About Us

One of the most difficult things to give away is kindness; it is usually returned.

Unknown

Author unknown

To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.

Abraham Lincoln

Former U.S. President

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

Mother Teresa

Founder, Missionaries of Charity

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

Mahatma Gandhi

Leader of the Indian independence movement

Our Story

Care, turned into action.

"Sneha" means care, and "Karma" means our actions. Together they carry our whole purpose: care, turned into action for girls and women who deserve a fair start.

Sneha Karma Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) non-profit, founded in 2015 by a philanthropist in California who refused to accept that a girl's or woman's future should be decided by the family she was born into.

Our promise has not changed since day one: to care for girls and women until care is no longer needed — to educate, to train, and to stand beside each one until she can stand on her own.

Girls and women in a classroom in rural India

Who We Serve

We exist for girls and women who were never given a fair start.

Across rural India, a girl or a woman is often the last to be sent to school and the first to be pulled out of it. She is raised to need less and taught to want less. That is not her failure — it is the failure of the world around her.

We believe one educated girl or woman rewrites the story of her family, and that a generation of them rewrites the story of a nation. Give a girl or woman the same chance as her brother, and she does not need rescuing. She needs a fair start.

See all the causes we address →

What We Do

Three focus areas, one journey.

Everything we do runs through three foundational focus areas. Social Change changes how families and communities see girls — the belief that makes everything else possible. Girls’ Education keeps a girl in school through Support-A-Girl and carries her on to college through our Scholarship. Women’s Livelihood turns that education into an income through Skills Development, Support-A-Artisan loans and the Artisans Direct marketplace. The thinking behind it lives on Our Mission; what each focus area does day to day lives on Our Focus Areas.

  • Operational transparency — more than 90% of every donation reaches our programs for the girls and women.

See how our focus areas work →

Governance

Steered by a volunteer board

Our mission is guided by a volunteer board led by founder-president Prashant P Godiwala, with Karl Meulema and Sudhir Sreedharan.

  • Prashant P GodiwalaPrashant P GodiwalaFounder Member / President
  • Karl MeulemaKarl MeulemaSecretary
  • Sudhir SreedharanSudhir SreedharanTreasurer

Meet the board who steer this work →

A young woman building her own independent future

Our Vision

An independent future, for every girl and woman.

A world where no girl’s or woman’s future is decided by her poverty or her gender — only by her own ambition.

By 2030 we intend to be self-funded, with Artisans Direct helping carry the other focus areas. Until then, we walk with every girl and woman. We would be honoured to walk with you.

Muhammad Ali

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.

Muhammad Ali

Boxer and activist

Media Kit

Media KitThis media kit makes it easy for journalists, supporters and partners to tell the Sneha Karma Foundation story well. Here you…

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Our Mission

Our MissionOur MissionOur mission is to give every underprivileged girl and woman in India the same opportunity as anyone else — to…

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Our Board

Leaders who guide our mission.Every program at Sneha Karma Foundation is guided by a board of directors who keep our mission honest…

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Our Journey

From a first visit to a remote forest village to an organisation standing beside hundreds of girls and women — the decisions,…

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Frequently Asked Questions

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