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Support the living expenses of a poor orphan child by Snehalaya

Needs more donors to continue operations

Support the living expenses of a poor orphan child

Thank you!

This program is fully funded because of donors like you.

Impact

Every monthly donation helps provide care to orphan kids like Sweety

Sweety was orphaned when her mother passed away. A good Samaritan handed her over to Snehalaya at the tender age of six. Sweety was well looked after in the Sneha Balgruha and provided free clothing, shelter, medications, toiletries education, extra-curricular activities facilities

On realizing her aptitude for sports, she was encouraged to participate in various competitive sports including martial arts tournaments. She currently studies in the 7th standard. She is a fierce girl and likes to blaze her own trail in uncharted waters. She desires to do something different and thereby honor her Snehalaya family.

With guidance, she will succeed in achieving her ambitions and will grow into a responsible citizen in spite of being an orphan with a dark past

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You will be sponsoring the benefits for different beneficiaries every month


About The Program

What the beneficiary gets
Rations
Caregiver
Transport
Healthcare
What you get
Tax Exemption
Periodic Reports
Program Description

The children of Sneha Balgruha are orphans and some are semi-orphans mostly with mothers who are sex-workers. While a majority of the children are from Maharashtra, Sneha Balgruha's doors are always open to needy children from all over the country.

The children are well looked after and provided free food, clothing, shelter, medications, toiletries education, and extra-curricular activities facilities to ensure that they grow up in a normal environment. The children are social pariahs with nowhere to turn to for help, hope and for life itself. Sneha Balgruha is dedicated to such deprived people especially from the low-income group, regardless of their caste, creed, religion, language, region, sex, age.

In Sneha Balgruha, these children flourish and mature into responsible citizens in spite of being orphaned or born in social stigma conditions. Donate to this program to support poor children a childhood they deserve.

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About The NGO

Snehalaya
Snehalaya Logo
Snehalaya

Snehalaya means 'Home of Love', and was founded to provide support for women, children and LGBT communities, who have been affected by HIV and AIDS, trafficking, sexual violence, and poverty.In India, 93 women are raped every day. It is estimated that 135,000 children are trafficked every year. Over 120,000 women a year will suffer domestic violence. There are 2.1 million people living with HIV, and an estimated 130,000 people die of AIDS each year.

At Snehalaya they believe that grassroots outreach and education is the key to drastically reducing these figures.Their mission is to provide rescue, rights and rehabilitative services to the communities in most need and to offer a safe exit point to women and their children trapped in the crippling cycle of poverty and abuse.

Thus they aspire to develop the awareness and capabilities of individuals who have been deprived of their fundamental rights as a result of the inequalities that exist in our society. They provide services to over 15,000 beneficiaries and are a strong and passionate family, united in the belief that no one should stand alone.

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founders
Founded in 1991
NGO Leadership

Anil Arjun Gawade

areas of operation
Area of Operation
Area of Operation

HIV/AIDS | children

location of work
Location of Work
Location of Work

Maharashtra

Snehalaya has

enrolled 2000 slum students in community centres and after-school classes

awards
Awards And Recognitions
Awards And Recognitions

2016: Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

2017: Nari Sakti Puraskar

2017: International ARC Awards 2015

last audited
Last Audited
Periodic Compliance Checks by GiveIndia

Renewals FY 19-20

Program Updates

Program Updates

22 September, 2023

An update on the program you are supporting

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

Total number of beneficiaries impacted was 20 out of which 10% were females, in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra


Challenges faced and next steps

Our campus has new facilities including new girls dormitories, playgrounds, science labs, music room and art studio. We also opened our first aftercare home for over 18 boys. This provides a bridge between our shelter home and living independently. We are currently preparing to open a second aftercare home for girls. We hold regular health camps at our on-site hospital including dermatology, ENT, optometry and have recently engaged a dentist to visit our children every Saturday for dental check-ups and treatments. Following exam results where our children enjoyed a 100% pass rate in 10 and 12 standards, many of our children were enrolled in higher education and vocational skills training courses such as software engineering and beauty parlour. Significant days celebrated included World Yoga Day, Malala Day, Children�s Day, Diwali and Christmas. We also celebrated all children�s birthdays on 15 August. 60 children received college and vocational training, careers counselling, exposure visits, education materials, cosmetics, shoes and clothes, regular ART follow-up, health camps, minor medical treatments. 2 children were placed in our aftercare home 5 girls were placed under our care and protection under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 10 children were placed in higher education or vocational training.


