Preventing Prostitution post Covid

In three months, our girls have won 5 prizes!!! Varsha- MS. Vibrant 2023, Anisha- 2^nd prize in singing competition, Prachi- 3^rd prize in Dance Competition. Aarti is among the top twenty students of a batch of 100 students graduating from mid schools to high schools and little Prachi scored 91 % in her total class percentile.

We are impossibly proud as the education of these girls was interrupted during Covid as they had little access to online classes during the lockdown. They were sent back to the red-light areas, there was no food and even little room to sleep.

We continue to support 65 children in schools through community classrooms in Bihar, 5 children through sponsorships in Delhi schools, and 288 in the Nizamuddin Basti New Delhi, 20 children in Bengal through sponsorship in Kolkata schools and 25 children’s tuition under the Hastings Bridge through our mobile van.  The total to 403 children supported in schools.

 In addition, 15 young women and men are being sponsored in college by our NGO.  

20 girls continue to learn martial arts in our Bihar Centre.

This quarter, 1 March - 30 July 2023, we distributed 15000. meals to 40. women and 110.children in Bihar, 10, 500. meals to 30 women and 75 children in Bengal and 7700 meals to 17 women and 60 children Delhi taking the total to 33, 200 meals to 87 women and 245 children for all India. 

In addition, we distributed. six hundred sanitary pads. 

To top it all we can report that the eleven women running the Apne Aap food truck now earn Rs 12500- 18500 per month and obe Girl from our sowing class has started a tailoring business from her home- (earning- Rs 100-150 per day).

 Our program continues its outreach. We have 11 new members. Our team helped three women obtain Govt. ID’s and connect with Govt. entitlements like low-cost food, health care and housing. and helped one woman with opening a bank account, 

In addition there is a new fiction novel, I Kick and I Fly by our founder Ruchira Gupta on our work. It is about a 14 year old girl in Bihar who escapes the sex trade by becoming a Kung Fu champion. The book is based on true experinces of girls in our NGO that you support. Do order the book and share with your friends so we can gain more supporters for our cause. It was just featured on NBC, CSPAN and BBC Woman's Hour. Its available in all bookstores near you and online too.

Links:

• I Kick and I Fly

Joya is a 12 year old girl from the Nat community who is studying in the Apne Aap Community Classroom in the Forbesganj red light area in Bihar. She is the daughter of a survivor of sex trafficking, who was provided an exit pathway through the Apne Aap Ten Asset program, also known as Asset Based Community Development (ABCD). 

Her mother is running a grocery store in the backroom of her mud hut, which was previously a brothel. Her husband, who was working for the local crime lord as a pimp and a trafficker, now assists her in the grocery store. Joya’s younger brother and sister also study in the Apne Aap community classroom. All the siblings get a hot meal along with 50 other children at the center everyday. 

These activities keep the children safe and well fed away from the dangers of the red-light areas. Joya has dreams that her mother was not able to fulfill. Joya now aspires to be a karate instructor when she grows up. 

The Karate classes at the center are for all 50 children between the ages of 7 and 15. 

Apne Aap runs a community classroom for 50 children in Bihar in its community center along with the hot meal and karate program on a daily basis. On Saturdays, Apne Aap conducts games and arts classes as well as open mic sessions to teach the girls to speak to authorities.

In Delhi, Apne Aap supports a children's library for 732 women and children from the ages of 6 to 60 years, creche and pre-school community classroom for 426 children aged 2 to 7 years and food for 720 women and children aged 2-20.

In Bengal, we have programs running in the Sundarban Mangrove Forests and in the Kolkata red light area. In the Sundarbans, we support 336 girls and boys between the ages of 2-14 to study in the Ruchira Gupta Sundarbans Tree House School. In Kolkata, in classes held under the Hastings Bridge near the red-light area of Kidderpore - we provide tuition to 52 children between the ages of 4-12.

As part of its continued education support, Apne Aap is sponsoring a total of 14 girls through college - four girls in Forbesganj, two girls in Patna, two girls in Kolkata, 5 girls in Delhi and one girl in Dehradun. 

We are also proud to announce that 11 women from the Delhi Nizammudin slum have started a food truck business in the popular Sundar Nursery park and have begun to break even. Apne Aap provided the seed money for the truck and the kitchen.

This quarter, January through March 2023, we distributed 38,500 meals to 2,013 women and children in Bihar and Delhi. In addition, we distributed 500 sanitary pads and 550 blankets and warm jackets. We supported 964 children and young women in schooling through community classrooms in Bihar, Bengal and Delhi.

Links:

• Apne Aap website
• See latest reports and numbers of our Covid Relief work here
• Meet our Founder