NOTE FROM VACHA BOARD

Hello friends,

The annual report for the financial year April 1, 2018– March 31, 2019 of our projects
is being sent very late. Many apologies for that. Our work has expanded a great
deal and our available resources have not kept up with it. More over, our work in
semi rural areas has taken off very well but new situations crop up there constantly.
Bastis (‘slums’) in Mumbai have filled up. Accommodation in them is difficult and
expensive. The poor now coming in search of livelihood from backward regions in
India are increasingly settled in border districts of Thane and Palghar. We have
added four centres in the villages of Kalyan-Dombivli area in Thane district. These
have now been included in a large urban Municipal Corporation with no additional
facilities that residents in urban areas have. Of these, an area called Netivli-Patripul
has been served with no one funding the work there as yet. Vacha staff has
volunteered to take up the responsibility of running centres there. Of these, Netivli
village is on a hill where as patri pul is called that because the entire area has a
largish hutment colony made entirely from patri i.e, tin sheds that get very hot in
afternoons. We had hired a small hut. We are expecting support for more intensive
work in the area. Response of the participants has been high and their initiatives
heart-warming.

The regular 15 centres are doing fine. You will get the details in the report. We have
added two more in areas affected by a new metro line. Our main focus is girls in
early adolescence. However, we have another programme for 14 plus youth who
now become peer mentors and also make presentations of girls’ and youth issues
from various platforms.

We thank you for your support and goodwill. They do much more for us than one
could imagine. So thanks again.

Board of Trustees:
Dineshwari Thonse
Meenal Patel
Dr. Vibhuti Patel
Dr.Veena Devasthali
Sonal Shukla , Managing Trustee

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 1

 OUR REACH
Vacha has impacted the lives of 77784 individuals through its creative and engaging
programmes in Mumbai, Thane and Palghar Districts for building capacities in different
areas.
Out of these, 70343 were extension beneficiaries, who have attended our events such as
street play performances, meetings, rallies, newsletter release functions and public
debates. Of these, 70 % were girls and women and 30% were boys and men
A total of 7441 i.e. 10 per cent were direct beneficiaries, who enrolled themselves for
Vacha’s regular sessions, workshops, trainings, career fairs, gender and health fairs and
camps and film screenings with follow up discussions on gender issues. Of these, 48%
were girls, 23% were boys, 25% were women and 2% were men. We work with boys as
they too are deprived, though the prevalent son preference gives them a preference at
home for education and mobility. However with gender sensitisation, teenage boys
become an excellent support group for girls, and together with girls in equal leadership
roles, work on community issues.
The community residents (contemptuously called ‘slum dwellers’ though they themselves
identify with the term basti for the community) are usually migrants from socioeconomically
backward and very poor districts who have come in search of livelihood. Girls are affected
in multiple ways as, besides the over arching gender and poverty issues many of them
belong to religious and linguistic minorities. All of them have to deal with the orthodox
mind set of elders as they still follow rather feudal practices of their villages.

3 15 48 5
6
Districts Communities Schools Colleges
Wards

Vacha has impacted 1430 Girls and 738 Boys through regular empowering
activities and sessions across its 15 centres in deprived communities.

Vacha has reached out to 1022 Mothers through meetings across 15 centres
and created support groups for girls. A self help group has been established
in one community.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 2

 OUR APPROACH
Our vision is of a world without
exploitation, oppression,
discrimination and injustice against
women or any other section of society.
Our mission is to focus on issues of
girls and women through educational
programmes, resource creation,
research, training, campaigns,
networking and advocacy.

OUR PROGRAMMES

GIRLS’ YOUTH MOBILE RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY AND

RESOURCE EMPOWERMENT LIBRARY AND TRAINING NETWORKING
CENTRE RESOURCE Engaging youth in Initiatives entirely
Imparting CREATION Research and led by programme
Capacity building in
knowledge, Creation of content Documentation and participants and
increasing social
exposure and 21st conducting Gender mentors, where they
awareness in mentors, and dissemination of
century life skill trainings and target problems
young women, young knowledge through
training of English, workshops to devise affecting them in
men and actively en- access to books that
Computer, strategies to combat their communities
gaging in civic issues help build
Photography and knowledge of gendered and implement
such as safety and
Communication adolescent girls and inequalities. interventions to
mobility of girls and
through regular boys. address them.
women.
session, visits, Participation of
workshops, fairs etc. programme
participants and
mentors across
different forums.

