Empowering Women in India at Every Stage of Life

The Desai Foundation remains committed to serving the over 1,400 rural communities we serve in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. 

We continue to realize the burden that disproportionately placed on women in rural Indian as a result of COVID. We are in touch with the hundreds of thousands of women we serve trying to support them in any way we can. In order to combat the inequities faced by these women, we are providing relief to rural villages for COVID, specifically with a focus on uplifting women and girls throughout the pandemic, and setting them up for long-term success once this crisis has abated.

In 2021, the Desai Foundation launched our Heroes for Humanity program that allows us to impact the lives of thousands more people with food, supplies, COVID testing, access to medical interventions, and so much more in the most rural communities - which are radically underserved and overlooked. The program also economically empowers 500 families - aligning perfectly with our philosophy of bringing both urgent solutions in a time of crisis, while building long term sustainable programming to support communities. 

Through this innovative new approach to ensuring livelihood opportunities and providing community support, we have seen the following outcomes from July 2021 to December 2021:

• 134,568 individuals were reasched in a Baseline Survey conducted to understand community needs; 
• 826,28 individuals have been provided with crucial COVID information; 
• 24,096 individuals have attended vaccination clinics held by the Desai Foundaiton; 
• 6.1M rupees have been paid as salaries to rural Indian women 

We remain vigilant and proactive to meet the impending needs of the next COVID wave and are taking the following steps to be adequately prepared to serve our communities:

• Tuned-up, cleaned and kept ready to go all the equipment we purchased in 2021 to be delayed as necessary.
• Distributed surgical masks and cloth masks to every Hero, along with other PPE.
• Hosted online refresher courses on the COVID information, updating for Omicron.