our projects
Distinguishing features of our chosen projects in India
They were all started by compassionate visionaries with their own personal resources and had very humble beginnings
They all offer something unique, not easily available elsewhere
All four chosen NGOs are recipients of national awards for their achievements.
Support for Neurodiverse Children and Youth
Action for Autism (AFA) is a remarkable Indian non-profit organization that focuses on education, training, and advocacy for individuals with autism and those who support them.
Founded in 1991, with a tent in the back garden of the founder, Merry Barua, AFA today is one of the most prestigious institutions, dealing with autism spectrum conditions, in the whole of Asia. AFA’s efforts are centred on addressing the unique needs of individuals in India, while also supporting other South Asian countries in recognizing autism legally and developing services for families and children.
They run training workshops for the parents, facilitate parent support groups and train professional therapists for Autism. The demand for their Open Reach Programme is far exceeding their expectations and resources.
Unique features
- Assisted living residential accommodation for neurodivergent adults. Building cottages which can accommodate 12-13 people + 4 staff
- Recent initiative: Plan to train 15-20 adults annually for job placements. So far, they have placed 25 adults after giving them special training. Almost all of them are holding their jobs.
Support for Physically challenged
First established in 1987 in a tent with just 30 children, Akshya Pratishthan has been empowering underprivileged and differently-abled children, over the past 3 decade,
through inclusive education, where children with and without disability study together in almost equal number (unique feature).
Today, around 500 children from Nursery to Class VIII are growing together in a proper purpose-built centre. They are being provided with free education, specialized care, and skill development programmes (like Cutting & Tailoring, Computer Applications, Beauty Culture, Bakery & Cooking, Electrical Work & appliance repair etc) to foster self-reliance and confidence, enabling them to integrate seamlessly into mainstream society.
Akshya Pratisthan provides services like medical checkups, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and counselling to children with special needs at no cost. They are also proud to be an RCI-registered centre for D.Ed (Hearing Impairment) where professional training is provided to serve the HI clientele. They are soon going to start a B.Ed course in Otology.
Orphanage in Haridwar, Uttarakhand
This is our baby project, which we have nurtured from its very humble beginnings in 2002, when there were only 10-12 children of lepers and was managed by just one couple.
It now houses 100 orphan boys, with qualified academic staff, a sports teacher, a music teacher and a fully equipped computer lab. Work has also started to build a full- fledged dispensary for the boys.
It makes us very proud to witness the all-round progress being made there. Instead of begging in the streets, these boys are doing as well as their classmates from more privileged backgrounds, in all areas –academic, sports and all co-curricular activities.
They have their own fully trained ceremonial band which gets invited to perform at important public functions in the region.
Their senior boys are now going for fully-supported professional education with the potential of landing respectable jobs. For the first time one of their boys is going for MBBS degree.
Owing to the impressive reputation of the Haridwar orphanage, there is a very high demand to accommodate more boys. To meet such demand, they have started another orphanage in Kotla, Ferozabad, UP (Uttar Pradesh) with a capacity to accommodate 80-100 boys. They currently have 55 on the premises. There is also a demand for a girls orphanage.
Girls Education with a Difference
Established in the year 2001, on the ancestral property of the founder, in one of the poorest rural UP villages in India, where no girl had ever been to school, PPES now has 3500 girls on its register. It is currently adding further classrooms to reach the target of 6000 by April 2026.
Some highlights:
- They have the best 10th and 12th class board exam results in the whole of UP.
- To incentivise girls to complete their schooling, a small sum is put into their bank account every day they attend the school. This sum is made available to them only if they finish high school.
- Most of the school-leavers are being supported to go for higher education. At present 175 of their girls are pursuing higher studies in professional institutions.
- 2-3 girls are being sponsored by American universities every year for higher education.
- 162 of their girls are currently holding respectable professional jobs.
- Their girls are also doing extremely well at sports and winning championships in inter-state competitions.
- Their vocational work, taught at school, is getting them contracts from such prestigious outlets as the Cottage Industries Emporium and Blackberry.
At the outset, there was strong opposition from the local population and there were three attempts on the life of the founder. 75% of the local girls were married before the age of 15. Seeing the economic transformation of the families with earning girls, there is now strong demand to get their girls admitted to the school and very little resistance to higher education.
In addition to education for the girls, PPES is also proactive in Community Development projects through promoting Self-Help Groups for 10,400 local women with 400+ Micro-enterprises.
Thus, PPES epitomises rural development through education, employment and empowerment of girls and women.