Radhika lives with her mother under the bridge near Kidderpore’s red-light area in Kolkata. She and her mother are from Sundarbans, one of the poorest districts in India. Due to hurricanes and cyclones, half the year, the population is flooded out and cut off from basic supplies, even clean drinking water, as the salty ocean water is not fit for drinking. They live in extreme poverty, and human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation are rampant.
When Radhika was six years old, her father remarried, leaving her mother to raise her and her seven siblings alone. Due to their overwhelming poverty and hunger, Radhika’s mother left for the city turning to daily wage work and pitching a plastic sheet under the bridge for her children to live in. Then Covid hit, and she lost her livelihood, and Radhika and her younger siblings began to starve. Traffickers showed up to compel Radhika’s mother to sell her.
Luckily Radhika had joined the Apne Aap community classroom program in October 2022. Our team quickly set up a supply chain to make sure that Radhika, her mother, and siblings got food and a computer to continue studying.
Radhika’s mother is learning to be a seamstress and our field staff will support her to start a tailoring shop. store.
Since Covid started we have supported more than 500,000 women and girls with food, medicines, and education support. Now with your help we continue to provide the vital lifeline of food and education as vulnerable girls like Radhika and vulnerable women like Radhika’s mother transition out of food.
From January 2023 till now, we have distributed 38,500 meals to 2325 women and children in Bihar, Delhi, and West Bengal. This takes the total number of meals distributed through our Covid #1MillionMeals food drive to 13.85 Million Meals for 59,2554 women and children.
Our support for the education of 2,755 children, ranging from preschool to college-age children, also continues as does our sewing classes in Kolkata and Bihar. 64 girls have started their own businesses or joined a tailoring shop after graduating from our sewing classes this year.
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We had a special pre-Christmas celebration with the women and children of tfe Forbesganj red-light area this year. It marked a victory over the three tough Covid years. We played games, sat in a circle, sang songs, and ate together. Normally meals include rice, lentils, and vegetables. This year our Christmas feast had Veg Biryani, Egg Curry- rice,Pulao, and a special sweet-Kheer, with special bread-Puri.
Each victory has been girl by girl, woman and woman. Thanks to you, we stand strong.
In the last three months, we distributed 300,600 meals to 13,447 women and children in Bihar, Delhi, and West Bengal . This takes the total number of meals distributed through our Covid #1MillionMeals food drive to 13.1 Million Meals for 5,85,688 women and children. In addition, we distributed 4,500 sanitary pads in this quarter.
Our support for the education of 452 children, ranging from preschool to college-age children, also continues as does our sewing classes in Kolkata and Bihar. 26 girls have started their own businesses or joined a tailoring shop after graduating from our sewing classes this year. Our latest business initiative is a food truck in Delhi run by a cooperative of 11 women.
The women and children who benefit from our program are victims of sex-trafficking, Rohingya refugees and from extremely vulnerable, marginalized communities and oppressed castes. Our consistent support with food, education and help to start small businesses has meant the difference of life and death to many in the precarious months following Covid.
Food prices continue to rise as does housing. With your help we intend to continue with our#1MillionMeals food drive, support for education and help women transition to sustainable livelihoods.
I will share a small story about 14-year old Janaki ( name changed). Her mother had married and moved away leaving Janaki in the care of her grandmother. The grandmother had been evicted by her landlord during Covid and the two were living under a plastic sheet near the Apne Aap community centre. A trafficker offered the grandmother a lumpsum to take Janaki away. Luckily both of them have been coming daily to eat at the Apne Aap community centre. Janaki shared her grandmother's plans with our team members. We were able to intervene and help Janaki get into school. This was possible because we were in touch with them thanks to the food in the centre.
Today Janaki is a school going student like other girls her age. You can learn more at apneaap.org
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This year we distributed 603,600 meals to 27,386 women and children in Bihar, Delhi, and West Bengal among the marginalized communities, oppressed castes, and refugee communities of the Sapera, Perna, Singhi, Katputli, and the Rohingya. 50.5% of beneficiaries are children. In addition, we distributed almost 7,000 sanitary pads.
We have provided education classes to 746 children this year, ranging from preschool to college-age children, through a multi-pronged approach, including sponsorship in mainstream schools, payment of college tuition, coaching classes, and after-school help with homework. In addition, we support a children's library in a Delhi slum and a mobile library that goes with books to different red-light areas in Kolkata.
We have ongoing sewing classes in Kolkata and Bihar for 40 women. In addition, we have supported a women's cooperative in Delhi to start a food truck.
Children studying at our centers are from marginalized communities and castes. Poverty is rampant in the communities we support, so all our centers provide access to food. Mid-Day meals during school, for some, are the only meals the children receive all day. Meals include rice, lentils, vegetables, and salad. Meals are provided through Apne Aap's #1MillionMeal's program. Food is cooked and eaten in a circle with their peers. Feasts were organized for the children on holidays, serving them Veg Biryani, Egg Curry- rice, Pulao, and Kheer. The children enjoy the food and eating together very much.
