"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

“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 Environment For the purpose of testing I will use the word EnvironmentEnvironmentEnvironment.

Environment

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 Healthcare. For the purpose of testing I will use the word HealthcareHealthcareHealthcare.

Healthcare

Shelter Associates (SA) <a href="https://shelter-associates.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Shelter (shelter-associates.org)</a>, a registered NGO started by architects and urban planners in Pune, has been providing low-cost housing and sanitation solutions in urban slums of a few cities in Maharashtra for the last 30 years. SA makes use of data and technology to design innovative solutions to transform the lives of the urban poor. Through its core initiative called One Home One Toilet (OHOT), SA has facilitated over 26,000 individual toilets for 1 lakh 50 thousand people living in informal settlements of seven cities of Maharashtra, vastly reducing open defecation in those areas. The highlight of SA’s initiatives is the creation of spatial data through the use of Geographic Information System (GlS), remote sensing technology and household-level granular data which has immensely helped the Local Urban Bodies (ULB) to identify critical gaps in the delivery of sanitation and other essential services like provision and validation of metered water connections, electricity, waste management etc. This has also helped the ULB leverage our data for additional budgetary provisions for drainage lines in most of the slums, has helped ULBs to strengthen the local governance for solid waste management, identify potential beneficiaries for the essential services and increase ULBs revenue. SA has been making valuable contributions by putting usable quality ‘DATA’ in the public domain. This spatial data is validated and linked to ULBs’ websites of various cities for data sharing and its utility for various departments and development partners, developing micro plans for various departments etc.We conduct regular sanitation awareness campaigns to encourage community participation in public sanitation. In 2021, we began vaccination drives with support from ULBs to make Covid vaccines available to underserved, unreachable communities. We have vaccinated over 18,000 individuals so far. Through our menstrual hygiene workshops, we have educated 1,500 young women on safe and environment-friendly practices.   To ensure that essential services reach people living in difficult-to-access/ crowded slums, SA makes innovative use of the Google Plus Codes providing a unique digital locational address to every house and infrastructure in selected slums allowing better access to essential services and doorstep deliveries. The Plus Codes also help the local government to provide services like COVID-19 vaccination, water, sanitation, electricity, etc to every household accurately. Here is a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mapping-indias-slums/av-57527767" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">(Link)</a> to news covered by dw.com featuring SA’s use of Plus codes.SA Co-founder and Executive Director Ms Pratima Joshi have been recently honoured by Forbes India as one of the most powerful women in India in their W-power list 2021 (<a href="https://www.lokmat.com/sakhi/inspirational/salute-work-neighborhood-meet-image-punes-joshina-who-got-place-list-powerful-women-forbes-a741/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">News link</a>) for her innovative use of Google Plus codes for delivering essential services to unreachable communities. SA is also the only Indian recipient of the Google Earth Hero award, Dasra Giving Circle, and ‘Best Practices Award for Low-Cost Sanitation solutions from HUDCO, and Times network’s “Digital Social Innovation award, ‘Swacch’ award from the PMC and NASSCOM award in the environment category.

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

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Sanjana Sen

Shelter Associates

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.

