Message from the president

Spring 2020

I keep looking at the photos – of my time in India this winter and of the current COVID-19 world. These photos tell such different stories. Which is the right one for this message?

First, there are the photos I long to share of how amazing it was to be back at Sambhali Trust for nearly two months, working alongside staff and volunteers at the projects Sambhali U.S. funds. Seeing each dollar we donate have an impact – on a child learning to write at a Primary Education Center, a teenager learning about her body in an Aadarsh workshop, or a woman who had found sisterhood while gaining tools for economic independence at an Empowerment Center.

I want to fill this message with day-to-day joys like being greeted by Manisha at the Sheerni Boarding Home telling me how well she did on her 12th class Board exam in English, doing a workshop on grassroots women environmental sheroes, eating the most delicious dinner cooked by the girls followed by an impromptu dance party on the roof. Or showing you the pure fun of playing with color at Holi.

But it’s not all dal and dancing at Sheerni, it’s hard work against big odds in a place where a poor lower caste girl from a village better be in darn good shape to keep leaping over every barrier in her way. The girls know it and they strive to rise.

Another joy was having Esther Rodriguez, the Treasurer of Sambhali U.S., and Sarah Abedin, Chair of our Volunteer Engagement Committee, both visit Sambhali Trust while I was there.  Read about how the women and children of Sambhali filled their hearts here. 

Yet each time I look at the many photos I took when I was at Sambhali Trust I feel my heart ache. Because right now education and empowerment are taking a backseat to the fear and hunger of a pandemic.  And that takes me to this photo… 

. . . of elephants on pause – half-finished at Sambhali Trust’s Graduate Sewing Center.  Like so much of the world, they wait for life to return to normal.  

As discussed in the COVID-19 update, currently India is in a strict lockdown and all of the regular Sambhali Trust projects are closed except the Sambhali Helpline, which continues to support women facing emergencies such as domestic violence or sexual abuse. 

Sambhali Trust Founder and Director, Govind Rathore, along with his family, two other Sambhali families, and the remaining volunteers moved temporarily to a rural area in the Thar Desert.  

What began as a good place to shelter during the lockdown quickly changed to a major relief project as the Sambhali team took on the tasks of finding and helping villagers left hungry and unprotected during the lockdown – providing food, soap, and health education, and making facemasks. This campaign continues to grow, undaunted by dust storms, temperatures soaring to well over 100 degrees, and electricity cuts.  

In response, Sambhali U.S. began a campaign to support these relief efforts, funding 200 village families for a month. 

Sambhali means “rising of the deprived women” and what I have seen over the last month is Sambhali Trust rising, finding the inner strength and passion to reinvent itself to respond to the current crisis. Sambhali U.S. is honored that we can help from so far away.

Which takes me back to the photos I took while I was in India. Rather than just being sad this vital work is on pause, they also fuel a passion to do everything we at Sambhali U.S. can to support these amazing programs that bring education, empowerment, and strength. 

Because being able to again take photos like this is the goal:

We cannot yet know the long-term impact of the pandemic, but with time to reflect we see even more clearly the importance of our mission “to support the courageous women and girls of Rajasthan, India, who seek to raise their voices with dignity and self-confidence, build a road to economic independence, and ultimately determine their own destinies.”

Photographs tell us many things. These tell us: We will rise.