Message from the President
A World of Sisterhood

Sambhali U.S. is the new kid on the block of the Sambhali family, joining international support organizations in Austria, France, Germany, and the UK. Like most younger siblings we learn so much from the older and wiser ones who paved the way.

The education–and the sisterhood—started when I first arrived as a volunteer at Sambhali Trust in the winter of 2019 and was adopted by a wonderful group of British and Irish volunteers, the skilled textile artists described Carlea Bauman’s wonderful piece Stitching Life Stories, Connecting Continents.

My tasks at the Sheerni Boarding Home that year included arts and crafts days for the younger children. I am not an artsy or crafty person. So, I’d run to the sewing room to find my new friends, explain my plight, and someone would patiently teach me a wonderful craft or game that I could then attempt to show the girls the next day. One game, taught to me by Sambhali UK Vice President, Isobel Scott-Clarke, involved a ball of string made from the discarded edges of sari material. The girls sit in a circle and the ball is thrown from one girl to another, each time accompanied by a compliment about the recipient such as, “I like your smile.” In the end, the web of string is pulled together to make a strong rope that connects the girls. This has become my “signature” game over the years and each time it is played I remember the kindness of Isobel and the rest of that wonderful group that helped me out.

Another member of the group was Sambhali UK president Sarah Harrington who quickly, and correctly, surmised I was a fairly clueless volunteer who couldn’t safely cross the street by herself. She literally and figuratively grabbed me by the elbow and ushered me across, ensuring both my physical safety and that I would begin to understand how Sambhali’s international support organizations worked to strengthen Sambhali Trust.

Ernestine Badegruber (Sambhali Austria), Shereen Arent (Sambhali U.S.), and Roxanne Näschen (Freunde für Sambhali) at the International Women’s March, Rajasthan, India, 2023. Photo by Ginka Poole

At a volunteer meeting one evening I met Ernestine Badegruber, President of Sambhali Austria, who also puts together the financials for all grants to Sambhali Trust. She asked if anyone wanted to learn more about the finances of Sambhali. Late into the night she explained how it worked and as my knowledge of Sambhali grew the seed of a deep friendship was planted.

Govind Rathore, founder of Sambhali Trust, explains the origins of the international support organizations:

The whole idea was to bring Friends of Sambhali together in their respective countries on one platform. It helped us keep connected with our well-wishers. These organizations strengthened us very much with not just helping us keep the projects running smoothly but also with technical aid.

Our foremothers came to Sambhali in different ways. Ernestine recalls the founding of Sambhali Austria:

It was in spring 2008, when I happened to stay next door to Sambhali Trust on a trip around Rajasthan with four friends. I became curious about the signboard “Sambhali Trust – Empowerment for Women.” With my background in social work, I wanted to know how this is done in India and walked through the door for the first time in the morning and stayed there until the evening. Talking to Govind, seeing his care for the girls coming for their lesson (checking if lice treatment has been successful), and learning about their families’ backgrounds was the beginning of my connection with Sambhali which never stopped since.

I started raising funds among my friends, encouraging them to visit Jodhpur, and one of them – Sadhvi Shanti – became very enthusiastic about Govind’s work too.

So, after five years of informal support, we decided to establish a formal organization–Sambhali Austria–in January 2013.

In all these years it was not only financial support I wanted to provide, but also pass on my knowledge and experience in running an NGO [Non-Governmental Organization]. Sound budgeting and reporting systems have been developed and helped build credibility, the essential asset in funding an organization dependent on donations.

Before Covid, Sambhali Austria hosted several visits by Govind to help him spread the word in Europe. We do our best to find new sponsors for scholarships and raise money from individuals and organizations.

But most important are the personal bonds which have developed over the years, both with Govind and his staff in Jodhpur, and with well-wishers of Sambhali in other parts of the world.

