Welcome to Field Notes! We had a request from some of our ‘insider’ community members for more frequent and detailed updates about HFC’s programs. Thus we have created HFC Field Notes -a quarterly (or thereabouts) update for the close friends of HFC. Welcome!
Different programs are highlighted each time, and unlike our email blasts to the entire community, these updates are more informal and include more about challenges and problems as well as triumphs. Thank you for your commitment and care for HFC!
Program Updates 9/4/2026
INDIA:
Our big news in Kolkata is that we are building a new Learning Center in Canning – a semi-rural area near the Bangladesh border that is a major hub for human trafficking. Canning is about a 3 hour drive from Kolkata, or can be reached by train. HFC’s India Country Director John Das is spearheading this project. He purchased the land in Canning using his own money, with a dream of opening a Center for his social purpose business, Stitch for Freedom (employing survivors and high risk young women who grew up in red light areas making blankets and bags from recycled saris). Because supporting local leaders and locally sourced solutions is an important value at HFC , we are partnering with John to construct a new Learning Center on the property.
Eventually, we plan to offer training and employment opportunities, computer, English, basic literacy and math classes, education sponsorships, arts, anti-trafficking awareness, counseling, and social work interventions to prevent exploitation.
At our original Learning Center in the Sonagachi red light area of Kolkata, we are looking forward to an exciting transition in September. Our 5-year lease is coming to an end, and one of the original partners in the space – Lamprini – is buying the building so that it can continue as a space for the community and for nonprofit organizations working in the red light area. HFC will continue to operate in the space with Lamprini as our new landlord. The vision for this project has always been about collaboration, so it is very special that the building will be owned and managed by one of the original Learning Center partners.
The Learning Center at Full Capacity
In the meantime, the Learning Center has been busier than it has ever been. Hope Foundation has begun running its training program in the space and Atri, a fellow with Teach for India, is holding classes with children in our office room. Between those programs, our own classes, and the Global Girls Leadership group rehearsing in the Seva Room, nearly every room is in use most days. John Das describes it as being used to its full potential.
While John traveled to the States this summer, Kajal managed the Learning Center and it ran smoothly. Our support staff filled the gaps without being asked. Kajal has since begun learning spreadsheets and data tracking so she can simplify how we log attendance at the Center.
Computer Training Expands to Two New Sites
Two new computer training sites are coming online. We finalized arrangements for the Jorabagan centre with our partner Uddami, and classes are now running there. A second site at Kidderpore just started this month. For most of these students, it is the first time they have used a laptop.
Global Girls Leadership Program
Our Global Girls Leadership group wrote, rehearsed, and performed a capstone play for the community in the Seva Room. The girls developed the ideas and the script themselves, and it was a fully partner-led production from start to finish. Lakhi Das filmed the performance, and a final edit with English subtitles will be ready soon. Separately, John and Maura spent a morning with the Colorado GGLP cohort, led by HFC board member Kara Penn, sharing how HFC works with partners where our own programming fits.
Vocational Training
Our vocational training programs continue across five partners: Uddami, Calcutta Foundation, Stitch for Freedom, Hamari Muskan, and virtual training at Aahana’s Hope in rural Uttar Pradesh. Together, these programs will train 300 women this year. Sitting with students at Uddami and hearing their journeys is a regular reminder of this this work matters. One young woman in our Kolkata programs started a job at a local cafe this quarter following staff referral.
Health & Wellbeing
Mental health and well-being services run through every HFC program. This quarter produced both real progress and an important finding.
Our mind-body wellness pilot with the Attabagan women’s self-help group ran into an honest obstacle. The women clearly value the sessions, and they struggle to commit to a regular schedule because real life makes equally urgent demands on their time. Working with Sahin at Calcutta Foundation, we traced the difficulty to cultural norms and to confidence rather than to any lack of interest. The group’s own solution was better than ours: they voted in a co-leader to hold consistency between facilitated sessions. When a storm knocked the network down to almost nothing, they showed up to the virtual session anyway.
Alongside this, our team spent the quarter helping women in Kolkata navigate hospitals, appointments and test results. Reading those results together, a pattern emerged. Young women who grew up in shelter homes are carrying chronic, at times debilitating physical pain, and it keeps the body locked in a stress response that undercuts progress on every other goal. We are gathering case studies and designing a basic women’s health initiative, aimed at making medical care available at the shelter home level and continuing into adulthood.
We have also begun offering mind-body wellness support to our partners’ staff. A first virtual session with Samburu Girls Foundation focused on the team’s own stress, and closed with a rhythmic breathing practice they can use with each other.
