Educate and Shelter Children in Red Light District

Dear Donors,

We are pleased to report that Khela-Ghar the boys home at New Light is open. We have always worked mainly with the education and shelter of girls in the red light district however it was apparent that the boys needed a place to call home and for guidance.

The house was filled with laughter and happiness as the young boys ran up the stairs into their rooms deciding on which bunk to occupy.The opening of this home for boys, encourages the boys to have dreams and ambitions. Their mothers were victims of trafficking and human slavery and the children live in one of the oldest red light districts of the city.

New Light operates a night shelter and several residential homes for girls. The need for a boys home was to establish positive male role models in a program that works to save girls from becoming victims of sexual exploitation and to improve the lives of the children of sex workers. Without this support, they too would fall to the only way they could make a living in the streets. New Light has so many success stories and particularly the college students that we so proudly support. 

There is never doubt in our mind that donating towards the education and shelter of the child of the red light district is life changing.

Thank you,

Shana

Dear Donors,

New Light is a nonprofit charitable trust that protects and educates young girls, children and women who are at high risk in their community by providing safe shelters, educational opportunities, recreational facilities, social enterprises, healthcare and legal aid.

Thank you for your  donations in the past and even small sums of money can make a big difference in the lives of victims of traffiking, vulnerable women forced into prostitution and their at-risk children.  Village Volunteers is the fiscal agent for New Light through the Half the Sky Foundaiton.

Through the important work that is being done for girls with a night shelter for the little ones, and three safe homes for girls and young women where they go to school, the need to help the boys was appartent. These young men roam the streets of the red light district and have no hope for the future. Recently they opened  Khela-Ghar, a residential home for boys.

New Light Boys’ Home, Khela-Ghar, is a part of New Light’s efforts to provide young boys of women who are in prostitution, the opportunity to grow up in a safe and secure environment and realize their full potential. The boys’ home will help remove the male children from the violence filled environment of Kalighat, primarily, where they are exposed to crimes and other socially undesirable practices.

The Home’s aim is to bring and retain as many children and young adults as possible into the mainstream by providing formal education; job oriented training and different vocational activities so that they can choose a life with dignity.

Thank you for all your assistance.  

Shana

Dear Donor,

Since a program like New Light needs ongoing funds to support the children in the shelter and in school, they try to set up social enterprises that help women to make an income to support their children. The newest progject that will be scheduled to be set up in January of 2015 will provide income to women and the profits should be able to provide the funds to educate 12 girls a year. The project is called "Empowering Women Period" and is a Village Volunteers' Initiative..

The project will give them the opportunity to make sanitary pads from an invasive species, water hyacinth. This pad is fully biodegradable and will be provided to girls in school who have no means to buy pads themselves. In India, one in four girls drops out of school when they begin menstruating due to many factors. 

We thank you for your continual support and welcome any inquieries to this new project that will be a boost to educating and sheltering children in the red light district in Kolcata.

Thank you,

Shana Greene

Links:

• Sanitary Pad Project

Dear Donors,

Thank you for your support of New Light and the shelter that works to break the cycle of abuse and sex trafficking through sheltering children who would be wandering the streets when their mother is working. When the children have a place to go, a program that assists them in getting an education, and a home where they are cared for and loved, then the vicious cycle of sex work can be stopped for the lucky ones who are under the care of New Light.

New Light takes chilcren as young as three months old into their shelter as their mother's work. The hope is that the women can be released from their life of slavery but for most, its all they know since they were very young. Giving them choices has been the best that can be done for their children and some of the few women who are able to escape the life. There are several social enterprises set up for alternative incomes for the women and and slowly there is a shift.

Your donation is helpful and provides money for food for the children, medical care and their school tuition.

We thank you for your generosity.

Best regards,

Shana Greene

Dear Supporters,

The wonderful work of New Light continues to thrill us as we continue to see Urmi Basu, the founder and director of New Light be reognized as a rare leader.

Urmi Basi founded New Light India in 2000 to promote gender equality and fight violence and abuse of women, girl children and young people. The initiative today provides care and support to more than a thousand people. The organization fights against child prostitution and trafficking and protects young girls, children and women who are at high risk in their community by providing safe shelters and housing, educational opportunities, health care, and legal aid.

Please take a look at these two videos about the project.

Link to PBS short video with America Ferrera

http://video.pbs.org/video/2274938924 

A choreographed dance of the girls in the safe home dancing through the streets of the red light district

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYS3NinY4Cc

Any support that contunes to come in for New Light is used to educatie the children and provide them with a safe and secure place to live.

Thank you for your continuing support.

Shana Greene

Village Volunteers