2019

Project – 2019 India Flood Relief

Click here for a video on the work being done by Rugna Seva Prakalp.

Maharashtra Foundation is launching 2019 Monsoon Flood Relief Fund to aid the victims and help rebuild communities hard hit by the recent monsoon floods. We appeal to our donor base to donate generously to the fund and help people and communities recover.

Five states severely affected – thousands displaced – lives disrupted – death toll in hundreds – relief and rebuilding assistance needed

Maharashtra Foundation will partner with multiple local NGOs to effectively respond to the flood situation.

Maharashtra Foundation’s approach in responding to disaster situations is to provide some support in relief efforts, but maximum support in rebuilding efforts which ensures long term benefit to the people and communities.

There are typically three phases to disaster response. Phase 1 is delivering immediate response and focuses on rescuing victims and bringing them to safe place where immediate support is available to alleviate any life-threatening situations. Phase 1 is focused on minimizing loss of life and the effect within the disaster affected community. This phase is best handled by onsite resources which are typically provided/subsidized by the government and local organizations with expertise in rescue efforts.

Phase 2 focused on providing support and relief efforts begins simultaneously with phase 1 as victims are recused. In phase 2 primary focus is providing food, shelter, clothing, medications, relief kits and other necessities to the victims. External funding is typically required for this phase. The government provides some resources, but the people in the community and NGOs become some of the prominent resources and leaders in this phase. Part of the funds raised by Maharashtra Foundation are used for phase 2 support.

We have sent some relief funds to NGO Rugna Seva Prakalp (www.rugnasevaprakalp.org) and Halo Medical Foundation providing phase 2- mid-term response to affected communities in Sangli/Kolhapur area.

Phase 3 is the longest and is the most capital intensive in comparison of the three. This phase begins as soon as the disaster area is cleared and a pathway to redevelopment is available. However, there is no specific end date for phase 3. The progress in phase 3 is dependent on capital availability, resource availability, and various other factors including availability of know-how, resources, and skills to prevent and effectively respond to such situations in the future. This is where Maharashtra Foundation provides maximum support. We believe that simply aiding in rebuilding does not help. But, educating people about the causes and providing them with the education and knowledge to prevent and respond to such situation introduces a long-term sustainable impact.

We partner with local NGOs and provide them funding to help rebuild the community. Currently, we are monitoring and discussing the flood situation with our NGO contacts and experts in India. We will identify specific NGOs in due time and direct phase 3 rebuilding funding to them.

This approach is proven as we have provided aid and successfully contributed to rebuilding efforts to multiple natural disasters in the past.

Finally, we would like to remind and assure our donors that Maharashtra Foundation will only disburse funds to eligible and compliant NGOs with valid FCRA and 80G certification.

Society For Rural Health And Development Project (SRHDP)

Project – Livelihood for marginalized women

MF Issue Area : Women’s Empowerment

SRHDP works with the people and families who are socially marginalized, economically deprived, educationally backward and from culturally conservative rural and tribal communities. This project aims to provide sustained work and income for women and mothers living with HIV/AIDS, former bonded laborers, and mothers of disabled children in 10 villages in Salem district of Tamil Nadu. SRHDP has mobilized women’s self help groups to set up these women in income generating activities like garment making, vegetable and fruit vending, mini tiffin making, and boiled and raw rice vending.

Women will form their own revolving fund management committee, elect office bearers, have their own rules and regulations, official records and documentation to administer the funds. They will collect repayments, revolve the funds among their group members and ensure reaching more women through this project in a continual manner. This project will create a permanent structure for women to avail of income generation activities at the grassroots level.

Pioneer Medical Research Foundation and MAHAN Trust

Project – Decrease in Maternal and Neonatal Mortality

MF Issue Area : Healthcare

In the tribal region of Melghat, neonatal mortality related to respiratory distress and mortality related to pneumonia is extremely high. Maternal mortality related to high-risk pregnancies is also very high. Pioneer Medical Research Foundation and MAHAN Trust works with mothers and babies in this region, addressing this urgent problem. They hope to achieve this by involving mothers and the family in the care of their babies, promoting Kangaroo Mother care, providing equipment and education to triage, treat, or transfer newborns in need especially with pneumonia, and providing tools to identify high risk pregnancies and provide early referral or specialist care.

The approach includes training traditional birth attendants to identify high-risk pregnancies as well as training mothers to take prenatal iron and vitamin supplements, document nutritional intake, and identify and notify signs of sickness in babies.

Educate for Life

Project – Hunar Ghar

MF Issue Area : Education, Health and Poverty Reduction

Educate for Life has been serving Bakhel Panchayat, an extremely deprived and marginalized rural, Adivasi community in Udaipur, Rajasthan, for ten years. Educate for Life runs an innovative primary school called Hunar Ghar, which also acts as a community hub, providing integrated education, healthcare and other support to the community, from pregnancy to adulthood. Educate for Life involves the local community in the running of the school, adapting curriculum material so that topics are meaningful to the experiences of first generation rural learners, and providing ongoing training, support and mentorship to their teaching staff.

