India needs your help: Shakti Empowerment Education has set up a fund to help the most vulnerable deal with the trauma-the children and the women

Dear Shaded Viewers,

As you are no doubt aware that COVID-19 is causing the highest death rate in India and West Bengal in particular is hit with the ‘triple mutant variant’ strain that is destroying lives of all ages. Shakti Empowerment Education Foundation for Children and Women (SEEschool) was co-founded by Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri and Ajay Pal-Chaudhuri in their ancestral home in Ranaghat, West Bengal in 1994. The school Ramakrishna Vedanta Vidyapith was set up to provide free quality education, literacy, vocational training, and micro-financing for 300+ socio-economically challenged women and children annually in Ranaghat, West Bengal, India. They focus on students from the lowest income families providing resources and education to protect them from the risks of early marriage child labor, and trafficking.

All of the students are from socioeconomically disadvantaged families; many are from refugee families who fled persecution across the border from Bangladesh. Most of the students are the first of their families to become literate. Many study hard to teach the rest of their families what they learn at school each day.

When the pandemic swept across India, shuttering schools and work, they faced new challenges. Isolated from each other, they not only lost their communities, but they became more vulnerable than ever to hunger, trafficking, child marriage and domestic violence.

“We have improvised and innovated, to provide supplies, PPE, education, and support to the community during this crisis. We’ve also established a fund to help students deal with the trauma, and to catch up for a year of lost studies, once the lockdown is over. Follow us on socials and at Clubhouse to donate www.SEEschool.org

Please donate here if you can. A dollar can save a life.

 

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Diane Pernet

A LEGENDARY FIGURE IN FASHION and a pioneer of blogging, Diane is a respected journalist, critic, curator and talent-hunter based in Paris. During her prolific career, she designed her own successful brand in New York, costume designer, photographer, and filmmaker.

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