Shadhika

Reading Time: 3 minutes By Kim Burnett, Shadhika President and CEO   Kavita* is angry.  We are sitting in a non-descript, corporate conference room where Kavita is currently doing a three-month accounting internship. Earlier this year, Kavita received her Bachelors in Commerce, and Baale Mane, Shadhika’s grantee partner in Bangalore, found her this paid internship, which we all hope   

Reading Time: 3 minutes By Kim Burnett, Shadhika President and CEO   The time difference between India and Denver, Colorado, where I live, is twelve and a half hours. That means when I wake up in the morning, the first things that greet me are often “breaking news alerts” on my smart phone. Having left for India right when   

Reading Time: 3 minutes By Kim Burnett, Shadhika President and CEO   When I was younger, I used to play a game where I would ask people what superpower they would like to have – the ability to fly or the power to be invisible? I always chose the power to fly. But Savita* wanted to be invisible. It   

Reading Time: 3 minutes By Kim Burnett, Shadhika President and CEO   Their faces stare down on us, silently watching our work. Tagore, Nehru, Gandhi, and other Indian men of note whose names I do not know. I am sitting in a small second floor community room in the heart of the Bowbazar community, home to the largest Red-Light   

Reading Time: 4 minutes By Kim Burnett, Shadhika President and CEO   “Do you have a uterus?” The question catches me off guard, but the young girl before me earnestly wants to know. We are sitting on the floor in a community room in a ‘basti’ (slum) outside of Mumbai, visiting with the young women and men who are   

Reading Time: 2 minutes By Durga and Sneha, sisters who are both Shadhika Scholars and community leaders at Vacha, Shadhika’s partner in Mumbai.   With the help of Shadhika, my sister and I were able to save up enough money to purchase a computer together. This investment has drastically changed our lives. Before we had our own computer school   

Reading Time: 5 minutes By Kim Burnett, Shadhika President and CEO   I love Spring. After six months of snow here in Colorado, the arrival of Spring, in the form of flowering bulbs emerging in my garden, makes me smile and gives me hope for the future. I also love Spring because that is when we receive our annual   

Reading Time: 2 minutes By Zaira*, a Shadhika Scholar and community leader at STOP India, Shadhika’s partner in Delhi.   I wish to do an MBA or study in the field of business because one sees extremely few girls. Most people think this field is only for boys. I want to be a trailblazer for girls in my community. So that   

Reading Time: 4 minutes Dear Friends, My past visits with STOP India in Delhi have sometimes been bittersweet. Two years ago, Shadhika made a bet and provided start-up funding to help this organization that works with survivors of sex trafficking launch a business venture to teach the women how to manufacture apparel and jewelry for sale. The venture provided