Educate for Life believes that good education and good health go hand in hand. Children at Hunar Ghar School are given two healthy, nutritious meals each day, annual health checks from a pediatrician, vaccinations, weekly iron folate supplements and 6 monthly deworming medication, thus providing holistic services to break the cycle of illiteracy in poor, rural areas.

Damini Darubandi Abhiyan

Project – Darubandi

MF Issue Area : Women’s Empowerment

The district of Beed in Marathwada is an underdeveloped rural belt of Maharashtra where agriculture is on the decline, making a living is very hard and alcoholism is rampant, leading to domestic violence and child abuse. The police do not take actionand there is no effective implementation of laws against sale of illegal liquor. Damini Darubandi Abhiyan attempts to address this problem through strengthening the power of women to prevent the operation of liquor shops where men spend all their money. Damini’s approach includes building awareness among the youth about alcoholism and building pressure on the government for effective implementation of legislation. Damini aims to train women in these acts and laws and work with the police to conduct raids on liquor shops, while providing support systems for women in the form of handling domestic violence cases.

LeapForWord

Project – English Literacy Program

MF Issue Area : Education

LeapForWord believes that large-scale social change will not happen by enforcing equality, but rather by providing equal opportunity to all. LeapForWord believes that “English is the great leveler” and aims to ensure that students from underserved communities can access any opportunity that they were previously deprived of due to a lack of English skills. LeapForWord has designed an innovative methodology to teach English to students for whom English is not a first language.

Working in Nashik, as well as rural areas like Kalwan, Nandurbar, Taloda and Ghodegaon, LeapForWord trains and certifies existing teachers from underserved communities in this unique system to teach English to children who are not exposed to English at home or anywhere in their lives. The founder, Pranil Naik, has been awarded the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship for his pioneering work in this area.

Health Education Adoption Rehabilitation Development Society (HEARDS)

Project – Child Labor Prevention And Education/strong>

MF Issue Area : Education and Poverty Reduction

HEARDS, based in Chittoor, AP, addresses the problem of child labor. HEARDS is committed to developing local community mentors who take children living in poverty on the journey from childhood to livelihood. There are a large number of children working in hazardous industries like the production of safety matches, cigars, incense sticks, brick kilns, poultry farms and stone breaking.

These child laborers are from scheduled castes/tribes, other minorities, urban poor and of low socio-economic status. Industrialization, poverty, adult unemployment, illiteracy, ignorance and lack of education cause children to become laborers. Along with educating these children, HEARDS also undertakes public awareness campaigns with a message of “say No to Child Labor”, as well as the importance of education for girls. HEARDS thus runs a holistic program including education and awareness.

Shramjivi Janata Sahayyak Mandal (SJSM)

Project – Kitchen Gardens

MF Issue Area : Environment Protection, Healthcare, Women’s Empowerment

Based in Satara, Shramjivi works in the marginalized rural communities of Satara and Raigarh, focusing on tribal rights, natural resources, and livelihood, while keeping women in the forefront. The goal of this project is to create a sustainable development model by empowering the Katakari tribal population to protect their environment through responsible utilization of natural resources in order to elevate their own livelihoods. Shramjivi hopes to achieve this by motivating tribal families to grow kitchen gardens to provide food security. Shramjivi encourages income-generating, medicinal plants and trees, such as cashews, mangoes, jamun, blueberries and jackfruit, and teaches proper management of wastewater for kitchen gardens.

Tribal self-help groups composed of women will be responsible for managing this process, through their rapport with local schoolteachers and villagers. They will promote kitchen gardens, composting processes, and plantation with school children. This program will also address the problem of malnutrition by promoting homegrown medicinal plants and organic vegetables in kitchen gardens.

Janvikas Pratishthan

Project – Aakanksha

MF Issue Area : Women’s Empowerment

Janvikas Pratishthan addresses the problem of girls dropping out of school at puberty. As a result, the only option open to them is to work as domestic help, thus severely restricting their career growth and job security. Working in the Maval block of Pune district and Sangameshwar block of Ratnagiri district since 2012, Janvikas Pratishthan provides training to girls in nursing care. They provide a fully equipped residential facility to provide an uninterrupted educational environment.

This course has been approved by Government of Maharashtra (GOM) and Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK), a subsidiary organization of Ministry of Human Resource Development (GOI) as well as the Maharashtra State Board of Vocational Education. Upon completion of the course, they sit for exams conducted by MSBVE and receive a government-recognized certificate that makes them eligible for jobs in the public as well as private sector.