FORRAD
The Foundation for Rural Recovery and Development (FORRAD), a support organization for smaller grass root groups, has been working in rural development in India since 1980.
FORRAD has worked with more than 450 grassroots organizations in rural areas in 12 states in India. The organization aims to ensure that control over natural resources and technologies associated with their conservation, treatment and availability is vested with rural communities. FORRAD also recognizes that rural women, more than men, bear the burden of depleted natural resources and environmental degradation. FORRAD is determined to ensure that women and other vulnerable individuals are a part of the decision making process. Although focused on natural resources, FORRAD’s work also intersects with issues of social justice, empowerment, public health and employment generation.
Kaliyachak Girls' School
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The Kaliyachak Girls' School is located in the village of Kaliyachak in Nalanda in rural Bihar, one of the poorest states in India. The school was opened by a local community-based organization, Samaj Kalyan Mandal, to educate girls whose parents would not permit their daughters to travel 10 km to the nearest school on their own. The school was forced to close in 2009 after 9 years due to lack of funding. With new funding in 2016, the school was reopened.
Whether or not a girl goes to school -- and stays in school -- has a profound effect on her and on her future family. Staying in school longer means she will likely marry later, earn a higher wage, have a healthier family and send her own children to school. Your gift helps to create this positive ripple effect.
Rabha Women Weavers in West Bengal, India.
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With seed funding from Sprout Enterprise, 16 Rabha women from villages in Chilapata forest division in West Bengal have been trained and supported with design development and marketing.
Sarmistha Lahiri, founder of Hast Karigar Society (HKS), initiated the Rabha Women Weavers project. HKS is an organization of traditional artisans, weavers and folk painters with its office in Delhi. HKS provides design and marketing support to its 300 members and organizes workshops and exhibitions in across India annually.
Sprout Enterprise® has worked with FORRAD since 2015 to support the Rabha Women Weavers in West Bengal and since 2016 to support the Kaliyachak Girls School in rural Bihar.
Kaliyachak Girls School Report, May 2018
Kaliyachak Girls School Report, January 2018