In 1993, a local resident of Pune, Minal Dani, co-founded ASHA (Action for Self-reliance, Hope, and Awareness) to provide legal assistance, counselling, health care, and general advocacy to change the desperate plight of women in the Pune slums.  After many years of tireless effort, Minal came to realize that these women all had one thing in common, -a lack of education; this factor was the primary reason for their lack of opportunities, leading to their present plights.  Minal realized that the ultimate solution was to work with these women's daughters, to keep them in school and help them gain an education, as the only means to stop the cycle of despair.  But she soon encountered the same financial barrier that the girls' parents faced.  Government schools are free, but also inadequate, and academic success for all students requires private classes; even school supplies would be an overwhelming cost for the large number of girls.  This is where OSI became involved. Starting in 2008, OSI sponsorship took Minal's concept a quantum-leap forward by providing a consistent and substantial means of support for individual girls in the community.  OSI sponsors provide the means for each girl to be enrolled in private classes, receive medical care and counselling, and nutritional supplement.  Each OSI sponsor is providing the means for a girl to gain an education, as far as her capabilities will take her, all the way through college or vocational training, to a career of her own choosing, and control over her own destiny.  In addition, OSI's program site sponsor (see below) provides the means for Minal and the small ASHA staff to work directly with each child and her family on a full-time basis, providing counselling (to the girl and her parents), coordinating health care, and advocating the girl's education by monitoring each girl's progress and academic need, liaising with each girl's school/teachers, and coordinating each step of the her educational progress, with expertise on all of the resources and educational options available in Pune. Facebook
Visit ASHA's Facebook page... Commentary - OSI's president/founder shares some thoughts on the achievement of our remarkable Pune girls, as well as unforeseen benefits lately being observed in their neighbourhood...

Janata Vasahat

Janata Vasahat is an impoverished slum community located on the slopes of Parvati, -a prominent hill in Pune crowned with an ancient temple.  It is an extensive, sprawling community of shanties, inhabited mostly by migrants from drought-prone rural areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka states. The "original" or "legal" homes in the slum are very simple masonry, tin-roofed constructions of one or two rooms, registered with the Pune Municipality, and provided with a water tap and electricity.  However, many homes in Janata Vasahat are "illegal" shanties, rudimentary constructions of tin or other materials, prone to conflicts with the municipality, and without the infrastructure benefits of the legal homes.  This is the result of a growing number of migrants to the community, destitute of the means for legal housing.  Janata Vasahat has it's own charity-run hospital as well as private physicians.  Conversely, desperation of many residents means that there are anti-social elements in Janata Vasahat, -gang fighting, gambling, production/selling of black-market liquor, domestic violence, early marriage, child labour, etc.  Alcoholism-, and the domestic abuse that usually accompanies it-, is rampant. Adults in the community are largely illiterate or with minimal education.  Most men in the community work in unskilled jobs or as labourers, while women work mostly as domestic servants in homes nearby.  Employment/income is unstable and minimal, with family incomes typically ranging between US $80-$200 /month. Most young children study in the local Marathi language at government schools within walking distance of Janata Vasahat.  A few of our children who have migrated from distant regions study in Urdu language schools and have to travel through the city to reach these.  Beyond elementary school, colleges and higher education institutions are particularly abundant in Pune, and completing grade school is all that is necessary for our girls to have access to these.

Excursions

All is not struggle and study!  Truly one of the most important things we do is to provide fun and educational excursions for our Janata Vasahat children as frequently as possible.  Their poverty means their childhoods are largely devoid of happy and fun memories, and the kindness of OSI donors helps us to compensate for that.  Getting these girls away from their studies, out of their slum environment and out of the city... we often see a completely different side of their personalities, or rather their real personalities shine through, as they are free for a day to just be children.  Below are links to excursions that we have provided for our Pune children.

Personnel

Geography

Pune (pronounced poo-nay) is located about 160 km southeast of Mumbai, in Maharashtra state.  With a population of nearly 6 million, Pune is the 7th most populous city in India.  Pune's nine universities and many more academic institutes provide an education that feeds the city's growing industrial and IT sectors.  Pune is important culturally as well, and many temples and structures outline Pune's important historical role, from ancient times to the British Raj to Gandhi's residence and the struggle for Indian independence.  At an elevation of 560 meters, Pune has a mild climate year-round. Pune - Wikipedia has a particularly excellent, accurate, and comprehensive article on Pune in general...

Other OSI Program Sites

Orphan Sponsorship International is a US-registered 501(c)(3) charity