word Hunger & HomelessnessHunger & HomelessnessHunger & Homelessness.

Hunger & Homelessness

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

Human Rights

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Healthcare

Railway Children (RC) is an international non-profit organization, working in India since 1996. In 2013, Railway Children India (RCI) was established to scale and sustain the impact of this work and respond to the issues of children arriving at and around the railway stations of India. RCI is registered as a non-profit under Section 8 of the Companies Act. It is also registered under the NGO DARPAN maintained by the NITI Aayog, Government of India.

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

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

S Navin Sellaraju

Anju Kwatra

Deb Chattopadhyay

Pranavi

Amarjeet Singh

Railway Children India

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.

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

Raghav Menon

Our heartfelt gratitude for our selfless donors. Check out what we do with your money below. How Your Donations HelpYour support empowers RCI to extend their reach and enhance their efforts. Here's what your donations contribute to: <ul><li>Immediate Rescue Operations: Swift action to take children out of harm's way, providing them with safe shelter.</li><li>Critical Care Services: Access to psychosocial support, medical treatment, and counseling to help children recover from trauma.</li><li>Family Reunification: Efforts to locate and reunite children with their families, restoring their safety net and continuity in their lives.</li></ul> Despite our achievements, the challenges remain daunting. The scope of our mission to protect every child at risk at railway stations demands constant vigilance and resources. RCI's 24-hour outreach teams are vital, but without sufficient funding, many children may not receive the help they need in time. We rely on the generosity of donors like you to sustain and expand our life-saving work. With increased funding, we can ensure that more children are saved from the dangers of street life and are given a chance to reclaim their childhood. <a href="https://youtu.be/UQSDjjWD-q8" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(231, 66, 75);">Click this link</a> to see a small glimpse of the alternate future provided to these innocent kids. Donate Now | Protect a Child Today

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1. Children leaving homes are extremely vulnerable— the longer a child or adolescent is missing, the greater the risk they face. Railway Children India (RCI) believes that ‘children leaving homes or situations of abuse, violence, and poverty use India's extensive railway network to get to the cities, where they hope to find a better life.2. Every 5 minutes, a child arrives alone at a railway station in India. The survey conducted by RCI in 2015 indicates that 121,860 children are arriving at and around 32 stations across all 16 Railway Zones every year”. These children constantly face all sorts of risks, even death, while living at and around a railway station3. Analysis of data of CWCs (2009 -2014) in Delhi, 2015 found that out of 29281 children, 13 % of children arrived from Uttar Pradesh. Often children traveling from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh by trains to Delhi pass through/halt at Ghaziabad. Ghaziabad junction is also being used by traffickers as an entry point to Delhi. Hence, Ghaziabad should be an important point of outreach as almost all the trains to Delhi halt at Ghaziabad railway station. 
 Recognizing the severity of the issue, Railway Children India (RCI) has started working at Ghaziabad Railway station in January 2018. Through this intervention, a 24 *7 outreach is done, where the children who are alone and are at risk are identified within 25 minutes of their reaching the station and brought under the safety net. From January 2018 to December 2018, we have protected 546 children, out of which, 336 children were supported through the open shelter. Over the next five years, we aim to project 2160 more such children and sustainably restore them back eight to their families or long care homes. 
 - To reach out to 2160 children arriving alone and at-risk at and around Ghaziabad railway station and sustainably rehabilitate 1728 children either to their families (70%) or long care homes (10%) by 2020.- To provide need-based counseling, support for de-addiction (2% of the protected children), and re-enroll them back into schools (25% of the restored children).- To follow up with rehabilitated children to see that the conditions that were responsible for children leaving home do not occur again, implies family strengthening programs.

Send a child home

Reaching Street-Connected Children We see street-connected every day, living under the bridge, working at a nearby garbage dump, selling toys on the local train, or washing a car at the traffic signal. They are in every corner of our country, yet invisible to many.  An estimated 18 million children live on the streets in India, home to one of the largest child populations in the world. Hundreds of thousands of street-connected children pass through transport terminals as they try to escape conflict, abuse, poverty, and trauma. For many, public transport represents opportunity and the chance of a new start but the dangers they end up facing can be far worse than the problems they left behind.  It can also make the ideal hunting ground for predators, gangs, and criminals seeking to exploit and abuse vulnerable children. Reaching out to these children as early as possible while they are in a moving train or after they arrive at a bus or railway station is crucial for their protection, restoration, and rehabilitation.  We aim to prevent children from slipping into a life on the street and suffering all the harm and abuse we know that this can bring. 
 Preventing children from taking to a life on the streets At Railway Children India, we work to ensure that ‘No child ever has to live on the streets’. Every child deserves protection, the right to a nurturing family environment, education, and the chance to fulfill their potential. We continue to strengthen these safety nets with:• Outreach workers• Child Help Desks• Child Protection Stakeholders• Railway Officials and workers And by working with others such as Social Welfare Officers, Community Teachers, older children, Community Champions, and Police to keep children safe and protected. 
 How YOU can help us protect more children Over the last 25 years, we have protected more than 100,000 children across 35 railway stations. We continue to work to find the best solutions and practices to break the cycle of abuse, neglect, and family breakdown and keep children SAFE for good. We develop safety nets for the most vulnerable of children before, during, and after they are lost to the streets. Whether it is our outreach workers, rail workers being our eyes and ears, or community workers, their focus is on providing a safe environment for children to survive and thrive. Please help make more children feel safe.

