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What is Project Life?
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Project Life is a Rajkot (Gujarat) based Charity Organization, run by two charities, Saurashtra Medical & Educational Charitable Trust (Estd. 1978) and Indian Medical Scientific Research Foundation (Estd. 1991).
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Where this Not-for-profit organization situated and in which areas it works?
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Project ‘Life’ is having highly motivated and dedicated task force, resilient infrastructure covering utility area of 45000 Sq.ft. in the prime location of Rajkot city and a well-defined vision that transforms to missionary approach and addressable to core issues concerning socioeconomic status, health, education, women empowerment and environmental balance affecting our society. It is situated in a prime location in Rajkot city in Western Gujarat of India.
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What is the social status of women in rural regions of India?
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The rural interior regions of Gujarat is almost illiterate or without any basic education because 69% of population is residing in rural areas, not to speak of higher education which is only 6% of the total population. They follow age old traditions and customs. Due to their narrow and orthodox outlook of the life, women have suffered the most.
The women in rural regions of India live in conservative and patriarchal families where they are never treated equal to men and are totally dependent on their husbands. They are even neglected and isolated by the family members as their role is restricted to household work. They have no voice in their family. They are generally overlooked and not given any importance as compared to advanced countries of the world.
They struggle and fight against a variety of issues that start at social discrimination and mostly end up at sustenance and survival. Almost always, they are denied any opportunity to lead a meaningful life. Their voices are muffled, their lot is ostracized, their existence is deemed a curse.
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What is the Women Empowerment (WEP) Program and what are its aims?
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To empower women means to make below poverty line women (BPL) economically and socially stronger so as to support their families and educate their children.
WEP aims to make widows and BPL women self-reliant by facilitating the process of developing skills for livelihood and economic self-sustainability in various trades.
The Program covers major districts of Gujarat State e.g. Ahmedabad , Gandhinagar, Junagadh, Gir Somnath and Amreli.
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Whom do you provide skill based training ?
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We are providing skill based vocational training to widow and Below Poverty Line women who are deprived of socio economic standard of living in Gujarat State. The women are trained by professional/qualified
experienced staff.
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What are your selection criteria?
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The selection of women is made by the employees who are Master in Social Worker after scrutinizing the list
provided by local authorities of the Government.
The
selection criteria is as under:
· The age of the women should be
between 18-45 years
· The family should be under below
poverty line or/and the annual income of the family should be less than INR
72000
Generally, Below Poverty Line (BPL) families are those, whose
consolidated family earnings are less than INR 72,000 per annum or INR 6,000 per
month. BPL status issued to the suitable population by the Government
authority.
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In which trades do you impart training?
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We
impart systematic training to women for self-sustenance in five different trades:
1) Sewing 2) Embroidery 3) Catering 4) Beautician practices 5)
Computer Operation
The supplementary
training for Self-defense, Gender Equity, Banking budgeting & Finance are
also provided to women to live with dignity and status in the society.
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What are the durations of training courses and who imparts training to the participants?
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The syllabus is designed
for 12 weeks
training duration to be completed by the professional experts
of particular trades, employed by our organization on full time bases.
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What additional benefits you give to participating women?
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We give INR 600/- as travelling expenses to the women coming from
distant places. Moreover, kit/Instruments are distributed to the women
free of cost to run their own micro units.
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What happens after learning the skill?
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Our aim is to make women self-sustenance to help their family.
Thus, after training we give them equipment/kits costing around GBP 100 per women which includes material for
starting their own micro units. For sewing & embroidery we give
them latest motorized sewing & embroidery machine, for catering &
beautician, we give them kits for catering & beautician practice.
Cost of the agencies are relieved and end up their support at this point, but we are
going further and also provide market linkage
to connect these women with the traders so as to regularly earn reasonable
return by selling their products. Our counsellors are always helpful to them
whenever necessary. They help them at all possible levels to establish their
business properly after the completion of training.
Having
completed vocational training, we examine all women and select perfect and
exceptional women who are eligible for advance training. We depute such women for advance training to
the institutes like ORANE International. which co-ordinate with us. These women are allowed 50% discount in
training fees payable by instalments. An
extra subsidy of 25% is given on the discounted fees so as to avail them almost
free of cost advance training. Thus women get opportunity to get employed in national
companies in future.
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What are the major impacts of this project at national level ?
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The
empowered women are asset to the nation
Empower women. Empower nation
They can better survive their families and educate children which
improves socio economic status of the society and help increase GDP Growth of
the country. The women can hardly earn INR 600 per month before any
vocational training.
After getting skill based training the monthly income per women is Rs.6000/-
which comes to Rs.72000/- per year. If one women works for 30 years her income
will be 1.8 million. The contribution made by donor has multiple impacts
and generates a significant Social Return on Investment (SROI) within a short
period. The total women empowered are more than 7600.
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How can I contribute to this project?
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Any individual or charity organization can contribute to the
project by sponsoring women either one or many women. Even the whole
batch of 25 women can be sponsored. Sponsoring a women means providing
financial help to the women for skill based training and making them
self-reliant for the life time.
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What is the target of this Project ?
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Our
target is to train and empower 12,000 women by the year 2021. Our dream is to
ultimately positively touch the lives of 1,00,000 women Below Poverty Line
(BPL).
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How do you measure success of the Project ?
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The
ratio of success of the project is more than 85%. The economically challenged women are identified,
trained for various trades of the designed courses and made self-reliant by
providing them market linkage. The women who have been either employed or
have set up their own micro units after completion of training are successful
women. We have empowered more than 7600 women so
far who have been earning more than average income to survive their
families. The feedbacks and striking success stories of women are
available with us.
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What is the Admin Cost of the Project ?
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The
admin cost is 3% of the total project cost and the same amount will be
paid to Life Global India by Life Global UK for the
launching event of Life Global UK.
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How is the fund utilized?
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The
fund raised during the event will be fully - 100% utilized towards women
empowerment by Project ‘Life’ India.
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What are the benefits available to donors ?
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• The donors from UK and India will avail tax deduction under relevant section on the amount contributed towards various social causes under projects of Project ‘Life’.
• The donors who sponsor a batch of 25 women or more their name (or the name as they wish to assign) will be assigned as sponsor and displayed as under :
The Women Empowerment Training batch sponsored by Shri__________ in the loving memory of Shri ___________
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What are the impacts of contribution made for Women Empowerment?
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Your
generous contribution will help underprivileged widows/women of rural Gujarat
by building capacity to earn livelihood for family and enabling them to educate
their children.
The
donor can join mission of empowering women economically and socially.
Vocationally
trained and empowered women can start their own micro-units or get employed.