SOHF is continuously striving to empower people in the fringes of society and to the effect, we are trying to inculcate in them knowledge, skills and the know-how of proper infrastructure in order to achieve the same. We believe that by contributing in small ways, like ripples, we could lead to bigger, more impactful changes in the ocean of the society at large.
One of the first academic projects that we undertook was NEEV in the year 2008. It was centred in the four slums around the Gol Market Area, New Delhi. It aimed at the holistic development of the children, who could not afford the facilities of education, by providing them with academic, medical and extra-curricular needs. It began with a humble number of 15 children and now, we have managed to have 500 children in our journey of NEEV so far. The curriculum developed for them seeks to integrate time for both academics and personal development through extra-curricular activities. Almost 50- 70 volunteers have been actively engaged in helping us with this project. NEEV continues to flourish even today, continuing to enlighten the lives of hundreds and thousands of children in little and big ways on a weekly basis.
The #365Days365Girls is a menstrual hygiene campaign that we began in 2017-18 where we started looking forward to empowering one girl about menstrual health and hygiene (MHM) on a daily basis. We have actively engaged in educating children, especially young girls, about menstruation, the menstrual calendar and have also distributed sustainable menstrual kits among them.
Among other drives, we constantly look forward to conducting mental health awareness campaigns with the children. Festivals and important calendar days like Earth Day, Water Day, and Environment Day, Human Rights Day and Child Rights Day among others are also celebrated with meaningful education about the importance of these days, sustainability and sustainable practices necessary to survive harmoniously with the planet. We have started working with ASHA workers, Anganwadi and ANMs who help us with the groundwork that we do on a daily basis in these places.
SOHF is a family of many young lives and voices who is actively trying to engage in contributing and being a part of the change that society needs. Yes, 2020 was a year of stagnancy because of the pandemic and the reeling lockdown months. But even then, we continued to engage with our learners’ community through the participation of almost 1000 online volunteers and sought to distribute 15 PPE kits to frontline workers who were in need of it.
We hope 2021 will be a kinder year for all of us at the SOHF family and will only drive us forward towards achieving our goals with renewed enthusiasm. We are looking forward to diving into many more significant and impactful projects. A little help from all of you always contributes to bear up our foundation. We are confident that our tiny steps will go a long way in shaping the future of global sustainable developments in the future.
Written by Ahendrila Goswami