Asha Jyothi
Asha Jyothi is based in Hyderabad, South India, in the area that has the highest number of women being trafficked and the highest number of child laborers in India. Due to severe poverty and regular drought, many rural families end up in Hyderabad. Taking advantage of this situation, human traffickers trick women and children into flesh trade and human slavery. Among the children, the orphaned and single-parent children are the most prone to this problem.
Human traffickers hunt through the area telling parents that their children can find well-paid work in cities, enough to support themselves and send money home. The children are then taken to Mumbai and are forced into prostitution or 16 hours of daily work in industries such as carpet making or fireworks. By 18, most of them would have lost out on opportunities in life.
McKinsey for Children decided in February 2011 to support the Asha Jyothi Back to School Program in India, which will give 100 orphaned and single-parent children the chance to go back to school. This program mainly concentrates on helping single mothers who have pulled their children out of the school because they were not able to pay their fees after the death of their husband. Asha Jyothi identifies such children and gets them back to school by helping with their fees. The children also get extra tutoring for two hours every day to help them with their homework and keep up their grades.
The Asha Jyothi organization has several other initiatives that ensure a better life for underprivileged children, for example by building tutoring centers (13 centers supporting 271 children) or a home for 40 orphan children. Asha Jyothi also runs vocational training centers and provides micro-loans to help single mothers become economically independent. Since the start of the micro-loan program in September 2010, the organization has not had a single default payment. A small garment factory specialized in making uniforms for school children, hospital workers, and private clients will be operational in September 2011. This initiative will not only provide jobs for the women trained as tailors in the Asha Tailoring Institute, but also generate profit to sustain future vocational skills training programs.
Asha Jyothi has fundraising partners in Switzerland, Germany, the UK and the US.
