Mukti Australia partners with Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission in India and Wings of Hope Lanka in Sri Lanka. Our mission is to create opportunities for disadvantaged women and children in India and Sri Lanka to have real hope and meaningful lives that realise their God-given potential. IN INDIA, Pandita Ramabai Mukti Mission creates opportunities for disadvantaged women and children to lift themselves out of poverty and live meaningful lives of hope, safety and empowerment. EDUCATION
India's illiteracy rate is one of the highest in the world. Over 2000 students strain the seams of Mukti's primary and high schools. Nearly three-fourths of the students come from the surrounding villages. Educational facilities include Sharada Sadan Primary School (Marathi medium); Manorama Memorial Secondary College (Marathi medium); Junior College (Marathi / English medium);, Englaish Medium School for years 1 to 10, a school for children with special needs, which also includin those who are visually challenged.
2. VOCATIONAL TRAINING
Vocational training programs (such as Creative Arts) assists those who are not able to undertake academic study to become skilled in a trade or craft.
3. MEDICAL SERVICES
A 30-bed facility, Krishnabai Memorial Preventive Care Unit has medical personnel that treat hundreds of needy people. Sunshine Nursing Home cares for the very elderly and infirm women who can no longer care for themselves. A mobile medical team services surrounding villages.
4. HOLISTIC CARE
Mukti provides a safe refuge and home for abandoned children, widows, outcast women, unwed and single mothers and special needs children including visually and/or mentally challenged girls and women. The residents at Mukti live in family homes which afford them shelter, food security and nutrition, access to clean water, and a sense of belonging. Mukti has agricultural fields and a dairy farm (cows & goats) to feed Mukti residents(and village children attending Mukti schools. Any surplus is sold for income generation. IN SRI LANKA. WE PARTNER WITH WINGS OF HOPE LANKA
Wings of Hope Lanka (WOHL) is a non-profit organisation that envisions women and children renewed and restored through hope and confident to embrace their future of new beginnings. WOHL’s vision is to physically, mentally and spiritually empower women and children to live out a purpose-filled life with hope and confidence. The heart behind WOHL is to empower women and children to develop an understanding of their own personal worth and realise the potential within themselves to live a purpose-filled life. INTRODUCTING REBECCA ALEXANDER:
Rebecca Alexander is the founder and CEO of Wings of Hope Lanka. She herself was a sponsored child — the daughter of poor tea plantation workers. She received her own education through a similar outreach project, and went on to become an English teacher with marginalised children in Colombo’s slums. Wings of Hope was born out of Rebecca’s very personal experience of how such projects can break the cycle of poverty. INVESTING IN CHILDREN
Over 200 children attend the ‘Growing in Hope program two days a week. The program includes:
- Education: Some of the children already attend a local government school, and these children receive tuition and help with their homework to ensure they keep up at school. Other children who are not currently enrolled in a local government school receive an entry level education as a stepping stone
to being admitted to a government school. Children also receive a yearly gift pf school supplies and school shoes.
- Access to medical care and medicine
- A nutritious meal
- Self-esteem and spiritual development activities
- Health and hygienic workshops
- (For the older children): Life skills and vocational skills training / job finding assistance
SUPPORTING MOTHERS
Wings of Hope offers the mothers in the community:
- New mum care and support including vitamin supplements
- Self help groups, vocational skills and business
enterprise training, access to micro credit
STRENGTHENING FAMILIES
- Emergency relief
- Initiatives that improve the living conditions of families - i.e. housing,
sanitation, clean water
EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES
- Rights awareness workshops
- Community infrastructure initiatives i.e. community toilets, wells etc.
