Little Sonali loves helping other children with their home-work!

Five year old Sonali’s mother is a victim of the sex trade and used to work in a red light area in Mumbai. When her mother passed away, Sonali was brought to Anandalay,­ a shelter home run by Sahaara, for daughters of trafficked women. Anandalay houses these children who are brought up by house-parents, in a loving and conducive family environment. Sonali was welcomed into Anandalay on 15^th October 2008.

Initially when she came in, she used to communicate through sign language as she did not know Hindi and the house parents did not know Bengali. She struggled to cope in school too as her foundational skills were poor. With encouragement and guidance from her houseparents and tutor, she worked hard. Being studious, diligent and intelligent by nature, she enjoyed completing her homework and obtained excellent results in the examination. She is now very talkative and has become very fluent in hindi and comfortable in understanding English and manages to communicate well too.

Currently she is enrolled in Sr. K.G. in one of the top schools in the locality.

As for other interests, she has now emerged confident in various skills like reading and rote skills. She particularly enjoys reading English story books. She has been selected to be a part of the school hockey and football team. She was also chosen to be a part of the carol singing group and was also chosen to do march past in the annual sports day programs.

She feels at home in Anandalay and loves to help the younger girls of the home in their studies. As for her demeanour, she is very obedient in nature and is tender and sensitive – she is a child who yearns to receive and give out love.

Your generous donations, Laurent, UBS, Lauren, Mike and Suzanne, Dean and Julie and Erin and Rob, will enable Sahaara to bear the cost of tuition for Sonali, for half an academic year.

Your support will ensure that Sonali continues attending school and honing her talents, thereby paving the way towards a self-reliant and bright future!

Thank you for bringing light into Sonali’s life.