A word about the environment our India team is working in…
Following the change in government, Kolkata has become tense, and political friction is hardening into religious conflict. HFC works across all communities, and much of our programming serves minority communities, who are the most at risk at present. Over a recent two-month period, our India Country Director noted a sharp increase in rape cases against minors. His assessment through the summer was that conditions are not improving but escalating.
None of our programs have stopped. Classes have been postponed by a day here and there when a rally closes the streets, and our staff have adapted around it. We are including this because it is the context for everything else in this section. Conditions like these are precisely what push girls toward trafficking and child marriage, and they are why the prevention work described above matters as much as anything we do after the fact. Our team is staying flexible, keeping the Centers open, and watching the situation closely as we plan the fall.
NEPAL:
Nepal Flood Relief Update
Thank you all for the outpouring of love, concern and support over the past week. Unsurprisingly, it has been a very intense and challenging time for the team in Nuwakot.
The Freedom School is about an hour away from the closest flood zone – Bidur – where 5 of our girls were attending college (they are now safely back at the school).
The situation is evolving day by day, and sometimes changing by the hour. We are finding it more important than ever to remain flexible and responsive, and not get too attached to any specific plan. Having a skilled, dedicated, local team who understand the language (Tamang) and local culture is proving to be an incredible advantage in this chaotic time.
Our strategy has two parts: Immediate needs and long term trafficking prevention.
Immediate Needs/Emergency Relief
Anjali, her husband and Associate Director Mingma, his brother and sister, the Freedom School staff, and even the teens at the shelter have been working tirelessly to determine the needs which we have the capacity to meet, identify trusted local contacts, and provide care and supplies where needed most. For now, they are focusing their efforts in two areas: Dunche, near the China (formerly Tibet) border, and Dharapani village which is further south, closer to Bidur and the school. Bidur is not currently accessible, due to rescue and recovery efforts and to the large number of dead bodies, leading to public health issues.
Two days ago, the team received a call from local contacts in Dharapani village, Rasuwa District, asking if we could take in 10-15 children who have lost their parents and are temporarily sheltering in a church. We sent a team to assess the situation and possibly pick up the kids, but found it was not possible to take the kids at this time, as the children, their surviving relatives, and the local government preferred for them to stay closer to home for now. Some kids have been picked up by relatives and about 10 remain in the church.
Anjali’s team is currently preparing emergency care packages of food, clothing, and toiletries which will be delivered tomorrow. Cooking fuel is very hard to find in Nepal right now, so we are sending some of our own canisters and hoping to replace them next week. We were very touched when two girls in the dorms insisted on being included in the relief team, and another three girls chose to buy supplies for the kids in Dharapani with their own small savings. We have been trying to instill the value of service and leadership, and it’s heartwarming to see that it is working.
We have found and hired a Community Liaison in Dhunche, and are looking for someone to hire in Dharapani in the same role. These liaisons will keep us apprised of immediate, emergency needs, and will identify the most vulnerable girls and families for longer term support.
Long Term Trafficking Prevention
We continue to develop our longer term strategy, to ensure that girls who have lost their parents or homes are not exploited through trafficking. Working with our Community Liaisons in Dhunche and Dharapani, we will identify the most vulnerable girls and ensure that they and their siblings return to school (or are enrolled in school for the first time). As needed, we will support children to attend boarding schools in their home districts, or to come to the Freedom School or to Apple of God’s Eyes shelters. We will closely monitor the girls and families for two years or more, providing financial support, supplies, opportunities, and education support. At the end of the two years, we will determine if ongoing shelter or sponsorship is needed.
In Bidur, when the college where our girls were attending reopens, we hope to work with the college to find girls who lost their families or homes in the flood, and support them to continue their education, also providing long term emotional support.
HFC has been serving girls in Nuwakot for over a decade. Over the past 5 years, together with survivor-activist Anjali Tamang, we have been operating the Freedom School – an education and trafficking prevention project. Learn more in Sarah and Anjali’s book, Standing in the Way.
Nuwakot is a high trafficking area, with over 60% of Nepal’s trafficking victims coming from the Tamang and other indigenous communities. Natural disasters such as this flood make girls even more vulnerable to trafficking and child marriage. Our team is dedicated to ensuring this does not happen.
** A note about photos: Faces are blurred or stylized because HFC’s policy is not to share identifiable images of people in their most desperate and vulnerable moments, to protect their privacy and dignity.
