"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

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

Skilling, Higher Education, Employment, Agency

Women Empowerment

At Sajhe Sapne, we skill train young rural women from marginalised groups to improve their social and financial powers. We do this by running a residential/ non-residential program for women where they get skilled in Entrepreneurial Mindset.

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

Muskaan

SAJHE SAPNE FOUNDATION

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.

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

<a href="https://sajhesapne.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Sajhe Sapne</a> innovates for young rural women's freedom.Our next big bold bet - shift gender norms in Bundelkhand. Bundelkhand is rich in culture but marked by terrible gender inequality.Join the क़ाबिल कमाऊ कामयाब movement for rural women in Bundelkhand to #LearnEarnExcel.Donate TODAY! (Read on to learn more)<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8KMDF2mIXcQ?showinfo=0"></iframe>About Sajhe Sapne:<a href="https://sajhesapne.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Sajhe Sapne</a> innovates for young rural women's freedom.We are chasing a big &amp; under-researched question :How to ensure rural women have a real choice of a thriving career after 12th?India has a crisis of not believing in its rural women.Most of the 80M young rural women have no career dreams. Those who do, don’t have a clear path to chase them. 70% are forced into subsistence-based livelihoods.Ecosystem that provides high paying jobs is non-existent for rural women.We are creating a women’s movement that lets rural women dream.Innovations Overview:In the last 4 yrs, our innovations have focused on shifting mindset from "livelihoods" to long-term "career pathways" amongst young rural women.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/6d8e477f-5764-4118-8245-1c35126b6a67.webp" />Results Overview:Our small-scale pilots have been a success.Year after year, we have seen young rural women becoming confident professionals instead of teen brides.They are earning more than men around them, delaying marriages, earning steadily &amp; becoming. decision makers in the family.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/0f40caa9-7e97-4f90-9d36-e71dbb73380c.webp" />BIG Lessons:Four years of experiments showed us how much innovation is lacking for rural women. The two things that we have discovered as make-break for our work:Make: When a critical mass of young women earn steadily at least for a year, it starts shifting gender norms in that region.Break: Women's freedom can't sustain without collectivising influencers in their life such as family, government &amp; markets.A new impact equation emerged:<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/c0c36f73-7c00-4643-84cd-1b57d30f2eb0.webp" />To test this equation at scale, we want to kickstart the क़ाबिल कमाऊ कामयाब movement in Bundelkhand - a region with troubling gender inequality indicators.The aim is to create a critical mass of rural women in Bundelkhand getting into steady workforce post 12th grade.With the funds in this campaign, we hope to do the following activities:<ol><li> Village Level: Establish at least three centers to test replicability of our model.</li><li>District Level: Host at least one सामूहिक सपना समेल्लन in two districts to celebrate village clusters &amp; businesses opening doors for rural women.</li><li>State Level: Improve rural women's participation in government employment schemes such as PM Internship Scheme.</li></ol>If all goes well, we hope to see three key results over the years:<ol><li>% increase of rural women getting into steady workforce after finishing 12th.</li><li>% increase for villages where women's marriages are delayed at least by 2 yrs</li><li>% increase for businesses who are actively hiring rural women.</li></ol>These three norms shifts in the system make rural women क़ाबिल कमाऊ कामयाब.As Sajhe Sapne makes this big bold bet, we are counting on you to help us experiment, fail, &amp; discover.Every donation counts. Every shoutout matters.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/5ff94dfe-4d0e-4f96-a560-d6c4b3f31c9f.webp" />-----------------------------------------------------------To get a glimpse of Sajhe's world, please check our <a href="sajhesapne.org" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">website</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sapnewaali/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">instagram</a> &amp; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2YOf3houhn92YC2JsNhHxw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">youtube</a>.Or reach out to us, sapnewaalis@gmail.com

Launch Careers of Rural Women क़ाबिल.कमाऊ.कामयाब

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

Help Lalitha give kids rescued from abuse in red-light areas a safe and loving home. Donate now.

Help Manju rescue young sex trafficking victims. Donate now

Disclaimer