Rescue sex workers & at-risk children in India

Thank you for the support you provide for our sex workers and their children. Around half of the children living in our Rehab Center are the children of sex workers and half are also HIV+. Developing and entertaining these children in a 24/7 job and while we provide shelter, food, clothing and healthcare, it is also important to provide them opportunities to explore the world and themselves. Your support is essential in allowing us to explore new activities for our children. Revently a new passion was ignited in some of our older girls as they participated in a Women's Premiere League (WPL) cricket competition. Here one of the players, Divya shares her experience.

“We were very excited to be selected to take part in the WPL and our practice started at the Nagar club on 16 January. It was an intense experience, starting at 6am with our training day ending at 10.30pm. Even though our bodies were aching, interrupting our sleep, we all woke early ready to start practicing again with full enthusiasm. Through this exposure, we learned about competition in the outside world. It taught us the importance of tireless efforts and the necessity of time management.

“Finally, the three-day competition started on 27 January and we were ready for our matches. We were divided into teams with other girls from Ahmednagar. Winning teams qualified for the final match on 29 January, with our Snehalaya sisters proudly among the final teams and winners. It was a great moment for our Snehalaya family and we could see the happiness on the faces of Samadhan Sir and Pravin Sir.

“I always loved watching and playing cricket but I never had a chance to play in an actual competition. WPL allowed me to experience the thrill of competition. I also made lots of new friends through the practice sessions and matches. It gave me a new experience of the outside, learning how to have conversations with new people, make new friends and many other interesting things. I used to think that the outside world could be cruel, but after experiencing the caring behaviour of the WPL staff, I started believing in humanity again.

“Overall, we all really enjoyed the entire experience and it definitely gave me confidence that I can do anything if I work hard.”

Your support ensures we can offer more girls like Divya an opportunity to try something new, thank you.

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Thank you for all your support which is helping our beneficiaries in so many different ways. It’s because of you we are able to help so many people through so many different challenges.

One of our projects is an English Medium School where the residents of our shelter home are taught. These are children living with HIV, orphans and semi orphans as well as rape survivors and the children of sex workers. One of our main missions is to prevent second-generation prostitution and the exploitation of young people within the sex trade and education plays a major role in providing our children the opportunities to break the cycles of the devastating circumstances they were born into.

Here one of our teachers, Yasmeen shares the story of one traumatized boy who was failing in his studies until she intervened.

"When I started at the school, all the kids were new to me. As I was getting acquainted with the children in the 9 std class, Ram gave me a fake name. It was only at the end of the class that another boy told me that he had given the wrong name. This made me wonder why. I found out that he didn't like to get attached to new teachers and wasn't ready to accept them. In spite of his apprehension, we gradually got to know each other. I then discovered that could not read or write, so was struggling in all subjects. He preferred sleeping during class. When I woke him up and asked why he was sleeping, he ignored me and continued sleeping. When I spoke to some of my colleagues, I learned that his HIV status and medication made him tired a lot of the time.

"So I decided that I needed to work on it. I started conversing with him frequently. We got to know each other better, and he slowly opened up. I also enlisted the help of one of my colleagues who succeeded in teaching him to read and write in Marathi.

"This was the first step and slowly but surely, he developed an interest in reading, writing and then other subjects, showing moderate progress. I tried to spark his interest in science by showing him videos and taking the time to explain concepts which helped develop his interest in that subject too. More importantly, he started approaching other teachers and me to help him whenever he faced problems.

"I liked his honesty and hard work which paid off when he passed 9 std with above average marks. He also realised that he would have to work harder to pass his 10 std exams. Another major setback was that Ram had serious visual problems which hampered his writing speed. We felt that providing him a writer for his SSC board exams could solve the issue. But we did not want to make him dependent and lethargic so didn’t reveal this to him until just before the exams. He was initially resistant to the idea when we revealed that one of our other students would be helping him, but we counselled and explained to him how it would help.

"I am happy to report that in the third year of our school achieved a 100% pass rate, Ram was among the highest scorers with 73.40%. When he saw his result, he first went to his writer to thank her. I liked his sincerity and am thrilled that he spent his summer vacation volunteering with Snehalaya’s PR team to develop the skills he will need to achieve his dream of becoming a hotel manager.”

We feel lucky to have teachers like Yasmeen who go the extra mile to identify and encourage children struggling with attachment and their studies. Without the support of her and you, our children would fail in education and life, but with you Ram and so many others are on the path to success.

SAVE THE DATE
Giving Tuesday, 29 November, is a fantastic opportunity to stretch your support even further. Thanks to GlobalGiving any donations made that day will earn us our share of US$1 million in match funding. Since 2015 we have raised thousands in bonus funding that helps fund committed teachers and students like Yasmeen and Ram. Look out for reminders from us nearer the time.

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