Gender Equality India Project #17035

Rescue sex workers & at-risk children in India

by Snehalaya 'Home of Love'

Rescue sex workers & at-risk children in India

Project Report | Jan 1, 2025
Annual reflections

By Dr Girish Kulkarni | Founder

From our family to yours

Happy New Year, here’s wishing you peace, love and a safe and secure 2025.

We are incredibly grateful to you for choosing to support our work, from one off to recurring donations we are truly grateful to every penny we receive and your belief in our mission to empower some of the most vulnerable in India.

Each year our reach and impact continues to grow along with our ambition. 2024 saw our projects coming together to prevent child marriage and to date we have prevented 475 marriages. We also have a renewed commitment to end the practice in our district and state by the end of 2027. We are also expanding our mental health project working in partnership with established experts in the field and have given responsibility to representing our organization to one of our former beneficiaries turned social worker, Jaya.

We are a diverse organisation addressing a range of social issues and 2024 was another rollercoaster of a year. All of these and more are covered in our 2023-24 annual report and our 2024 video highlights video. Take your front row seat to see your support in action in our video, there's a lot to take in, from cycle rallies to sumo wrestlers battling their way through obstacle courses!

View the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdJGom3UtEw

Our annual report provides more in depth focus and impact in numbers as well as our annual accounts. We hope you enjoy reading our stories as much as we enjoyed putting them together. Why not take a minute, sit back, relax and reflect on some momentous and memorable moments that you have directly contributed to.

View the report here: https://www.snehalaya.org/post/2023-24-annual-report

Worth a read...

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Sep 10, 2024
Empowering young adults

By Dr Girish Kulkarni | Founder

Puja and Rekha - supportive big sisters

At Snehalaya, we believe in the power of sustained support and community. You are a part of our wider community giving us the stregth and support to continuously build on the support we offer to the most vulnerable.

Our latest initiative, our Snehabandha project, exemplifies this belief by ensuring that individuals who have left our institute continue to receive the care and guidance they need to thrive independently. We have always provided this to some extent and have recently expanded our provision with aftercare homes where we support those over 18s to live independently. This project goes a step further with a dedicated team providing lifelong support to former beneficiaries.

The project was borne out of last year’s annual reunion of ex-beneficiaries, where we asked our care leavers to share their experiences of growing up in Snehalaya and also how they managed once they left our care. This identified expected and unexpected issues that we are now seeking to address through Snehabandha.

Headed by our former childcare institution superintendent, Samadhan, the team also includes Pooja and Rekha, two former beneficiaries. Between them they have learned and lived experiences of the challenges children in need of care and protection and care-leavers face. They are further supported by other care-leavers, many of who now work at Snehalaya on other projects, our childcare committee of trustees and our child services.

Pooja and Rekha have experienced the life-changing impact of our support through Yashwantrao Chavan Mukta University, where they continued their education once they left Snehalaya’s care. Today, they are financially stable and socialised and are really enthusiastic to share their experiences to give back to the community that once supported them. They have first-hand experience of the challenges faced by individuals transitioning from institutional care to independent living. Their journey is a testament to resilience and the transformative power of education and support.

Learning about the initiation of our project, they immediately jumped on board to help support their little brothers and sisters as they grow and prepare to re-enter society and those who have already left but are struggling to adapt to independence. The fact that they have been there is invaluable, they can empathise with them and share their own journeys which helps prepare our youngsters and support those who have already left our care.

Challenges our care leavers face are similar to those all care-leavers face: health-related issues, particularly to those on ART medication, who often become negligent about their health once they step out on their own; lack of documentation and therefore identity; lack of family support in finding marriage matches; financial instability; and generally adapting to living without the provision of the daily basic needs and psychological support we provide in our shelter.

The team’s responsibilities include counselling individuals, conducting home visits, and offering support to students and married women facing difficulties at home. The Snehabandha Project is committed to protecting women from domestic violence and ensuring they have a safe and supportive environment. Their role extends beyond just counselling. Pooja and Rekha work closely with the children currently living in Snehalaya, aiming to create a nurturing environment filled with positive memories. Their unique perspective and deep understanding of the struggles faced by these children make their contribution invaluable.

Snehabandha thrives on a community-driven approach. When individuals need financial support, ex-beneficiaries with good jobs and income contribute 50% of the required amount, while the remaining 50% is provided from Snehalaya donations. This collaborative effort ensures that everyone in our community has the support they need to overcome challenges.

Both Pooja and Rekha are profoundly grateful for the continuous support and opportunities provided by Snehalaya. Their journey from beneficiaries to leaders is a source of inspiration for all of us.

Snehabandha is more than just an initiative; it is a testament to the enduring bonds and lasting impact of community support. We refer to Snehalaya as a family and we are dedicated to providing a home our care-leavers know they can return to when they need love and support. With dedicated individuals like Pooja and Rekha leading the way, we are confident that this project will continue to empower many more lives, helping them to achieve their dreams and build a better future.

It is through your support that we can extend our support in this vital way and we are extremely grateful that you are helping us to ensure everyone who needs the support of Snehalaya can depend on us at any time in their life journey, thank you.

Our former beneficiary reunion

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May 20, 2024
Educated choices

By Dr Girish Kulkarni | Founder

Future artist?

This year, Snehalaya girls completing their 10 and 12 std have an array of interesting career options from surgeon and event manager to fashion designer, beautician and software engineer. Our Education Committee recently met with 20 girls from our childcare institution to hear more about their plans and see how we can help them achieve their dreams.

Snehalaya shelters the daughters of sex workers from an early age with the ambition of providing them a quality education that will ensure they find a future away from the red light areas. We also support those living with HIV, some of whom are orphans, encouraging them to look to the future with hope and ambition.

Deciding a future career is never easy and we often rely heavily on our parents, families, friends and teachers to guide us in our choices. For the girls growing up under our care, their view of the world and the careers it offers are often limited to those they interact with on a daily basis. Therefore, it’s no surprise that many express desires to enter the police, social work, healthcare, hospitality, etc.

While we appreciate our girls considering paying it forward through service to their country, we also want to ensure they are making the right choices for them by encouraging them to consider what they love to do and are good at. It can be confusing deciding the route to your chosen career and our education committee was set up in 2022 to help our girls decide on the right paths after they received their 10 and 12 std exam results. This year, we have brought the first meeting of the committee forward so we can start discussing and researching their education plans as soon as their exams are over. The committee will meet again once their exam results are received when we can start the admissions process.

In our first meeting, four girls expressed their wish to become special education needs teachers. With a former beneficiary already working as a sign language interpreter, we invited her to come and share her experiences and journey with the girls. An engaging discussion took place with the girls receiving sound advice and having all of their questions answered by someone who had walked in their shoes. All four girls have a clearer plan on their next steps and an increased confidence to stand on their own feet to follow their dreams.

Giving our young people the responsibility to decide their own futures and interrogate their strengths and passions is paying off. The committee is proving very successful in ensuring our young women make the right choices and stick to them, greatly reducing the numbers of drop outs once they start college.

Thank you for your support which adds to our girls’ confidence and supports them on their lifelong journeys to success, we couldn’t do it without you.

Future cricketer?

Future superstar?

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