Salma Sunil Thakray

Lost partner in the CST firing on 26/11
Not legally wed so no official compensation
Has two children (9 and 7 years)

Karuna Thakur Waghela

Lost husband in the GT hospital firing on 26/11
Has three children (studying in third grade, second grade and nursery)

Cheetah Camp area, hutments were razed to the ground in Jan 09 after a devastating fire. Shabnam lived there with her four sisters and mother, their father has been missing for over a year. The girls had no home to live in, and could not visit school due to lack of funds for transport, and no clothes or utensils as well, since all they had was burnt in the fire. Shabnam, the eldest sister is a graduate but has lost all her documents. They were living in a dispensary offered by a kind soul but had to move out. Indiahelps has offered them interim relief for groceries, and daily needs. Panchtatva has given them six months rent. We are working towards helping Shabnam get a job. Any funds towards the girls living expenses and education would be welcome.

Ahana Mishra

Suffering from severe dystonic cerebral palsy Abandoned by father, Mother murdered Currently hospitalised In the care of her maternal grandmother, Poornima

Her Needs:

• A wheelchair
• A full-time nurse
• Cash for treatment and medicines
• Building a corpus for future financial security
• Legal security for Poornima as guardian (in case the father returns)

• India Helps volunteers in constant touch with Poornima
• Cash handed over to meet interim needs
• Seeking a paediatric neurologist to get the case evaluated
• Exploring pro bono occupational therapy
• Plan to continue assistance when they return to their home in West Bengal

Pavement Schools

"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children." - Mahatma Gandhi

We at India Helps strongly believe that basic education should be accessible to all.

India Helps is also actively associated with a pavement school in Goregaon, Mumbai. This school aims to educate the street kids who literally live on the streets with no homes and no access to proper school. The school counsels and teaches these kids everyday.

We provide daily snacks, stationery to all the kids that attend school. We propose to provide the kids with school bags, water bottles, Tiffin boxes. We also propose to get guest teachers to introduce different concepts to these kids for e.g. Art &Craft. We are committed to this project on a long term basis and plan to extend the same model to various other pavements.

We also plan to identify and provide scholarships to the deserving students from these schools and send them to formal schools.

We launched one more pavement school in Goregaon on 16th March. Mr Jagdeep Dighe and his wife, Mr Raut, Mr Nadar, Ramnikbhai, Charu Sir (a resident music teacher who has kindly helped us with locating teachers for the school, and offered us his premises to store the school material after class everyday) and his wife, and the local Shiv Sena Shakha Pramukh Raju Padhye were present along with the teachers.

This school is outside the ICICI bank, on the pavement, located right after the Bangur Nagar signal on Goregaon Link Road. The school will be open Mondays to Saturdays 8 am to 10 am. Anyone who would like to teach the kids, offer them snacks or just drop in is welcome.

We welcome offers to help us in any way you can- it could be with teachers' fees,books,stationery,school bags,snacks,to teach,or just come and provide moral support to the kids. Please do write to us at indiahelps@gmail.com or info@indiahelps.org for further details.