Stories from the ground

Abhi was brought to Snehalaya with his older brother Akshay when he was orphaned. The boys were very smart and had big ambitions. They were also very creative, participating in dance and art and inspiring other children to do the same. Three years ago Akshay left to take up carpentry training and is now employed making beautiful furniture for a high-end shop in Pune. Abhi's passion was to work in hotels in Europe and America. With excellent English, a love of cooking and great communication and interpersonal skills we believe he would be an ideal hotel manager. We helped him to research and find a college where he could complete a degree in hotel management and he has just completed his first year of the course in Pune. He has always been a champion in our eyes but it�s now official as he was one of the college team who just broke a world record by making 102 Indian desserts in four hours.


28 December, 2022

Road to success

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

This year’s students celebrated a 100% pass rate in their 10th and 12th standard exams. All the 10th and 12th std pass students have now been enrolled into further education, college or training, ranging from driving and police academy to science and software engineering. They are all determined to carve out successful careers to do themselves, us and you proud!


Challenges faced and next steps

We are committed to empowering all of our children to help them reach their ambitions. Despite the challenges of COVID and lockdowns, the children have proven that irrespective of their health status and backgrounds, they can overcome adversities to shine. The stigmas around HIV and children living in care can also hold back the students’ from pursuing their chosen careers. Snehalaya is committed to supporting them and advocating for their rights to equality no matter what their hopes are. This often means advocating with prospective employers and teachers to share the facts so that they give the children a fair and equal chance in life.


Stories from the ground

Mangal who hails from Aurangabad lost her mother when she was very young. Her father had passed away when she was seven. She was cared for by her older sister until she was 10, when she was brought to Snehalaya.

She was provided a home and education as well as lively functions, while being encouraged and helped to make her dreams come true. These dreams were to become a nurse. When she was 18 she completed the three-month bedside assistant nursing course in our hospital. Mangal has worked as a nurse in Snehalaya's hospital for four years now, serving the children and people living with AIDS. She gets a lot of satisfaction from doing this work and also being able to surround the patients, especially the seriously ill ones, with positive vibes. She says: “After being selected for the Nursing Course, my enthusiasm doubled up as I knew someone was paying and supporting me to achieve something in life, and I had to prove my worth and give the best that I could.”


23 May, 2022

Staying active

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

Unsurprisingly, our focus for the past six months has been how to manage and contain COVID within our shelter home. We have been using the opportunity of having our children at home to bring different activities to them. This includes our vocational training center where our children receive skill-based education in cosmetics and beauty, welding, plumbing, carpentry, bicycle and motorbike repair. Open to all children living in our Rehab Center, it is giving them hands-on experience in mastering machinery used in cutting, carving, painting and finishing objects made of wood and similar materials. Our children are developing practical and technical skills that will provide them career opportunities in industries where demand outweighs supply. Using tools of the trades has tapped into the creativity of our children and boosted their confidence in achieving something tangible and useful.


Challenges faced and next steps

With COVID restrictions still affecting school and colleges openings over the past year our focus has been on keeping our children safe and active. We are pleased to report that all of our over 15s have been vaccinated and we have managed to keep COVID at bay with no cases among our children in this reporting period. Our biggest challenge remains how to entertain over 200 children spread over two campuses? Festivals such as Ganesh Chathurti, Diwali, Children’s Day and Christmas have gone a long way towards keeping them entertained and besides the traditional rituals, we have introduced new competitions and activities to extend the celebrations. With schools open again our children are gearing up for their exams and we are providing additional study support to hopefully repeat our 100% pass rate from last year, please join us in wishing them luck! Once they have completed their exams we will be securing them work experience to help them really understand their chosen career paths to ensure they are making the right choices for their futures.


