"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

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

“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.

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 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 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 Hunger & HomelessnessHunger & HomelessnessHunger & Homelessness.

Hunger & Homelessness

This is a sample description for Disaster Relief. For the purpose of testing I will use the wordDisaster ReliefDisaster ReliefDisaster Relief.

Disaster Relief

My Choices Foundation is committed to giving women and girls the choices to live lives free from abuse, violence and exploitation. We accomplish this through two main initiatives addressing two of the most prevalent and intractable issues in India: domestic violence through Operation PeaceMaker and child trafficking through Operation Red Alert.Operation PeaceMaker aims to stop domestic violence by training and employing local women called PeaceMakers to work within their own communities providing counselling, rights education and legal aid to create meaningful change in the lives of victims and their families. Our PeaceMakers and counsellors have helped over 8,000 families resolve cases of domestic abuse, and have invested over 100,000 field hours supporting victims and their families to break the cycle of abuse and transform communities.Operation Red Alert works to end large scale sex trafficking in India by 2025 through leading the prevention-based awareness programs. Operation Red Alert has reached over 2,380,000 people in over 4,200 villages in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and West Bengal with the Safe Village Program. The Safe Village program has distributed over 1,168,000 comic books and is backed up by a national helpline (1800 419 8588) which has received over 37,800 calls for help from trafficking, child marriage and other issues.

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

Shirley Bobby

My Choices 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.

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

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

Millions of children are trafficked in India each year. According to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, trafficked children are used for prostitution, forced into marriage, illegally adopted, used as cheap or unpaid labour, used for sport, and used for organ harvesting.But most are forced into prostitution, usually after having been kidnapped and coerced into sexual slavery on promises of schooling, jobs or marriage. There are millions of people in prostitution in India - and an estimated 40% of them are children. They are held captive in brothels against their will where they are beaten and sexually exploited, and suffer from communicable diseases and even death.Globally, 98% of sex slaves are women and girls; only 1% of these girls will be rescued. 
 From 2014, Operation Red Alert of My Choices Foundation has been working to end sex trafficking in India by preventing girls from ever entering it, i.e. the prevention model. We built relationships with NGOs in the field, listened to their concerns about the gaps in the national response, and conducted landmark research into compulsions behind the behaviour of men who buy and sell girls for sex. Based on this award winning research, we developed the Safe Village Program with messages that inspires lasting change.Our Safe Village Program has been designed to help people at all literacy levels understand human trafficking and prevent it from happening in their village. We designed a comic book, available in the local language of each area we work in, to provide education on human trafficking, and information on how to report any case that arises. It is a powerful tool for education, awareness, and action. We aim to educate every key stakeholder living in high-risk villages in India on how to identify and prevent human trafficking, and thereby transform thousands of villages in India into “Safe Villages”.Operation Red Alert founded and operates the Red Alert Helpline (1800 419 8588), which is the only national helpline dedicated to responding to cases of human trafficking. 
 Operation Red Alert, through its work, has created more than 4,400 “Safe Villages” in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Our Anti Trafficking Helpline has received over 45,000 phone calls from across the country.Every day we receive stories of people from safe villages calling our helpline not just to report about possible traffickers but also to inform us about child marriages and missing persons cases. Operation Red Alert then coordinates with its strong network of partners and police to follow up on the reported cases.With your help, Operation Red Alert can continue to reach villages to educate children (and their parents) on the signs and dangers of trafficking to ensure that our girls remain safe.

Ending Large Scale Sex Trafficking in India

Adolescent girls are the most vulnerable group in our society. India has been labeled the most dangerous place on earth to be born a girl because of the neglect and discrimination they face throughout their life. There are a multitude of barriers to their personal and professional happiness and life opportunities such as lack of education, gender discrimination, early marriage, domestic violence and sexual abuse to name a few. Simply put, they do not have equal opportunity to access their own human rights.One of the biggest challenges that adolescent girls face in India is early marriage. In India, 47% of girls are married before the age of 18, and 22% of women between the ages of 22-24 years old have had a child before the age of 18. Girls who get married early are most likely to drop out of school, face domestic violence, and have high risk pregnancies. Early marriage also leaves girls unprepared for child rearing, and helps perpetuate a cycle of vulnerability for future generations. 
 Shakti is a long-term (12 - 15 month) mentorship program for girls journeying through adolescence. They face harsh realities, and usually have no one to turn to that will help them solve their problems. Through Shakti we will implement a multifold approach in helping girls, where girls are: connected to a peer network; supported and empowered to recognise risk and develop strategies to resist pressures of child marriage, dangerous work, and being pulled out of school; provided access to services; trained to negotiate for themselves and develop healthy relationships; supported to articulate aspirations and take steps towards achieving their life goals. The peer network that provides the girls a safe space to talk about their lives is the foundation of the Shakti program.The Shakti program holds adolescent girl’s safety as the utmost priority. The goal is to target some of the most difficult areas to support, and empower children, families, communities and government authorities to recognize the risks for violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect and exclusion from services that children face and to know how to prevent them. 
 Each Shakti Circle identifies 1 top community safety issue and develops a Community Project to address it. Shakti Leaders work with the girls to establish the necessary support from local service providers, government, and police to complete the project and achieve the girls’ safety goals. Shakti empowers the girls to firstly identify what is making their community unsafe, and helping them work together to make it safer.The girls coming for Shakti are completely aware of all the dangers surrounding them. They know about trafficking, they know about the frustrations of getting married young, about sexual abuse, about being harassed by men. What they want from us is the tools and the skills to tackle these perils. They want to know how to be assertive, how to refuse, how to stand up for themselves and the other girls around them.The support available through Shakti Circles for young girls, with education on self development enables them to take control of their lives. Parents of Shakti girls likewise benefit from awareness about the various government support programs and schemes that relieve the burden on parents trying to make their daughters’ bright futures possible.