AGE GROUP : AGE GROUP : AGE GROUP : AGE GROUP : AGE GROUP :
10 - 13 years 10 - 18 years 16 - 24 years
14 - 18 years 16 - 35 years

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 3

 GIRLS’ RESOURCE CENTRE
Imparting Life skills training
Vacha has been able to reach 1430 girls and 738 boys through its regular sessions
across 15 centres. In the programme of imparting
soft and hard skills, participant learnt computer and
camera use, spoken English, and were trained in
street theatre for social awareness, public
speaking, creating own medial like posters and
newsletters etc. During this year, we conducted
several sessions, workshops, campaigns and
exposure visits on life skills and gender equity.
Sessions on understanding our bodies, pubertal
changes, and hormonal changes as well as concepts
and social relevance of menstruation, romance and
with older age groups, issues of sexualities.

In order to make teaching—learning more efficient, we have divided our children across levels –1,2
and 3 in English and Computer based on the pre and post test data. In English, level 1 deals with
introduction to English and some basic grammar concepts like nouns, verbs etc., while level 2 deals
with some advance grammar concepts like degrees of comparison, interrogative sentences, use of
dictionary and conversation in English and in level 3 we teach them comprehension and spoken
English. In Computer, level 1 deals with understanding basic computer functions and introduction to
word and paint, while level 2 includes advanced Word and introduction to PPT and Publisher and
level 3 deals with introduction to Excel , formulas, social networking and internet handling.
This year, we are delighted to have 124 participants in Level 3 across 15 centres which indicates that
they have advanced their knowledge in English and Computers.

Level Wise division of our Girls From the adjoining figures, it can be noted
across 15 centres that 320 girls were in level 1, 189 girls were
98 in level 2 and 98 girls were in level 3 while
113 boys were in level 1, 47 boys were in
320 level 2 and 26 boys were in level 3.
189

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

61 young women and
Level Wise division of our Boys across 15 centres
girls benefited from
our special English
26
Tutoring across 10
47
centers.
113

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 4

 GIRLS’ RESOURCE CENTRE
Gender and Health Education
This year, we focused our work towards
comprehending awareness levels among our
program participants on Tuberculosis and Anaemia
and providing suitable interventions across Nahur
and Vasai. We conducted this study with 1011
adolescents across Nahur and Vasai suburbs.

Hemoglobin (HB) Change Profile Is Tuberculosis contagious ?

1 1200
69
957
1000

Number of Respondants
208
800
39
600
678
16
400

200
47
HB Improve less than 2 Count HB Improvement between 4.1 & 6 Count
7
0
HB Improve Drop Count HB Improve more than 2 Count Yes No
HB Improvement above 6.1 Count HB Constant Count No Answer

The above figure highlights the post test results, The above figure highlights the post test results, 957
where 678 program participants have reported adolescents confirmed that they understood TB is
improvement of H.B of less than 2 points which contagious which has been possible due to
has been possible only because of the key dedicated sessions held on Tuberculosis (TB)
intervention strategies adopted by Vacha. repeatedly with the programme participants.

Interventions by Vacha

 Connected TB patients with Govt. hospitals and Primary Health Centres for medication and treatment.

 Constant monitoring involved follow ups with respective programme participants and doctors to under-
stand if the patients were taking the needed treatment in a timely manner.

 Two health camps were organised for anaemic programme participants to monitor their daily meals and
provide nutritional supplements

 The doses of iron tablets, nutritional supplements and incessant family counselling to effectuate a change
in diet pattern have proved to be beneficial.

