Namaste and hello, from the Thrive Seed team!
First and foremost, thank you for your continuous, gracious support of Thrive Seed’s projects. The progress we have made in the slums of Delhi would’ve been impossible without you.

Currently, we are operating schools in four slums and have active women’s empowerment projects in two of them. Our women’s empowerment project has come a long way since its inception in 2011—over 150 women have now received our training.

Although women’s status in India is facing gradual change for those of the upper and middle classes, women living in slums and remote villages often still lack basic education, are confined to the household, and are unaware of their legal rights. It is not uncommon for these women to be victims of domestic abuse and marital rape.

Additionally, dowry deaths—women who are murdered or driven to suicide by continuous harassment and torture by husbands and in-laws in an effort to extort an increased dowry—and female feticide are still common.

Despite our progress in helping these women improve their lives/societal standing through teaching them job skills, we are struggling to secure a regular meeting space where we can house proper equipment (sewing
machines, computers, etc.) for the women to learn and produce handicrafts and clothing on a continuous basis.

Currently, we use our school rooms, but (as you can imagine) having children and sewing machines in the same area is not a feasible solution. By not having this permanent space, we are forced to keep our program
relatively small and are unable to expand our training opportunities to neighbouring slum communities.

We are aiming to raise £300 by running the Victoria Half Marathon in order to fund a permanent space that is accessible to women in all four slums. We also hope to purchase further sewing machines to grow our projects, and employ a professional full-time trainee to teach our women the vital skills they need.