Sathi India

SATHI’s story is unique, in that, it began working with children rather unintentionally. In 1992, an organization called Prerana had been working with farmers in North Karnataka’s Raichur district. The organization was approached by a young woman, who had completed her post-graduation and was passionate about taking care of underprivileged children. Prerana offered its office as a shelter for these children, who were mostly living on Raichur railway station. Over the next 3 to 4 years, the activities with the children expanded and included recreational activities including picnics, skill training programs such as cycle-repair, screen printing and so on. Although the attempts to place them in jobs met limited success, the engagement with children continued. After a family adopted one child, we realized that many of these children were not abandoned by their families, but had opted to ‘flee’ because of certain reasons (which in most cases were not very serious) without actually thinking of the consequences. The concept of ‘restoration’ or ‘home-placement’ of children thus began to take shape. Ground research revealed that the parents are also distraught when the child leaves; and they often attempt to search the child without any leads. There was a zeal within the team members to work on this issue in a dedicated manner and a new organization was carved out of Prerana. SATHI was born. SATHI (Society for Assistance to Children in Difficult Situation) was formally registered in 1997 in Raichur. With the growth of the organization and its work, SATHI moved its head office to Bangalore. Over the years, SATHI has worked in more than 40 different locations in 14 states across India and has helped more than children reunite with their families.