Boarding Homes

Many underprivileged girls have the potential to be exceptional students, but aren’t given the opportunity or encouragement to explore their capabilities and discover their unique talents, especially if they live in rural areas. Their parents bring them to Sambhali for better and healthy living and education, which their parents are not able to provide in their living circumstances.

The Sambhali Sheerni Boarding Home was established in May 2012 and was designed to enable poorer girls who have no chance of a good education in their own village to attend school on a daily basis. This programme began by establishing a family-run boarding home in Jodhpur for 20 girls from the rural desert area of Rajasthan, 100km west of Jodhpur. The girls arrived in the boarding home aged between 6-15 years old and attend a good school nearby. We aim to provide all the girls with an education until 12th standard (final year in school).

The second of Sambhali’s boarding homes, the Sambhali Laadli Boarding Home, newly opened on 10 April 2017 for 20 girls between the ages of 6-12 years old again from the rural desert area surrounding Setrawa village. These girls have all attended the local village school previously but gives them an opportunity to receive a better education to enable them to have more opportunities in the future.

Abhayasthali Boarding Home for young women who previously attended the Sheerni Boarding Home and are now attending college—the first women in their families to do so. At Abhayasthali they form a community, cooking and taking care of their own daily needs, but with support from the Sambhali community to help them navigate college and study for important tests, as well as the opportunity to participate in Sambhali workshops and self-defense classes.

Each boarding home has a housemother and cook who live-in. Three to four volunteers attend 4 hours a day from Monday to Friday to initially help establish the girls’ routine, organise medical and dental check-ups and arrange for vaccinations as preparation to start attending school. The girls also need to learn new personal hygiene routines like washing, shampooing and brushing their teeth. A tutor has been appointed for each boarding home and visits the girls every afternoon from Monday to Saturday to establish the educational level of the girls and to act as a translator between the volunteers speaking English and the girls speaking Hindi/Marwari. Once the girls have started school, the tutors help the girls with their homework and provide individual and class tuition as necessary. The volunteers also provide weekly workshops and sports activities as well as educational trips.

Scholarship Programme

The Sambhali Scholarship Programme was established initially to enable children of the women who attend Sambhali’s empowerment centres to receive an education. Many of the children do not attend school because of either lack of the basic equipment/uniform necessary to attend school or because of family responsibilities at home. Children are sponsored through individual scholarships to go to a good local school from donors worldwide. An annual letter with school report is provided to all sponsors as well as photo and family background. Currently there are 180 children being sponsored.

 Primary Education Centres

Sambhali Trust’s Primary Education Centres were born in Setrawa, a small desert village located in the harsh environment of the semi-arid Thar desert. The Setrawa Centre was created to give young children who weren’t attending school access to a good educational programme in Hindi, English, and math as a pathway to starting school.  The Centre also incorporates educational workshops, medical check-ups, and washing facilities for those children in rural hamlets with no water supply. The programme was later expanded to include students who may be attending school but needed additional services to thrive as learners. 

Based on the success of this programme, nine other primary education centres were established in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, transforming space used for Empowerment Centres in the morning to Primary Education Centres in the afternoon. Many of the children have mothers who attend Sambhali Trust Empowerment Centres. In other cases, Sambhali Trust staff reached out into local neighbourhoods to locate children who were not in school or not attending school regularly. Through the centres, 250 children gain the skills they need to enter school, the ongoing support they need to succeed, and a joy of learning.   

  Amritam

"Every seed planted symbolizes hope and a step towards empowerment." At The Sambhali Trust, we introduce Project Amritam. This vision, sprouted in collaboration with Purpan University in France and project coordinator Govind Rathore, aims to revitalize and enrich the lives of communities in Setrawa, Jodhpur.