Freedom School Shelter Expansion
We are making some exciting changes at the school in the coming months, including the expansion of our dorms, based on growing demand from the community. We will have capacity for 60 girls after these changes (currently we have 45 girls in residential care) and look forward to welcoming new girls in the fall.
New School Building
We are equally excited about the bigger classrooms, large meeting space, and new opportunities made possible by the new school building, which is almost complete (and already in use because nobody wanted to wait!).
Yesterday, we hosted the first meeting in the new meeting room – an all-staff meeting. It was both uplifting and practical to have a meeting in the new hall, rather than outside where it is damp and hard to hear. One of the classrooms in the old building has been converted into a library and another to a computer lab. In a third room we are hoping to create a Special Needs Classroom. Three of the children at the school are autistic, and we do not yet have the right support in place for them. The classroom is the physical half of the answer. The staffing and training half is what we are working on now. Stay tuned.
Teaching Fellowship and Program Changes
Sarah Schumann, a teacher from the US, spent six weeks at the Freedom School this summer. Our teachers in Nepal are young and still early in their careers, and they took quickly to her approach, learning project-based and interactive methods they are now using in their own classrooms. The children loved it and learned a great deal.
Near the end of the fellowship we did some hard strategizing on site and made several changes: expanding the capacity of the shelter, making a plan to temporarily reduce the number of grades by removing grade four, and concentrating on improving the excellence of the education itself.
KENYA:
Kids have begun graduating from the Second Chance Education Program, operated in partnership with Samburu Girls Foundation. This project gave over 700 kids aged 10-14 who were out of school the opportunity to do a year of accelerated remedial education, and then join mainstream schools as third graders. The majority (80%) of students in the program are girls who have experienced, or are at very high risk for FGM and forced early marriage. These harmful practices affect 75% of girls in Samburu County. An important part of the program is community awareness and mindset change.
The majority of our students completed their accelerated year in June and July, and will join mainstream schools when the new session begins in September. Getting birth certificates for the kids was an important milestone, as they cannot go to school without one. The pride on the faces of the kids and their parents is beyond words. We hope to be able to offer this program to 100 new kids in the coming year, and to continue monitoring the 700+ graduates in the next phase of their education journey.
This work received a significant boost this quarter. We received a $100,000 grant from The International Foundation for the community education program in Samburu.
Kenya Immersion Trip
In July, a group of HFC supporters traveled with our team to Samburu for ten days. We deepened our relationships with our partners and visited a village where we sponsor children for second chance education. Alongside the program visits, our staff ran art workshops and taught yoga. Hearing directly from women in the community was the most valuable part of the trip. As one of them told us, the culture is beautiful except for a few very harmful practices that must be reformed. That sentence is the entire case for the awareness and mindset change work built into this program
FUNDING THIS QUARTER
Three grants came through this quarter:
- $100,000 from The International Foundation for the community education program in Samburu, Kenya.
- $50,000 from Ashmore Foundation for vocational training this year, supporting the training of 300 women across Uddami, Calcutta Foundation, Stitch for Freedom, Hamari Muskan, and the virtual training at Aahana’s Hope. We submitted our interim report to Ashmore in June.
- $10,000 renewal from Circle of Sisterhood, awarded to a small handful of last year’s grantees.
LOOKING AHEAD
- September: A partner meeting in Kolkata to mark the Learning Center transition and reaffirm the collaboration behind it.
- September 7 to 10: Our team joins a teacher training intensive with Shikshamitra and Wipro.
- Fall: The Nepal dorm expansion completes and we welcome new girls into residential care. In Kenya, the Second Chance graduates enter mainstream school as third graders.
- March 2027: The Nepal Immersion Trip is sold out. We are considering adding a second trip later in the year, and planning the next trip to India.
Program Updates 6/19/2025
INDIA
LEARNING CENTER
The Center is truly thriving under the new leadership of John Das and the team. Utilization by partners and community members has increased a lot – over 250 people each week! We were excited to welcome a day care center for the children of women in prostitution (operated by Hamari Muskan). We are overjoyed that one of our long time beneficiaries – Kajol Patra – has joined the management team as John’s assistant.
