"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

This Navratri, help Lalitha give kids rescued from abuse in red-light areas a safe and loving home. Donate now.

“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

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 Women Empowerment. For the purpose of testing I will use the word Women EmpowermentWomen EmpowermentWomen Empowerment.

Women Empowerment

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

Disaster Relief

This is a sample description for Environment For the purpose of testing I will use the word Hunger & HomelessnessHunger & HomelessnessHunger & Homelessness.

Hunger & Homelessness

Established in April 1990, Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi, popularly known by its acronym RGVN, was established as an autonomous, non-profit organisation / non-government organisation (NGO), and is registered under the Society’s Registration Act of 1860 with its headquarters in Guwahati, Assam. RGVN’s founding sponsor, IFCI Ltd., provided the initial set-up support and with time, IDBI, NABARD and Tata Social Welfare Trust (TSWT) became its sponsors. In 2010, RGVN’s CSP programme was hived off to form RGVN (NE) MF Ltd. which is now the NESFB.RGVN is a national level multi-state development and support organization working in the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar. After expanding operations in the North-East, development activities were also extended to the poverty stricken pockets of Chhattisgarh, eastern Uttar Pradesh and coastal Andhra Pradesh.Over time, RGVN has been able to groom and support small community based organisations involved in a variety of livelihood enhancement programmes. RGVN’s core strength comes from its network of NGOs, community based organisations and self-help groups, a number of which have now grown and are capable of handling large development projects. RGVN operates through its regional offices based out of Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Patna and Raipur.

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

Utpal Goswami

Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi

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.

Nupur Ramchandani

My heartiest heartiest gratitude to all you amazing and wonderful people out there who supported this fundraiser. I feel really happy to inform you all that with your support the women were able to retain their machines and sustain their business. They continue to manufacture and supply their eco-friendly cutlery across the region. And your help made it all possible.Gratitude and blessings to you!

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We are a non-profit organisation, working in parts of rural Assam in fields of sustainable livelihood, child rights, financial literacy, etc. Our intervention areas in Morigaon and other close-by regions have been thoroughly affected by floods, with our last-mile partners, community members, their families and neighbourhoods facing a severe shortage of essential items. Markets have been rendered inaccessible, and there has been loss of life and property for many of the community members we directly work with, as well as other members of the community. The community members are still at a high risk of losing their lives and property, and susceptible to diseases such as the Japanese Encephalitis if their needs are not met. In Morigaon, which is the second-most affected district in this year’s floods, more than 200 villages and more than 1,00,000 households get affected by every year by the floods. As per DONER ministry records, Morigaon district loses more than 1000 hectares of land every year to flood and erosion.Gagalmari, ShukutiputaHabi and Tikhabori are the three villages under Mayong Block where RGVN’s MoiPragati programme is being carried out. All these villages are flood affected, and they are in dire need of emergency items. 
 A brief survey has been done by us in these villages and the need for the following items was identified: 1.	Baby Food 2.	Biscuits3.	Cattle Feed 4.	Candles 5.	Mosquito Nets6.	Buckets7.	Mosquito Repellent8.	Glucose 9.	Water10.	SoapOur plan of action to help with the disaster: 1)	Collect the above items deposited by donors at a collection point set up in our office building premises; 2)	Use the funding to purchase the above items. An estimated budget has been created, after identifying the proportional need of these items;3)	Use our network of community leaders and the local government under the MoiPragati programme in these villages for identification of beneficiaries and aid in the distribution process; 4) Set up a committee with local stakeholders who shall help us identify the most affected families/individuals/communities and set up a distribution mechanism;4)	Provide a transparency report to donors about the utilisation of funds, and the impact of the relief workWe are also in conversation with local authorities to collaborate with other agencies doing relief work, and also to identify changing needs as they crop up, and respond accordingly. 
 We are seeking to provide basic relief support at this point, by surveying the affected people to identify their immediate needs and provide those items at the earliest and in the most efficient manner with our dedicated field teams. The following aspects have been kept in mind while the relief intervention was planned: 1)	Hunger and thirst alleviation: To provide ready-to-eat foods such as biscuits and glucose and baby food for ages under 5 for hunger mitigation and bottled water until arrangements can be made for meals 2)	Soaps for maintaining hygiene and stop the spread of contagious diseases which generally have an outbreak during floods3)	Candles, as electricity connections have been intermittent, with some places not having any access at all 4)	Mosquito nets, Mosquito repellent to prevent Japanese Encephalitis affecting this area 5)	Buckets to collect usable water for later usage6)	Cattle feed to ensure the cattle are being fed regularly, as they are a huge source of livelihood for the community

Flood-Ridden Assam Needs Your Help!

Nameri is one of the most ecologically rich and bio-diverse regions in Assam, with many indigenous communities residing in forest-fringe areas close to the designated Nameri National Park. Since most of these settlements are not officially recognized revenue villages, these areas do not have recognized institutions for governance and administration and are ineligible for receiving the benefits of different schemes the government has in place for village development. Moreover, since these areas are in the deep interiors and are significantly far away from its closest towns, they are lacking in infrastructure such as roads and electricity. Their livelihood options have now become severely limited, since they are mostly forest-dependent. Although in the beginning, they enjoyed some privileges like permission to collect raw materials free of cost (such as wood for fuel, food for themselves, fodder for their cattle and non-timber forest products) from the forest, their dependency on forest areas is gradually increasing as their household size increases, particularly in terms of acquiring new lands for agriculture and fishing. There has been recognized an increased need to tap into other forms of livelihood in order to provide alternative sustainable means of earning a living and providing for the household. 
 In an attempt to create livelihood diversification, RGVN has done a number of initiatives to tap into the traditional skills of the indigenous women residing in these areas. One of the primary initiatives that RGVN is involved in is giving inputs and facilities to women weavers to hone their skills and create products. These inputs include handlooms, design inputs, dyeing skills, material for production and wages for producing their products. RGVN then further provides market linkages in order to sell these products globally. However, the project has an obstruction, which is the lack of electricity in these villages. Most of these women are busy throughout the day engaging in other livelihood options and the most comfortable time for them to weave would be in the evening. The aim of this fundraising is, therefore, to equip one household with two solar lights that can be charged during the day and be put to use in the evenings. RGVN has also been at the forefront of introducing renewable forms of energy in the villages of North-East India, with particular focus on solar lamps. A solar lamp is efficient, environment-friendly and can last up to 4 hours if charged during the day. 
 As of now, there are 37 women weavers who are beneficiaries of this scheme, and have received all the inputs as well as market linkages along with the profits generated through the launch of GrassLooms, a brand devised under RGVN and launched under Brahmaputra Community Development Trust. The next phase of empowering these women will be soon launched, with addendums and changes to the inputs and implementation strategy. With the addition of solar lamps, we hope to drastically increase the output from these weavers, which will translate into more earnings for the women weavers. This will also pave the way for adoption of renewable sources of energy into the development narrative. Acquiring a solar lamp will be beneficial for the whole household, as it can be used for multiple purposes such as aiding in studies, training sessions in the evening, and reducing kitchen hazards. With at least one solar light for each household, this will be the first step in lighting up a village which has never received electricity, and will probably not in the near future. Hence, this fundraising is an attempt to request an individual donor to fund two solar lights for one household. Together, let us Light Up Nameri!

Flood-Ridden Assam Needs Your Help!

Light Up Nameri!

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

This Navratri, help Lalitha give kids rescued from abuse in red-light areas a safe and loving home. Donate now.

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

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