Sarah Harrington and Isobel Scott-Clarke also have deep roots at Sambhali. As Sarah describes:

I have been involved with the Trust for over eleven years and initially went there to work as a volunteer with my friend, Isobel Scott-Clarke.  We were so inspired by the work that the Trust was doing that when we came back to the UK, we started fundraising, finding sponsors and volunteers for Sambhali Trust. Then in 2014, two years later, I set up Sambhali UK as an official charity registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales.  

Since then, our charity has continuously been fundraising, finding individual scholarship sponsors, and providing and coordinating volunteers from the UK and Ireland. Isobel and I continued to visit Sambhali Trust and were involved in many arts and crafts projects with the women including overseeing the embroidered panel project that has gone on display in the UK and USA. 

We currently sponsor 55 children to go to private school (some of whom would receive little or no education and many of the girls forced to endure child marriage), fund the Laadli girls' boarding home, and one empowerment center for women. 

We are totally committed to the work that the Trust does, as we have seen and continue to see on a first-hand basis, the incredible difference it makes to the lives of so many underprivileged women and children.

Isobel adds:

I was committed after my first visit because of the opportunity to be an active volunteer in Jodhpur. It made a difference to be able to describe the place and individual stories as well as the teaching programs, to people who were interested.

Sambhali Trust was founded in 2007 with help from two Americans (see When Kindred Spirits and the Stars Align) and after that there were Americans who came by to learn about Sambhali and occasionally to volunteer. There were even two earlier attempts to start an organization here, but they quickly fizzled. It was in discussions with Govind, Sarah, Isobel, and Ernestine during the winter of 2019 that we began to realize an organization to support the amazing work of Sambhali Trust in the U.S. was possible, planting the seeds for the founding of Sambhali U.S. in the fall of 2019.

 Then the pandemic came and when getting together in person wasn’t possible, we had Zoom calls, always looking for the sweet spot for four different time zones spanning 10 ½ hours.

It was on Zoom that I met Renate Massmann-Krei, then President of Freunde für Sambhali (Sambhali Germany) which was founded in 2013, and Annelyse Paulin, President of Sambhali France, which was founded in 2016.

I have yet to meet Annelyse in person—though I hope to do so soon.

Last fall, Renate and I found ourselves in Jodhpur at the same time. While I hadn’t met Renate in person, I was very aware of how much the Sheerni Boarding Home girls adored her. On my first day volunteering in 2019 I was asked to help the girls compose a letter to Renate in response to her most recent one to them. (This was before the girls learned computer skills to do this themselves.) I gained insight into how close the girls were to Renate but didn’t understand the reason why until Renate and I talked years later. As Renate explains:

In summer 2012, I worked for three months in Sambhali Trust. I had the privilege to be the first volunteer in the Sheerni Boarding home, arriving at the same time as the then 6 - 11-year-old girls. Now I am happy to see the first ones as college girls, one opening a beauty parlor as her own business, being married and young mothers etc.—in short, being really self-confident young women. 

After returning to Germany, I along with other volunteers founded the German organization. Since then, we have focused our support on the boarding homes, self-defense courses, and sponsorships for kids in Setrawa and Jodhpur. 

Renate shared amazing photographs of the girls when they first came to the Boarding Home, very fortunately into the care of Nirmala Kanwar, the housemother, and Renate who also lived at Sheerni for three months.

Renate Massmann-Krei with some of the first Sheerni Boarding Home girls

Although Renate remains an officer of Freunde für Sambhali, earlier this year she passed the baton to Roxanne Näschen, who is the new president. And yes, Roxanne was also there in the winter of 2019. She had spent the year between high school and college volunteering for Sambhali Trust and came back to spend more time in 2019, returning again in 2020 as the Volunteer Coordinator and staying through the first part of the pandemic. Roxanne explained the role of the support organizations so well in her words at the graduation ceremony for the Empowerment Centers last March.

We talk a lot about sisterhood among the participants in Sambhali’s programs, but just this once I wanted to focus on our friends and colleagues in other Sambhali support organizations—and thank them for all they have taught, and will continue to teach, their sisters across the pond.

With gratitude,

Shereen Arent
President
Sambhali U.S.