After struggling to conceive since getting married 4 years ago, 22-year-old Rekha has just found out that she is pregnant! Rekha has always dreamed of becoming a mother, and felt depressed when she had difficulty conceiving. To add to her stress, her husband and inlaws had started threatening a divorce if she did not get pregnant soon. Rekha’s husband sells cloth wall hangings on the side of the road near a tourist destination, earning about 3,000 rupees ($65) in a good month, and only about 1,500 – 2,000 rupees during rainy season months. As he has no license to sell, his merchandise is frequently confiscated by the police, which often results in situations of food insecurity for the entire household. One factor that lessens Rekha’s tension is that she has signed up to receive complete antenatal care through AIC’s Health Program. Rekha has started coming daily to the AIC Health and Community centre, where she enjoys a nutritious midday meal, as well as other benefits such as monthly check-ups, medical treatment, counseling, prenatal vitamins, and assistance during the time of delivery. Despite the many challenges in Rekha’s life, she is relieved and excited to welcome a new baby into her family, and feels grateful for the support and assistance she will be receiving for the duration of her pregnancy.

Thank you, Erika, Linda, Heather, Ronald, Mike and Suzanne ( x2) and Margo (x2) for coming together to provide comprehensive antenatal care to Rekha.

Parvati is the mother of two young boys, Krrish (5) and Arjun (6). Earlier, when her children were babies, she was known for being a bit of a neglectful mother and her children were often sick and unbathed, as she took them out with her to the streets to beg for money. However, Parvati has truly pulled herself together over the last two years. Instead of leading an itinerant lifestyle, she scrounged together the money to rent a one-room hut in the slum and put her children into school. She began attending counseling, stopped begging on the streets, learned about birth spacing and birth control methods and joined a women’s self-help group through AIC. Her children are now well cared for, and attend their English medium school daily, dressed smartly in their uniforms. After careful deliberation, Parvati has decided that the time is right for one more child, and she and her husband were happy to find out recently that she is pregnant. Unlike during her first two pregnancies, Parvati feels confident and ready to handle this pregnancy, especially because she has the assistance of AIC’s prenatal program, which is providing complete antenatal care to Parvati and her unborn child for the duration of her pregnancy. This includes regular check-ups, medication, nutritional supplementation and mid-day meals, and assistance at the time of delivery. Parvati, with her life on track, is happy to have one last child to add to her family and is hopeful that she will have a girl to round out her brood of rambunctious boys!

Thank you, Richa (x3) and Darcence (x5) for coming together to provide comprehensive antenatal care to Parvati. With your support, her new baby is sure to get off to a wonderful start in life.

25-year-old Pinky is the mother of three girls, ages 6, 3 and 1. Pinky, her husband and her daughters live in a joined family with her in-laws, and scrape by on Pinky’s husband’s earnings as a keymaker and Pinky’s income from selling old clothes on the side of the road. In Pinky’s community, superstition, misinformation and detrimental cultural practices (such as female feticide) abound and can negatively influence the way parents raise their children. Pinky, having been forced to drop out of school as only a young child, is determined that her daughters will grow up differently than she did. To this end, she is a proactive parent, and seeks out any opportunity to educate herself and her children, which is why she joined the AIC Mother-Baby class recently. She and her 1-year-old daughter attend the class every other week with other mothers and babies aged 12-24 months. At these classes, Pinky and the other mothers learn about dietary needs of their children, baby growth and development, birth spacing and family planning, communication and relationships within the family, good parenting practices and many other topics through structured discussions led by local professionals, specialists and health workers.  Although she is not a new mother, Pinky still finds that she is learning a great deal through the classes, and wishes that she had had the benefit of this information when her first two daughters were babies as well.

Your donations, Tom (x 2), Thomas and Ray and Leal, will ensure that Pinky is able to give her children a head start in life. Thank you.

Last year, Sangeeta gave birth to her fifth (and last) child, Ritesh. She and her husband now have two boys, ages 12 and 1, and three girls, ages 10, 7 and 5, whom they support with a combined monthly income of only about 2,500 rupees ($55) per month.  As a woman who has had no formal schooling herself, it has taken Sangeeta a while to develop an appreciation for the merits of education, including helping her children get off to the best possible starts to bright futures from an early age. However, after seeing all of the other women with young children in her community taking a proactive step for the sake of their children by joining the Ashraya Initiative for Children’s Mother-Baby class, Sangeeta decided to give it a try. Every other week, she brings Ritesh for a class with other mothers and their babies. At these classes, Sangeeta and the other mothers participate in interactive discussions led by local specialists on a wide range of topics designed to improve their understanding of their children’s nutritional, developmental, health-related, emotional, social and family-related needs. The mothers and their children also engage in hands-on activities to further enhance their understanding of concepts. Although she was reluctant at first, Sangeeta now sees the merits of the class, and has become an active participant, thereby ensuring that Ritesh and her other children have brighter, healthier futures.