Primary partners in the Center are:
- South Kolkata Hamari Muskan (the day care center, sewing, beautician & jewelry training)
- Uddami (Computer Training, Retail training & spoken English)
- Lamprini Bakery – training & employment for survivors. They will soon open a cafe on the ground floor. Kelly, the Director, is trying to buy the building, in which case we would create a new lease and pay rent to her
- Stitch 4 Freedom – a business employing survivors, replacing Sari Bari, an NGO that closed in 2024
- Hope foundation – a youth empowerment and mental health program
- Vihaan – a rescue, legal aid and rehabilitation organization working across India
- Lamprini Bakery & Cafe (this partner is buying the building and will soon be our landlord)
RED LIGHT RESOURCE CENTERS
Beneficiaries – 400
We now have four Resource Centers: 2 in Bowbazar red light area, one in Sobabazar (near the Learning Center) and the newest one in Kidderpur (which houses the thrift shop). These centers offer safe space for children, education and counseling programs, and vocational and life skills training for women wishing to leave/avoid exploitation. Three of the Centers are operated in partnership with Hamari Muskan.
The Kidderpur Center is managed by HFC alone, under the leadership of Maura. Tish is providing social work support and guidance. Soma has launched, and leads a group for women. Sonali (former beneficiary) runs a children’s program.
We have received a grant of 75K to purchase a building for the Center in Bowbazar. This is badly needed because there are a lot of issues with the current landlords. Most people in that area are involved in trafficking in some way. We have identified a building that could work, and are currently evaluating it and negotiating with the owner. The building is about 100K, and SEVA has donated the additional 25K.
STREET CHILD PROJECT
Beneficiaries – 350
We currently support 7 Nabadisha Centers, for street and slum children, operated in partnership with Women’s Interlink Foundation. These Centers are housed in police station complexes, and the police provide security and moral support. The kids come after school for 3-5 hours, and receive education support, food, arts and sports activities, as well as oversight to make sure they remain free from exploitation.
These kids would benefit from English and Computer training. We are thinking about how best to add those programs and how to fund them. We will probably start this summer with our Univ. of Colorado interns and grow from there.
JALPAIGURI SHELTER
Beneficiaries – 150
Jalpaiguri shelter was built by HFC in 2015, expanded in 2017, and is operated by Women’s Interlink Foundation (WIF). This year, we repainted the exterior of the shelter, and supported vocational training as well as education and shelter care. We had some challenges with the partner as they navigate a leadership transition following the death of their founder.
ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE (VOCATIONAL)
Beneficiaries – 300 new women a year
This has been a large program for HFC over the last few years, thanks to grant support. We offer vocational training at multiple sites, including our Learning Center. We offer Computers, Beautician, Bakery & Cafe Management, Sewing, Screen & Block Printing, Jewelry, Retail, and Home Health Nursing courses. Courses are 6 months to a year long and include life skills and financial literacy, as well as mental health programs. We are still waiting for final confirmation of grant support for the coming year from the Ashmore Foundation but it looks promising. We also get funding from Guru Krupa Foundation, specifically for the Computer training programs.
We have several partners for vocational training: Uddami (computers & home health care), Hamari Muskan (cooking, sewing, jewelry), Calcutta Foundation (all), EkTara (Bakery), Lamprini (Bakery & Cafe management) and Women’s Interlink Foundation (sewing, block & screen printing). We have strong Monitoring & Evaluation, and good data on the success of these programs.
NEPAL
FREEDOM SCHOOL
Beneficiaries – 200
This program is thriving. This is a core project for HFC and we do a lot for it. We currently have 7 grades (playgroup through Grade 4). In grade 5, students will go to the local government school and we will support them with after school programs (to maintain their English proficiency) and shelter as needed.
We received a large grant from Crossroads (150K) to expand the school building and the building is almost complete and already in use. This will give us more space for current activities, larger classrooms, and to run community programs and training programs for teachers from other parts of Nepal
KENYA
SAMBURU GIRLS FOUNDATION
Beneficiaries – 160
This is a shelter serving 110 girls, aged 7-22, rescued from child marriage, FGM, trafficking and rape. They also have a remedial education program (Accelerators) which prepares out-of school girls to join mainstream schools. This program served 700 kids in 2025-26 and we hope to serve 500 in 2027 (just received a 100K grant for this from The International Foundation) HFC is the primary support for the shelter and community programs, and we provide significant advisory, strategic and communications help.
LIFE BLOOM
Beneficiaries – 120 + 800 (school feeding program)
We offer a Leadership and Peer Counseling + School Sponsorship program for kids in this pastoralist (Maasai) community. This is operated in partnership with Life Bloom and 3 local schools. We have also supported some training of Community Counselors (people from marginalized communities are trained in counseling skills so that they can help others. Some go on to do so in paid jobs, others on a volunteer basis). Trainees also receive significant counseling and coaching themselves.
