Sahaitha

A community center for women to meet, build relationship, study, learn skills and get medical help

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The story of Sahaitha

In a culture where women are bound by so many expectations, treated as mere workforce and taught to deny their feelings, letting their dreams be crushed, we at Sahaitha invite them to experience love, care and deep friendships with each other.

We have worked in the same locality for fifteen years and followed the community through different seasons. Many of the women coming to us are migrants and find it difficult to navigate life in the city. We seek to build them up through education and skills, making sure they are registered and have necessary papers, and helping those who are sick to get medical care.

We also engage with migrant children in need through non-formal education support.

Our Approach

Under our literacy programs, we help women with basic literacy and train them in English, and computers. We also have women pursuing higher classes or college degrees. We help our women with their online applications and admissions, sorting out necessary documentation, and teach them their basic rights.

We also offer informal education to children from migrant communities and tuition support to school-going girls.

Our skill-building classes include tailoring, cooking, and baking.

Our support groups are instrumental to help women find perspective and tools to overcome difficulties, especially in the areas of relationships, violence and family matters.

We have also recently become a DOTS provider in our area, helping patients with TB, HIV/AIDS, and other chronic sicknesses.

We Provide...

Education

Support Groups

Medical Support

Counseling

Social Benefits Assistance

"Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty."

- Mother Teresa

Meena's Story

Meena* is fifteen years old. To make ends meet, she works as a delivery girl in a small shop. For almost twelve hours of work each day, she is paid only a couple of thousand rupees a month. But she says it is better than being stranded in a dingy room with her alcoholic father

We met Meena two years back. She and her two younger siblings started coming to our center for non-formal education. She was sad that her family did not allow her to sit for her class 5 exams before moving to Delhi. We enrolled her with NIOS in class 8 and she loves studying. She took her exams earlier this year and passed!

Even after living farther from our location now, Meena walks a few kilometres every day to reach our center. She requested her employer to give her these two hours so she can continue her studies. Often, she comes to the center around lunch time and we eat together. She doesn’t eat a lot. She says she fears that her mother would marry her off if she gets any bigger. Her older sister was married at the same age Meena is now.

We have a relationship with the mother and the daughter and our desire is that Meena would be allowed to study and fulfil her dreams.

Kala's Story

Kala* is a very vibrant and fun woman. Her birth certificate states she is 33, but we are not sure. She was married off very young and has two teenage children aged sixteen and fourteen. Even though her realities have been dismal, she brims with hope.

Kala has faced oppression in her family for a long time. Her husband beat her up and abused her for many years, and brought another woman to live with him and the family. Though the violence subsided after her children were born, she carries deep emotional scars. She tells herself that her husband loves her, but he treats her like a fool. When we meet with Kala, we often have to counter her feelings of worthlessness. She is worthy of being cherished and we want her to believe that.

Kala enjoys coming to the center because here she can be herself and somehow relive a childhood that was lost. Often, she jokes around with us like young girls do. She says that she cannot be like that in front of her children or her husband. She loves studying and wants to be given lots of homework. She was illiterate when she came to us almost five years ago. But last year, she finished class 5 through NIOS and is now enrolled with us for class 6.

*All names have been changed to maintain privacy