Shadhika

Reading Time: 3 minutes We’re all starting to think this was a bad idea. Our guide has set up a bicycle tour of old Bangalore and there are fourteen of us all on bikes waiting to cross the street. With no stop lights or stop signs, the traffic is full chaos and crossing the street is a skill in   

Reading Time: 3 minutes “Wait two minutes, the picture will come. Magic,” our guide tells the mother. I hand over the Polaroid picture, the image barely beginning to show. I started carrying a Polaroid camera with me on site visits about a year ago. As I was asking to take their photos for Shadhika, I realized that few of   

Reading Time: 3 minutes The bus stops and we get out. We walk down the narrow, winding dirt lanes carefully as the path is uneven and the ground wet from people washing their dishes and clothes. This community of over 3,000 sits right next to a garbage heap and most of the residents who live here work as ‘rag   

Reading Time: 3 minutes Parvati’s* mother comes to the door of the tiny apartment to welcome us. Though the space isn’t much bigger than my bathroom at home, Parvati, a Shadhika Scholarship student, lives here with her mother and her three brothers. In this small space, everything has its place, everything has its purpose. We carefully find ours, as   

Reading Time: 4 minutes The pungent smell of spice fills the air as a young woman named Resha* sets lunch on a large table. Since I am a visitor, Resha takes time to explain the Indian dishes she has prepared; there are spicy mixed vegetables, fried eggplant, lentils and rice. Several STOP staff members join us and we enjoy   

Reading Time: 4 minutes Donors and board members would sometimes ask me why we were supporting Uddami in Kolkata. At first glance, it seemed like an outlier for Shadhika support, just being a computer-training center. When I got these questions, I would just reply, “Wait until you meet Rabia.” Rabia was Uddami’s Director, and a product herself of Uddami,   

Reading Time: 5 minutes As we ascend the steep ladder to get to the second story meeting space, I feel like a girl again, climbing into a secret tree house. This is the new meeting space for the Vacha students participating in the after-school program that Shadhika is funding. The room is small and packed with girls between the   

Reading Time: 4 minutes Memories of yesterday’s event wake me up early. The silence of the early morning is filled with images of family, friends, and supporters who gathered to mark the graduation of Shadhika’s first class of college scholarship recipients at our partner site, Vacha, in Mumbai. When we started planning this event, the graduates asked explicitly for   

Reading Time: 3 minutes Working at Shadhika, I am continually reminded of the freedom I enjoy and the things I take for granted.  Even the most mundane acts, like being able to walk where and when I want to or knowing I have access to a toilet pretty much whenever I need to, are privileges not shared by the   

Reading Time: 5 minutes Our visit with Equal Community Foundation (ECF) in Pune has been sitting with me for days, challenging me to grow in my understanding. Challenging me to see our work in new ways. This is the beginning of our second year working with ECF as part of our Boys for Girls initiative which focuses on working   

Reading Time: 2 minutes Women’s Foundations across the U.S. condemn the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy and the continued detention of immigrant families. While the new executive order issued by the Trump Administration will pause the practice of separating immigrant families at the border, ending family separations without ending the “zero tolerance” policy means that women, children and   

Reading Time: 4 minutes The cave is cool, a welcome respite from the heat and humidity. I listen as our guide describes the ancient stories carved into the huge granite stones before us. We are at the Elephanta Caves, a UNESCO site in Mumbai. I am joined by a group of Shadhika college scholarship students from VACHA, our partner   

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