DESI DIARY

MAKING A DIFFERENCE ON THE GROUND

Not-for-profit OneProsper’s Project Parivartan offers holistic solutions to enable girls in Rajasthan, India, break the cycle of poverty.

Raju Agarwal identified the problem: girls in the Thar Desert in India walk five to seven hours a day to collect water for their families. As a result, they don’t have time to go to school.

And he came up with the solution: OneProsper’s Project Parivartan, a holistic solution to enable girls break the cycle of poverty.

The not-for-profit selects low- income families with two girls per family and provides them with:

Clean Water. OneProsper builds rainwater harvesting tanks and biosand filters for families.

Bicycles and school supplies. It provides girls with bicycles and school supplies so that they can make the most of their education.

Nutrition. It helps women grow fruits and vegetables for family nutrition.

Water-smart farming. “We build a farming dyke (khadin) across a family’s farmland,” says Agarwal. “The khadin channels rainwater to soil; increasing soil moisture, and women are able to increase their millet crop production by over 50 per cent. They keep a portion of their millet crop and sell the surplus.”

The girls are able to attend school. And the girls and their families have clean water, nutritious food and increased family incomes. 

Starting with 60 girls in 2018, OneProsper has changed the lives of 840 girls from low-income families. Hina and Rekha are just two of them.

Thirteen-year-old Hina used to help her mother Indo Devi in water collection. Today, Hina is attending school on a regular basis.

Rekha, 11, also used to help her mother Pushpa in collecting water. Today, her family has a taanka and biosand filter providing clean water, and she is excited to attend school!

To learn more about Project Parivartan or to donate, visit www.oneprosper.org