"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.

This Navratri, save abandoned, elderly widow mothers of Vrindavan from begging on streets

“What will happen to them after me? I am 80+. I spend sleepless nights,” worries ex-Air Force officer, Group Captain AC Barua while talking about the future of the 28 destitute women under his care. “They have nobody in this world, sometimes they don’t remember their own names. They are absolutely alone,” he informs us as he goes from one room to the other meeting all the women who live at Seneh, the only home where they are loved and taken care of. After fighting for his country all his life, this octogenarian is now fighting to rescue homeless and abandoned women from dying on the streets. But he cannot do it alone. “Everyday I keep on getting calls from here and there. ‘Oh! there’s a woman lying here. Can you help?’ But I don’t dare to go and help because I don’t have the money. I don’t have the resources, our resources are very limited,” explains Gr. Capt. Barua who is lovingly called ‘Sir’ and ‘Deuta’ (father in Assamese) by the residents of Seneh. With your help, 80-year-old Group Captain Barua can fulfill his mission of rescuing abandoned and homeless women from dying on the streets, alone. Donate nowDonate easily through UPI, all debit/credit cards and net banking. All 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).Seneh- a home filled with love, care and hopeThe residents of Seneh often don’t remember who they are, where they have come from. Many times these are women with mental health conditions and considered being a witch due to superstitious beliefs and beaten up as a result. They are victims of domestic abuse or widow mothers who are considered to be a burden on the family. Group Captain Barua has not only rescued them from critical conditions, he has provided them with urgent medical care, food and above all, a free safe shelter where they can live with love and care. Among these residents is Sarala Kalita who fled to save herself from the tortures of her alcoholic husband only to face neglect and trauma from her brothers- and sisters-in-law. “Both my brothers and their wives urged my father to leave me somewhere as they didn’t want to take care of me anymore. One day my brother’s wife didn’t even let me have food at home. She just wanted me to leave and go away. So that’s why, my father got in touch with Seneh through someone, and handed me over to Sir to take care of me,” says Sarita who has found joy in living at Seneh. “Coming to Seneh, it felt like I got a new life altogether. Sir has given me a harmonium. I love singing. It makes me forget everything and takes me to someplace else entirely,” she adds. More women like Sarala can find their way to a loving home like Seneh. All they need is a little bit of your kindness. “It is difficult to make both ends meet”To sustain their daily expenditure, Capt Barua needs approx ₹3 lakh a month and arranging the funds is a mammoth challenge for the NGO. “Our expenses are growing day by day. Residents are growing older, their sicknesses are increasing. At times we have to give them special food. They require more care so we have to get more employees. About half of them require leading around, 1-2 has to be fed also. It will be very difficult to sustain it unless we get help,” he added. One act of your kindness can save these abandoned women, with no one in this world, from struggling on the streets to survive. At 80+ Gr. Capt. Barua cannot sustain Seneh on his own. “With folded hands, I appeal to all. Please come and please help us. Let us help these people, these old people who have nobody in this world. They are dying. They will die on the streets,” he urged. Donate to this fundraiser by Give.do to support retired Air Force officer, Group Captain Barua in his mission to rescue abandoned and homeless women from dying on the streets.

After fighting for India, former Air Force officer is now fighting to save abandoned women. Help him, donate now

