Why Jeevan Dhara ? – Jeevan Dhara

Jeevan Dhara has its inception in one man’s struggle to alleviate the pain and suffering of the poor. Gene D’Silva founder of Jeevan Dhara started his outreach work in 1998 in Asia’s second largest slum community namely Chita Camp, Trombay, Mumbai.

For the first two years the goal was to get the HIV +ve patients accepted socially by the community. Identifying the needy by going door to door he provided food ration to 350 widows, school fees for children between the ages of 3 to 6 years of HIV +ve widows and providing medical assistance to the HIV +ve patients.

Simultaneously from the 3rd year Balwadis and Study classes were started to help the children cope better with their studies and improve their academic performance. Jeevan Dhara means “Lifeline”.

1998 Jeevan Dhara was started to provide “Lifeline” to a better tomorrow and on 25th may 2005 with its small band of volunteers the operation was registered as a society and public charitable trust. The organization was able to conduct study classes for school going children, adult literacy classes, and vocational training classes.

Also we rehabilitate individuals affected by HIV/AID’s and Drugs/Alcohol abusers in at our De-addiction centre.

Since then:

1108 children benefitted from the Balwadis (1998-2015)
8749 children benefitted from the Study classes (1998-2015),
437 adults benefitted from the adult literacy classes (1998-2006)
767 teachers and dropouts have benefitted from the capacity building sessions (1998-2015).

Non formal education:

1087 women benefitted from the Mehendi classes (1998-2015),

1404 women benefitted from the beautician classes (2003- 2015),
776 women benefitted from the tailoring classes (2003-2015),
256 women benefitted from the fashion designing classes (2006-2015),
120 men benefitted from the driving classes (2008-2009),
87 men were trained for the mobile repairing classes (2007-2008),
93 men were trained for the computer hardware repairs course (2009-2010),
44 men were trained for the motor mechanic course (2006-2015),
115 men were trained for the A/C and refrigeration course,
29 men were trained for welding (2009-2015) and
29 for housekeeping.

From 1998 to 2004 we distributed food ration to widows and their children every month. All in all from 1998-2004 we distributed 29400 food rations which would last for a month. From 1998 to 2004 we did more than 250 cataract surgeries and distributed more than 1000 free spectacles.

2 Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD hole in the heart) surgeries and 5 chemotherapy treatments done for five children.

In 4 slum areas we have around 300 children coming for football training, the idea is to implement a sense of discipline and help the children stay away from substance abuse.

Since September 2008 we run a de-addiction and rehabilitation centre for street based drug addicts and we have a capacity of 20 inmates. In between 2012- 2015 we had 2 rehabilitation centers. More than 876 street based drug/alcohol addicts benefitted and we can boast of around 300 inmates are clean and in recovery.