Aarti, aged 16 years lives with her family of 9 who migrated to Mumbai from Sangli a decade ago. Both her
parents have been working as contract labour in factories. With their busy lives of making ends meet to
support a large family they did not have the time to think of their health. In 2018 after our awareness work on
health, Aarti was diagnosed with TB, this was a huge blow to the family. Vacha guided the family for her
treatment, she was referred to the Primary Health Centre in Vasai. Her HB levels dropped from 8 to 6.5 as she
also developed a hole in her heart. With consultations at the Government hospital in Vasai, Aarti was
suggested to not go for surgery unless her HB levels improved. Today, with support of Vacha and RPG
Foundation her HB has improved and the hole in heart has reduced in size with medication.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 5

 YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
T h e adolescents and the youth underwent a day long workshop on Gender
based roles, notions of power, patriarchy and relevant laws, especially
Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act
9 Youth Groups 2012 and Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace
with more than (POSH).
50 % participa- 360 adolescents underwent the POCSO Act Training
tion of girls in while 124 youth were a part of the POSH training. Skill
leadership roles based trainings empower the girls to actively participate in the
civic issues and take leadership in resolving community issues
by undertaking research and presenting facts to the concerned officials.

Some of the leadership activities undertaken by our youth are as follows :

A. Fundraising through Tata Marathon : Vacha youth
participated in the Tata Marathon, amongst them was one of
the girls who aspired to become a Police officer and had
practiced very hard for the marathon.
B. Fundraising through Daan Utsav : Youth actively
participated in raising funds at petrol pumps and were
enthused that the funds raised will be used for awarding
scholarships to more students who would then be able to
secure a college degree. We were able to generate
Vacha youth at Mumbai Marathon
INR 48625 due to the effective communication and leadership
skills of our youth leaders. Youth collecting donation at Daan
C. International Day of the Girl : This year we distributed Utsav for Vacha developed their
10,000 leaflets across 12 communities and 21 schools on own strategies at petrol pumps
'Girls' Rights, TB and Sanitation'. Awareness talks with chil- allotted to them for the occasion.
dren helped them understand their basic rights to Health, They would approach a young man
Education, Nutrition, Sanitation, Public Access and Hygiene. on a bike with a young woman
We were able to reach 7080 children through leaflet pillion rider. They would explain
distribution. about the Giving Tuesday and
request a donation. The man always
D. Community Newsletter and Wallpaper : Adolescents from gave because, as our young girls
all our bastis worked on community newsletters, and and boys felt, he would want to
wallpapers wherein they narrated their journeys of community impress the woman!!
work on improving civic maintenance and preventing violence
against women. These newsletters were in Hindi, Marathi and portions in
English. Two newsletter were
published on 26th January and 15th
August respectively and were able to
reach to 15369 individuals and
disseminated 2600 newsletters.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 6

 YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
SCHOLARSHIP
The scholarship programme is a multi-faceted approach in achieving
our goal of providing educational support to Vacha girls.
This scholarship is rewarded based on academic
Vacha gives financial support performance along with the active participation in
to 32% of its girl participants the community as youth leaders and negotiating their
to stay in school/college. rights to pursue higher students. Girls use this fund
to purchase their stationary and sanitary supplies
along with their nutritional and educational expenses.
This year , Vacha expanded the programme to cover 243 girls Among
those, 58 girls are under-graduates, 170 are in school and 15 girls
pursuing professional courses.

One of our mentor girl, Sneha, who received our

Scholarship, pursued Bachelors in Commerce and got an
accounts job in an Multinational Corporation Also her
elder sister, Durga who completed her Bachelors degree
in Pharmacy, got a job at a pharmacy store.

