The Gifted Dreams

In the year 1994 a bunch of professionals quit their jobs for the sheer passion of helping the under privileged. The common belief and aim was to help the needy ones. But how, when, where? At least the aim was clear on why they wanted to help the under privileged ones. As we being fortunate ones who are born and brought-up in a conducible environment and today have become educated professionals.

DSP BlackRock has been funding the Anandalay initiative since 2010.

But there are countless people/children on the streets who are deprived from basic livelihood, rejected from the society, physically challenged and ill, lying on the footpaths across the streets, in some corner at railway stations/ bus depots etc.

So how did these people start? These god fathers of the under privileged bought some packets of biscuits and travelled across railway stations and provided it to wandering small children wherever they were found, pledging to go to the places where very few will go. This is how Sahaara Charitable Society started their work initially.

From the child victimized in a perilous red light area, to her trafficked mother benumbed by sexual violence, to the languishing prisoner, to the child invisible behind high walls of the observation home, to the orphan on the street, to the stick- tapping visually challenged woman on the speeding train and to the slum child who is written off to be a child labourer, Sahaara perseveres in the enkindling of the dying dreams all across the city of Mumbai.

As time went, today after 23 years since its inception, Sahaara is a full-fledged NGO. It caters to needy men, women or children and facilitates them with education, skill training, healthcare, upbringing, rehabilitation etc. Some of the people who have been benefited from Sahaara’s selfless caring and nurturing have raised themselves as established professionals.

Some are also willing to join other NGO’s as volunteers and help similar people who are left out from the society. Surely they all will be very grateful to Sahaara for making them what they are today. Santosh Johny is the Chairman and CEO of Sahaara Charitable Society.

Anandalay

Child prostitution is a major problem in India involving around 1.2 million children. According to ECPAT International, an estimated 1.2 million children are pushed into prostitution in India, making India’s count of child prostitutes the highest in the world. Of those 1.2 million cases, only 55 legal cases led to convictions in 2015. The children of commercial sex workers find the odds stacked against them while growing up.

The nature of their mother’s job implies odd hours. They are more often than not drugged and put to sleep under the very beds that their mothers conduct the trade. They are generally malnourished as they do not get their meals on time, since their mothers would get up later in the day, and also a bleak future with the reality being no possible education whatsoever.

For the girls, it would possibly mean following in their mother’s footsteps.
Anandalay is a home for vulnerable young girls, where they seek to restore to these children and their dream of a childhood, where they are protected and nurtured in love. It is a home where they receive education, wholesome food and accommodation under the committed care of house-parents.

The girls are educated at one of the best English medium schools in the locality and are conversant in English. Some sing in the school’s choir, one has won first prize in a singing competition and another has been chosen to represent the school in football competitions. In 2015-16, Anandalay housed and cared for 14 vulnerable girl children.

Anandalay is a home for vulnerable young girls, where they seek to restore to these children and their dream of a childhood, where they are protected and nurtured in love. It is a home where they receive education, wholesome food and accommodation under the committed care of house-parents. The girls are educated at one of the best English medium schools in the locality and are conversant in English. Some sing in the school’s choir, one has won first prize in a singing competition and another has been chosen to represent the school in football competitions. In 2015-16, Anandalay housed and cared for 14 vulnerable girl children.