Stories from the ground

Geeta lost her father at such a very young age that she doesn’t have any memories of him. While her mother was alive, Gita and her sister were supported by their relatives and lived first with their maternal uncle and then with her paternal family. She was still in primary school when her mother also passed away and her relatives stopped supporting the girls. Her grandfather had left home to follow a spiritual calling and so their grandmother was left to care for the sisters alone. The responsibility and financial burden was overwhelming for her and she did not know how she would manage.

When Geeta’s sister also died, things turned from bad to worse and her grandmother who was getting old wanted to find a safe and secure place for Geeta who was now almost 16. They both visited our Rehab Center in 2017, just after Geeta completed her 10th standard, and felt that this was the right place for her. Geeta adjusted well to life in our Home of Love, enrolling in junior college while simultaneously completing our bedside nursing assistant course and joining in with clay art at our Earth Studio. After completing her 12th Standard in arts we helped her to enroll for a degree in social work at a college in our neighbouring district of Beed. Then the pandemic hit and Geeta was forced to return to Snehalaya and continue her studies through online classes and tutorials. At the same time, she also volunteered to help our Snehadhar warden in her daily responsibilities.

On a visit to our community radio, Radio Nagar 90.4FM, she was fascinated by the way the radio jockeys talked and how the songs were broadcast and she loved the way things worked there. As a regular radio listener to she felt that she could also be a radio jockey. She discussed the idea with her hostel warden and some senior staff who readily agreed to give her a go.

Geeta joined the radio team as a full-time intern and she was a fast learner soon getting to grips with all aspects of running a radio station. Geeta says, “I realised that becoming an RJ was not that simple and required a lot of understanding and hard work. I have since learned how to find information on the net, write scripts and speak like an RJ. This requires a lot of reading and exploring, modulating my voice so that I don’t sound boring and even keeping my talk precise.”

Since joining the station in August, Geeta has developed so many skills and is now independently recording a program which shares information about the latest happenings at Snehalaya. She also gives her voice to social promotions and on 25 October, Geeta broadcast her first live program and was really happy with the way it went. Being a radio jockey work has given Geeta a lot of confidence, and the skills to be independent and move ahead in life. She still aims to complete her BSW followed by a Masters in Social Work, but she is also excited to follow her passion to be a successful radio jockey. With her strong determination we are sure that she will achieve both. Her hope is that she will become financially independent and able to support her grandmother who she still misses a lot.


28 November, 2021

COVID can't stop our kids

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Activities and work undertaken in the last 5-6 months

This March, we were hit with the full force of the second wave of the pandemic and as reported in the media there was a severe lack of hospital beds, oxygen, other medical supplies and treatments and vaccinations in cities. The situation was just as bleak in the rural areas where we operate and for many of the low-income families living here, there had even fewer options available to them.Ahmednagar District, where Snehalaya operates, was one of the worst-hit with no beds, oxygen or medicines available to our largely rural population of nearly 5 million. With up to 4,000 new cases of COVID being reported each day, Ahmednagar was one of the worst affected districts in the entire country. This flood of positive cases rendered the already overburdened medical facilities throughout the district insufficient and we established two COVID care centres to support those hardest hit in many ways, including many of the beneficiaries supported through this project. You can read more about our COVID relief work at www.snehalaya.org/covid2021.Fortunately, the situation has improved and the demand for beds has decreased and we have returned our hospital to the treatment of our beneficiaries and patients living with HIV/AIDS. However, many families and communities have been devastated by the deaths of loved ones, including their main wage earners. Many are also saddled with enormous debts from having to pay inflated prices for medication through the black market on top of hospital bills for those struck down by COVID. The impact of this is huge with families who were already living a hand-to-mouth existence now further crippled with medical and funeral debts. The knock-on effect has seen a dramatic increase in incidences of domestic violence, child marriage and labour and with schools still closed as India braces for a third wave, HIV+ children are even more vulnerable than before. We are currently reaching out to all families who have lost parents and suffering the grief of lost relatives and the strain of financial hardship.


