Our Development Work in India | WE Villages at WE.org

A special place in our history and our hearts

Surrounded by mountains and bodies of water, India is one of the oldest civilizations and home to over 1.3 billion people (World Bank, 2017). It was led to independence from Britain by Mahatma Gandhi in 1947, one year before he was assassinated. To this day, India remains the world’s largest democracy.

It also holds special meaning for our WE Villages team because our story began here. It was on a trip through South Asia in 1995 that Craig Kielburger witnessed firsthand the working conditions of child laborers.

Despite becoming a global economic power, India still struggles with overpopulation, environmental degradation, extensive poverty and ethnic and religious strife. Sadly, 21.9 percent of India’s vast population live below the poverty line (World Bank, 2011).

India by the numbers

Of children under the age of five suffer from stunting (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, 2015)

Of people over the age of 15 are literate (CIA World Factbook, 2015)

Average age of life expectancy in India (UNDP, 2018)

Every dollar you donate helps us help a community in India

Every dollar you donate helps us put in place sustainable solutions that empower communities in India

Our work in India

We began working in India in 1998, not long after Craig’s first trip to the area, concentrating our efforts in the northwestern province of Rajasthan, in the districts of Udaipur and Rajsamand. The marginalized populations residing in this province include the Scheduled Tribes (Indigenous), the Scheduled Caste (Dalits) and the Other Backward Classes (Diaspora community) and have largely been excluded from government spending and development over the years. Girls especially suffer in these areas, where they are given less food than their fathers and brothers.

Education has been our primary focus, as we believe it offers the single greatest social return in the eradication of poverty. The WE Villages Education Pillar of Impact also facilitates the unification of children in the classroom from the social stratifications of India’s caste system. We work together with each of these communities to get rid of the obstacles that prevent children from accessing education. Our commitment to community development has also united government leaders, local elders, parents and students in these rural communities.

See the impact one person can have in India

Our Pillars of Impact

In every country where WE Villages operates, we tailor our programs to meet the unique needs of the communities we work with, while still adhering to our five Pillars of Impact. Read how we’re implementing them in India.

Education
Breaking down the barriers to education is critical to breaking the cycle of poverty. That’s why WE Villages partners with local communities to improve access to education by building new schools, rehabilitating existing infrastructure and providing basic educational resources. So far, we’ve built over 100 schoolrooms, including classrooms, kitchens and headmasters’ offices, with many more to come. By focusing on supporting community awareness and mobilization activities, we can encourage parents to send both their sons and daughters to school—eliminating gender inequality—and eradicate caste-class discrimination.
Water
Access to clean water is key to becoming healthy. However, many schools across rural Rajasthan don’t have access to clean water and sanitation, making children more vulnerable to malnutrition and waterborne illnesses. To tackle these issues, our water projects include constructing and rehabilitating clean water systems such as hand pumps, open-faced wells, latrines and handwashing washing stations. We also provide educational workshops to inform people of all ages on how to stay healthy with clean water. As a result, parents are encouraged to send their children to school and children stay in school.
Health
When communities are healthy, the future is brighter. To bring health services and prevention initiatives to rural populations in India, WE Villages has constructed and rehabilitated five anganwadis, government-run health centers that specifically support mothers and children. We also provide training to students and families which in turn support the government’s work at the anganwadis. Through these activities, WE Villages aims to improve the health status of these communities.
Food Security
Communities in Rajasthan rely heavily on agriculture for income and food. With extended periods of droughts resulting in land and soil erosion, crops suffer and families experience malnutrition, disease and illness. WE Villages recently completed the second phase of a three-year food project in India to improve food security. We can use our findings from this project and apply them to even more partner communities. We also facilitate the implementation of school gardens, agricultural training, pasture development, provision of tools and resources, tree planting, and crop irrigation to give students, parents, farmers and communities a chance to help solve their issues.
Opportunity
When families have financial means, they can invest in the futures of their children through education and their basic health. To empower community members, we work with adults—mostly mothers—to give them the skills they need to become independent within an average of five years. We specifically work with marginalized families and provide them with capacity-building workshops and productive resources (such as milk and breeding animals like goats and chickens) for income generating activities. As a result, they can apply their skills to improve their income, build their savings, provide for their families and become self-sufficient.