Dreams of creating the Tara Sanctuary or Tara Surachit Sthan

In my last days of working with Ecoles de la Terre in Bodhgaya I came to learn that Rajesh the director and myself have a similar wish for the homeless and destitute women of Bihar. I discovered that the EDLT trust has a parcel of land in a nice quite place where he is hoping to build a home, or safe place for women and their children. Here women can recover and heal from any violence they may have endured and also learn some news skills so that they can become financially independent. Ecoles de la Terre already has school close by for the children to attend and the vocational program which the women could join  is just at the end of the dirt road. Sunita, the women’s health care practitioner and Dr Sunil are also available for medical care. So the support infrastructure for the dream to be maintained is already in place and the land is secured, what is needed now are the funds to build. Research also needs to be conducted on how many women and who in the area are in need dire of such a sanctuary. This could be a problem as many older ladies who have been widowed who now live with their grown children and their family actually work as beggars to contribute the family income. So these women do have a roof over their head, food and a family. In Gaya the town about 5km away, I have also discovered there are places where women have been trafficked and held for sex, so of course I need to find out more about how to get those women out of that situation. Rajesh has had this idea for some time but has been busy running the other projects to secure funding. When we talked it was uncanny how we had very similar ideas and passion for creating a women’s sanctuary. So what to do now?

We drew up some very basic plans for five rooms, bathroom, kitchen and workspace which still leaves space for a garden to grow vegetables and a few fruit trees. This plan could very comfortably house 20 women and the workspace could also be used for extra beds as expansion of the program demands. If and when the time comes more rooms could be added as funding comes in. Of course Rajesh wants to make the finances for the sanctuary self sustainable with small business loans to the women as they proceed in their recovery. He also would like to encourage the women to support and assist new women who may come into the sanctuary as well as get local women involved in support of the sanctuary.

 So now I am also asking for your help; if you know about fundraising, or have suggestions for me or Rajesh please please do make a comment or better still send me an e-mail. I am thinking about trying to get on the Kiva web site, but this may be more for individuals rather than established organizations who want to extend their services. Any and all suggestion you have would be great as this is new territory for me and some guidance is always appreciated.