Challenges faced and next steps

Due to lockdown restrictions, all schools and colleges have been closed for most of the last year and with the second wave, school board exams were cancelled. It is now the new academic year, however with little improvement in the situation so schools remain closed. With over 700 million children out of school due to the virus, education has never been so important. We are currently planning how we can get all of our children safely back in their classrooms and helping them to catch up on their work through online classes and educational activities. By continuing our work with them, we have also been able to support their families with food, hygiene, health & financial aid, vastly reducing the impact of the virus in the most vulnerable communities.We are also reaching out to those in our other local communities where children orphaned by COVID are at increased risk from traffickers. Child marriages also continue to rise and to date, our Childline team has saved over 110 child brides – nearly 50% of all rescues in our state! With your support, we will ensure that all of these girls receive the support they need to continue their education when safe to do so.


Stories from the ground

The past two years have been an immense challenge to both our students and their teachers with education severely disrupted by the pandemic and lockdowns. Despite this, we are so proud that our Rehab Center students achieved 100% pass rates in this year's 10 and 12 std exams.This is an amazing accomplishment given that the majority of Indian children, especially those living in shelter homes and slums, have experienced a year severely disrupted by the COVID pandemic and lockdowns in one of the most significant years of their schooling. Throughout, the dilemma of starting schools and keeping our children safe through online education has continued, with schools opening and closing with little notice and adequate time to prepare properly. Despite limited access to technology, our staff continued to provide online classes and homework to around 200 students in our Rehab Center.Of course, it all comes down to the individual children who overcame the emotional and practical disruptions to remain focused and committed to their learning. Our students stayed buoyant throughout and their perseverance and commitment to learning should be applauded and we are also grateful to our teachers who were under pressure to deliver both offline and online classes which helped our students stay on track.


23 March, 2021

Staying positive

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We are now entering our ninth month of lockdown in Snehalaya. While the restrictions in India are easing, the numbers of cases of COVID 19 continue to rise and we are remaining cautious, keeping our doors locked to visitors and restricting the movements of our staff and beneficiaries. Everyone has been amazing taking care and precautions and working without a break in all that time to keep our beneficiaries safe.


With the mental health of many being impacted by the pandemic, our other main concerns are reassuring, supporting and keeping our beneficiaries and staff active and entertained. Diwali was a particularly hard time for them to be separated from their families. Usually we would have planned family get-togethers, parties and celebrations with staff and supporters. Instead we enjoyed special lockdown activities, including Childern's Day (see video below) that safely entertained our whole Snehalaya family and help them to feel loved and valued, including online family meet ups and socially distanced activities.


With our children locked in, we have focused on developing their skills and have recently opened a new school library, beauty training parlour and skills development workshop where our beneficiaries can enhance their education and learn vocational skills.


Times may be extra tough for us all at the moment but, since day one, Snehalaya has always tackled the challenges facing our beneficiaries head on, and we are managing the pandemic in the same way. It’s thanks to your support that we can continue to evolve our services to provide practical support to those who need it most. We will beat this together and we are as always truly grateful that we are in this together, thank you.



