About

In a country where women are highly likely to be abused and exploited, She Is Safe has spent the past 15 years equipping and empowering thousands of women in India who are at extraordinary risk of exploitation. A rising superpower, India stands as one of the globe’s economic powerhouses. And with 1.34 billion inhabitants, the nation also ranks as the world’s largest democracy. Nice credentials. But these advances have done very little to change the fact that India is one of the world’s most notorious abusers and traffickers of women and girls.

Since 2002, She Is Safe has been working hand-in-glove with local Indian co-workers to create opportunity for women in a culture whose norms recklessly ignore their dignity and rights. Today, She Is Safe has a presence in 19 of India’s 29 states, employing a model that teaches women to see themselves as valuable contributors able to change the future for at-risk girls. The success of She Is Safe self-help groups (also known as, Transformation Groups (TG) is well documented and has proven that women have the potential to be the most influential means of positive change in their families and in their communities. As wives and mothers, they are uniquely positioned to improve the future—if they can receive an education, a vocational skill, protection of their human rights, basic health information and the committed support of local resources. She Is Safe has maximized the methodology of women’s self-help groups by integrating the gospel, focusing on local solutions to the serious challenges women and girls face, and equipping women of domestic churches and faith-based organizations to start and grow TGs.

Fifteen years later, the fruit of more than 230 Transformation Groups is changing the cultural landscape in some of India’s high-risk communities. The importance of this strategy cannot be overstated when we consider that every year India sees millions more females enslaved, violated or killed with a nearly indescribable callousness. Samar Halarnkar, editor of IndiaSpend, a data journalism nonprofit based in Mumbai, underscores that “Men abuse women in every society but few males do it with as much impunity, violence and regularity as the Indian male.”

This initiative would fund one year of a three year project to implement a new Transformation Group.