SuperSmart Shakti Girls Safety Network

In India, it is estimated that 1 in 3 women face domestic violence. Most women do not speak about abuse as fear has been planted in their minds and they do not have the resources to support them. Most women facing abuse are either financially or emotionally dependent on their abusive partner and this makes it impossible to escape the abuse. While the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 mandates protection through shelter homes, they are oftentimes overcrowded. Without access to shelter homes or financial and legal aid, women are forced to continue facing abuse. 
 It has been proven through multiple studies that domestic violence shelters address compelling needs that survivors cannot meet elsewhere. They provide a complex array of services to victims of abuse and their children - safety, information, help with children and emotional distress. While My Choices Foundation has been providing counselling and legal services to women facing abuse, the Lotus Safe Home provides a loving, peaceful and safe environment for women and children in crisis.  
 With access to a shelter home which nourishes and supports women and children in crisis, the women will be able to transform themselves from victims to survivors of domestic violence. As a survivor, she would have reclaimed the agency in her life and have the capacity to support people who are dependant on her. She would have made the choice to be free from abuse and follow the path she has chosen for herself. The Lotus Safe Home will enable the transformation of thousands of such survivors.

Safe Home for Survivors of Domestic Violence

There is widespread domestic violence within our varied people-groups in India. While official statistics point to an estimated 20,00,00,000 women (i.e. 31.1% of women in India) who experience domestic violence, this number is restricted to married women in the 15-49 age group only, and the number of unreported cases of domestic violence is staggeringly higher.* In addition to domestic violence, many women in India still endure fear and violence under practices such as dowry harassment/death, honour killings, and sati or widow-burning, even in the twenty-first century. Women and girls in urban and rural India suffer violence in the form of verbal, physical, sexual, financial and emotional abuse by men who are their spouses or biological relatives. The hesitation or reluctance to come forward with complaints of violence and abuse stems from the common view that domestic violence is an accepted form of behaviour in the patriarchal home, and this makes women in our country more vulnerable and susceptible to violence. *National Family Health Survey 2015-2016 (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India) 
 Operation PeaceMaker of My Choices Foundation has multiple intervention and prevention strategies to address the problem of gender-based violence. The core of Operation PeaceMaker are the PeaceMakers. PeaceMakers are local women trained by us to be paralegal workers who will go on to educate women and children on their rights, and prevent abuse by running awareness workshops. The PeaceMakers and other program staff conduct a variety of short term and long term awareness workshops in schools, colleges, communities and corporate offices.  We have 5 counselling centres in Telangana which provide free support to victims of domestic violence through qualified counsellors and lawyers. When required, they serve as the mediator between the woman (client) and the police and courts if the issue requires legal attention. Operation PeaceMaker focuses on men as the solution rather than the problem. In addressing domestic violence, Operation PeaceMaker has built a team of good men who are examples that breaking the cycle of abuse is possible. Operation PeaceMaker’s counsellors and case workers are trained to counsel men with equal empathy and equal determination, knowing that if men do not become a willing part of the change, then the abuse will only continue. 
 We have trained over 232 PeaceMakers and run 5 support and counselling centres which have resolved over 8,000 cases of domestic violence and abuse. Our 232 PeaceMakers, who have been trained over a span of 5 years, and have reached out to over 71,000 women and 45,000 children to educate them about violence against women and children, gender equality, and empowerment.  Each PeaceMaker provides services to around 50 families each year. That's 50 women living free from abuse and violence, 50 perpetrators who have re-learned what it means to be part of the solution, and 50 families who have discovered the peace that homes deserve. Crucially, it also means 50 homes in which children are growing up learning that violence is never acceptable. It is important that our solution to these problems is adaptable to the local women in the community, feasible, sustainable and relief-based while respecting religious and community sentiments. Importantly, the solution should respect the choice of the woman.