In 2025 and 2026, we supported a school feeding program, because the children were struggling with hunger and food insecurity. This year we supported them in putting in a water system and starting a school farm so they will be able to sustain the feeding program in the future.
TOTAL CURRENTLY SERVED ACROSS ALL PROGRAMS/REGIONS: 3500
NEW PROGRAMS and POTENTIAL PROGRAMS:
- GLOBAL GIRLS LEADERSHIP PROGRAM – Kara and Maura piloted this program this spring – bringing together teen girls in Kolkata and Denver (virtually) to learn about leadership and practice it through a capstone project.
Program Updates 7/31/24
Life Bloom, Kenya
In July, I had the joy of co-leading HFC’s first-ever immersion trip to Kenya. It was a great success, despite the unexpected challenge of a wave of protests across Kenya (ultimately toppling the parliament!)
On our first day, we drove to Suswa, a rural town populated mostly by Maasai people. The Maasai are one of 5 nomadic tribal groups in Kenya, who herd their animals from one pasture to the next; thus, they are called ‘pastoralists’. Many pastoralists practice female genital mutilation (FGM), and child marriage – for girls as young as 8 – is common. FGM is not historically part of their culture, but unfortunately this harmful practice has become deeply rooted, despite it being illegal, and despite government efforts to stop it. Trafficking for sexual exploitation, driven by extreme poverty, is also a big problem facing girls in the area.
We have partnered with a local organization – Life Bloom – on an exciting new project: a rescue shelter housed inside a school. When girls are about to be cut, trafficked or forced into marriage, they often turn to their teachers. Teachers in Suswa were taking girls into their own homes, and running out of space. So, they approached Life Bloom with the idea of opening a rescue shelter in their school. HFC provided financial support, and the shelter opened this spring. Temporarily, it is housed in an outbuilding, made of corrugated metal. We need to construct a larger concrete structure before the hot season (our winter) but for now, there is safe space for 8 girls, and girls have begun taking refuge there.
Alongside the rescue shelter, we launched a leadership and peer mentorship program for 41 children in this school and two nearby schools. Children were chosen for this program because they are survivors, or at extreme risk. We spent the day with the leadership kids, offering our usual therapeutic arts projects, and playing games and songs to get acquainted. These kids had not had a lot of visitors (or any) from abroad. We took time building trust with them and shared that we will be working long term on their behalf. Nafiza was with us from Kolkata and she shared about our work with girls there. The kids were surprised, then intrigued, and eventually delighted to meet new friends and advocates from around the world.
One thing that struck me that day was the rawness of the kids. In India and Nepal, we have been working with most of our beneficiaries for several years. They’ve had the benefit of services from HFC and our local partners. They’ve had their basic needs – and emotional needs – met for some time, and it shows in their appearance and behavior. In Suswa, the program is brand new, and the kids are still wary. Their wounds are visible – not in the physical sense, but emotionally. They are just beginning to see a path to a different kind of life. Spending the day with them was intense, reminding me of the early days of HFC. The difference is that now, we know what works, and how best to help. We all felt motivated to support these children in getting to the same level of wellness, hope, and empowerment as our girls in India and Nepal.
We also spent time with teachers from all three schools participating in the program, as well as the local Chief, and some parents. It was beautiful to hear their perspectives, and inspiring to meet people courageous enough to stand against the accepted norms of their community.
Life Bloom is led by leadership coach and author Catherine Wanjohi. Over the past 20 years, one of her signature projects has been training survivors and marginalized people to provide coaching and counseling to the community. On our second day, we had the joyful privilege of participating in a graduation ceremony for 41 Community Counselors.
The event was glorious! The graduates have completed 6 months of intensive training. Many are survivors of sexual or gender-based violence. A few are living with disabilities, including two women who are blind. They all come from marginalized communities and have experienced oppression their whole lives, but are not defined by their struggles or backgrounds. Instead, they are prepared and excited to lift up others.
Over the next 5 years, these counselors will serve approximately 14,400 people! I am so excited to support such a powerful and unique model for survivor leadership.
Samburu Girls Foundation, Kenya
The next day, we drove 5.5 hours (on some pretty rough roads) to Maralal, a town in Northern Kenya. We spent the next few days at Samburu Girls Foundation shelter. There were 61 girls residing in the shelter, aged 6 to 15. They have been rescued from child marriage, FGM and trafficking. Another 60+ girls are away at boarding high schools or in college. When they come back for school holidays, the shelter population swells to 160.
