Testimonials

"It is our pleasure to acknowledge the support we have received from Maharashtra Foundation for our educational programmes for rural children and rural semi literate women in western Maharashtra. Vanasthali Rural Development Centre (VRDC) found that a huge potential workforce existed in rural areas, in the form of homebound, semi-literate women whose energies could be tapped to work as facilitators of children's education at this level. Through these years our focus has been on training these local women. Our work has now spread to 9 districts of western Maharashtra, with about 600 trained women working for the benefit of more than 30,000 rural children every year. MF support came in at a very crucial period - at a time when many of our long time supporters, mainly from Europe, were withdrawing due to economic problems and changing policies. MF funding is also crucial as it supports our teachers' training programme, which is the backbone of our educational activities for children. VRDC is lucky to have come in contact with MF. Our activities cannot be self-sustaining by their very nature. Many thanks to the MF team for making this possible!"

"2018 - 2019 was a crucial point in LeapForWord's journey as we set out to achieve our 5-year goal - "English Literate Maharashtra". It was imperative that in this year, we quickly learnt to disseminate our English teaching techniques to a large number of teachers in the quickest possible time & at the cheapest possible cost. While I was sure of my team going all out to achieve this really crazy target, it was equally imperative that we had supporters who held their faith in us. And, we were blessed in this regard!!! Maharashtra Foundation was one amongst our closed knit group of funders. The best part of their support however has been the timeliness of their responses and a non-formal yet highly professional approach to relationship building. We ended the year reaching out to teachers across all the 36 districts in the state with 103,000+ students undergoing the program. With a funder like MF watching our back, we are certain that "English Literate Maharashtra" will be set into motion well before our deadline" We remain grateful to the foundation and to their hundreds of individual donors without whose support, small efforts like ours could never even think of altering the educational landscape in the state."

"A grant provided by Maharashtra Foundation helped us set up support groups (Aadhar Gats) to ten new villages in Purandar taluka of Pune district, thereby reaching out to survivors of domestic violence through timely and direct intervention in those villages. We were able to put up a shorter, succinct (and therefore more sustainable) training curriculum for local women, the police and other stakeholders. Support Group women from these villages are now intervening in family violence at the village level. They are able to raise these issues in the Gram Sabha, refer survivors to MASUM's counseling centre in Saswad and have been successful in seeking police intervention when required. The grant has accelerated our work in multiple ways, and we have enjoyed our partnership with Maharashtra Foundation. On behalf of women from Purandar taluka, MASUM would like to thank all the patrons and supporters of Maharashtra Foundation (USA), who made this intervention possible."

"As a pioneering organization of sensitive and concerned men working to stop and prevent gender-based violence on women in India, Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA) is thankful for the valuable support received from Maharashtra Foundation. The 3 year support for Yuva Tarang - Gender-Sensitization and Mentoring Program among young men from 2 districts Dhule and Jalgaon in Maharashtra enabled us to create a rich pool of 100 plus youth leaders who have been reaching out to peers and other young men in their neighbourhoods and spreading messages on women’s right to dignity and safety through interactive workshops, folk songs and street-plays, film festivals and youth meets. Our follow-up with these youths, in their twenties and hailing from different colleges, have shown that most of them have been taking personal stands for women in their lives and engaging more men in the discourse that is largely seen as a women’s issue. I am glad to share that Harvard University's South Asia Institute has documented the impact of our youth initiative spread in 9 districts across Maharashtra including the 2 districts where we implemented the Program with MF support."  

"Maharashtra Foundation has supported RSCD's BOSS (Budget, Orders, Schemes and Services) program - the first distance education program for EWRs (Elected Women Representatives) in rural areas. This is the first distance education program for EWRs in Maharashtra. Information is the key and real power for integrated village development. RSCD has trained 10,000 women leaders through this program, ultimately benefiting entire villages. If they know their budget, transparency is easy, if they are aware about Government orders, accountability is possible, if they get to know about schemes and services, accessibility and quality of service delivery becomes easy. Now, not only women leaders, but gramsabha members and panchayats are also willing to learn about Panchayat Raj act and relevant laws. Thanks to MF for their timely support."

"There are several government programs meant for the vulnerable and the marginalized. Yet we know that they do not benefit the needy and do not achieve their objectives. We at Pragati Abhiyan realize that there are more reasons than the most commonly cited - apathy and corruption - for this. With support from Maharashtra Foundation, we could make the employment guarantee program (MGNREGA) reach people. For every Re1 spent by us, villagers could earn around Rs.25 in wages and could build assets for themselves! More importantly, we could have interactions with the Government for appropriate changes in the design and delivery of the program. "

"The Maharashtra Foundation is a supportive funding partner for our work to bring about socio-economic transformation in Bakhel, a deprived and marginalised rural Adivasi community near Udaipur in Rajasthan. The Foundation has provided grants to support Hunar Ghar School, which was built by Educate for Life and our local Indian partner, Rajasthan Bal Kalyan Samiti, in 2007. Today, it is a thriving primary school, providing not just education, but also daily meals and healthcare to over 400 children. The school also acts as a hub for vital community health outreach work. We value the belief the Foundation has in our projects and its understanding of the challenges faced by our beneficiary community."