17 year old Nafisa (name changed) has been associated with Vacha for the last
5 years. She is in her second year of Commerce stream. She enjoys singing and
guiding younger programme participants in writing articles for their youth
newsletter. She likes to participate in street play and tutoring those who require
help in studies . Her helping and approachable nature has attracted many
younger programme participants to reach out to her for any que-
ries. When she first joined Vacha, she would barely communi-
cate and was not allowed for overnight stays. However, as time
passed by, she has now gained confidence to voice her opinion and
negotiate on matters of individual freedom with her family. She has
attended various capacity building training programs out of Mumbai
and has convinced her parents for overnight stays for training
programs.
Nafisa, got a scholarship through Vacha without which she would not
have been able to go to college. Her father, a small time fisherman,
has had very limited schooling. The scholarship takes care of her
semester fees, travel and provides for her needs for nutritional inputs, books,
stationary and sanitary pads. We thank Shadhika Foundation and Meenal
Mamdani for their support.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 7

 YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

MENTORSHIP
One of our objective is to encourage basti youth to own the project so we
create opportunities for them to utilise skills, we im-
part for working for their own communities. Mentoring
younger participants by seniors is important for this.
In this capacity 63 girl mentors and 17 boy mentors
have been active in training younger members in
Computers and interventions in community actions.
Peer mentors have helped our younger members in
the online admission process, writing application to
the school/college principals and convincing girls'
parents/relatives for their education.

Youth Council
Participants in the age group of 13—17 years who
have been regular and most active have been
elected by others to become members in Youth
Council across 13 centers.
The councils have joint meetings once in two
months to discuss current socio-economic issues
and often share their areas of interest and ask for
Vacha’s interventions. Vacha has conducted work-
shops to build their capacity on understanding Youth Council members
constitutional rights and responsibilities during this period. making a presentation

One of our dynamic mentors, Savita, received an opportunity

through Shadhika, to conduct her first solo designing workshop
for aspiring students at STOP Organization, New Delhi. Her
preparations for the workshop were commendable and she
conducted a very successful 2-days workshop. This being her
first trip out of Mumbai, she said it was like a magical
opportunity for her. Her work was appreciated by others in Delhi
and she also enjoyed herself thoroughly in Delhi.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 8

 YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
LEARNING COMMUNITY
Learning Community is a network of adolescent girls across seven
Mumbai based organisations and Vacha is part of it and also
works as a coordinating agency. Its objective is to make
essential interventions with girls to become pro-active and
participate in public life and to develop leadership skills.
In the beginning of the year, girls collectively decided to
gather data on restriction and safety around three public
spaces such as Community Toilets, Public Playgrounds,
Community Newspaper stand. As a result, an extensive
study was planned and implemented in 10 wards of Mumbai
with 1140 adolescent girls. This survey helped to reach out to various
stakeholders of the communities.

Some of the key findings of this survey are: -

 85% girls use community toilets. Girls also feel unsafe
in using public toilets due to insufficient lights, inade-
quate water supply and lack of proper windows and
doors.
 86.4% girls do not have safe access to newspaper “Restrictions are
stands in their communities due to lack of proper facil- perhaps not a
ities and because they face sexual harassment in pub-
concept that is
lic places.
legally or politically
 Only 8% girls in the community have access to play-
recognized, but what
grounds. More than 40% girls said that playgrounds in
their communities are dominated by boys and they girls experience as
don’t get to play as most of the spaces are used for restrictions violate
parking. their Right to Safety,
 The girls’ Charter of demand, 2019’ has emerged from Mobility and Access
experiences of girls through intervening at community to public resources”.
level and findings of the survey.
- Pooja

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 9

 MOBILE LIBRARY AND RESOURCE CREATION
MOBILE LIBRARY
Over 3000 children’s books in seven different languages
such as Hindi, English, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil and
Telugu are made available to those who enrol themselves
for the activities conducted by Vacha or exclusively for
library. Currently, this program runs across 15 centres.
Vacha also has a large collection of books on/by women.
Unfortunately very few scholars use it. Due to severe space
crunch many books are given away and the rest stored out
of Mumbai. They can be couriered to readers if needed.

