Sambhali Trust
Sambhali Trust (Rising of the deprived women) is a nonprofit organisation based in Jodhpur, India. Founded in 2007, the organisation aims to empower Dalit women and children in Rajasthan through educational programs, vocational training, and social services. The trust is active in Jodhpur and Setrawa, and reaches approximately 800 per year. Since its founding, it has worked with more than 12,000 children and women in Western Rajasthan. [1][2][3]
 | |
| Motto | Self-Esteem — Unity — Independence |
|---|---|
| Founded | 16 January 2007 |
| Founder | Govind Singh Rathore |
| Type | NGO |
| Location | |
| Services | Women Empowerment |
| Website | sambhali-trust |
HistoryEdit
Sambhali Trust was founded on 16 January 2007 by Govind Singh Rathore, after experiencing violence and discrimination against the women of his family. Hence, Sambhali Trust was created to help alleviate Rajasthani women out of poverty and financial dependence on their families. This was initially done by creating a platform to teach basic Hindi, English, Mathematics and sewing for free to women and girls in Jodhpur, and later Setrawa, through "empowerment centres". The aim of this training is to enable women and girls to acquire the skills and knowledge required to find or create employment for themselves. The name "Sambhali" means "rising of the deprived women".[4][5]
StructureEdit
The trust now consists of 20 projects: nine empowerment centres, two sewing centres, two educational programs and scholarship funding, the "No Bad Touch" and "Aadarsh - Save Youth, Save Nation" projects, one Rural Schools Project, one women's shelter service, one self-help group and a toll-free helpline. Each project is headed by a project manager, with additional support from subject teachers or assistants. 10 teachers in Hindi and Sewing, many of them graduates of the Sambhali program themselves, are employed by the trust, with approximately 15-30 other teachers working on a voluntary basis from all over the world. Predominantly, these volunteers teach English and Mathematics with some specialising in fashion and design and others working within the administration of the trust.
The trust has seven trustees, with Govind Singh Rathore acting as Managing Trustee. A national and international advisory board also partake in decision making.
Sambhali Trust is financed mainly through foreign donations and grants. Since 2013, the Trust has been affiliated with Austrian, German, Swiss and British sister organisations. Nowadays, Sambhali's Associates are Sambhali Austria, Sambhali Germany, Sambhali U.S., Sambhali France and Sambhali UK respectively. Donations through these sister organisations are all directed to the central, Indian based Trust.
ProjectsEdit
Located across Jodhpur and Setrawa, empowerment centers provide women and girls with cost free access to education in Hindi, English, and Mathematics. Women are also trained in the traditional arts of sewing and needlework. This enables them to manufacture their own products after training, or to go on and work for Sambhali Trust in the sewing centres. The sewing centres employ over 20 women to produce handmade fashion and accessories for the Sambhali Boutique, based in Jodhpur, as well as bespoke orders for overseas.[6][7][8] Sambhali Trust funds over 190 children to attend school in Jodhpur through a scholarship program and boarding home. Additionally, the trust runs the "No Bad Touch" project which educates children, teachers and parents about child sexual abuse. Sambhali is currently the only organisation in Rajasthan to openly address this issue. The "No Bad Touch" project was launched in June 2013 and over 3,000 children per year attend the workshops.[9] In 2014, Sambhali Trust introduced the Nirbhaya Helpline.[10] This service provides help and counselling to women in need and is the first toll-free women's helpline to operate in Rajasthan. Additionally, Sambhali Trust facilitates the Sheerni Self-Help Group Project. The Self-Help project was established to help women by providing them with a means of saving money and access to loans.[11] The aim of this is to allow them to create small enterprises of their own and work towards financial independence.[12] In 2019, the "Aadarsh - Save Youth, Save Nation" project was designed to educate boys and girls in schools about several issues that arise in puberty. Sexual harassment and abuse as well as the dangers of the internet are also addressed in separate lessons.
Sambhali Trust during COVID-19Edit
During the lockdown in 2020, Govind Singh Rathore's family and some people of the NGO moved to his village Setrawa. There, most of the people work in mines as laborers and were hit badly by the total lockdown. In the strong summer heat of the Indian Thar Desert, some women walked miles to ask the trust for any possible help. By the end of March 2020, the NGO started to distribute food packages including flour, rice, chili, turmeric & chai powder, sugar, salt, oil & lentils to 22 tribal families around the family home. A few days after, the Trust established its new project and helped more than 500 families by delivering 2,300 ration kits in 12 villages of Dechu Tehsil from end of March until end of July. Additionally, more than 2,000 masks were and are still delivered to people in need, police officers and laborers in the desert and Jodhpur. Around 1,500 additional families were informed about COVID-19 and were given soaps & masks by our international and national volunteers who went into the field. Even though the main deliveries stopped by the end of June, Sambhali is still supporting 22 vulnerable families with food rations for 15 days and is using its Nirbhaya tollfree helpline number for this matter as well. During the extreme lockdown, the NGO’s Headquarter was offered to the local administration in Jodhpur for isolation camps and shelters.
ReferencesEdit
- ↑ The NGO list About Sambhali Trust
- ↑ The better India from 29. August 2013 About Sambhali Trust
- ↑ Times of India from 31.03.2015 Rajasthan Day celebrated with enthusiasm
- ↑ Darpan Magazine from 15. March 2014 Sambhali Trust History
- ↑ Times Now A short video about Sambhali's story
- ↑ The Hindu from 30. July 2014 A designer with a heart
- ↑ Vancouverdesi from 24. June 2013 Surrey bands together against domestic abuse with Rakhi Project
- ↑ Voice online from 20. June 2014 2014 Rakhi Project: Banding Together Against Domestic Abuse
- ↑ Times of India from 15. September 2014 "No-bad-touch Project"
- ↑ Times of India from 23. August 2014 Helpline Project
- ↑ The Huffington Post from 21. March 2013 Promoting Women's Economic Participation in India
- ↑ Halabol Voices from 30. July 2014 different Projects Archived 2014-10-06 at Archive.today
13. Times of India from 15.04.2020: Jodhpur man vacates house for isolation centre https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jodhpur/jodhpur-man-vacates-house-for-isolation-centre/articleshow/75149661.cms
14. CNN from 04.06.2020: Sambhali Trust during COVID-19 lockdown https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/04/india/india-lockdown-food-coronavirus-intl/index.html
15. BBC from 31.03.2020: I'm in lockdown with my abuser https://www.bbc.com/news/world-52063755
16. Times of India from 07.09.2020: Jodhpur women distribute free masks risking their own health https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jodhpur/women-distribute-free-masks-risking-their-own-health/articleshow/77967970.cms