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Poor hygiene and sanitation are linked to many diarrhoeal diseases and put people at serious health risks while reducing their quality of living and socio-economic development. According to the World Health Organization, as of 2020, over 1.7 billion people still do not have basic sanitation services, of which 494 million still defecate in the open while many others depend on defunct community toilets. Open defecation is a problem because it results in wide-scale health, environmental and personal safety risks. While the problem is more prevalent in rural India, the high density in urban settlements exaggerates the risks posed to the urban households that practice open defecation.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/843d4f01-714f-448e-930f-499dffe7138a.jpg" />Children weakened by frequent diarrhoea episodes are vulnerable to malnutrition, stunting, and infections such as pneumonia. Worse, of India's 2.3 million annual deaths among children aged under five years, about 334,000 are attributable to diarrheal diseases (UNICEF report).Open defecation/dirty and crowded Community Toilets further pose safety threats to women of all ages. In order to avoid going to defecation grounds at night, women and girls in Indian cities, hold their bladders for 13 hours a day, leaving them at risk of urinary tract infections (UTI) and reproductive tract infections (RTI).Another big WASH issue is related to Solid Waste Management (SWM) in urban slum communities. There is a lack or even absence of awareness even about simple SWM practices like waste segregation and safe disposal of women’s sanitary napkins which contaminates water sources and this has a direct bearing on people’s health.The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) have deployed huge networks to manage solid waste but still find it very difficult to track and reach inaccessible households from crowded slums in absence of reliable data and locational tools and convince them to segregate their solid waste. 
 One Home One Toilet (OHOT) initiativeIn 2005, Shelter Associates developed its ‘One Home-One Toilet’ (OHOT) model through trials in small and large cities, finally resulting in a programme that is scalable, replicable, and sustainable. ‘OHOT’ recognizes the importance of individual sanitation and thus innovates beyond the SBM (Swachh Bharat Mission) model to not only facilitate better toilet installation but also sustained toilet usage.Shelter Associates has so far facilitated more than 26,000 individual toilets vastly improving the health and living conditions of 1.5 lakh individuals directly and our overall sanitation initiatives have impacted over 4 lakh people. The OHOT model: A Data-driven, Community Centric and Multi-stakeholder approach for comprehensive sanitation solutions for the community.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/45c17e55-fc32-44c1-beb4-9ce61992a30e.jpg" />a. Data Mapping: SA pioneered the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology &amp; Google Earth for poverty mapping in the late ’90s. We create holistic spatial data by mapping settlement patterns and infrastructure in and around each target slum. This mapping data is supplemented with survey data collected at the household level and analyzed to identify the most vulnerable population and plan targeted interventions. The data is finally validated by the Municipalities to add legitimacy to it and also allow for the data to serve them outside of our intervention.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/912f633c-83f6-448d-9f3e-4296ac405085.jpg" />b. Community Mobilization: The second step is to create awareness and bring about behavioural change and apart from generating demand for household toilets, SA‘s emphasis is on the use of these toilets in the community along with the focus on personal hygiene, menstrual hygiene for women, proper disposal of solid waste. To achieve this, we have extensive discussions with community members through various awareness activities such as corner meetings, workshops, games, cleanliness campaigns and focus groups with women, children, adolescent girls and boys and men.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/d1956117-8e54-410f-94d7-4d72e87d6709.jpg" />This engagement with the community is carried out by selected volunteers from the area with SA team members. These volunteers are trained to collect data, read maps and create awareness in the community through various engaging activities.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/1518e4d0-d3bd-4a35-ac06-f52850dd9433.jpg" />c. Delivering Toilets: The last step is the actual delivery of the toilet. The construction material is provided at the beneficiary’s doorstep which is fully subsidised, while the responsibility and cost of construction are borne by the beneficiaries, allowing for a sense of ownership of the toilet. Passing on the construction responsibility also allows for the construction of customized toilets tailored to the beneficiary’s specific needs. Beneficiaries have the freedom to choose the place of construction and can also plan to upgrade other sections of their house. 52.5% of the sample households included in our internal impact assessment reported having either modified or upgraded their homes while constructing the toilet. Our 3-step intervention thus offers an end-to-end integrated solution for household toilet provision- from planning to behaviour change and finally construction of good quality toilets. The toilets are connected to drainage networks where they exist or constructed with properly functioning septic tanks to make sure that the faecal matter is treated.Solid Waste Management WorkshopsUnsegregated solid waste from homes ends up in landfills causing ground and air pollution and leading to catastrophic damage to surroundings. Solid waste management is very important for the safe disposal of wastes to reduce environmental pollution and avoid related health hazards like infectious diseases. The importance of solid waste management and its effect on public health has been emphasized due to the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Our trained team of social workers and community volunteers conduct meetings, discussions, engaging games, street plays, songs, celebrations of related days and physical workshops to demonstrate and create awareness about types of solid wastes, why and how to segregate wet and dry waste, how to dispose of menstrual hygiene products, how to do composting of wet waste etc. Through demonstrations, nudging and positive reinforcement, we create a behavioural change in the communities. We also help community members to coordinate with the respective ULB members wherever required to lay drainage lines, arrange for garbage bins, and clear dumping sites. Menstrual Hygiene WorkshopsUnderprivileged women in India lack awareness and means to address menstrual health. Today, many girls from slums are using a disposable pad, but at what cost? An individual goes through approximately 11,000 disposable pads and/or tampons in a lifetime. Modern-day disposal pads are toxic, non-biodegradable have large life cycles and these ultimately clog our landfills for decades creating substantial amounts of untreated waste while the lack of affordable menstrual hygiene products add to the financial woes of underprivileged women.To address twin problems related to environmental degradation and period poverty, we have developed a module which educates women and adolescent girls about the female anatomy, emotional, and physiological changes during menstruation, conservative attitudes around menstruation, the importance of menstrual hygiene, hazards of disposable pads on women’s health and environment.We recommend and demonstrate the use of eco-friendly sanitary products like menstrual cups and cloth pads. Women form groups, and discuss their experiences during menstruation and encourage each other to adopt suggested eco-friendly sanitation products. Our team is in touch with the women regularly and provides guidance as required.Use of Plus CodesPlus Codes are alpha-numeric codes which work as locational digital addresses for people or places that don’t have one. Plus Codes are based on latitude and longitude and displayed as numbers and letters. People living in crowded slums struggle to possess a unique address causing delays in the availability of essential services.<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/56b84058-1e40-416e-8ef3-ffe172bca077.jpg" />This code can be used on Google Maps and will allow residents to access services such as postal, emergency services, gas cylinders &amp; other online services. Additionally, by linking this code to Shelter Associates’ data, WaSH infrastructure facilities within the slum, such as Community Toilets, and other amenities can also be located easily. City Municipal Corporations are able to provide basic facilities &amp; welfare schemes to needy households efficiently and accurately.Shelter Associates has partnered with Google to generate and assign these unique Plus Codes to every slum household. Our team of GIS experts also facilitates ingestion of the narrowest slum roads into Google Earth, rendering the Plus Codes effective as a locational tool for last-mile delivery.We have provided 48,000 Plus Codes so far to households in slums. 
 <ol><li>Individual toilet for each household (Access to safe sanitation for the families)</li><li>Reduction in the incidence of Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) among adolescent girls and women</li><li>Adoption of hand hygiene practices by the community</li><li>With the increase in the number of household toilets, there will be a reduction in toilet seat to family ratio which will lead to lowering the burden on the Community Toilets. This will bring down the expenditure on the maintenance of the Community Toilets for ULBs.</li><li>Waste segregation at the source and safe disposal leading to clean surroundings and an environment</li><li>Enhances the sense of dignity, privacy and safety among the slum dwellers</li></ol>