We started with a meeting with the staff. It was very emotional because many of the staff members are survivors who grew up in the shelter. They shared their stories which were brutal. One young woman had been married at 5.
“After girls have undergone FGM, they are expected to get married immediately the following day. The fact that they are still children does not exempt them from such a heavy responsibility. Marriage for girls can lead to complications in pregnancy and childbirth, one of the main causes of death of young girls aged 15-19 in Kenya” – SGF website
Another girl had been trafficked by her family through the practice of ‘beading’.
“Beading is a major cultural practice in the Samburu community. Young warriors aged 15-25 years are not allowed to marry. Hence girls as young as 9 are assigned to them. The young girl is adorned with red beads, signifying ‘engagement’ for sexual purposes only. The mother of the beaded girl builds a hut outside their manyattas where young men visit the beaded girl to engage in sexual activity at any moment they wish” – SGF website
Many of the staff and girls have experienced FGM, which 76% of women and girls in this area go through.
We worked with the leadership team on a strategy for the partnership. And, we offered two days of arts programming, games and songs, yoga and other activities to the girls and staff. We were delighted when the staff requested more comprehensive yoga and yoga teacher training, which Amanda is putting together for them. We particularly enjoyed spending time with the ‘Accelerator’ group – girls who have been rescued very recently (some only a week before) and are doing remedial education and counseling in preparation for enrolling in mainstream schools.
The girls who had been at the shelter longer were confident, empowered, and strong academically. They are living proof of this program’s effectiveness. Counseling and mentorship is a real strength here. The staff members who grew up in the home, and the college girls I met last time I visited are inspiring examples of the life-changing impact of long term interventions. Providing shelter and education to a girl who is rescued at age 8 or 9 is a big commitment. In my experience, this is the best (possibly only) way to successfully break systemic cycles of exploitation and poverty.
The shelter is much too small for the number of girls living there, and needs to be expanded and updated. This will be the focus of HFC’s support of this project over the next year or two.
Program Updates 5/10/24
Kidderpore Resource Center
We have recently opened a resource center in the Kidderpore red light area. The center includes a thrift store employing women from the community, holistic education for children, and social work support for mothers and children. We plan to add vocational training at this site in early 2025. Soma is surveying women in the community to learn what kind of training they most want and need.
Her Future has been working in Kidderpore since 2007. It was in fact the first area that we ever worked in India, and it remains close to our hearts. The Kidderpore Center houses a thrift shop (run by community women), a remedial education program led by Sonali (former HFC beneficiary now on the management team) for non-school going children in the area, and education/arts programs for our Sponsorship kids in the area.
Maura our Education Program Director) envisioned and created this project. She collects used clothing and home goods for the thrift store, which are donated from 3 private schools, and from individuals at various drop off points. The thrift store provides income to local women, and an opportunity for community members to buy quality items at a very low cost, keeping them out of landfills.
Maura visits the Center weekly, supporting Sonali with her classes and offering art classes, English instruction, and other enrichment activities, sometimes with other local or international artists and workshop leaders.
Soma is the Program Director for the Kidderpore Center. She, along with community organizers/thrift store managers Punam and Sheeta, keep a close eye on the kids, and work together to ensure their well-being, safety and education. Soma is beginning to work with mothers to get the non-school going kids into school. Tish (our Mental Health advisor) supports the team with social work supervision and regular support calls. The team has already successfully dealt with some really challenging social work issues, including a case of life-threatening domestic violence.
Kidderpore is the oldest and poorest of Kolkata’s five major red light areas. It is noticeably harder and more dangerous than other areas. The area is a warren of narrow alleyways, known as ‘the lanes’. It was demarcated as a red light area by the British in Colonial times. Today it primarily serves day laborers and other poor Indian clientele. Many of the women working in Kidderpore are in their 20s and 30s and have spent decades in forced prostitution. Many have come from Nepal, and also from neighboring states within India, such as Bihar. Most were sold into prostitution in their teens or pre-teens, or forced by extreme poverty to sell their bodies in order to survive, and later, to feed their children.
HFC has been sponsoring children in Kidderpore for 17 years. The current sponsorship group has been with us for 7 years, and it has been wonderful to watch them grow up. Several are now in college, studying business and nursing, and doing extremely well. A new influx of children joined the program last year, when Sonali began offering classes for children in the area.
