Message from the President

Learning to Walk and Pivot . . . and Rise
Happy 1st Birthday, Sambhali U.S.! 

A year ago we launched our organization with the first outreach campaign. As with all of us this year celebrating our “covid” birthdays, we look back on a year so different than the one we imagined a year ago.

In the case of Sambhali, U.S., it turns out as we were taking our first steps we also needed to learn how to pivot – and rise. But walk and pivot and rise we did and I’m so pleased to report on what we’ve accomplished together in our first year.

First, thanks to your generosity, we were able to provide full or partial support for two Women’s Empowerment Centers, five Primary Education Centers, a boarding home for girls yearning to get a good education, a school program on puberty and sexual harassment, and an emergency helpline for those facing forced marriage and gender-based violence. You can read more about these programs on our website.

We were on our way, taking those first steps – and then the pivots began . . .

When COVID-19 hit and India was in near-total lockdown, Sambhali Trust had to temporarily close most of its programs. “Closed” is the antithesis of the spirit of Sambhali as we saw when the Trust quickly transformed itself into an efficient and effective relief organization reaching over 3200 rural villagers with health education and soap and sustaining 544 families throughout the lockdown. Sambhali U.S. responded by adding a grant to support this relief effort.

The lockdown ended, but the pandemic surged in India. With more ability to move around in the city of Jodhpur, Sambhali Trust made another pivot to utilize the skills of women who had graduated from Sambhali programs to make face masks that were then distributed to first responders, quarantine centers, laborers, people who are homeless, and those who reached out through the Sambhali helpline. From there, Sambhali Trust rose to become a leader in the city-wide effort to convince people in Jodhpur to wear masks through its “Toko, Corona Roko” (Intervene and Stop Corona) and “Mharo Mask, Mhare Shahar Ro Maan” (My Mask, Pride of My City) campaigns.  Sambhali U.S. responded by re-allocating funds originally intended for programs that could not yet re-open to fund mask-making efforts – providing much-needed income to the women who made the masks and free masks to those in need. 

As the fall began and more things opened up in India, Sambhali Trust devised a way to reopen the Empowerment Centers, renting larger spaces to serve small groups of women in numerous shifts with strict social-distancing rules. The girls came back to the Sheerni Boarding Home. They have moved to an online school and with the addition of intensive tutoring are hard at work trying to regain academic ground lost over the last six months.

It’s important to note how this all fits together – the need for women and girls to regain the ability to leave their homes for education, for economic independence, for sisterhood, and often for safety. Domestic violence has risen around the world during the pandemic as women and children have been isolated with their abusers.In response, Sambhali Trust looked to its name. “Sambhali” means “rising of the deprived women”. And when it came to the responding to the domestic violence crisis, it was time to rise to a new level.

In late summer I got a call from Govind Rathore, founder and director of Sambhali Trust. The cases of COVID-19 were skyrocketing in India and the economic hurt continued to grow. It would have been reasonable – most understandable – if Govind was calling just to talk about how to hold on during this difficult time. He wasn’t. He was so worried about the impact of pandemic on women who were trapped at home. And beyond the pandemic he told me about the growing incidence of rape and acid attacks, especially amongst the poorest women. 

Sambhali Trust had long had the Nirbhaya [“fearless”] SOS project that provides counseling and legal and medical services to those facing child marriage and gender-based violence. Now, Govind told me, was the time we needed to expand this program. Now? In the midst of a pandemic with all the difficulties in reaching people and...Yes, now, he responded. He wanted to do a three-month pilot of this expansion that would include an outreach and educational campaign, as well as more access to legal, medical, and other services and ongoing counseling for survivors. Lawyer Shivani Singh and psychologist Abhilasha Chouhan had begun working with staff leadership to put a plan together with the goal of starting in a few weeks’ time. I was taken aback by the short timeline; I shouldn’t have been. By the first week of October the expansion pilot was in full swing, with door-to-door outreach, workshops, and expanded help to those in need. The project was highlighted in this piece from CNN’s series The Shadow Pandemic. I’m so proud that Sambhali U.S. was able to reallocate funds in order to fully support the Nirbhaya three-month pilot program.

A first year filed with learning to step, to pivot, to rise. Yes, the hard times continue, but it’s good and necessary to pause and reflect on what we’ve accomplished – and to celebrate you!

Thank you for being one of the people who responded – with passion and compassion, with generosity of time and funds. Thank you for being there at our birth and for being here now for the women and girls of Sambhali.

Shereen

Shereen Arent
President, Sambhali U.S. Board of Directors