After meeting migrant children in a below poverty level community in Bengaluru and witnessing the significant health and nutritional issues they faced, Links Charitable Trust was formed with three concerned mothers in 2017.
Founders Urvi Jariwala, Sharon Otmar and Sara Janssens
Links operates in Munnekollal, a migrant, below poverty level community within Bengaluru where children often suffer from various, often life-threatening conditions such as heart ailments, neurodegenerative diseases, and severe malnutrition. The community often does not have access to or knowledge of quality healthcare, and because they come from across India, are often not eligible for governmental schemes. Because of the migratory nature of their families’ work, children often have not had access to consistent education and are grade-levels behind their peers. Many children Links meets have never had any formal education.
What sets Links apart?
There are a seemingly endless number of organizations in India who help kids. What sets Links apart:
Depth. The depth of the work. Individual children receive life-saving surgeries and quality education. Links supports and advocates for the families every step of the medical process, from diagnosis to surgery to follow up care and nutrition. Additionally, Links runs a free educational center for families where any child of migrant laborers in Munnekollal is enrolled under a sustainable and continuous education program ultimately setting them up for the Tenth and Twelfth Board exams and onwards to skill-based vocational or main-stream education. This is hard and expensive work, and completely funded by individual donors and corporates through CSR initiatives.
Trust. The length of time Links has been working in the community is significant. Links has been on the ground in the community almost every day since 2017. Links knows the needs of the community because they are there, talking to families and seeing the needs first-hand. The first Links Educational Center was in the same blue tent structure the families live in, which Links rented from the landlord exactly like the community does.
Volunteer-Run. Links is mostly volunteer-run, which means that donations are given directly to projects that empower the kids Links serves. The people doing the work and giving money to this cause do this hard, hard work asking nothing in return because they are people of goodwill, and see the needs of the community as human rights issues.
Direct Impact of Funds. Every rupee is given directly to fund surgeries or to education and nutrition for the children of Munnekollal. The Links Team does not take any money for administrative fees nor do they take a salary. The only salaries Links support are the 5 teachers’ salaries and the newly hired Medical Social Worker and School Administrator. That’s the reason Urvi, Sharon and Sara started Links; they wanted to know where their hard-earned money was going and wanted to see the direct impact on children.
Malnutrition assessment during daily health checkups
Mariyam 2 years after Tetraology of Fallot surgery
Students at the Links Charitable Trust Educational Center