Kenya Partnerships
As you may know, HFC is beginning to work in Kenya. John and I went last summer to scope it out, and to meet with potential partners. We met with 8 NGOs and learned a lot about SGBV in Central Africa. Two of the groups were particularly aligned and very motivated to partner with us. Those partnerships have continued to develop. The founder/Director of one of the groups (Life Bloom) came to Boulder to speak alongside Amanda at the Univ. of Colorado, which was a great fundraising opportunity for HFC and Life Bloom. The Director of Samburu Girls Foundation visited Anjali’s school in Nepal, and asked HFC to be the US fiscal sponsor for a grant of 50K.
We are bringing a small group in July to visit these two groups and to pilot immersion trips to Kenya, which we are hopeful can be a profitable addition to our future fundraising travel.
Samburu Girls Foundation, Maralal, N. Kenya
This 12 yr old NGO addresses SGBV in pastoralist (nomadic, herding) communities. They have a lovely gated campus with a shelter, guesthouse (unfinished) and sports court. Former residents come back during school holidays to mentor younger girls. Their budget is $200,000. They have 180 girls in residential programs and serve another 1500 through programs in local tribal communities.
Rescue from child marriage, trafficking and FGM, a shelter housing 180 girls, outreach programs aimed to reduce FGM and child marriage. Mentorship programs, counseling, prevention and community transformation efforts, remedial education, school sponsorship through college. Advocacy.
Strengths, Challenges & Opportunities
The girls were confident, empowered, and strong academically, living proof of this program’s effectiveness. Counseling/mentoring seem to be a real strength. Many former beneficiaries are now in university. The Director, Wanjiru, is passionate and professional. SGF is small enough that our help could really make a difference, but very connected to other efforts and interested in helping to create a consortium to share best practices and seek funding jointly. Samburu would be a great place to bring groups as it is near several national parks. It would be a good fit for faith-based funders among others. This program needs funding urgently. The shelter is way too small and needs to be expanded. Let’s not even discuss the bathroom situation. It would be good to finish the guest house which could also be used for housing girls when guests are not there. Wanjiru wants to expand the community programs to increase impact. It is a long, hard drive to get to this place from anywhere!
Life Bloom, Naivasha (2 hrs drive west of Nairobi)
Incredible program, run by life coach and author Catherine Wanjohi. She has trained her staff & hundreds of survivors to provide coaching and counseling to others. Budget is under $100,000. They serve 1500 people/year.
PROGRAMS: Rescue, shelter placements, education and mentorship for girls who have been trafficked, life coaching/counseling, prevention and community transformation efforts, vocational training, programs in local schools, including a very innovative shelter inside a school (something I have never seen before).
Strengths, Challenges & Opportunities: Everyone was very positive! They are engaging the local police and government officials as well as other NGOs, schools and teachers, and survivor leaders in a collaborative effort. Very effective. It was inspiring to see the mentor-moms from the community, and former beneficiaries, working with girls. The mentors are the eyes and ears of the organization; they alert the staff when a girl is being abused or at high risk.
Catherine visited our center in Kolkata last winter. She has been very keen to partner with us and is small enough that our help could make a difference. It would be a great place to bring groups, (easy drive from Nairobi) and would be a good fit for faith-based funders among others. This program needs funding urgently and we are looking into writing a grant together. They have asked us to be their US fiscal sponsor.
Kolkata Learning Center
I visited Kolkata for 10 days in February. After meeting with senior staff and spending several days at the Learning Center, we concluded that the space is not yet fully utilized and we need to take action to attract more partners and beneficiaries. There is room to grow and improve in how we utilize this wonderful resource.
The Center has 3 floors and 16 available rooms. 10 rooms are being used full time (by the computer training, bakery and jewelry programs, Shiksha Mitra education program, Apple of God’s Eye outreach, and staff offices). The large workshop space (SEVA room) is used a few days a week. That leaves 7 rooms that are either not being used or are being used part time.
While in Kolkata, I met with staff, local partners and neighboring NGOs to discuss this issue. I got some useful feedback on ways we can make the space feel even more welcoming and accessible. However, the bigger issue seems to be that many NGOs in the area are unfamiliar with the concept of co-working/collaborative work or not comfortable with it. Some are concerned about other groups stealing their donors, or about exposing aspects of their work that they don’t want others to see (such as the fact that kids go from one NGO to the next depending on what snacks are offered). Some prefer to use the spaces they have (smaller and not as nice, but they like having total control and privacy).