Thank you, Akiko, Alice and Brad, Bill and Colleen and Erik, for coming together to give a year of parenting classes to Sangeeta. With the new skills she is learning, little Ritesh will start life with a head start over other children from his background.

Several months ago, 20-year old Sangeeta was kicked out of her in-laws’ house along with her husband and one-year-old son, following a domestic dispute. The timing of this altercation couldn’t have been worse, because Sangeeta found out soon after that she is pregnant with her second child.

Currently, Sangeeta, her husband and their son store their belongings in another relative’s shack during the daytime and sleep outside on the cement ground at night. While Sangeeta wishes that she could afford her own house in the slum, with her and her husband’s combined income from begging and selling old clothes scraps hovering around only 1,500 rupees per month ($35), even renting a tiny hut is not a possibility.

Despite the challenges that Sangeeta and her small family are facing, one thing that Sangeeta always looks forward to is her regular visits to the AIC Health Outreach Centre, where she has been signed up for comprehensive antenatal care. This care includes nutritional supplementation, mid-day meals, medication and prescribed medical testing, routine check-ups and assistance at the time of her delivery.

Sangeeta is hopeful that she and her husband will be able to patch up their relationship with her in-laws before the birth of her baby and the onset of the Indian monsoon, but in the meantime she feels much better knowing that she has food to eat, comprehensive medical supervision and a support network taking care of her and her unborn child.

Thank you, Tara, Pooja, Sachin, Ganesh and Erin and Rob (x4)for helping AIC provide comprehensive antenatal care to Sangeeta to enable her baby to develop and grow. Thanks to your support, she has the best chance of giving birth to a healthy, normal child.

Rupa is the proud mother to an eight-year-old boy, who she has cared for singlehandedly since her husband abandoned her shortly after her son’s birth. Despite the fact that she is barely able to make ends meet, she does all that she can to ensure that her son will have the brightest future possible. Rupa lives in a joined family with her brothers and their families, and cooks food for a catering service, earning about 1,500 rupees ($35) per month.

Last year, Rupa joined AIC’s Basic Tailoring class, to learn the foundations of tailoring. After that six month course was finished, she graduated to AIC’s Intermediate Tailoring class, where she continues to learn more advance sewing and embroidery techniques. Rupa loves the class, and can often be found putting in extra time on the machines at the AIC Health and Community centre while her son is at school, since she knows that she has to get as much practice as possible to realize her goal of starting her own small tailoring business.

In addition, she just appeared for her 10th standard board exams last month, after having dropped out of school more than 10 years ago, so that she can finally have a secondary school diploma. Given her hard work and determination to provide for her son, there is no doubt that Rupa will successfully achieve her tailoring goals!

Your generous donations, Shawn and Mac (x5) will enable AIC to bear the cost of Rupa’s tailoring course.

Thank you so much for your support that will ensure that Rupa continues to learn a marketable skill that will help her secure her son’s future!

Meena is a young mother of three girls, ages eight, seven and three. She is currently pregnant with what she plans will be her last child, and is hopeful that she will have a son, to round out her brood. Her husband sells cloth material on commission basis by laying down a tarp on the sidewalk and setting up shop there. While her older children are at school, Meena takes her youngest daughter and works alongside her husband to try to earn enough to make ends meet.

Even with her hard work, Meena and her husband rarely earn more than $2 per day, and often their daily earnings are closer to only $1, depending on the day. This is not enough to sustain their family, which is why Meena was excited to sign up for antenatal care through AIC.

The services provided to Meena by AIC include nutritional supplementation, daily meals, regular check-ups, sponsorship of all medical expenses and required testing, as well as support during the time of her delivery. This assistance greatly relieves the burden on Meena’s shoulders and she is optimistic knowing that her child stands a much better chance of having a normal birth weight, unlike her first three children, who were all born with low birth weights due to their mother’s undernutrition and poor medical care during pregnancy.

