Our Story

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Our Story

It starts with an article in a newspaper (Hindustan Times, October 2008) about a set of premature twins who were abandoned at an orphanage in Balasore, Orissa. We made a start with some financial aid. A month later, the twins were claimed by their alcoholic father. Shortly after, the boy died of neglect and there was a rumor that the girl may have been sold.

demo-pic This is only one example of countless similar tragedies all over the world. As globalisation marches on towards financial gain for some, it leaves behind numerous girls and women. In India, the invalidation of females is severe. We decided to do something to strengthen society. Leora was registered as a public charitable trust in April 2012. Contributions from family and friends helped us to take small steps. Keeping our focus on education in mind, Leora scholarships were given to 53 Class VIII girls for a period of three years, from across nine schools in Bangalore. who were most at risk of dropping out. Though this helped the students to remain in school through Class X, there was a need to further engage the girls. We did a pilot, intensivie mentoring program to provide scholastic support to nine girls who were not expected to pass the class X board exams. Six months into the program we observed positive changes like confident body language, ability to question teachers and the final test came in the form of all our mentees passing the class X board exam.

demo-pic demo-pic Education and nutrition go hand in hand. Many children in India come to school with an empty stomach. Leora funded breakfast for 250 girls at Ayyappan School, Chinappa Gardens, Bangalore for a year through a program run by a partner, Seniors For Change . We also introduced a lunch program for the school by linking up generous donors Ram Vasnatharam and Meera in 2014 who have continued to fund lunch at the school for 450 people now 6 years running. In early 2020 we did a rigorous evaluation of the Ayyappan school to hold the school accountable. The evaluation tools for Math and English were developed by inhouse expertise.

In 2018 we started our Delhi chapter. We worked in the RK Puram slums and in Rural Delhi. Creating tools for uneducated mothers to monitor their children attending the indifferent local Government Schools, we saw an uptick in teacher's engagement with children. During COVID-19 we did not close shop. Intense food distribution to the poor immigrant daily wage workers, now left resourceless carried on for a period of two months.

Covid-19 presented us with the opportunity to engage more with Sector 9, RK Puram slum. At their suggestion we explored online english learning for children who were left straggling behind, relative to their richer technology equiped counterparts. Serendipitiously, some high school students in California were looking to volunteer. This started our online English conversation program with 40 volunteer high schoolers. It is on the threshold of year 4. During covid we inherited cast offs from other orgaisations which enabled us to set up a small high quality library for children in the sector 9 slum, a facility that they had never had. Library access further improved their reading and comprehension. Our office became a refuge for many slum kids. During the two pandemic years we saw the health of many slum children decline - they looked obviously malnourished. Hence we started our daily egg and milk consumption program for 42 girls in sector 9 RK Puram slum in Dec 2022. Generous donations from friends and family has kept this going from month to month. We monitor health of the girls on a monthly basis. And thats our story in short, so far!!!