Sarathi Development Foundation

Sarathi Development Foundation brings over 25 years of experience in community-based models firmly rooted in community-led strategies and empowerment of children, adolescent girls, youths, women, and the wider community. It has a credible history of partnership with UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, Water Aid, Find Your Feet, Care India, Oracle, Girls Not Brides, Family Health International, Child Fund India, and the government. Our core belief and guiding principles are based on the fact that communities have the inherent potential to bring change in their lives and prevent abuses of their basic rights and entitlements. It has facilitated us to evolve, adapt and use participatory methodologies to engage children, adolescents, youth, and women in identifying and addressing their needs. While implementing child-friendly community-based models, Sarathi provides resource support to build the capacities of civil society organizations, government functionaries, community-based organizations, volunteers, and social networks for wider impact. Sarathi’s success in carrying out different programs is due to its large and well-trained team developed over a period of time. It implements innovative and proven strategies including integrated micro-planning on need-based indicators, community capacities & resource building, life skill education, behavioral change, and mainstreaming with government services & schemes. These strategies interconnect self, collective, and government actions to achieve long-term impact. Our key activities and experienced areas include:

• Participatory Methodologies to engage with the communities and stakeholders
• Integrated Village Planning with a multi-sectoral approach unifying the needs of children, adolescent girls, women, and the community at large.
• Life stage-specific program models (Birth to 24 years)
• Life Skill Education among adolescent girls through participatory learning and action methods at the community level
• Community-Led Advocacy System
• Social and Behaviour Change Communication
• Community-based monitoring system
• Government engagement, linkages, and system strengthening
• ICT application for supportive supervision.

Sarathi has implemented numerous programs, mostly in north India, in the areas of maternal and child health and nutrition, education, adolescent girls’ empowerment, water, sanitation, hygiene, and livelihood generation amongst impoverished communities. It focuses on equipping the communities with knowledge and skills and empowering them to identify and solve their own problems while leveraging government schemes, services, and policies. While implementing these programs, Sarathi has gained credibility among the communities it serves and developed a strong reputation amongst all stakeholders by staying true to its founding approach of empowering communities and equipping them with knowledge, technical skills, and systems and processes that enhance participative development. Sarathi’s successful track record in documenting and disseminating its findings and scaling models.

Watch Sarathi's photo presentation here.