EMpower in India
Our work in India, as globally, focuses on high-touch connections, cross-learning, locally-driven grantmaking, and sharing a curation of global best practices.
EMpower has 20 years’ experience partnering with local organisations in India, currently in Gujarat, Maharashtra, the National Capital Region, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. India is a special place for EMpower: it's where our first grant was made, our first in-country staff began, and is an incubator for our innovative work with adolescent girls.
In 2017 we established EMpower India Trust as a vehicle to strengthen our programmatic work and domestic fundraising. With 3+ years completed since its registration, we are poised to fuel growth from within India.
225
Grants Made
530 million INR
Awarded
143,000
Youth Directly Impacted
595,000
Lives Touched
Impact to Date
EMpower’s work in India has directly impacted the lives of 142,502 young people and touched the lives of 595,000 other people. As of August 2020, we have invested INR530million (or INR53crores) through 225 grants to local organisations in India to foster inclusive learning, economic well-being and safe and healthy lives for young people living at the margins.
EMpower has launched a campaign to enable better lives for 100,000 girls by 2022 and their families and communities, through three main projects that focus on access to education, decent livelihoods, and health. Our projects are rooted in the motivation to amplify girls’ voices and work together to build a better world for girls.
We work with adolescents, especially girls
Adolescence and young adulthood (ages 10-19), especially for girls, is the time when they are most at risk as well as most “at potential.” If, during this critical age, girls are provided opportunity and networks, sky is the limit for them. If they can learn how to be healthy, gain self-confidence and leadership abilities, and develop skills to find dignified work, they will have the blueprint for a successful life. If left unattended, they are likely to face multiple layers of marginalization as they progress in life, and be pushed further into the margins. At EMpower we believe that by supporting these young people at the most pivotal time in their lives, we can help them change their world—and ours.
Girls Advisory Council
The Girls Advisory Council (GAC), an EMpower initiative, is a group of adolescent girl leaders who advise on EMpower’s grantmaking strategy in India and how to best meet the needs of adolescent girls. We recognize that to fully address girls’ needs, strategies to empower girls need to be informed by those affected by the strategies’ implications every day – the girls themselves. This is why we are centering our work around their expertise.
Adolescent Girls Learning Communities
EMpower’s Adolescent Girls Learning Communities are vibrant groups, comprised of local grantee partner organizations, mentors and girls, which nurture and empower girls as leaders. The brochure Empowering Her Voice: Adolescent Girls Learning Communities describes the concept, formation, growth and impact of EMpower’s two Adolescent Girls Learning Communities in India, as well as guidelines for working with adolescent girls.
Building Bridges
‘Building Bridges’ is an initiative to support collaborations and build communities of practice among its Grantee Partner organizations in India.
Objectives
- Deep-dive into the already existing knowledge and expertise of our partners
- Support exchange of dialogues, resource sharing, resource creation and other forms of collaborations among Grantee Partners
EMpower has launched a campaign to enable better lives for 100,000 girls by 2022 and their families and communities, through three main projects that focus on access to education, decent livelihoods, and health. Our projects are rooted in the motivation to amplify girls’ voices and work together to build a better world for girls.
EMpower Girls Learn Well Fund
Gender inequality at work is mirrored by gender inequality in society. Despite having the largest population of adolescent girls, India is among the countries in the world with the lowest rates of working women in its workforce. Despite receiving education in school, many adolescent girls in India are not able to receive the documented benefits of secondary education as predominant cultural and infrastructural barriers prevent them from accessing decent jobs when they grow up. Lack of 21st century skills such as English-speaking skills, computer skills, financial literacy, that are not traditionally part of their school curriculum, further diminish the pool of decent livelihood opportunities that they can avail in the future. It is vital to begin working with girls long before they are of an ‘employable’ age so that the social and cultural factors that inhibit girls from joining the formal workforce are addressed.
EMpower Girls Live Well Fund
The COVID-19 crisis has led to very high levels of gender-based violence (GBV) and high risk of school dropout among girls. In this situation, trainers from local organizations are a ray of hope for young women and adolescent girls. Being the intermediary between local NGOs and the community members, they have taken up the role of providing support and guidance over phone calls and other online mediums. However, trainers themselves are not equipped with skills and, as a result, are themselves facing a skill gap in the current situation.
EMpower Girls Build Back Well Fund
Girls’ lives have dramatically changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Girls have experienced greater domestic violence; they have withdrawn from school either because they do not have the ability to access remote learning (they have no internet or smartphones), or because they have shouldered greater household responsibilities.
We need investors and philanthropists to work with us to positively impact the lives of girls, young women and other marginalized young people. To learn more about these funds and how you can support impactful work in India please write to us at india@empowerweb.org.
Giving to EMpower
EMpower is registered as the EMpower India Trust in India (both 12AA and 80G certified.) It is eligible to receive funds from domestic sources only, through its Trust. Besides, EMpower is registered as a 501c3 in United States1, as a Charity in UK, as a registered Charity in Hong Kong and as a company limited by guarantee in Singapore. It has been making grants directly to FCRA-registered partners in India since 2001 and continues to do so following robust due-diligence. Donors can contribute to these Funds in India, or through EMpower in the UK, the US or Hong Kong. For more information regarding the Funds, you can contact EMpower’s India Development and Engagement Strategist, Prachi Gupta: pgupta@empowerweb.org
1For more than seven consecutive years, Charity Navigator, America’s premier independent charity evaluator, awarded EMpower four out of a possible four stars, an endorsement of the EMpower’s social, economic, financial and organizational procedures, policies and practices.
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Our Board Directors and the Leadership Council underwrite all of our Management, General and Fundraising expenses, so 100% of your donation goes directly to empowering marginalised young people.
