- ruhfw@vsnl.com |
- +91 9343865991, +91-80-23433991
Even as she left her home town to complete her formal education in Social Work from Mumbai, Ruth Anand had envisioned to come back and help the underprivileged, the needy and the hurting women folk living on the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh. Women / girls were discriminated against and looked down upon by men of the household. Male domination was predominant in all the rural families. She had seen suffering in almost all the homes. However, as providence would have it, her marriage brought her to Bangalore in 1984.
Ruth's exposition to social reality while serving in various Institutions / Non-Government Organizations in Bengaluru brought her face to face with women who are in desperate situations. Their silent screams could not be ignored. In urban slums Bengaluru, there was the clamorous need to address women subjected to atrocities from families and communities. Along with facing poverty, debts. the women especially from urban slums have to put up with domestic violence at home. Outside homes, they battle rapes, trafficking, prostitution, injustice etc
Unlike our counterparts (NGO'S) working among women in other countries, who are able generate sufficient funds to help women in distress, also most importantly providing temporary shelters, here in Bengaluru, we have the uphill task of empowering and equipping the women who are slaves to shame and injustice, with very limited resources. The roadmap for the Vision and Mission became very clear: Helping women in financial distress, without basic education, limited skills, and also women without much-needed support from families in a changing complex urban landscape, especially in semi-urban slums.
Rural Unit for Health and Family Welfare, (RUH &FW), was launched officially as a non-profit organization which aims at empowering people especially women/ girls/ children to become self-reliant units in society, living in security, and developing confidence and self- worth. The full-fledged work began when Rural Unit for Health and Family Welfare, (RUH &FW) was registered as Trust.
Working with women from different cultural and economic backgrounds gave us an understanding that capacitating women meant empowering them economically, socially and financially. When women are strengthened, they are able to provide stability and maturity in their homes. This paves a way to evolve sustainable, solid and secure communities.
Firstly, RUH & FW started to approach the threats to WOMEN'S SAFETY by working towards creating awareness of women's rights as individuals in society; simultaneously empowering them to generate income which could upgrade their status in the mainstream society. At this point in time, we also identified the need to educate the women about reproductive health and taking responsibility not only for themselves but also for their children.
The vital breakthrough we had in reaching the women was through the formation of Self Help Groups (SHG's). Currently there are approximately 34 SHG’s covering over 3,000 women operational across urban and semi-urban areas in Bengaluru. Over the years, RUH & FW train the staff who are committed to oversee the coordination of different SHG's to facilitate and to make the work effective in all the areas inside Bengaluru.
So far, RUH & FW has been able to use the existing network to build human resources who have relentlessly contributed in conducting various camps, campaigns and programs on a voluntary basis. Despite paucity of funds, RUH & FW is making use of whatever resources and schemes are made available from the regional Government.
The staff in RUH & FW are constantly improving and upgrading their skills in capacity building by attending workshops, seminars held nationally and internationally, and by visiting other Non-Government Organizations and leaning from their experiences.
Achieve our VISION through working for women’s health, empowerment, rights and integrated sustainable development of under-privileged sections of the community in Bangalore.
We invite civic-conscious, responsible citizens from all walks of our community to join hands with us, as we work towards fulfilment of our VISION of developing a holistic society, where women from disadvantaged pockets to find dignity, livelihood and respect in our communities.
To enable under privileged women folk of the society to achieve better quality of life and work towards self-sustainment of their families.