RESOURCE CREATION
This year we have launched two new publications :
‘Mahilaon par Prashnavali’ a Quiz book in Hindi, in
tends to break the conventional idea of quiz books
and TV shows that were largely men centric for
highlighting women achievers in various fields as we use these
books to run sessions in bastis;
‘Balkishori: Girls in Early Adolescence’ a handbook in English on Puberty and Menstrua-
tion focusing on breaking the taboo and myths related to girls’ mobility with some worldwide
data on health and education of adolescent girls.
See all our publications at- http://www.vacha.org.in/resources/publications/

OUTREACH
EVENTS &
NUMBERS
REACHED BY
VACHA

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 10

 RESEARCH AND TRAINING
Vacha has been conducting gender trainings as part of our larger goals. We conducted two
residential training for non profit organization teams to build their capacities on advance
gender concepts reaching out to 13-14 organizations. We have also trained students pursuing
bachelor’ degrees in education/ teacher training on
gender and democracy to strengthen our commitment
towards human rights. We conducted similar trainings
along with fairs in 4 colleges. These college students
were enthusiastic to take responsibility of handling
stalls during fairs. They felt active as they had a voice
in the planning and execution of the fair.

Participants from the trainings shared the following insights post the training :
 Participants stated that they were unaware that patriarchy affects men too.
 Participants stated that they now believe that society can function effectively only when both
men and women consider each other
equal.
 Participants were now aware about gender
concepts more clearly.

Vacha as a Resource Agency

 The team members facilitated the session on ‘Intimate Health and Hygiene’ with 150
girls from MVM College, Mumbai.
 They also conducted a one day training on 'Women and Dignity' with 140 girls at S I A
College, Dombivli.
 Vacha team conducted Gender and Health Fair for Village Development Project at
Kharade Grampanchayat, Shahapur block. 360 adolescents from 6 schools participated
in this fair.

Session with college girls on ‘Women and Dignity’ Gender & Health Fair at Shahapur

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 11

 ADVOCACY AND NETWORKING
Youth Participation in Panel Discussions:
 Six of our programme participants attended a
State Level Consultation for Adolescents and
Young People on their Education, Skilling and
Career aspirations which was hosted by
UNICEF and Head Held High Foundation in
Mumbai. This was followed by a 2 days National
Consultation in New Delhi where Parvati and
Deepak, two of our programme participants
were invited to present their perceptions and
experience.

 Radha, one of our program participants and girl leaders , presented as a young panelist in a
city level youth symposium organized by the NGO SNEHA. She shared her own menstrua-
tion experiences and overall myths observed in her community. Radha also discussed
about a Vacha Publication- “Puberty, Poverty and Gender-Girls Speak about Menstruation”,
a book , also translated and published in Hindi and Marathi. Her presentation was highly
appreciated by the experts, key note speakers, the attendees and her fellow panelists.

 Seema and Bunty, our youth representatives, participated in a Consultation Meeting on

"Adolescent Subcultures and Smartphones: Exploring the Implications for Gender,
Sexuality and Rights" organized by Prof. Lakshmi Lingam and Tata Institute of Social
Sciences. Both of them talked about the use and the restrictions youth are facing while using
a smart phone.
 Vacha’s program participant and peer mentor, Seema is selected as a member of Girls
Advisory Council by Empower :
The Girls Advisory Council is a group of 16 adolescent girl leaders selected by
EMpower’s grantee partner organizations in India to advise on EMpower’s future India
strategy. All 16 girl leaders gathered in Delhi on 13th-14th April to bring girls' voices into
decision-making.
Seema, one of our young programme participants is a member of this council. During this
meeting, the girl leaders also provided recommendations and specific themes for
EMpower to prioritize in the evolution of their India strategy.
Read more at: https://empowerweb.org/leadership/work-with-girls?
fbclid=IwAR0VfAe1ATmG252MC5uzYDCIKewyKriGPTkIENg9pzlvwZflt68WJwzbafw

 Friedrich Ebert Stiftung organized ‘Political Feminism in Asia Future Lab’ an Asia-
wide gender-inclusive network of progressive feminists and political economists mainly
from their partner organizations across Asia. Medhavinee Namjoshi representing Vacha
was in the group that launched Mango Meter an intersectional feminist film viewing app
about the stereotyping and discriminatory content of films and other media.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 12

