Non-Governmental Organization Benefiting Women and Children:
Umeed Foundation in Punjab, India Non-Governmental Organizations or NGO’s are organizations that are neither a part of a government nor conventional for-profit businesses. Usually set up by ordinary citizens, NGOs may be funded by governments, foundations or businesses or run by volunteers (Wikipedia). In this paper I will discuss the Umeed Foundation, based in Punjab, India and focused on rural development of the Punjab region through economic empowerment and healthcare programs benefiting many women and children of the area. I will cover the core values of this foundation, the programs the foundation creates and supports as well as the impact to the community and my commentary of the resources they provide. The Umeed Foundation was created by Chairman Arvind Khanna in 1997 as a way to work with the impoverished region of Sangrur in the Punjab region of India which was a locally marginalized area that had been wrecked by years of terrorism, fighting in the region and lack of development by state resources. Local residents were unable to earn a fair wage and were thereby unable to support themselves and help develop future generations and that system was creating a long term poverty cycle for the area that was unlikely to be broken. Khanna believed in working to empower the local inhabitants through a small loan program and skill development training as well as by setting up a more reliable healthcare system. Umeed’s mission is stated as: “transforming the hopes and aspirations of the underprivileged into reality through good health, skill development, entrepreneurship, employment opportunities and cohesive community development. The NGO envisages creating a movement through awareness generation, motivating the underprivileged to become self-reliant and useful contributors to rural and semi urban communities” (Khanna).
As noted through Umeed’s thorough website, their main projects focus on 6 major areas: Healthcare, Social and Economic Empowerment, Education, Employment, Social Enterprises and Public Grievances Awareness (Khanna). To cover the Social and Economic Empowerment section more in depth, Khanna had given and interview discussing some of the original needs and objectives that helped create the foundation: “The social welfare schemes launched by the state government could not meet their objectives, as there has been no coordinated system of vocational training centers. Under the economic empowerment program, the foundation undertakes skill development training like bag making, soap and candle making, pickles, stitching, embroidery, crotchet work etc.” (Roy). The social and economic empowerment programs are also assisting women in becoming micro entrepreneurs. The notion is that individual groups are formed of women from similar backgrounds; each woman contributes a small amount of money to a group fund from which members can take loans repayable at minimal interest rates (Roy). Umeed supports upwards of 400 of those self-help groups which have serviced over 5,000 people in the region and these micro-credit organizations have established new regional enterprises including dairy farming, small wares shops and book binding which help provide marketable skills to the local residents (Khanna). Umeed’s skill development program has made great strides in the local residents who had a great need for financial independence. The local region had a very agrarian skill set, with a burgeoning lack of land availability. Umeed’s economic empowerment focus drove a skills development center creation throughout 90 locations in the region (Kamal). The learning centers train young women in cattle and dairy management, crochet, tailoring, knitting, candle and soap making and most importantly hygiene at home (Khanna). This kind of skill development paired with the localization of empowerment given by the micro-loan enterprise has allowed women to take hold of their economic situations, develop and implement successful business strategies and thereby create a steady, livable income for themselves that to date, had not been possible. This kind of organization is incredibly influential to the population that is so often overlooked in a patriarchal society and the efforts of Umeed are creating long-standing traditions; skill sets that can be taught and passed down to future generations, business acumen that had previously not been prevalent in the female communities. It has given people strength in cause and efforts to help one another on a broad scale. This is so powerful to see on my side of the world where economic stability and resources are so rich and available. I have learned to be more thoughtful to these kinds of initiatives that are not very prominent in my day to day life, but certainly deserve attention at the sheer number of lives they are able to change with simple, community driven value systems. I think the community aspect and shared visions for better futures that seem to be a baseline of the value and mission statement for the Umeed organization have been one of the best things that has been brought to my attention through this research project. The definition of the “Power of One” could be summed up as utilizing personal power to help inspire others. This could be as small as improving oneself and as large as Mr. Khanna’s initiatives of empowering an entire generation and setting in motion future generations having the capacity to support themselves and have a better life. The Power of One has been almost a mantra in my personal life as my mother always said “life is what you make it” and therefore being able to work in my community as the President of the fundraising arm of our local library and through mentoring programs like Big Brothers, Big Sisters is my method of setting examples and trying to help future generations. The cost of the Power of One as it relates to the Umeed Foundation is mostly tied to Mr. Khanna’s efforts and time on an initial take, then it is tied to the efforts of those impacted and their want to help a continuous cycle of help. The women who contribute initial stipends to help fund the communal loan program are sacrificing personal funding to help the greater good. The opportunity presented through the Power of One is the ability to impact future generations, whether it be through one on one mentoring as it relates to my life or on a larger scale by the teaching methodologies applied in the social development programs done by the Umeed foundation. One person teaching others a skill set that is something that can be used to provide a living for them and then later passed on is a continuous cycle of inspiration and prosperity. Women and children are often the most overlooked demographics for development opportunities, especially in impoverished areas and that is exactly the case in the initiatives of the Umeed foundation. The state programs had long since moved on from the idea of helping the locals of certain poor areas and by creating communal approaches to empowerment and public grievance awareness campaigns it really gave a voice to the underappreciated, underdeveloped areas and more specifically to women. The overarching idea for the Umeed foundation is that by using a cohesive community development plan they would be able to impact some of the most major areas of need: Healthcare, Socio-Economic empowerment and employment generation (Khanna). If they were successful in implementing those ideas, the value is immeasurable to the locals in that community. They are able to take what are core measures of their organization and translate it into something that gives hope to the women impacted and gives them a sense of dignity in the work that they are doing and the lifestyle that they are able to provide themselves, their families and the greater community at large. Hope and dignity were needed in the communities that were most impacted by the Umeed foundation as they were starved of basic rights through oppression of politics and religion and apathy of the government. Cycles of poverty were in full effect and the effects were mitigated by the care and concern that brought forth the Umeed foundation. Through the research of the Umeed foundation and reading into the core values and work done for an oppressed area of the world it has been greatly uplifting to think of the long term opportunities that have been created through the work of Mr. Khanna’s foundation. I believe that being a part of the Power of One movement would be easy to accomplish. It is setting good examples in your daily life, contributing to causes that you care about through time or donations and awareness campaigns. It is reaching out to those less fortunate through teaching opportunities and mentoring. I have long been a fan of devoting time and effort to volunteerism for causes that are important to my personal self as well as to the community at large and believe that goodwill efforts like those of the Umeed Foundation NGO will continue to serve their communities, their countries and likely even the world in a positive and most beneficial way.

Works Cited
Kamal, Neel. "200 get job at Umeed's job fair." 1 December 2012. The Times of India. Article. February 2014.
Khanna, Umeed by Avrind. UmeedOnline. 2014. Mission Statement. February 2014.
Roy, Vijay C. "Punjab rural women benefiting from NGOs." 20 August 2010. Business Standard. Article. February 2014.
Wikipedia. Non-Governmental Organization. 5 April 2004. Document. February 2014.