Twenty-four year old, Sangeetha, was born blind to a poor family, in a village in Uttar Pradesh. Her father is a shop keeper and her mother is a house wife. She has five siblings: three brothers and two sisters. Her father barely earns enough to meet their basic needs.

Being visually impaired, Sangeetha studied in Kamla Mehta Dadar School For The Blind, Dadar from nursery till the 12th grade where food, accommodation and education was free of cost. After completing her 12th grade, she applied for and was  granted admission into the Government hostel for blind women (Andheri), where she received free food and accommodation. Sangeetha also aspired to study beyond the twelfth grade and therefore enrolled for BA Sociology with support from a well wisher.

However, she was asked to leave the hostel in June 2009 in the middle of pursuing her BA. She was destitute and was forced to consider discontinuing her education. She was visibly weak, destitute and vulnerable when the Sahaara staff met her and needed much counselling.

Sangeetha  has been staying at the Jyoti Home, a residential home run by Sahaara for vulnerable and blind women, since June 2009. She is well looked after by a house parent and a maid who take care of her needs in an environment where she receives love and personal care. She now enjoys stable accommodation, nutritious food and vocational training assistance in a family environment.

Jyoti Home has enabled her to pursue and complete her Bachelor’s degree successfully ! She has now enrolled in Masters programme (MA) in Sociology and is about to give her first year’s examination too!  Within the family environment, Sangeeta, hitherto withdrawn, has blossomed into a friendly, trusting person and looks forward to a great future.

Your generous donations, Laurent, Kowsilliya, Alice and Brad, Bill and Colleen, David and Howard, will enable Sahaara to give Sangeetha  three meals a day for six months.

Thank you so much, for gifting safety and security to  Sangeetha, and enabling her her continue her higher studies, and dream of a bright future.

Twenty-two year old, Pavithra, was born blind to a very poor family, in Darjeeling. Her father is a daily wage labourer in the tea gardens and her mother is a house wife. She also has three younger siblings: one brother and two sisters. Her father barely earns enough to meet their basic needs.

Being visually impaired, Pavithra studied in a boarding school for the blind till the 12th grade, in her home-town Darjeeling. After completing her basic education, with no viable options for the visually challenged in Darjeeling, she decided to migrate to Mumbai – hoping to pursue her higher studies. Coming from a poor economic background, she knew it would be difficult for her parents to afford to send her away, but they were very supportive of her decision and collected just enough money to cover her travel costs.

Pavithra, thus came to Mumbai in 2006 in search of opportunities but had no place to stay. She was allowed to reside in the Government hostel for blind women (Andheri) free of cost, where she received free food and accommodation. With the support of a relative, she got enrolled for Bachelor of Arts and is currently studying in the second year. After four years of living in the hostel, her worst fears came true when she was asked to vacate the place. She found herself stranded and was visibly weak , destitute and needed much counseling when the Sahaara staff met her and offered to take care of her.

Pavithra has been staying at the Jyoti Home, a residential home run by Sahaara for vulnerable and blind women, since November 2010. She is well looked after by a house parent and a maid who takes care of her needs, in an environment where she receives love and personal care.

Pavithra, who was almost on the verge of discontinuing her studies because of not finding readers, was motivated to continue her studies with the support of the Sahaara staff, and is now doing well.  She will, however, continue to need financial support till she is able to establish herself in her chosen field of interest.

Your generous donations, David, Mike and Suzanne, Ray and Lael, Paris and Laurent (x2) will enable Sahaara to give Pavithra three meals a day, for six months.

Thank you so much, for gifting safety and security to Pavithra.

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.

Fifteen year old, Aaron was a destitute boy hailing from difficult, poverty stricken circumstances. Living in the Mumbai slums, he did not have the opportunity of a stable  future. Aaron’s parents were incapable of looking after him, which is how he found himself at Mahima Home, an orphanage run by Sahaara for destitute children and children of terminally ill parents.

At Mahima Home, Aaron is looked after by house parents and a maid, who help him develop holistically through a family environment. He also enjoys excellent accommodation, access to English medium education, good clothing, wholesome nutrition, health care and emotional care.

Aaron is a very energetic and perseverant child, by nature. He is a good student and a good sportsman. He enjoys his occasional soccer matches with his friends and also enjoys playing indoor games, just as much. Besides this, he is also a talented artist and an avid reader. His future is secure with Mahima Home and he dares to dream of becoming a famous artist

He has now built up his confidence and hopes to dream of a future vastly different from that of the generations before him!

