And the NGO is - Ishaan Foundation

It was a humongous task to identify and finalize the NGO that I would support from the sale of my paintings through the exhibition "Windmills of Hope". 


The idea was to have an NGO that works in the field of education for under-privileged children. Alongside me fire-fighting with preparation for my exhibition I was deliberating on which NGO to support. 


I had this huge support of Chandni Parekh (@Fundacause) for this task. She not only would answer all my annoying queries right from what should we do? to how can we finalize now? but also went through each and every application that we received for this and added her experienced comments to it. Chandni, a huge thanks to you for your support.


There were essential 3 criteria that I used for selecting the NGO

1. The NGO shouldn't be a very big one - Larger organisations get a lot of support from corporates and other businesses, my minuscule contribution would not have made much difference to their existing revenues (although it might have added I am sure).
2. The NGO needs to be working in Children's education - You can read my reasons for this on my previous blog here.
3. The NGO needs to be in or around Malad - I wanted more involvement than just giving money one time. I wanted to be able to visit the place and have a more human involvement. It is not a short term relationship that I am looking at with the NGO. It shall be longer, i want to see what more I could do with the NGO and be involved in a deeper manner.

One NGO that fulfilled all these criteria is ISHAAN HOPE Foundation for Education & Training (Social benefit & non—profit organization). 

A little about their Project that I have decided to support - 

Educational help to Orphanage: I am in touch with Dr Hema Kulkarni of the Ishaan Hope Foundation who is looking after the project, an orphanage situated in Mudh Island which houses about 65 children varying from 3yrs to 17 yrs. This orphanage does not have government aid as it does not have enough space as well as other infrastructure. Last year 11 students were enrolled in a nearby school. From June 2011, 9 more will be enrolled. The annual fees per student is Rs, 7000/-. This does not include uniforms & textbooks. In fact, Mrs. Buthello (who runs this orphanage) wishes to send 10 more children to school. Although they were unable to undertake this responsibility because of lack of funds.

Until now the children were getting education through National Open School system. However there were no regular trained teachers to educate them. Dr Hema Kulkarni visted the orphanage in 2009 and suggested that it was better for these children to go to nearby regular school. This will not only help them get regular education & training, but also have an opportunity to meet & interact with children from society. This suggestion was accepted by the president of the orphanage. In June 2010 they enrolled 9 young students in Sir J. P. School, Malad (West) as the school principal insisted that the children should have proper documentation. Three other older students were enrolled on Holy Mother English School in Malawani as they did not insist on documentation. Annual fees per year per student is Rs. 7000/- (Seven thousand) which includes bus fare, but not uniforms & text books. 

Eight other students were sponsored by donors from the neighborhood, but they backed out after six months & the foundation had to support these eight students as well for last 6 months. The total expenditure last year on this project was 112000/- (One Lakh twelve thousand). From June 2011, the foundation has to support all 20 students & fees expenditure would be Rs. 140,000/- (One Lakh forty thousand). The principals of the schools have accepted our request that we will pay the fees on quarterly basis. There are more students in the orphanage who need to go to school but because of pausity of funds are unable to. 

The foundation also wishes to help them by providing uniforms & text books but have not been able to do so till now. Mrs. Buthello who runs the orphanage has got permission to start pre-primary school. She wishes that the foundation help her establish this project too. 

In addtion to above, Mrs. Buthollo wishes that more than 10 students who have passed 10th std need to undergo vocational training so that they become financially independent & may be able to move out of the orphanage.

I do hope that I am able to pitch in a substantial amount to help this Orphanage.

I also urge my readers to please see if some more funds can be collected for this orphanage. 

My only endeavor is to make a small difference through my exhibition "Windmills of Hope" and give hope to these children by giving them the gift of education.

Invite to my Exhibition