Swachh Slum Mission

Following adversities are faced by the urban poor:<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/910cd4ef-ef19-4672-b16e-e3913dfa54af.png" /> Government of India (GoI) has come up with various forms under which affordable houses can be provided to urban poor under PMAY (U). Our research report states that most affordable housing interventions for the poor tend to provide low-cost homes in areas far away from the ecosystem in which the slum dwellers reside, with poor infrastructural facilities and connectivity. However, affordable housing should be provided such that it does not hamper the lives of the residents, economically and socially.Under PMAY, the financial assistance to the beneficiaries is released in 3-4 instalments depending on progress of construction of the house. Beneficiary has to start the construction using their own funds or any other fund. Each house is estimated to cost INR 7.5 lakh. Under the PMAY, these families will receive 2.5 Lakh but in instalments. Beneficiaries are going to contribute 2.5 Lakh through microfinance/bank loans. The families require another 2.5 Lakh to have a place they can call as their “Home”. This calls in an agenda for collaboration of several stakeholders, both public and private to support vulnerable people, in living their lives in dignity.  <img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/ec25bd43-11ad-4bbb-b647-98b1ea6f3a6d.jpg" /> 
 Since its inception in 1993, Shelter Associates has facilitated various community development projects and have impacted over 8000 individuals through its three social housing projects. These projects are strongly backed by a data-driven and community centric approach. So far SA has undertaken rehabilitation projects in:·       Dattawadi, Pune·       Kamgaar Putala, Pune·       Sangli-Miraj (IHSDP) Following a community-led design approach has engaged the community in an inclusive process of designing to give a clear understanding of the space and its functionality. The proactiveness and active involvement of the Bondre Nagar residents is a uniqueness of this project and has aided in getting past several challenges.  Data plays an integral role in the re-development projects. The socio-economic data collected provides an accurate description of the on-ground realities and the issues faced by the residents. The data is utilized during multi-stakeholder interactions to ensure security of tenure, well designed internal spaces and infrastructural amenities. <img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/d467fd69-ff61-4be3-bd0d-115b06381752.jpg" />   
 ·       Well-designed and structurally stable climate resilient houses for the slum dwellers·       Hygienic and adequate housing facilities·       New lifestyle with a sense of financial responsibility·       The designs developed based on the collected socio-economic data results in houses with efficient natural lighting and ventilation<img src="https://cfstatic.give.do/548d3a98-f459-4269-ae4c-c329c209aaed.jpg" />

Swachh Slum Mission

Ek Ghar Ho Apna, Bas Yahi Hai Sapna…

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

Help Dr. Bhagat care for 500+ elderly parents rescued from abuse and homelessness

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

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