 ADVOCACY AND NETWORKING
Seminar on ‘Marginalised Adolescent Girls’ agency in Empowerment – For self and
community Strategies and Models’ : This regional seminar was held in October 2018 in
partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. The participants were from Maharashtra, Gujarat,
Rajasthan and Delhi. The seminar had two dimen-
sions. The activists and academics presented their
notions of strategies and models that have worked;
and the representative adolescent girls and young
women who have benefitted from these strategies
and models discussed and shared what according
to them leads to strengthening adolescent girls
and young women’s’ agency. This conference
tried to collate the strategies that have managed to
have agency of adolescent girls and young women
emerging stronger in various spheres of their
lives. Click here to read the full report. Click to
read more- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I3er4soPG6_vhudfo50Sxcszo6JyeMbT/view

This year on the Global Campaign of ‘16 Days of Activism’ held from 25th Nov. to 10th Dec,
we worked on various aspects such as socio- economic and legal related to elimination of
violence against women. This year, our programme
participants across 15 bastis conducted multiple
events in Mumbai and Kalyan-Dombivali through
rallies, photo exhibitions, fairs, street plays, film
screenings, signature campaigns, online poetry,
storytelling and other awareness activities on
sexual harassment, unsafe public spaces and
gender-based violence. These events witnessed an
overall participation from more than 800
community girls, and was attended by more than
3000 people which included residents, people from
nearby schools/colleges, local leaders, police,
corporators, other community-based organizations and social workers. One such event in
Bharat Nagar and Sant Gnyanaeshwar Nagar was conducted in collaboration with Action Aid
India.

Nearly 25 youth organized a screening of an episode from the

TV series ‘Satyamev Jayate’ on the theme of violence against
women in one of our bastis. They invited Police and Special
Cell personnel for the event. It was attended by nearly 350
community people and the local leader. After the screening
through questions & answers sessions and pamphlets, people
were explained what constitutes violence against women and
children and how one can seek help. It was heartening to see
so many women out, despite the fact that screening was
scheduled at night.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 13

 ADVOCACY AND NETWORKING
Social Action
It is one of the major aspects which help to increase
girl’s participation in the civic issues in their
communities. This year adolescents and youth
groups from Vacha conducted a community survey
in 9 communities on issues like Girl drop out, Addic-
tion, Water, Toilet, Ration Card, Mental Health and
Tuberculosis.

Community Survey across different areas

Some of the key findings from the survey:
 Out of 140 girls surveyed, dropout rate
Number of Respondants
134
gets higher during enrollment in second- 126 120

ary education. 80 81
74

40
 Almost 64% girls were able to attend sec-
ondary school but only 3% out of those GIRLS DROP ADDICTION WATER TOILET RATION MENTAL TB
OUT CARD HEALTH
girls pursue junior college. Issues Identified across 9 communities

 Only 15% girls have rights on technology like The above chart indicates the number
of respondents interviewed across dif-
mobiles etc. at home.
ferent issues.

 Most of girls are only allowed to play on school

grounds while few are permitted to play close by
their houses. In order to spread awareness on
the community issues, the
 Most of the people are living on a rental basis following actions were taken post
where water is available only for 2-4 hours and the survey findings :
women and girls have the responsibility to fetch
water.  17 Street Plays/Rallies were con-
ducted across 9 communities
 Only 40% of the built toilets were in working con- reaching 3900 individuals.
 6 community meetings were
ditions whereas rest of them are dysfunctional
held with 15 community leaders
with scarcity of water and electricity. They use
to share the survey findings.
toilets once in a day and eat less to eliminate the
 2 Applications under the RTI
process naturally. (Right to Information) Act was
filed.
 More than 61% women are suffering from vaginal
infections and 95 girls have admitted that they are
frightened to visit the toilets in the evening due to
chances of sexual harassment.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 14

 TEAM CAPACITY BUILDING
We encourage our team of facilitators to hone their skills through various capacity building platforms.

