Happy birthday to Snehalaya UK which was officially registered as a UK charity this day 10 years ago on 21 July 2014.
Our UK organization was founded by Miranda Hudson after a visit to our Indian projects, when founder, Girish, suggested she do something to support our projects in the UK. Anyone who knows Miranda knows that she is an unstoppable force and she took up the challenge, gathering other former volunteers and friends to start Snehalaya UK from her kitchen.
Since then, Snehalaya UK has been run by those with close contacts to the Indian projects and is still volunteer-led. Today it is a virtual organization with no fixed base or office or staff, what they do have is a lot of passion and commitment. In fact, two of the team are so committed they have based themselves at Snehalaya for almost nine years, including our CEO who runs operations from India. Over 10 years it has had 23 trustees all bringing a range of experience that complements the activities Snehalaya undertakes in India, including education, health, finance and volunteer management professionals.
Snehalaya UK has developed successful partnership and funding including:
Three projects with Malala Fund to promote girls’ education
The Her Voice campaign highlighting gender-based violence
Connecting Classrooms project with the British Council managing five years of teacher exchanges between UK and India
Mercury Phoenix Trust funding since 2015
Official charity partner of Just Bollywood student dance competition led by Imperial College London for two years
Leeds Beckett University volunteers
Leeds University RAG volunteers
On top of this they have run and facilitated a range of fundraising events and volunteers from International Women’s Day and 30 years of Snehalaya events in UK to abseils, fun runs and marathons. They have also facilitated hundreds of volunteers visiting our Indian projects, from school and undergraduate students to Masters and PhD researchers and those taking career breaks and others who have retired, all of which now belong to our huge global Snehalaya family.
The contributions of Snehalaya UK have significantly helped Snehalaya’s development and we are truly grateful to the team that have supported us over the last decade. As part of the 10 year anniversary celebrations the team has some exciting plans in the pipeline which also include some senior staff travelling to the UK later this year. We can’t wait to see what they do next, watch this space…
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