Apne Aap's team reports a significant decrease in the number of women and girls in prostitution, the population of women and children living in red light areas, the number of traffickers, and the number of households. In addition, there has been an increase in ration cards, Government IDs, and Voter IDs provided by Apne Aap to red light areas.
Through the efforts of the Apne Aap team, many of the traffickers have been arrested by the police and sent to jail. Many brothels have shut down. We are near the day when red-light areas will be completely closed. With your help, we can continue to increase our goal and eradicate the system of prostitution by empowering, supporting, and feeding vulnerable women and children across India.
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The impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Cyclone Amphan, and floods have been disastrous for excluded women, victims of sex trafficking, and their children. This campaign spearheaded by Apne Aap Women Worldwide was launched on March 24, 2020, by Ruchira Gupta, Founder of Apne Aap, and is long from over. This project aimed to distribute 1 Million Meals to excluded women and children, especially victims of sex trafficking across India. Apne Aap’s impact has exceeded this target 12 times over and has surpassed the number of women and girls by five times, and is only accelerating even after 745 days.
Victims of sex trafficking and their children need food now, more than anything. Over the last few weeks, more than 85% of women report finding it hard to earn their daily wage, families are starving due to no income, and children are cut off from learning and unable to find food. Many women in our areas of focus, Delhi, Kolkata, and Bihar, live in caged rooms with families as large as 11, with no windows, running water, or fresh air. Apne Aap has identified and supported a network of 29 NGOs and community leaders all over India to distribute food, sanitary supplies, education, and housing to their communities. We have provided over 13 million meals and sanitary supplies to more than 530,000 excluded women and children in 8 states of India. In addition to food and sanitary supplies, we provide hygiene packs, masks, and basic medicine.
With schools and classes suspended due to COVID and ongoing lockdowns, parents have urged Apne Aap to help restart activities and classes to ensure their children are fed and educated. There is considerable pressure on older children who have managed to complete the 10th or 12th grades, to graduate, get a job and start earning for their families due to the lack of food and resources. With few resources, no access to tuition, no counseling, or places to study, Apne Aap has provided laptops, mobile phones, and internet facilities to ensure they can complete online classes with ease.
Apne Aap’s classes provide a mid-day meal for the children whose schools are closed due to ongoing lockdowns. Apne Aap connected 748 children to educational programs from 2002 to 2022. Many have finished college, like Poonam, who studied hard for her BA and is now studying for law exams. Many of the children and young adults are working to support themselves and their families using the education they received on behalf of the efforts of Apne Aap.
The #1MillionMeals project is a life-saving initiative that continues to feed exploited women, women, and children stuck in prostitution and their families. A lack of education due to few resources has only exacerbated the issue of starvation as schools are not feeding children. Without education, the children may never be able to have a dignified job to pay for food and supplies for themselves and their families. #1MillionMeals prevents women and girls from entering prostitution to pay for basic necessities. On behalf of Apne Aap and the network of 29 NGOs and community leaders, we thank you for your donations that have allowed us to save the lives of many vulnerable women. It has been 745 days of this life-saving work, and we are far from done. With your help, we can continue to increase our goal and eradicate the system of prostitution by empowering, supporting, and feeding vulnerable women and children across India.
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As new Covid variants run rampant worldwide, it is important that we continue our Covid relief program, 1 Million Meals, to help those most vulnerable in India's red light areas.
From September to November 2021, we have been working to provide food, menstrual hygiene products, school supplies and education support to women and children from red-light areas and slums in Delhi, Kolkata, and Bihar.
These women and children were impacted by the Covid pandemic due to loss of livelihood, debt burden of disease and death of a family member. Many children also lost access to education, as schools were closed, and these children do not have phones or laptops or data plans. Some of the women who had transitioned to daily wage business like selling vegetables or running teashops were no longer allowed to do so due the fear of the spread of Covid. They fell into the clutches of moneylenders to keep their families alive or to pay for medical treatment. Some were asked by traffickers to sell their children for food.
Apne Aap has also helped fund the following project startups in an east Delhi slum which is in the Covid red zone of migrant workers:
The children in this area are severely underweight, as per WHO standards, whose growth is monitored by the project in partnership with ICDS. They are in the 'red zone' of the WHO's growth monitoring chart.
The primary school children have been out of school for almost 1.5 years now and their education has taken the worst hit. Specifically, the funds were used to provide meals and education to children during the period of October 2021.
The library funds allow for a children’s section in the existing government library, with the addition of materials like books, pens,paper, and learning activities for children. Academic support is crucial as schools are mostly closed.
The food kiosk will provide meals and a safe space for these vulnerable, malnourishedchildren in Nizamuddin, with the added advantage of their experiencing the local and popular cuisines of Nizamuddin.
Additionally, during the month of October, Apne aap has helped fund a school program while classes were closed in the red-light area of Najafgarh, Delhi. The support helped vulnerable children take classes like mathematics, writing, and social studies; have computer access; pay for hostel fees; and stay out of harms way.
One example is Veena (name changed) who wrote, “We used to find the area very unsafe and would always be fearful of any mishap occurring to us. As we were tired of this, we reached out to and requested Ms. Ruchira -founder of ‘Apne Aap’ Organization- to help us."
We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and new year!
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