This year we attended the following:

 Nischint Hora and Yagna Parmar attended Gender Partner Meet organized by Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung from 29th & 30th August, 2018 at Goa.
 Sneha Chatambali and Sonali More attended NGO Capacity Building Training at Shahapur,
Thane on 1st & 2nd September, 2018.
 Angha Satavase attended Crea's Training on Feminist Leadership, Movement Building and
Rights from 3rd to 7th September, 2018.
 Yagna Parmar attended EDGE 2018 organised by Edelgive.
 Sampada Misal attended training by Crea Organization, on Abortion, Gender and Rights from
4th to 8th October, 2018.
 Krupa Palan attended Design Thinking: Train the trainers workshop at Rajasthan from 16th to
18th November, 2018 organised by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
 Ankita Tambe and Rupali Barshing attended Zero Eviction Caravan Session organized by YUVA
in collaboration with civil society partners from across different states in initiating a countrywide
discourse on Right to Adequate Housing on 24th March, 2019.
 Team capacity building trainings were arranged on topics like early intervention, mental health
etc.
 Learning Exchange visits were organised with Milaan Foundation,Varanasi & IT for Change,
Bangalore.

Our Team Strength

Team Members: 29
Volunteers: 16
Interns: 21

Vacha Team during a seminar

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 15
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS: (AS OF MARCH 31, 2019)

FUNDS AND (Rupees

LIABILITIES in Lacs) Percentage
Reserves and Surplus 237 73.83%
Project Grants Balance 83 25.85%
Suppliers and Sundry
Creditors 1 0.31%
TOTAL 321 100%

(Rupees in
ASSETS Lacs) Percentage
Fixed Assets 155 48.3%

Investment 39 12.1%
Loans and
Balances 4 1.2%
Cash and Bank
Account 122 38.0%

TOTAL 321 100%

(Rupees in
INCOME Lacs) Percentage

Project Grants 180 84%

Revenue through
Individual
Donations and
Miscellaneous 12 6%
Interest and
Recoveries 5 3%

Overhead charges
in projects 16 7%

TOTAL 213 100%

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 16

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS: (AS OF MARCH 31, 2019)

(Rupees
EXPENDITURE in Lacs) Percentage

Projects and programmes 180 85%

Trust Related Expenses
and Miscellaneous 16 7%
Depreciation 16.8 8%
TOTAL 213 100%

Our Funders : Mariwala Foundation

Bombay Community Public Trust RPG Foundation
COMO Foundation Shadhika
EdelGive Foundation Star of Hope
EMpower Foundation Global Giving– USA,UK– A crowd funding
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung platform
Manan Trust

We are accredited on Global Giving and GuideStar India for accountability and
credibility.
All donations to Vacha are exempt under section 80G of the Income tax Act.

