From creating climate conscious professionals to being on a mission to end sex trafficking in India: top Social Stories this week
This week, SocialStory covered a range of organisations that are working to create climate conscious professionals and who are empowering children as well as social entrepreneurs who are helping destitute.
This week, SocialStory interacted with Nakshatra, a transwoman who spoke about the struggles she had to face while trying to make a living, and how she started an NGO to take care of homeless people.
Meanwhile, we also threw light on the situation of sex trafficking in India and how an NGO, Freedom Firm, is trying to end this.
Meet the transwoman who started an NGO to provide shelter to the homeless
Being disowned and thrown out of her house by her parents at the age of 16 for being a transwoman, Nakshatra knows how hard it is to be on the streets.
In 2017, she left her home in Gulbarga, Karnataka, and came to Bengaluru, hoping to find better opportunities. After spending almost three months on the streets, Nakshatra joined the transgender community.
Nakshatra managed to complete her mechanical engineering and started volunteering for Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the administrative body responsible for civic amenities and infrastructure in Bengaluru.
Once she was able to stand on her own feet, Nakshatra started Nammane Summane, an NGO to help the homeless, in 2020. Based in Bengaluru, it offers shelter to LGBTQIA+ individuals, orphans, persons living with HIV, differently-abled people, senior citizens, and anyone else in need. Nakshatra terms it as ‘a refuge for people refused by society’.
These 4 children escaped child labour to become changemakers with help of Kailash Satyarthi's foundation
Children dream big. They think of becoming astronauts, pilots, engineers, or even movie stars when they grow up. However, many are unable to realise their full potential and capabilities, and instead, end up working in mines and factories.
One person who has been leading the fight against child labour for years is Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 along with Malala Yousafzai, Satyarthi believes that there is no greater crime than stopping a child from dreaming big.
Every year, on his birthday on January 11, Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation celebrates ‘Surakshit Bachpan Diwas’ (Secure the Childhood Day) as a call to ensure child rights.
SocialStory introduces some of the change makers who have emerged from the programmes to work for the betterment of society.
The online platform is aiming to shape 100M climate-conscious professionals by 2030
About two years ago, IIT Bombay graduate Anshuman Bapna started getting concerned about the state of climate affairs and transitioned his career towards climate change. Despite being capable, he found it difficult to apply his skills to make it practical.
Around the same time, he met Dr Kamal Kapadia — a climate expert and educator with 25 years of experience in work, research and teaching in clean energy, climate resilience, and sustainable development fields.
Kamal, who was staying in Hawaii, was also looking to reconnect with India and do something more on a global scale.
The duo, along with their friend Mayank Jain, came up with a platform to educate and help people like Anshuman. Thus, they started Terra.do in 2020 with a single flagship course — “Climate Change: Learning for Action” — prepared by Kamal from her academic background.
How Freedom Firm aims to end sex trafficking of minor girls in India
India has about three million commercial sex workers. Of this, an estimated 40 percent are children. Many young girls between 8-17 years — from the poorest social sectors — are pulled out of school, forced to abandon their childhood, and step into adulthood — threatened, starved, and raped — to make them the breadwinners and supplement their impoverished family’s income. As a result, they would be sent for prostitution or sold to brothels.
Since 2006, anti-sex trafficking NGO Freedom Firm has been rescuing these girls from the red light areas across India. Besides, the NGO is helping them restore their lives and seek justice for victims and survivors.
With a team of 35 core members, in partnership with other NGOs and local authorities, Freedom Firm has rescued over 800 women and children. Additionally, it has impacted over 3,000 women and children from the community through its restoration programmes, vocational training, adventure camps, and community programmes.
It has helped in convicting about 11 people for sex trafficking.
Edited by Anju Narayanan