I am a Year 13 student at The Harrodian School in London and I am currently doing by bronze Duke of Edinburgh. As physical volunteering is difficult during Covid, I wanted to find a charity that I would want to raise funds for instead. Our family friend Henny put me in contact with Shivia and I immediately fell in love with the idea of helping poor families in India create a sustainable livelihood for themselves and send their children to school. Not everyone is as fortunate as I am. 

One part of their programme that I love the most is that a £15 donation can provide 10 one-day old chicks, their feed and instructions to a poor family in need. They are taught how to raise the chickens and start a business through the sales of eggs and chickens. 

Please read below to find out a bit more about Shivia.

Shivia empowers the poorest to create livelihoods, boost income and inspire permanent change.The focus of our work is in rural West Bengal, one of India’s poorest and most populous states, where we are giving families living in rural villages near Kolkata the tools and training to start money-making agricultural enterprises. We empower the people in most need, and particularly women, to work their own way out of poverty and provide a brighter future for their children. Read all about our work here: www.shivia.com/programmes