Plans for Girls Orphanage
Please note: All plans listed below are tentative, and construction has currently started.
Divine Shakti Foundation is planning to build an orphanage for girls and home for abandoned babies. The orphanage will be a center where mothers can come, totally anonymously, and leave their babies. No one will ask questions, no one will take their photo, no one will identify them. They will be allowed to be “rid” of the child, but the child will receive a new hope and chance at life.
In addition to the abandoned and unwanted babies, we will also take in young orphan girls who may be living on the streets or in refugee centers. This orphanage will be a beautiful haven where they will receive not only food and shelter, but also an education and training to help them become productive members of society. Further, they will receive guidance, support and love, empowering them to truly embody “The Divine Mother” rather than to fall victim to feelings of worthlessness.
The vast majority of abandoned and orphaned girls have also been raped and abused. Many have spent years living on the streets and in refugee centers. There, these divine lives are being both brutalized as well as ruined. The girls cannot envision a better future.
The orphanage and home for abandoned babies is to be located in a beautiful, serene environment just south of Rishikesh, on the banks of the holy Ganges river. It is less than 10 minutes from Rishikesh, so it’s close enough to have all the facilities, but it’s far enough as to be sufficiently out of the city. Further, there is a gaushala (cow home) and beautiful organic fruit/vegetable gardens as well as beautiful flower gardens on site.
This orphanage will fill these girls with security, hope and faith in their own future as well as rebuilding their faith in humanity and the world. The orphanage will include the following facilities:
- Dormitory facilities for living
- Full dining/kitchen facilities
- Educational facilities in which they will receive an academic education
- Vocational training facilities including computers, sewing, tailoring, handicrafts, gardening and nursing
Further, the girls who are older and who have been abandoned, orphaned, abused and traumatized will help to take care of the babies, along with the staff. This will fill them with a great feeling of usefulness, love and caring. Psychological research has shown that caring for a helpless creature (whether it’s a plant, a pet or a child) is the greatest therapy for overcoming personal feelings of depression and worthlessness. The babies will receive not one mother, but 100 loving and caring mothers!
There are an alarming number of abandoned and orphaned children in India and Uttarakhand. A large number of these children are little girls who are perceived in our society to be a great burden. The life expectancy of the little girls is very low compared to the national average of little boys. The quality of life of these girls is most deplorable. They are wandering the roads, getting sold into brothels or living in unsuitable shelters. The vast majority of abandoned and orphaned girls have also been raped and abused. Due to their repeated brutalization and abuse, these girls cannot even envision a better future.
Further, even more females are not even given the choice for birth as they are victims of feticide. As the substantiated national female to male ratio is rapidly declining each year, it is essential to provide an alternative for mothers who are considering aborting their pregnancy or killing their newborn, as well as to provide a proper, loving home to the babies who have been allowed to live. Otherwise we will have a most imbalanced society with alarming social consequences.
In addition to the large number of girl babies aborted in utero, each day hundreds of unwanted babies are thrown away by indigent, unprepared, homeless mothers all over India. These babies, some who are only days or weeks old, are left in trash dumpsters, on the steps of temples and in the roads. The young, unmarried mothers are direly impoverished and cannot bear the financial and/or social burden of raising a child on their own. Unfortunately these helpless, innocent babies’ last breaths are taken alone on the side of the road, in the woods, or in a trash dumpster. The solution is to set up a facility where the unwanted babies can be dropped off completely anonymously, with no questions asked, in a way that maintains the dignity, safety and anonymity of the mothers.
The Long-Term Benefits and Impact of the Girls Orphanage/Home for Unwnted Babies
A proper facility focused on loving, nurturing and caring for orphaned girls and abandoned babies and providing them with physical, mental and spiritual nourishment is urgently needed. These babies and children need a special loving ‘touch’, a premier academic education, and vocational training along with a nurturing, supportive environment which instills values, ethics and sanskaras in their fertile minds.
This special home and program will transform these once abandoned, unwanted and orphaned children into the “divine light” they were destined to be. Along with a trained and professional baby staff, the older girls in the orphanage will help take care of the abandoned babies. This will fill the older girls with great feelings of usefulness and hope. So this girls’ orphanage and baby home will ultimately affect multiple generations, for when these girls grow and mature they will become the ideal mothers of future generations of children.
The human and social growth and positive impact this girls’ orphanage and baby home will have on society is vast, broad and multi-dimensional. Through growing up in this supportive, educational and nurturing environment, the children who were once considered “useless” and “burdens” will ultimately become integral, confident, productive and contributing members of society.
Through this unique weaving of nurturing support and love along with a cultural and academic education, these girls and babies will no doubt prove to be the future leaders for our great state of Uttarakhand and India. This special facility will be so successful that the rest of the country will be looking to Uttarakhand for guidance in replicating this model of an orphanage and baby home.