The Foundation
India is home to an alarmingly high number of children who live in orphanages, slums, or other destitute situations. The Mahaan Aasha Foundation (The Great Hope Foundation) was developed to better the lives of as many of these children as possible with the help of your donations. Through our 3 focus areas of Education, Infrastructure, and Humanity, we can change the futures of these children and give them Hope. Mahaan Aasha means "Great Hope".
Strategy
The Great Hope Foundation is making bold strides to combat childhood poverty from 2 different angles. Supporting existing orphanages and schools who have proven effective in transforming children’s lives from destitution to college degrees and aiding rural villages.
Supporting Existing Orphanages and Schools
Supporting Existing Orphanages and Schools who have proven effective in transforming children's lives from destitution to college degrees. When a family is no longer able to provide for their children they are often surrendered to orphanages and children's homes or simply abandoned to the streets. Mahaan Aasha partner organizations take these children in and provide a loving home with nutritious food, a quality education, and medical aid.
These well established, thoroughly vetted, and highly effective programs need support in transforming hundreds of children's lives. Through the support Mahaan Aasha gives to these partners, they are able to take in more children and provide the children living there with tools vital to breaking the cycle of poverty.
Aiding Rural Villages
Rural villages are the genesis of a great deal of poverty. Families of rural villages face a difficult life and are often subject to heartbreaking decisions. Common realities from rural village include:
- Farmer Suicides, alcoholic fathers, fathers who have abandoned their families, and fathers who have died, leaving behind their wives and children with no way to bring in an income.
- Children as young as 9 years old, dropping out of school to earn an income for their starving families.
- Parents leaving their children behind as they migrate to cities hoping for work only to find overcrowded slums and destitution.
- Families with no access to medical, vision and dental care.
- Schools, devoid of books and learning materials are comprised of no more than 4 concrete walls and a concrete floor.
- Farmer debt slavery ensures a family with no other form of income will never climb out of the depths of poverty.
The bulk of children who are surrendered to orphanages and children's homes come from rural villages and have faced one of these situations or worse. Mahaan Aasha's partner, Krishi Integrated Rural Development Society, tackles the challenges of the rural villages head-on. With Mahaan Aasha's support, hundreds of children are gaining access to tools vital to break the cycle of poverty.
Supporting the rural village family strengthens the family unit, keeping the family together, breaks the cycle of poverty and lessens the possibility of child abandonment or surrendering.
Education
Infrastructure
Many schools and orphanages in India places have no playgrounds or play equipment, no proper kitchens to prepare food, or even proper bathrooms. However, these places are filled with love and potential. With the help of your donations, we seek to improve existing buildings and construct new facilities, including new bathrooms, water filters for clean drinking water, playground equipment, and solar energy to offset the cost of electricity.
Humanity
At Mahaan Aasha (The Great Hope Foundation), our philosophy is that in addition to the necessities of life there is a basic need that is often overlooked: love, compassion, and human connection.
With each trip to India, we seek to do something fun and special with the children, including educational field trips, special games and activities, and gifts
Michelle Stephens
Michelle has made helping the children of India the focus of her life’s work through her creation of the Mahaan Aasha Foundation.
The Trip That Changed my Life
For our 5-year wedding anniversary, I told my husband I wanted to go to India. Everyone thought we were a little crazy and couldn’t comprehend why we would want to go to a place known for so much poverty. But I knew there would be more to India, and boy was I right! India is alive with fashion, food, culture, dancing, and all things color. We saw amazing sites and had a wonderful time.
One day in Mumbai, after visiting a temple, we decided to walk around a little. We turned down one street and were shocked when we saw that it was lined with women and children, the poorest of the poor. These children had nothing. Most weren’t even fully clothed and none had shoes. They sat on flattened cardboard boxes if they were lucky enough to have them, but most just sat on the dirty street side, where run off collected and garbage was thrown.
With every step we took down the street, my heart broke more and more. Then my feet actually stopped moving. I told my husband, “I can’t take one more step until we turn around and go find these children some food.”
And that’s exactly what we did.
Back at the street corner there was a little food stand selling fried foods like samosas. It’s surprising how much $8 will buy you! We bought bags and bags of food, and ice cream popsicles too. When we could carry no more, we walked back down the street.
I opened up the samosa to give to the first woman I saw. With smiling eyes she motioned toward her child saying, “give it to my child.” From there word got out pretty quickly and we were soon surrounded by all the street children. In all the excitement and hunger, the food and popsicles went pretty quickly!
After we had handed it all out, we hailed a cab. Right before I got into the cab, I looked back down the street. A crowd of children, all holding ice cream popsicles, stood smiling and waving at us. I didn’t change their lives or their situation in life that day, but I did instill a little joy though my gift of humanity. I knew right then. I was coming back and I was going to do something big.
This is an excerpt from an article published by Joy Discovered. Click the link below to view the full article.