Educating the Girls of The Indian Thar Desert

Dear Sambhali Friends and Supporters, 

The last few months here in Jodhpur passed by quickly and were filled with many events and new projects based on our initiative to empower women and children. So let’s dive into the recent events at Sambhali that were able to take place thanks to all of your support: 

Special Events:

This quarter we started off with Sambhali’s annual Picnic in the beautiful Mandore Garden in Jodhpur. We spent a wonderful day with all the participants of our projects playing games, holding competitions, dance performances and a lunch together, to celebrate the work of Sambhali. 

Another event that took place shortly after was the final presentation of the Women’s Safety audit project. After many months of hard work from a few of our Garima participants and college girls from the boarding home this project consisting of hundreds of surveys and safety walks in the whole of Jodhpur came to an end. Started in 2023 in cooperation with the National Law University in Gujarat and the National Committee of Women Safety, Sambhali Trust feels honoured to be part of such an important project regarding the safety of women and transgender in public and workplaces.

Further, the Garima project organized an important event regarding the Transgender Community with the Jodhpur Police. As part of Operation Smile (Transgender Community Grievance REdressal and Legal Information Awareness Workshop), Sambhali was able to present our work towards the advocacy of Transgender rights and our service for Transgenders to obtain the Identify cards and Voter IDs. This year Sambhali Trust were able to obtain 4 cards, while 21 are still under process and 35 Voter IDs.

On the 7th of March, we proudly held our Awareness Rally for International Women’s Day. A parade where all our participants, volunteers, employees and special guests, joined hand in hand to shout for equality, dignity and women empowerment. An amazing number of about 400 people joined us in this powerful march for women’s rights.

From our projects: 

Currently, 8 Empowerment Centers, 4 of them in Jodhpur, 3 in Jaisalmer and 1 in Setrawa are running daily from 10am  to 4:30 pm. 240 women and 280 children are visiting our centre daily to receive basic academic classes and vocational Training (for the women). 

The computer classes in our Primary Education Centres are bringing great success. The older children are showing great interest in learning more about how to operate the computer and are making great progress. 

As part of our Empowerment Centers, we support women to receive access to various support schemes from the government and obtain necessary documents. In this regard, we are happy to introduce our new staff Mr. Z. who is holding EMitra camps in our Empowerment Centers. The E-Mitra is an initiative by the Government of Rajasthan offering over 300 essential services like bill payments and government IDs, right at one’s doorstep. We are happy to now also be able to provide these services to our beneficiaries.

The final exams of the girls in our boarding homes also took place in April and May. Having received the results at the end of May, we are very happy and proud of the great accomplishments of the 75 boarding home girls from primary school to those who are studying for their bachelor and master degrees. The results of college girls are still due. The school girls went to  their villages to have some time with their family during the summer breaks. 

Not only Jodhpur and Jaisalmer have been working hard despite the heat that came over Rajasthan in April and May, reaching up to 49 degrees celsius. In Setrawa, Sambhali started a new pilot project with 4 students from the Agriculture university. Our volunteers worked hard to create a common nursery for the local tribal community in the small village 100 km from Jodhpur. It is Sambhali’s first project in the field of environment but they are eager to continue this amazing project for the community. 

Sambhali’s financial year ends at the End of March. While preparing and writing various reports we are now thrilled to announce that since the beginning in 2007 the number of beneficiaries has surpassed 60,000 women, children and LGBTQIA+ members in Rajasthan. A big number that only shows the great success of Sambhal grass-roots work to uplift the marginalised communities with a holistic approach for nearly two decades. 

This number only encourages us to continue our work and reach more people as there is still much work left regarding gender equality and education. 

As part of our Nirbhaya home, Sambhali Trust is running an emergency centre for women in distress, a support system that recently decreased in its demand. Therefore, we are excited to let you know that Sambhali Trust is working hard to expand its services for women and LGBTQIA+ persons who experienced gender-based violence or are having mental issues. Planned is a shelter for 14 people to receive psychological and legal support in a safe environment. The project is in the making and we can't wait to share with you next time about the beginning of our new project “Nirbhaya Home”. 

We hope you enjoyed reading about what has happened this year from February until May. Thank you very much for your unwavering and continued support to uplift the marginalised women, children and LGBTQIA+ persons in Rajasthan that we serve. We are very grateful for your belief in Sambhalis's mission and are excited to share with you what we will have accomplished until the next report, as our calendar is already filled with multiple events and projects. 

With much love and regards from the Blue City, Jodhpur 

Sambhali Trust

Links:

• Sambhali Website
• Instagram Account
• Facebook account