5 August, 2020

Life with our children at a glance

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Life with our children at a glance




Last year, Snehalaya celebrated 30 years of rescuing and empowering women and children. Among the celebrations was a special lunch at a local hotel which the children thoroughly enjoyed. With over half of our children being HIV+, World AIDS Week is a big event on our annual calendar and this year it provided the finale to our birthday celebrations. We asked our children to take part in drawing and essay writing competitions to help break down the stigma associated with the condition. We also re-released some of the films they have made, including Think Positive, a story of a HIV+ baby abandoned by its mother and brought to Snehalaya. The children, some of whom share similar heart-breaking histories, wrote, directed and acted in the film to share their stories and show the world that they should not discriminate against HIV. The film was shown by our supporters around the World on World AIDS Day, 1 December. As part of International Day of the Girl Child on 15 October some of our older girls took part in our Malala girls education program delivering presentations and workshop to girls in local schools to promote equality in education. This is part of an annual schedule of events which our peer mentors, girls aged 13-17 organise and manage to advocate and encourage all girls to complete their full 12 years of education. The start of the year marks final preparations for exam period and all of our children take their education very seriously. This year was the first that children from our onsite English Medium School sat the state 10 std exams and we are excited to hear how they have done in the next few weeks.


Our children love a good celebration and look forward to all of the festivals. This year our Diwali celebrations were supported by our local Lions Club who put on a spectacular fun fair and show with Anjali Gaikwad, our local L'il Champs superstar providing the vocal entertainment. Christmas has become a firm highlight of our year with an annual visit from Father. This year we transformed one of our guest houses into a special grotto for him to greet our children and distribute the gifts they had selected and wrapped for ‘Secret Santa’ gifts to each other on Christmas Eve.Gandhi’s birthday and Republic Day are more serious affairs and were marked by speeches and dramas delivered by our children around the historic days and the importance of non-violence and independence. They are also becoming extremely good at helping create giant rangolis to mark the events and participate with full enthusiasm and patriotism. We also aim to develop their skills and knowledge through extracurricular activities and highlights included exposure visits to a local Kokan experience, a local newspaper and Meherabad, a local pilgrimage site. We are extremely lucky that we don’t always have to leave home to see the world and beyond as experts visit to share their experiences with our children. In November, this included an astronomy mentoring session by a senior astrologer.


Since March, when the headlines started highlighting the devastating impact of Corona virus, we were particularly worried for all of our shelter home children whose immune systems are compromised by living in an institution, but especially for those living with HIV who are extremely vulnerable during pandemics such as this. Fortunately, we were able to take immediate action to protect and educate all of our beneficiaries about the virus and the prevention its spread. As we watched the world lock down and self-isolate we also firmly shut our doors to prevent the virus reaching our children’s shelter. With no-one going out or coming in since the end of March, we are pleased to report there have been no cases of the virus so far. We have also been able to maintain some semblance of normality reducing the stress of on our children and their caregivers by maintaining as much of our regular routine as possible. With the early closure of schools, we initially asked our own school teachers to provide a few hours of classes each day in collaboration with our staff. With the enforced isolation this was no longer possible and the task of entertaining the children has been placed on our caregivers’ shoulders. This includes morning exercise and cleaning routines, classes and scheduled activities twice a day, including creative, educational and physical activities and life skills, bearing in mind social distancing. We are also extremely grateful to volunteers who are conducting online classes for our older children.We have actually been able to have some fun and introduce new activities thanks to more downtime! We celebrated and promoted girls’ education on Malala Day with a full day of activities. We have also introduced new activities such as Lego and table tennis (three of our former beneficiaries are professional coaches who have returned home for lock down) and have been organising fashion shows, dance competitions and so much more...
Thank you so much for your support during these challenging times, it’s thanks to you that our children remain happy, healthy and educated.



19 November, 2019

The happiness amidst hardships

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The happiness amidst hardships








22 July, 2019

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Program Update


We enjoyed a great start to the year with our Republic Day celebration with all beneficiaries and staff. In February volunteers from China celebrated Chinese New Year with us by helping us make dumplings which we ate with chopsticks.
Our 10th and 12th standard students faced their SSC and HSC exams and we have everything crossed for their success and are currently coaching them on their further education and career options. Around 10 of our girls are now Malala peer mentors advocating for equality in education and helped plan and lead a camp to recruit 9th standard girls from local schools to join their peer mentor network.