You can keep street-connected children SAFE

What happens when children lose their way back home, face abuse, and starvation, and land up at busy railway stations? They are faced with dangerous situations, fall into the hands of abusers, and are at high risk of getting lost forever. <img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/0e6a4478-05da-414c-bb63-6aa3d7cb1572.jpg" />When little Vijay couldn’t find his way home he ended up working at a hotel where he was abused every day till he thought of running away and followed the railway route to Ghaziabad railway station. He could have also landed up in the hands of dangerous abusers and lost his way forever, but our 24*7 network of outreach volunteers saved Vijay. We tracked his village and reunited Vijay with his family after 7 years of leaving his home.Lost children of India“Every 5 minutes, children like Vijay take railway routes and arrive alone in India’s railway stations and are at risk at a railway platform. While less than 50% of them are found, rescued or united with their family… the rest fall into the hands of abusers - where they either get trafficked, sexually exploited, die or disappear forever”<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/9aedb3b7-f1a1-4af2-ab30-42c23089ee55.jpg" /> 
 Intervention before exploitationRailway Children India’s 24 hrs outreach teams recognize children who are alone and at risk at railway stations and send them to shelter homes that provide short-term accommodation for children with nowhere safe to stay and long-term care for those whose families couldn’t be tracked. These children are provided psychosocial support to help them recover from the trauma, medical assistance, education, and vocational training until they trace their families.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/598a0351-82d6-46dd-b550-4dae1d78c882.jpg" /> 
 But we cannot do it alone“We rescue around 1300 children every month. Especially during the lockdowns, the cases of runaway kids had soared with most of them between the age of 12 to 16 years - which has increased the urgency for rescue and protection. The sooner we reach these children, the higher the chances of rescuing them from exploiters and traffickers.  But to do that we need your support.” <img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/5a685bd9-8dba-4720-ae7e-10b60caf522c.jpg" />We spend around ₹60 Lakhs annually through our Child Help Desk and Open Shelters in each location. With growing numbers of lost and runaway children, we are in dire need to continue our work and are looking for financial support. Your support will help us save thousands of children from the streets and from the hands of abusers and reunite with their families” - NavinReunite lost children with their families, and give them a better lifeYour contribution can lead India’s railway children back to the safety of their homes and also provide them with trauma counselling, nutrition, education, and shelter. Don’t let them disappear forever, donate now.

Rescue lost children on railway platforms from abuse, starvation and trafficking and Save Tax

Every 5 minutes, a child arrives alone at a railway station in India. The survey conducted by RCI in 2015 indicates that 121,860 children are arriving at and around 32 stations across all 16 Railway Zones every year. These children constantly face all sorts of risks, even death, while living at and around a railway station. Ghaziabad Railway station is part of Northern Railway. It is estimated that 3-4 children arrive alone and at-risk every day. A recent baseline study confirmed that a majority of children are coming from Katihar district of Bihar (50 %) followed by UP (28.6 %) and West Bengal (14.3%). These children migrate unsafely from these states to Delhi for various reason like attraction to cities, employment and peer group influence, deciding to leave families due to abuse situation using trains in their travel.Children travelling from Bihar, UP, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh by trains into Delhi pass through/halt at Ghaziabad. This junction is also being used by traffickers as an entry point to Delhi. Hence Ghaziabad is an important point of outreach as almost all the trains to Delhi halt at this station 
 Recognizing the severity of the issue, Railway Children India (RCI) has started working at Ghaziabad Railway station in January 2018 Through this intervention, a 24 *7 outreach is done where children alone and at risk are identified within 25 minutes of their reaching the station and brought under the safety net. Since January 2018 to December 2018, we have protected 546 children out of which 336 children supported through the open shelter. Over the next five years, we aim to project 2160 more such children and sustainable restore them back eight to their families or long care homes. - Reach out to 2160 children arriving alone and at-risk at and around Ghaziabad railway station and sustainably rehabilitate 1728 children either to their families (70%) and long care home (10%) by 2020.- Provide need-based counselling, support for de-addiction (2% of the protected children) and re-enroll them back into schools (25% of the restored children).- Follow up with rehabilitated children to see that the conditions that were responsible for children leaving home do not occur again, imply family strengthening programmes. 
 •	8148 Children have been protected from June 2017 to November 2018.•	5680 children have been reunited with their families. •	303 children have been restored to a Long term care home.•	4753 children have been enabled access to formal education 	•	567 youth have been linked with vocational training	•	187 children received de-addiction support services 	•	1497 vulnerable families have been linked to Social Protection Schemes•	14747 Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force personnel have been trained on child protection issues.