Since 1993, a local resident of Pune, Minal Dani, has worked tirelessly to change the plight of girls and young women in the Pune slums.  With minimal funding or support, Minal has been inexhaustible in her efforts to engage volunteers and resources to provide counseling, education & tutoring, vocational training, legal assistance, and general advocacy for girls in the Pune slums, to improve their prospects and alter their destinies. In this video interview, Minal Dani describes the barriers that girls in the slums face. OSI sponsorship has taken Minal's concept a quantum-leap forward by providing a consistent and substantial means of support for individual girls in the community.  With a focus on education, OSI-Pune works directly with the child and her family to keep the girl in school and to extend her education as far as her capabilities will take her, all the way through to a vocation of the girl's own choosing and establishment of her own future.  OSI-Pune attempts to address every barrier, from providing financial support to free a child from labour so that she can focus on education, to providing parental assistance for single-parent children, to group and individual tutoring and counseling to foster the child's education.  OSI also teaches general life skills like nutrition and hygiene.  In addition to the educational focus, OSI sponsorship also provides for the child's other needs, material and emotional, -hygiene, clothing, medical, etc., and strives to foster these girls' self-esteem and general happiness level.

Photos

Below are a few photos of our present Pune children and our daily activities with them 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, electricity, and a "ration card" (which provides food grains at a concession rate).  However, a large number of the homes in Janata Vasahat are "illegal" shanties, simple 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.  The community has public toilets, though these are highly inadequate in number. Most men in the community work in simple skilled jobs or as labourers, while women work mostly as domestic servants.  Employment/income is unstable and minimal, with family incomes typically ranging between US $20 - US $120 /month. Most young children study in the local Marathi language at the government elementary school 2-3km from Janata Vasahat.  A few of our Muslim children who have migrated from other regions study in Urdu language schools.  Beyond elementary school, schools for the higher grades are quite distant, and this too is a need/expense that OSI sponsorship provides for.  Janata Vasahat has it's own charity-run hospital as well as private physicians.  Conversely, desperation of many residents means that there are also some anti-social elements in Janata Vasahat, -gang fighting, gambling, production/selling of black-market liquor, domestic violence, early marriage, child labour, etc.

Photos

Below are a few photos of our Janata Vasahat neighbourhood and homes

Events

Below are special events and excursions that OSI has provided for our Pune children.

Personnel

Geography

Pune (pronounced poo-nay) is located about 160 km southeast of Mumbai (Bombay), in Maharashtra state.  With a population of over 5 million, Pune is the 8th 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, as the recognized center of Murathi, the primary language in the region.  Many temples and structures outline Pune's important historical role, from ancient times to British Raj to the struggle for Indian independence.  At an elevation of 560 meters, Pune has a mild climate.

Other OSI Program Sites

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