Your generous donations, Marissa, Dara (x2), Rajeev, Vanessa, Kelsey and Li (x2) will help AIC provide comprehensive antenatal care to Meena to enable her baby to develop and grow.

Thanks to your support, she has the best chance of giving birth to a healthy, normal child.

Budhkaur is a 27-year old mother of five. Her husband works as a part-time caddy at the nearby golf course, and until recently, Budhkaur was a stay-at-home housewife. As she had never attended school as a child, she is illiterate and has always wished that she could do something to supplement the family income.

Last year, Budhkaur joined the AIC Basic Tailoring Class, and spent six months learning basic sewing. Recently, she advanced to the Intermediate Tailoring Class, where her skills are being put to the test! She has become known among the group as one of the best sari-blouse stitchers, and is able to incorporate intricate beading and more advanced techniques into the pieces she makes. Already, she has filled numerous custom orders and is starting to earn a bit of money on the side, while also continuing to learn new skills through the class. Her husband, who only earns about Rs 2,000 ($45) per month, was initial skeptical of her participation in the class, but now that she has been bringing in supplementary income, has changed his opinion and is very supportive of her ambition. He is even encouraging her to continue on to the Advanced Tailoring Class once she finishes with the Intermediate course, and Budhkaur is also excited about the prospect of having some financial independence and improving her family’s economic wellbeing.

Through the women’s literacy component of the Tailoring class, she has even learned to write her name and the alphabet, which will certainly come in handy as she continues to develop her own small home-based business into the future.

Thank you, Ted and Gretchen (x 5), for ensuring that Budhkaur can learn a marketable skill and start earning money. With economic independence, her position in the household and community has risen, and she has now started asserting herself too.

Sneha is the youngest in a family of three children. Her father does electrical work and her mother works as a domestic maid. Both her older brothers dropped out of school, and all the hopes of her parents is not pinned on her. They are determined to do everything that they can do to ensure that Sneha gets a good education and secures a good job.

A girl from Sneha’s background could not, normally, have dreamt of a good education, but she is a part of the Educational Outreach Center of Ashraya Initiative, which provides her all the support she needs, including uniforms, adequate nutrition and supplementary tuition. Sneha is currently in the 8th grade, and looks forward to starting the 9^th grade in June. Sneha arrives at the Education Outreach Centre early in the morning, and eats a fresh, nutritious meal before settling in for studies, as well as a filling mid-morning snack. After two hours of intensive tutoring, she leaves for school (her school timing is in the afternoon) with a packed lunchbox in hand, also provided by the AIC Education Program.

Your donations, Tahira (x2), Gauthier, Ray and Lael (x2), Rajeev, Pradeep, Peter, Perter and Kim, Susan (x3), will ensure that Sneha is provided nutrition (breakfast, mid-morning snack and packed lunch), for an entire year. Sneha’s parents are grateful for the meals their daughter eats at the AIC Education Centre, since her father can not always find work and her mother’s low salary as a maid is not nearly enough to provide for the whole family.

Thank you, Tahira (x2), Gauthier, Ray and Lael (x2), Rajeev, Pradeep, Peter, Perter and Kim, Susan, for ensuring that Sneha doesn’t have to go hungry while she works towards becoming the first member of her family to finish high school.

Jannu and her husband work extremely hard to run their household of three; Jannu’s husband trades in old clothes and saris, and Jannu is in charge of washing, mending, ironing and packaging the items to sell on weekends in the nearby market, while her son plays at her feet. Together, working seven days per week, Jannu and her husband earn between 2,000 and 3,000 rupees per month ($45 – $55), depending on the season, the demand for old clothes, and whether or not the police are lenient about letting them sell their wares on the roadside. Despite their hard work, they often are not able to earn enough to get by on, as the demand for old, used saris has dwindled in recent years.

For this reason, Jannu has turned to the AIC Health Centre for assistance with her medical and nutritional needs when she recently found out that she is expecting again.Through her participation in this program, she receives regular counseling, monthly check-ups and medical care for the duration of her pregnancy, nutritional supplementation (mid-day meals and vitamins) and assistance during the time of her delivery.

Jannu feels thankful knowing that she will have help with the extra expenses associated with her pregnancy, and looks forward to her son having a new little brother or sister!

Thank you, Deborah (x2), Amanda, Akiko, Bill and Colleen, Erik, Mike and Suzanne and Tom, for helping AIC provide comprehensive antenatal care to Jannu to enable her baby to develop and grow. Thanks to your support, she has the best chance of giving birth to a healthy, normal child.