Your generous donations, Laurent (x4), Anna and UBS, will enable Sahaara to provide three nutritious meals to Aaron for six months, thereby ensuring that he remains healthy and continues excelling in school and extra-curricular activities.

Thank you all, for your support!

Ten year old, Yogita’s mother was a victim of the sex trade and worked in a red light area in Mumbai. Her mother passed away two years ago and with no one to care for, Yogita 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.

Yogita is the oldest and the first beneficiary brought into Anandalay. Over the past years, she has come to terms with the fact that her mother is no more. She feels at home in Anandalay and loves mothering the other girls of the home. They live like one big family.

Yogita now studies in second standard, in one of the top schools in the locality. At the outset, she struggled to cope in school as her foundational skills were poor. With encouragement and guidance from her houseparents and tutor, she worked hard and honed her talents. She has now emerged confident in various skills like recitation, poetry, storytelling, reading, sentence construction and writing. She has a keen interest in Mathematics and loves to work her way around numbers.

As for her other interests, Yogita is very artistic and loves to play with colors. She has participated in school plays and was also the lead singer in her school choir during carol singing. She loves badminton and enjoyed her swimming stint during the holidays. She is very interested in learning percussion instruments and she has already tried her hand at tabla (Indian drums) and is currently learning the congo.

Your generous donations, Laurent, Bill and Colleen, Erik, Kandace, Sarah and Sophia and Larry will enable Sahaara to bear the cost of tuition for Yogita, for half an academic year.

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

Thirty-six year old Geeta, is a balwadi (kindergarten)  teacher at one of the study centers run by Sahaara, in Govandi.

She hails from a strictly middle class background and lives with her family. Her husband works in a Government run organization and his meager income does not suffice to meet the needs of their family and pay for the education for her three school-going children.

Geeta realized that the financial position of the family was so precarious that a medical emergency could wipe out all their savings. She wanted to take up a job, so she could save some money to tied the family over unexpected emergencies. Coming from a modest family, she did not complete her education and has studied only up to the 12th grade, after which her parents got her married. With not much qualifications to her credit, she knew she had few choices and was desperately looking for a job, when one of her friends suggested applying for a teacher’s position at Sahaara.

Geeta got the job of a teacher and teaches children between three to five years of age, at the Govandi center. She loves her job where she gets to impart knowledge to disadvantaged children living in slums. Teachers at Sahaara are equipped to teach pre-primary education covering areas of math, hindi, general knowledge and art.

Once a week, Sahaara conducts Training for Teacher’s where they are trained in lesson planning, curriculum development and implementation, teaching methodology: methods and teaching aids, classroom environment, discipline, maintenance of registers, Parent teacher meetings, conducting tests and student assessments.

Here is a first person account from her on why she started teaching and what it means to her –

”I got married in 1996 at the age of 21. Our condition was very poor. My husband is a government servant. It has been 7 years that I’m working in Sahaara. I teach children from the age group of 3 to 5 years basic English and Maths, Environmental Studies, Hindi and also undertake coaching for municipality schools. I love my job and wish to continue being a teacher and bringing up my balwadi children to study higher with love.”

About the Teacher’s Training sessions, she says:

“It helped me a lot on how to teach and also to understand the curriculum. Also it gave me ideas on teaching the children using games or Audio Visual aids”.

Geeta, today, understands the importance of early primary education and believes that every child ought to get an opportunity to study and realize their dreams. She truly believes in their potential and wants to continue teaching children living in slums and see them achieve great heights, in life.

Your generous donations, Laurent (x4), Mary Ellen and Jim, Peter, Adam, David, Mike and Suzanne and UBS (x3) will enable Sahaara to pay for Geetas’ training and monthly remuneration for a period of three months, thereby ensuring that she continues imparting valuable knowledge to disadvantaged children, who deserve it the most.

Thank you so much, for coming together to support of Geeta, thereby giving children from the slum community of Govandi a chance to break out of the poverty cycle.

Beba hails from Dharavi, arguably the largest and most populated slum pocket in Asia.  Beba’s father, Paul, works as a pastor and her mother, Jaculin Suja, is a housewife. Though her parents have not studied beyond the twelfth grade, Beba can dream of a stable future with a good education.

