Project History and Mission

Sarada Kalyan Bhandar (SKB) is a not-for-profit charitable trust created by a group of likeminded women in a rural suburb of West Bengal. SKB’s primary mission is to empower the women, youth and children of rural India by educating them and providing medical and nutritional care. SKB covers a community of farmers and laborers who would normally not have the privilege of education or healthcare. Asha has been supporting the various projects at Sarada Kalyan Bhandar (SKB) for over 15 years now. Asha has supported various SKB projects, including the higher education of women, supplementary eduction for illiterate children, and medical camps.

Sarada Kalyan Bhandar is located in the Medinipur (Midnapore) District of West Bengal, approximately 120kms south-west of Kolkata (Calcutta).

SKB covers a number of projects and this year, Asha is raising funds using the Work-an-Hour (WAH) program to raise funds for initiatives covering Child Welfare Programs, Healthcare Programs, and Higher Education Programs for women.

The SKB programs above cover over 550 children almost equally split between boys and girls.

SKB covers a rural community of farmers and day laborers hence the method of education is mostly non-formal, community-based interventions, for example, after-hours schools for children, higher education classes for women, medical camps on healthcare, etc.

The Asha budget for SKB this year is a little over $19,000. We’re looking to raise approx. $10,000 of the funds through the WAH program and continue with our chapter fundraising activities for the remaining amount.

SKB started as an after-school program and uses a combination of teaching methods to achieve their goals. For the most part, children are provided with study materials and taught using conventional methods to motivate and encourage them to complete their homework assignments. There is also an additional focus on non-formal teaching methods such as medical camps to create awareness on good hygiene, first-aid methods, caring for sick children, etc. The teachers at SKB meet with parents and/or guardians on a quarterly basis to assess the child’s development plan. The women empowerment programs include conferences organized for emphasizing awareness on rights of women.

WAH Budget Proposal

More on SKB

As highlighted in the table above, the WAH donations will help cover over 50% of the budget for SKB this year. Most of the budget is education related focusing on children’s education and higher education for women.

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