To Pay it forward.
Every year theChahal Foundation picks an important cause to support. During my last trip to India, I had learned that schoolgirls face profound disadvantages and drop out of school early at a disproportionate rate.
We asked ourselves, how could we find an effective way to help keep girls in school so that they can graduate and ultimately go on to college? We discovered that the main reason for the high female dropout rate is the fact that the girls cannot afford or do not have access to “female hygiene kits”. This means that upon reaching adolescence they stay home for one week every month. They fall progressively farther behind in their studies which often culminates in them leaving school for good.
So, we partnered with Enactus H.R. College in India and contributed funds needed to start a joint initiative, Inaayat. Sheetal Shetty, the Director of Business Development at Enactus H. R. College, describes:
Inaayat is dedicated to strengthening girls’ sense of dignity and self-esteem by making and providing sustainable menstrual hygiene solutions and health education. Our vision is to ensure that every girl and woman will have ready, feasible access to reusable hygiene supplies.
Inaayat has two aspects:
Inaayat trains rural women to manufacture sanitary napkins, thereby providing livelihood and employment opportunities for women of the community. A scalable business model is developed for village-based micro enterprises, where women are trained in stitching and business management skills.
We identify leaders from the community who undergo a standardized training process and can then impart health education training and also create awareness about our safe and affordable menstrual kits and aid in their distribution. For each kit sold, the Inaayat leader gets a commission.
Our Progress:
We’ve approached other NGOs for collaboration with us in rural, semi-urban and urban areas in Maharashtra. And, we are also going to subsidize the kits for the underprivileged.
I am honored to be a founding member of this important social cause. I encourage you to join me by either volunteering or donating. This has the ability to enrich a generation of lives. You can contact us directly here:https://www.chahalfoundation.org/contact-us/
As a wise man once said,“we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
And, I promise you, we are going to keep on living so we can keep on giving.
Gurbaksh Chahal, Founder
Chahal Foundation
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