Cattle, bred for profit and abandoned after they stop producing milk, are often found malnourished, injured or sick on city streets. Many face bitter winters, starvation and death in road accidents - a sad fate for cows in a country where they are revered by lakhs of people. To save cows from such a sad end, Swami Ishwar Das started Shree Krishnayan Desi Gaushala, currently home to 18,000+ abandoned cows. But with the rising costs of fodder and medicines, he is struggling to provide the quality of care such mistreated animals deserve. “It was in 2010 when I witnessed abandoned cows from the streets in Uttarakhand being transported in a truck. The cows were administered anesthesia and stacked one above the other like lifeless goods. When me and a few of my acquaintances brought the cows off the truck, two of them died before my eyes and that sight shook me to the core. It was then that I started Shree Krishnayan Gaushala with 11 abandoned cows in a small donated land,” says Swami Ishwar Das.Swami Ishwar Das is unable to bear the rising cost of nutrition and medical care for injured cows and needs support to continue to save these voiceless animals. Donate now. All donations on this platform are tax exempted under 80G of the Income Tax Act (India), &amp; 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (USA).<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/ead01668-6b4d-4a8c-85de-30b43e174f22.JPG" />Every life matters“Here at Shree Krishnayan Desi Gaushala, it is our resolve to leave no stone unturned in caring for helpless cows. No matter what the cost of treatment may be, we make every possible effort to aid ill and injured cows. Our only objective is that a cow should not lose its life for the want of medical care, food or water,” says Swami Ishwar Das. In order to provide the best quality of care and treatment to its adopted cattle, three well trained veterinary doctors attend the gaushala 24/4. The NGO - Shree Krishnayan Desi Gauraksha Avam Golokdham Seva Samiti - spares no expense in providing nutrition either. From jaggery and grains to a healthy mix of green and dry fodder, cows are given meals best suited to their needs.With cost of fodder on rise the Gaushala needs help<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/93e7eafe-4438-40d6-ae40-6972feaf0988.jpg" />Swami Ishwar Das and his team, however, are struggling to keep up with rising costs of nutrition and medical care for cows. “The cost of fodder has risen by almost three times in the last couple of years. From food to medicines everything has become expensive. And we will never compromise with the quality of care and love that we want to give to our cows,” says Swami Ishwar Das. Help Swami Ishwar Das provide the best care and love to abandoned cows while saving them from a desperate life of starvation and suffering on the streets.

Help Swami Ishwar Das rescue cows on roads, abandoned as they no longer produce milk

This is a sample description for Community & Rural Development. For the purpose of testing I will use the word Community & Rural DevelopmentCommunity & Rural DevelopmentCommunity & Rural Development.

Community & Rural Development

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

Environment

swaYYam is a not-for-profit registered as a Trust in 2011 with the Government of India. The project area is based in Yelachatti next to the Bandipur forest. Swayyam works with small and marginal farmers in and around Gundlupet in Chamrajnagar district of Karnataka, India.We believe that insecurities of food, shelter and income contribute to a downward spiral for marginalized groups, rural populations and the urban poor. swaYYam aims to maintain the integrity of the local ecology – social and environmental – and integrate sustainability into every decision.  Our mission is to build resilient local communities by increasing capacities for self-reliance. At the root of our work is an effort to preserve and promote practices that highlight the best of humanity and allow for the natural productivity of the Earth. Using strategies that are harmonious with nature, we build resilient systems for creating a shared abundance. Swayyam’s first project, Open Shell Farm (OSF) started in 2014 is next to the Bandipur Tiger Reserve. It is a 5-acre Demonstration Site for Climate Resilient Regenerative Design using Permaculture and Agroecology principles. Today, this denuded and overgrazed land is a biodiverse, productive and thriving food forest of over 5000 trees and a habitat for a multitude of other life forms and providing for over 70% of the food needs of its residents. The water harvesting earthworks have raised the water table that renewed the defunct open well, which was the only source of drinking water for the village.  Having seen the results at OSF and during the drought year of 2016 we launched the 1000 Tree project in the region to enable farmers to reclaim their abandoned farmlands.The 1000 Tree Project is a holistic Framework that integrates long-term solutions including water management, soil building, land planning and livelihood creation using Tree-based Agroforestry and polyculture systems. The project supports small groups of marginal farmers with a minimum of four farmers including at least one-woman farmer. We seek to establish food, fodder and livelihood security for the marginal farmers through a cooperative model. This, in turn, we hope, will reduce the stress on the adjacent fragile forest ecosystem. Our approach has been to crowd-fund 75% of the costs while the farmer bears 25% which in turn is a commitment to the cause.62 acres of degraded land of over 16 farmer families have been reclaimed so far. With the establishment of the Swayyam Community Centre, we seek to expand our work to a central location in Gundlupet. It includes food processing capacities, a community nursery, a tool bank and a residential farm school for the local youth.The primary beneficiaries are marginal farmers including local women and youth in need of educational and economic opportunities. We believe our future rests in very localized exchanges of labour and products and depends on the preservation of age-old practices and knowledge regarding the sustained production of nutritious food, the construction of reliable shelter from local materials and the sharing of culture through art.

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Swayyam

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.