Vacha Annual Report 2018-19 17

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Donors and Project Partners
Alliance Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd.,
Abhijeet Deshpande, Bhanuben Patel,
Chandrashekhar Thakker, Chitra Satam,
Medhavinee Namjoshi, Meenal Mamdani,
Rasila Parekh, Ricky Ruparelia,
Vijay Parmar, United Way of Mumbai
The Mehran Edulji Bilimoria Charity Trust,
Collaborations: Aangan, Action Aid India,
Akshara, Arpan, Childline, Bright Future,
CORO, Family Planning Association of India,
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited, Indian
Medical Association, Dombivli, Leap for Word,
Siddiquie Education and Welfare Trust,
Malwani, Shradha Bal Mahila Shikshan Prasarak
Samaj Kalyan Santha, Stree Mukti Sanghatana,
Urjaa Foundation, Village Development
Project, Kharade Grampanchayat, Shahapur,
YWCA.
We thank following people/institutions for
supporting us with their time, space and
resources:
Late Dr. Himanshu Shukla who was our first
and constant supporter. He passed away on
March 25’ 2019.
Chitra Patil, Chandrashekhar Barve, Daiwashala
Giri, Darshana Joshi, Eknath Dhokale, Jigna
Mota, Jyoti Gokhale, Mayuresh Gadre, Pallavi
Bhatt, Petronella Olsson, Pramod Pednekar,
Raju Xerox, Rahul Samant, Shraddha Bhatt,
Sreya Majumdar, Utkarsh Mazumdar,
Dr. Veena Poonacha, Vrijendra.
Gilbert Hill- Babanna Kushalkar, Mohaseen
Haider, Mehar Haider, Police Chowky, Juhu Galli School, Navapada School, Nasheman School,
- Shabira Shaikh, Malvani- Indulkar Sir, Ekta
Mitra Mandal, Firoz Shaikh, Prashant Jha, Vande
Mataram Foundation, Sneha, Yuva, Saksham
Project, Ravindra Dabhade-CDO, NGO Forum-
Malvani, Indira Nagar- Anil Patil, Shubhangi
Jadhav, Sachin Singh, Ashok Jadhav, Raju Pande,
Bhagvati Verma, Annie Yadav, Bandra Plot-
Saggan Siddiqui, Dildar Shaikh, Imtiyaz Shaikh,
Baba Siddiqui, Sanjay Gandhi Nagar- Vimal
Kadam, Lata Shinde, Babita Kadam, Corporator
Vacha Annual Report 2018-19
Anant Nar, Juhu Koliwada- Pandurang Mangela,
Bhavna Mangela, Shelar Chauk- Darshana
Shelar, Kiran Tai, Sunita Salve, Sai Shelar, Vishal
Gupta, Vadve Family, Anna mama, Golavali-
Sujata Patil, Vandarsheth Patil, Arvind Tiwari,
Sangita Giri, Sarita Kene, Prakash Gaikwad,
Shashikala Patil, Corporator Ramakant Patil,
Pisavali- Moreshwar Bhoir, Corporator Sunita
Khandagle, Ambu Chavan, Sunayna Sav,
Bharat Nagar- Vishwalata Marathe, Farah Khan,
Rajesh Reedlal, M.C.Gangaram, Meena Neman,
Gulanaj, Netivali- Rekha Chaudhary, Sanju
Chaudhary, Rahul Chaudhary, Asalpha- Ashwini
Mate, Swapnil More, Marol Pipeline-Milind
Gamre, Archana Kamte.
Educational Institutes:
Colleges: Gandhi Shikshan Bhavan, M D Shah
College, MVM College, Nanavati College, Shri
Samarth College, S I A College.
Schools: Bazaar Road School, Bharat Nagar
School No. 1&2, BKC Urdu School- 1 & 2, Bombay
Urdu School, Cama Road School, D. N. Nagar
School, Dawoodbag School, Dixit Road School,
Don Gafoor School, Gandhigram School, GRC
Hindi School, Gilbert Hill School– 1 & 2, Hasna-
bad School, Hindi Bal Niketan, Hindi Maha
Vidyalaya, Holy Faith School, Kama Road School,
Katelapada School, KDMC School, Khardanda
School, Khernagar School, Kherwadi School,
Khotwadi School, Maharashtra Housing Board
Hindi School No. 1,3,7,8, Malwani Urdu No. 1,
Malwani Township School, Mohammadi Urdu
Parag School, Pragat Vidya Mandir, RBT School,
RTP School, Sahyadri School, Sanyas Ashram
School, Saute Vidyalaya, Saraswati School,
Sayajirao Gaikwad School, Shahapur Z P Schools,
Shivai School, Siddharth School, Tank Lane
School, Tata Compound School, Tungarpada
School, Urdu Marol Naka School, Valiv School,
Vidya Vikas School.
Special thanks to Madhvi Vora & Associates,
Chartered Accountants.
18
VACHA RESOURCE CENTRE FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS

REGISTERED OFFICE:
5, BHAVNA, S.V.ROAD, VILE PARLE (WEST), MUMBAI– 400 056, INDIA.
E-MAIL: vachamail@gmail.com

PROJECT OFFICE:
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ANDHERI (WEST), MUMBAI– 400 058, INDIA.
E-MAIL: admin@vacha.org.in

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