Beba studies at the Dharavi study center run by Sahaara. After the initial phase of separation anxiety in the first few days in the balwadi, Beba has emerged a keen and enthusiastic student who has always been eager to attend the study center. To any first time visitor, little Beba’s  love for play and prompt answers to teachers’ questions would belie her background and family’s poverty. She particularly enjoys dressing up for class and has a keen eye for personal neatness and grooming. Beba’s favourite activity is playing with toys and dolls.

Sahaara Charitable Society believes that every person has a dream, and their work centers around ensuring that marginalized persons are able to articulate and work towards achieving their dream. Sahaara’s early childhood education program gives children like Beba get a start which will help her break out of the poverty cycle.

Your generous donation, Sybille, will enable Sahaara to provide a year of pre-primary education to Beba.

Thank you so much, Sybille, for gifting a dream to a vulnerable child like Beba, thereby paving the way to a self-reliant and brighter future!

Four year old Padma hails from Dharavi, arguably the largest and most populated slum pocket in Asia. Padma’s parents, Rajesh and Malathi are unemployed and the family lives with Padma’s grandparents. She is the only child.  Though her family is very poor and her parents have not studied beyond the eighth grade, Padma can dream of a stable future with a good education.

Padma studies at the Dharavi study center run by Sahaara. She is a keen and enthusiastic student who has always been eager to attend the study center. She particularly enjoys dressing up for the class and insists that she personally picks out her clothes for the day! At the same time, Padma is obedient and polite by nature and respects elders in her speech and conduct. At the center, her nonstop laughter, innocent eyes and the confidence with which she recites English rhymes and alphabets would belie her background and family’s utter poverty.

Sahaara Charitable Society believes that every person has a dream, and their work centers around ensuring that marginalized persons are able to articulate and work towards achieving their dream. Sahaara’s early childhood education program gives children like Padma get a start which will help her break out of the poverty cycle.

Your generous donation, Scott, will enable Sahaara to provide a year of pre-primary education to Padma.

Thank you, Scott, for gifting dreams of a self-reliant and beautiful future to a vulnerable child like Padma!

Three year old Pauline hails from Dharavi, arguably the largest and most populated slum pocket in Asia. Her father, Arul Kumar Pandian, works as an office assistant and her mother, Michelle Jancy, is a housewife, Pauline has one younger sister as well. Though her parents have not studied beyond the tenth grade, Pauline can dream of a stable future with a good education.

Pauline studies at the Dharavi study center, run by Sahaara. She is a keen and enthusiastic student who has always been eager to attend the study center. She particularly enjoys playing the helper role: she helps her mother in caring for the younger sister at home and helps the teacher in clearing up after class hours. She is also a very responsible child who stewards her books and pencils well! She loves playing with toys and dolls! To any first time visitor, Pauline’s infectious chattiness, confident writing skills and talent in singing and dancing would belie her background and family’s poverty.

Sahaara Charitable Society believes that every person has a dream, and their work centers around ensuring that marginalized persons are able to articulate and work towards achieving their dream. Sahaara’s early childhood education program gives children like Pauline get a start which will help her break out of the poverty cycle.

Your generous donations, Jodie, Rachel, Paris and Sarah will enable Sahaara to provide a year of pre-primary education to Pauline.

Thank you so much for gifting a dream to a vulnerable child like Pauline, thereby paving the way to a self-reliant and brighter future!

Jonathan was detained in the Thane prison in Mumbai, it was when he came in contact with Sahaara when he enrolled for the computer education classes conducted by them in the prison. Jonathan was keen on getting employed and starting life afresh once he got released demonstrated, but he realized that the he would be stigmatized after his stint in the prison.

Sahaara helps rehabilitate newly released prisoners by providing physical and emotional support, giving vocational training  and helping them find good jobs. Sahaara also runs a home called Mukti Niwas (Place of Freedom), where former prisoners get wholesome nutrition and quality accommodation till they are emotionally and financially self-sufficient, and ready to take their place in society.

Since Jonathan did not have a family to fall back on, after his release from the prison, Sahaara offered him shelter at Mukti Niwas. Through networking and financial support, the staff helped Jonathan gain training as a welder and fabricator. He is now employed and would be moving out as soon as he is emotionally ready to make a fresh start in life.

Your generous support, Laurent, Peter and Susan is making it possible for Sahaara to provide nutritious fresh meals (breakfast, packed Lunch, evening snack and dinner) to Jonathan.

Jonathan would soon be starting a new life, and once he is financially able to do so, he has pledged to help other newly released prisoners like him to make a fresh start in life.

Thank you for coming together to feed Jonathan for three months, and restoring his faith in humanity.