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Gundlupet is a town in the Chamarajanagar district, with 191 villages and 31 panchayats (local governance bodies) with a population of 200,000+ as per the census in 2011.Many small farmers have abandoned their farmlands in this region due to low yields caused by high inputs costs, poor farming techniques, low groundwater levels, and climate change induced erratic weather patterns making farming unsustainable. Only 13% continue farming while 68% are into manual labour.Since 2014, swaYYam has been working with small and marginal farmers in this region to reclaim their abandoned farmlands through a system of agroforestry and permaculture to ensure food, fodder and livelihood security for them. Despite better yields due to improved farming techniques the farmers continue to struggle with market access and better prices for their produce. The farmers are thus forced to sell them at a throw-away price to the wholesale markets or worse still to the middleman. Storing the produce adds to the warehousing costs. 
 <ul><li>Swayyam proposes to set up a Community Centre that will host food processing equipment such as a millet mill to dehull, grade, destone, dehydrators, oil mill, hammer mill for spices, flour mill etc to help the farmers increase the shelf life of their produce. We intend to create a marketplace for sharing and trading surplus produce within the community to support food security and help build markets for Value-Added Products</li><li>Create a plant nursery for timber, fodder, fruit and medicinal plant saplings.</li><li>Start a Seed Bank to provide easy access to high-quality seeds, especially local varieties.</li><li>Build an education centre with a Residential Farming School to train local youth to be employment ready.</li></ul>Our confidence to expand the scope comes from the pilot projects executed while working in the community building, cultivating 60+ acres of arid land and workshops and training programs executed in the areas of permaculture and regenerative design. 
 <ul><li>191 Villages to be benefited and impacted. </li><li>Improve nutrition and health of the population in the region</li><li>A farm store will offer both produce and value-added products from the community</li><li>Direct sale removes middlemen and price controls on the produce.</li><li>Build capacity to create Value-Add products and enhance income generation opportunities for farmers adopting polyculture</li><li>Improved income potential and market reach for local farmers</li><li>Establish a nursery to provide Fruit, Timber, Fodder and Medicinal saplings 1000 Tree Project's plantations and bring the costs down by 20%</li><li>Revive at least 10 millets and dicot seeds, and revive oilseeds and pulses native to the region. This will capacitate local farmers with native and local heirloom seeds (non-hybrid/non-GMO) with the objective of making the farmers self-sustaining</li><li>By Year 3, train 100+ youth with knowledge and principles of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management through workshops and hands-on experiential learning. This would stem urban migration and make the youth job ready</li><li>By Year 5,1000 acres of farmland transformed to Tree based agriculture, impacting over 300 farmers in the Gundlupet region</li></ul>

Swayyam Community Centre for Marginal Farmers

Climate change, erratic weather patterns, and changes in rainfall volumes and frequencies have all made livelihoods and fodder availability uncertain. This in turn creates a downward spiral of further depletion of natural resources and quality of life – over-extraction of groundwater, deforestation, soil erosion, chemical farming polluting the water bodies downstream for wildlife, increased dependency on fragile forest systems for fuelwood and livelihood, and ultimately the loss of the valuable wisdom of farming communities to regenerate land through rural migration. Gundlupet is a town in Chamarajanagar district, with 191 villages and 31 panchayats (local governance bodies) with a population of 200,000+ as per the census in 2011. Only 13% continue farming while 68% are into manual labour. In 2016, a severe drought caused marginal farmers in this region to lose 80% of their cattle and most of their crops.1000 Tree Project framework was created to avoid another such tragedy. 
 Swayyam’s flagship project takes a holistic approach that provides livelihood security through cooperative farming.The 1000 Tree Project is a Regenerative design strategy using Permaculture and Agroecology principles that support :- Small groups of marginal farmers with a minimum of 4 farmers - Including at least 1 woman farmer - On 10 or more connected acres in a cooperative endeavour- Each such collective begins with support to acquire fencing to prevent overgrazing and protect saplings- Water harvesting earthworks to harvest rainwater and improve groundwater levels- Planting drought-tolerant native crop seeds, high-quality tree saplings- Assistance with planting plans and improved tree planting techniques.   
 - Support 30 Farmer Families- Prevent these farmers from becoming landless- Ensure food, fodder, livelihood and seed security- Reclaim abandoned farmlands- Enhance biodiversity- Create a wildlife habitat- Reduce stress on the forest ecosystem- Increase Forest Cover- Increase water infiltration through rainwater harvesting- Raising Groundwater Tables - Building soil health  - Prevent rural migration

Swayyam Community Centre for Marginal Farmers

Restoration of 100 Acres of abandoned farmlands with 30,000 Trees

This Navratri, save abandoned, elderly widow mothers of Vrindavan from begging on streets

After fighting for India, former Air Force officer is now fighting to save abandoned women. Help him, donate now

Help Swami Ishwar Das rescue cows on roads, abandoned as they no longer produce milk

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