Women Empowerment

The aim of this programme is to help develop the socio-economic conditions of the impoverished rural people (particularly women) and encourage their involvement in local planning and Gram Panchayats. The project is facilitating improving the capacities of the women to increase their income, improve the local infrastructure, promote preventive health care in the proposed villages and increase awareness among the people to participate in the planning process of the gram panchayat.The project conducts awareness sessions with women on legal issues, accessing cheaper loan facilities, reducing migration caused by unemployment and involvement of SHG's in gram sabha activities. The project is also promoting preventive health care in the villages and increasing awareness among residents to participate in the planning process of the gram panchayat.

Approximately 40% of senior citizens living with their families face abuse of some kind. Many of the elderly suffer in silence as they fear humiliation or are too afraid to speak up. The phenomenon of 'grand dumping' is becoming common in urban areas these days as children are being increasingly intolerant towards their parents' health problems. The situation for the elderly belonging to the underprivileged communities is even more alarming. The project is focused on serving the helpless aged women who are neglected by society. The project is a residential home for the aged. It aims at providing safety, comfort, care and attention for senior citizens. It reaches out to helpless aged women and enables them to live their remaining days with happiness and dignity. The programme provides them with basic necessities for their survival including healthy food, naturopathy treatment and regular meditation to ensure comprehensive and quality care to the resident senior citizens.

The programme was started with the mission to empower women artisans through the formation of craft clusters. The project was initiated with the vision of organizing the applique artisans of the rural areas of Barmer, which is also the head office of the organization, on a common platform to save them from the clutches of middlemen and economically empower them by providing them regular work, upgrade their skills and maintain a transparency in the project. Women of the area have expertise in applique work which is also called cut work in some parts of India. The area is slightly orthodox in nature and restricts the movement of women in the society. To bridge the gap between earning and not going outside; the organization supplied the raw material at their doorsteps and collected the same from their homes. The main target of the project is; To upgrade the skills of artisans to cause product diversification & development of market led products range to access remunerative national & international markets; To promote the handicraft artisans up in the value chain by institutionalizing them into Producer Collectives; To empower the community and households involved in applique / embroidery handicraft through bridging the gap between producers and markets by building the capacities & capabilities of the target producers via execution of technical training programmes

This programme has been working with women and youth in Malwani, Asia's second largest slum. The school dropout rates are very high as boys stop attending in order to support the family income and girls are not allowed to go out of their local areas for schooling. Considering the situation, this programme decided to offer courses which will help the residents find employment opportunities in their locality and neighbouring areas. The vocational centre provides training in tailoring, mobile repairs, mehendi application, computers and professional beautician courses. The participants are also given training and capacity building sessions on savings, banking, life skills and general health education, as well as awareness sessions on different social and health issues. They have mobilized the community to form Self Help Groups (SHGs) for the empowerment of women. At present, the programme is working with 75 Self Help Groups (SHGs) in the Malwani and Madh area of Malad.

The programme started in the year 2000 is a shelter home for girls who are away from their own homes for reasons including poverty, exploitation, abuse, abandonment, child labor and delinquency. Most of the girls worked for a living, were orphaned or were exposed to physical abuse and exploitation even though some of them lived with their single parents. The parents were unable to tend to their educational needs and therefore the children were either drop outs engaged in child labor. The girls at the programme have been enrolled in English medium schools and colleges and have the determination to pursue their education. These girls understand the importance of education and the new opportunities that could come their way. The programme proposed to rescue them from exploitative environments and rehabilitate them by providing education, livelihood skills and residential care.