After university, Lucinda spent a short amount of time working at Tender Heart in the outskirts of Delhi.

Tender Heart Educational Society is a charitable, non-profit and non-governmental organisation in India. The mission of Tender Heart is to uplift and to provide social and educational opportunities for disadvantaged children and children with special needs in the city of Faridabad and in the rural villages of northern India. Additionally, Tender Heart creates employment opportunities by imparting vocational training to widows and underprivileged young women in the village of Bhatola.

The work which Renu Bali (pictured) does is quite simply incredible. Her warmth, courage and tenacity is boundless and her positivity is infectious. I (Lucinda) thoroughly enjoyed living with Renu and teaching in the school, and would like a chance to support future initiatives, especially the Women Empowerment Programme. Funding is difficult to come by and Renu often relies on donations to progress projects.

http://www.tenderheartngo.org/

With such fond memories of Tender Heart's work and the time she spent there, Lucinda took me (Jonathan) to visit almost ten years later when we were in India for a wedding (shout out to the MacGregor Singhs!). Renu welcomed us in with open arms, and after a dance class by the teenage girls - which proved I really do have two left feet - she sent us home with a suitcase full of wonderful handicrafts. In that time, Tender Heart had achieved terrific things. It had added an educational programme for children from nearby slums as well as extended its Woman Empowerment project to teach the team how to create a large range of arts and crafts which were being sold at local fairs.

Tender Heart believes that every man, woman and child has the right and deserves the opportunity to live their lives to their fullest potential. It is striving to create a community: one that can grow internationally and reach worldwide to those in need and to those who are able to lend a helping hand.

We would love it if you could become part of that community with a donation to Tender Heart.

In Renu’s own words...

"We believe that dreams begin when opportunities are given. And when dreams are realized - life begins."

-Renu Bali - Founder, Principal