Vacha Charitable Trust

Focuses on Girls’ Empowerment by helping them acquire soft and hard skills and training in leadership and community work. It equips girls with life skills such as learning how to use computers, conversing in English and spreading awareness about accessing area resources. It also trains them in skills such as photography, art and craft, poster and pamphlet making, street theatre for social awareness, newsletter creation and public speaking which aids them in their community work. It also imparts training and provides opportunities to help the programme participants to express themselves through different mediums effectively. Exposure visits are organised to promote the overall growth of programme participants as these visits help them understand different systems and provide exposure to the world outside their communities.

Vacha ensures the active participation of youth in community life by building their capacity and social awareness. The youth undertake community projects, becoming peer mentors and role models for younger participants. Mentorship fosters cross-learning and experience sharing, encouraging community youth to take ownership of projects and apply skills from capacity-building sessions. The scholarship programme supports Vacha girls in pursuing higher studies, combining educational support with active community leadership and academic performance. Mentoring and monitoring are provided to scholarship recipients to ensure progress and utilization of funds for educational, nutrition, medical, and stationery expenses.

Engages in research and documentation on girls’ issues. The aim is to increase visibility and highlight the contribution of women and more specifically, of girls. Vacha conducts training and workshops on the themes of gender and patriarchy, girls’ health and menstruation. The objective is to develop an understanding of gender construction among young people and devise strategies to combat it. Training is organised with young people working with NGOs, students mostly from colleges and those pursuing teacher training courses. Another theme of the training is on growing up issues concerning girls in their second decade of life. These trainings are imparted using creative and engaging methodology including power walks, film screenings, games and fun group activities.

Carries out social action projects by programme participants in the communities. These aim at addressing issues affecting girls' rights and helping increase their participation in civic issues and in their communities. Youth are encouraged to attend conferences, trainings, seminars and workshops organised by like-minded organisations to build networking and communication skills. Vacha is a coordinating agency of the Learning Community Project by Emerging Markets Foundation, which is a network of adolescent girls across seven Mumbai-based organisations. Its objective is to make essential interventions with girls to become proactive and participate in public life to develop leadership skills. These adolescent girls have led interventions, rallies, and worked with the Government structures and community-driven actions to bring a new paradigm of equality, dignity and freedom for girls in 10 wards of Mumbai.

Vacha has a large collection of books on/by women which are now housed in their centre at Dombivali. In 2019, they set up a permanent library by formalising the existing mobile library programme in a poor community for underprivileged children and youth. The objective of the programme was to inculcate reading habits and enhance knowledge among their programme participants. The library hosts books on different genres- storybooks, poetry, science and technology, quiz books, general knowledge, activity books, games, dictionaries, etc. along with children’s magazines and newspapers.