Story from the field


One of our most gregarious beneficiaries is Babu who has been winning hearts at our Rehabilitation Center ever since he arrived into our care in 2010 as an eight month old orphan. He’s become a real character and is almost always the first up to dance at our celebrations so it’s really easy to forget sometimes that he’s actually deaf. He dances to the vibrations of the music he can feel and is quite a mover! In fact, he won a small dance competition we held recently based on his moving non-stop as the music played.


Although we’re really missing his cheeky face and antics we’re really happy to report that he was e rolled in specialised local school for deaf children a few years ago. The good news is that he returns home for the holidays to catch up with his Snehalaya family regularly. we are really grateful and moved to see a whole new world opening up to him as he learns sign language and his first words.


We went to visit him shortly after he was admitted to the school and the difference made within such a short space of time. We were so happy to see how he is finding his voice – it’s amazing the impact seeing someone doing something as simple as counting to ten can have. You can see for yourself the improvements he has made at the school, by watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvXCH5vh2gA


What is the expected total number of beneficiaries in this program for FY18-19?100
What is the number of beneficiaries/ benefits provided in this program, Year-To-Date93
Village/City/State where project is locatedAhmednagar, Maharashtra
Total Budget for the project for FY18-192000000
Total Expenses for the project YTD1818568

23 May, 2019

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Program Update


Ganpati (Ganesh) Festival is a big deal at Maharashtra, especially in Snehalaya with our beneficiaries throwing themselves into rangoli, fancy dress, cooking and art competitions. The children working in our vocational Earth Studio were busy ahead of the festival making Ganesh idols that proved so popular they sold out immiediately. All of our children gathered at sunset each day of the ten-day festival as aarti was performed. The celebrations culminated in dancing followed by a fond farewell and the ritual submersion of the elephant god.
In August, 4 UK teachers visited our English medium school to share their experience and knowledge with our teaching staff. They then generously fundraised to allow four of our teachers to visit them in the UK to see how they are put into practice. This has already resulted in improved classroom management and academic performance.
Our talented children swept the board in several categories at a local talent competition winning Rs 11,000 in cash. We are always impressed by their confidence on the stage so weren’t surprised when they took first prizes for dance, speeches, singing and drama.


Story from the field


Our Educate. Empower. Lead. campaign with Malala Fund engaged with girls aged 13-17 at risk or the victims of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC), to inspire them to stand up for their rights to their own education. We also empowered them to challenge the barriers to equality in education and gave them the dais to advocate for it with key influencers and decision makers.


Another way we empowered them is through developing them as peer mentors to deliver our workshops and presentations.


One of them, Asha is a strong and confident 16-year-old who enjoys playing cricket, reading and studying geography and has the ambitions of becoming a police officer. She and her brother have been living at our shelter home since 2009 when her father died, and their illiterate mother was no longer able to offer them a safe home and education. Asha is determined to break the cycle of poverty she was born into by succeeding in her own future, saying: “The staff and children here are very supportive and encouraging in making sure I get the best education. My mother wants me to return home and start working to help support her, but I know I need to stay here to achieve my ambition of becoming an IPS officer.”


She adds: “I am really enjoying taking part in the campaign. I get to visit new places and enjoy working alongside the Malala staff team and I feel like I have an equal responsibility to make the campaign a success. At first, I was nervous about speaking in front of large crowds, but I am now very confident, especially after girls have come up to me to thank me for sharing my presentation.


“I am proud to be standing with Snehalaya and Malala to help improve girls’ education and empower girls by explaining their rights and giving them inspiration to do the same. Before this campaign I saw boys as being above girls but by telling other people about gender equality I have begun to believe in myself and can see we are equal.”


What is the number of beneficiaries/ benefits provided in this program, Year-To-Date150
Village/City/State where project is locatedAhmednagar, Maharashtra
Total Budget for the project for FY18-199500000
Total Expenses for the project YTD4500000

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