We agreed that we need to do more community mobilization and outreach to attract partners and beneficiaries, and that we should hire someone to focus primarily on this. I interviewed several people, and ended up hiring John Das. John comes to us from Sari Bari, an organization which did wonderful work in Sonagachi, but which closed last year. John is working on his MSW, has 10 years of experience with this population, and is open about his own experience growing up in poverty and how he was helped through school sponsorship. He is very compassionate and has strong connections with local NGOs
John joined our team in April and has been a great fit. He is working for us part time while wrapping up some legal and financial matters for Sari Bari. Mitali Bose, our Strategic & Partnerships Director, left the team at the end of March when her contract ended.
We are continuing to explore ways to expand the impact and fully realize the vision of our Learning Center.
Program Updates 2/16/24
Kolkata Learning Center
Currently, the recurring/regularly scheduled programs at the Learning Center are the Computer Training, the bakery training, the jewelry studio, and library/literacy/English classes for kids and adults. In the fall, we will add a Photography training program (for the second year).
- The Apple of God’s Eye outreach office is open, staffed by Ms. Dolma Tamang, but not yet operating programs as Dolma is first taking the time to build her own skill set (with Computer and Spoken English classes through our staff/partners). We advised her and she agreed to take some time to build her confidence and skills and to refresh her connections in the community before diving into the intense work of helping women come out of exploitation. In the summer or fall, Dolma will begin her outreach into the Sonagachi red light area, and other red light areas of Kolkata and beyond, particularly focused on Nepali women in forced prostitution. Dolma is a survivor herself, and already has some relationships with women in Sonagachi. The Nepali Consulate of Kolkata is supportive of this initiative, and has offered to help women who wish to repatriate.
- The SEVA Center (large meeting room on the second floor) was being heavily used by partners, particularly Calcutta Rescue, but last month they got their own meeting space in another location, so we are looking for a new partner to replace them.
- The landlord recently talked to us about his desire to sell the building to HFC. We have discussed this possibility but do not think it is feasible at this time.
- We have opened a satellite Learning Center (much smaller, same vision/mission) in the Kidderpore red light area. Soma and Sonali are working at the Kidderpore Center. Mitali is overseeing the main Learning Center, and Nafiza and Sumaiya also have their offices there. Maura works at both locations and on site at partner organizations.
Freedom School, Nepal
2023 was an incredible year at the Freedom School with many highlights including completing the construction of our dormitory and headquarters, the addition of another grade at the school, launching remedial education classes for adults, growing our Sustainability Through Community Agriculture program, hosting a health camp, and continuing to train and better equip our teachers.
We now have 112 students (aged 2.5 to 13) in our school, and 32 older girls/young women that we support for education in outside schools. We have 21 girls (aged 5 to 19) in our dormitory. We provide daily tutoring, nutritious food, counseling, uniforms and many other needs to the girls in our residential care.
Our new dorms have the capacity to house 50 girls and enable us to offer a more stable and permanent situation for those that were in our care already. The girls love their new home, and wish to express their thanks to all who helped make it possible.
Headquarters:
Ground Floor: Staff apartments
First Floor: Classroom, Library, Computer Lab, Guest rooms, Vocational Training Center
Second Floor: Anjali’s apartment, Guest rooms, Long term volunteer/trainer apartment
Roof Deck: Laundry, Solar Monitoring Equipment Room
Dormitory:
Ground Floor: Four dorm rooms, Bathrooms
First Floor: Housemother’s room, Three dorm rooms, Bathrooms
Top Floor: Kitchen, Dining room, Storage room, Bathrooms
Roof Deck: Recreation and Laundry area
Our new buildings are environmentally responsible and cost-efficient with a solar energy system and a biogas system which creates energy from human and animal waste. The solar energy system has greatly improved the consistency of our electrical power, which helps a lot with our nightly zoom classes. Before the solar was installed, classes were interrupted an average of 3 times an hour due to power cuts. Now we almost always make it through the 1.5 hour class without interruption.
Anjali and her son Liam have an apartment in the headquarters building. Anjali is about to get remarried, to Mingma, the school’s driver and a very nice guy. Some of us got to spend time with him in October on the immersion trip/trek. Seven Teachers and staff members who live too far to walk to school are given free housing in our staff apartments on the ground floor. Our hostel girls enjoy nightly zoom classes in the TV room/classroom. Next spring, we look forward to setting up a computer lab in the adjacent room. Later in 2024, we plan to launch vocational training programs in the rooms designated for that purpose. We have enjoyed welcoming guests to our guest apartments, including my daughter Maya (who taught English for 2 months this winter). Maxanne, a recently retired teacher from Cape Cod, is coming for 5 months in February. Board member Shira is sending an art teacher and a classroom teacher to help with curriculum development and more interactive teaching methodology.
