Deep Griha Society
A guiding light in the dark. A ray of hope. Deep Griha Society.
Deep Griha attempts to be there for communities. Low-income communities. Communities that need access to education, healthcare facilities and most importantly capacity building. Deep Griha brings these through sponsorship, a rural school, clinics and livelihood skill training programmes.
Deep Griha aims to facilitate opportunities that support a participant’s growth and empowerment where possible and adequate support where needed.
What began in a one-room clinic in 1975, now services three urban communities and two rural centres. Late Dr Onawale, the founding Director, started out by addressing the medical needs of the community. She quickly realised that malnourishment was at the root of many health issues. This led to a nutrition programme.
Deep Griha continued to benefit more communities by identifying and addressing pressing issues, and constantly adapting to the changing needs of the communities. This has resulted in access to education for young children, access to skill-building for youth, healthcare access to all in its urban communities. Moreover, recently, Vriddha Mitra programme extends support of a healthy life and social environment to senior citizens. On the other hand, the rural centres have residential facilities for young boys and a rural English medium school that ensures relevant education.
The Community First…
Over the years, Deep Griha has developed a strong rapport with the community by ensuring that community members have a platform to participate in the programmes. This ensures that programmes are relevant and valued by the community. Deep Griha’s field workers are present in the community every day to make sure the organisation has a finger on the pulse of the community’s needs. The fieldworkers do this through follow up with participants and ensure their opinions and experiences are useful for further decision-making.
Our priorities ensure that our funds are spent where they are most needed. With this in mind we have been responsive to the changing needs of the community, and work with other organisations where possible to avoid a duplication of services.
Tadiwala Road
Deep Griha Society’s Head Office is located in the Family Welfare Centre on Tadiwala Road in central Pune, not far from the railway station. The community of Tadiwala Road is home to around 70,000 people.
A recent study conducted by interns, identifies lack of sunlight, cramped housing, and open drainage as reasons behind various health issues. Lack of nutritious food continues to be a challenge in households mainly due to financial constraints.
From the Tadiwala Road Family Welfare Centre we operate
- Child Development through the Aadhar Kendra Sponsorship Programme
- Income Generation Programme for women’s empowerment
- DOTS centre, and
- Vriddha Mitra Programme for the Senior Citizens in the community and their daily meals.
- Our space is used by Doctors to run a general clinic, a dental clinic as well as a weekly eye clinic
Ramtekadi
We continue to serve the first community that we worked with, Pune’s Ramtekadi community through
- a dental clinic
- nutrition centre
- a computer class for young children
- the Aadhar Kendra Sponsorship Programme for school/college going children and young adults
- Vriddha Mitra for the Senior Citizens