Through its LiftUP Project , Upaya Social Ventures is working with a Delhi-based company that helps area slum dwellers build skills and find dignified work as cleaners, cooks, doormen, and caretakers for local families and businesses. Living in makeshift homes and struggling to meet their basic needs, these prospective employees undergo a 15-day skill-building workshop for a specific role after which they are placed with an employer based on a match of their individual preferences and available openings. Once placed, the company is able to guarantee the employee receives stable wages that will be paid on time, has help setting up a savings account, and will be enrolled in a health insurance program as part of their employment.

$250 is all it costs to create a job, and that job can create as much as $10,000 in additional income in the coming years. Better yet, the first $10,000 contributed to any Upaya project listed on jolkona.org before Dec. 31, 2012 will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to a generous contribution from the Skees Family Foundation.

Through its LiftUP Project , Upaya Social Ventures is working with a Bhagalpur, Bihar-based startup that trains marginalized Tasar silk weavers on new skills, techniques, equipment, and designs. Most of the weavers the company employs qualify as ultra poor - generally living under $1.25 a day at the time of their hire - with the majority belonging to lower castes or minority communities. On average, employees will be able to double their average daily income almost immediately, an advancement that Upaya has seen have a dramatic impact on a family’s ability to meet its most basic needs. By contributing to this project, you are supporting Upaya’s ability to provide both the startup capital to launch the business and the management support to ensure that it is creating new jobs where they are needed most.

$250 is all it costs to create a job, and that job can create as much as $10,000 in additional income in the coming years. Better yet, the first $10,000 contributed to any Upaya project listed on jolkona.org before Dec. 31, 2012 will be matched dollar-for-dollar thanks to a generous contribution from the Skees Family Foundation.

Your donations go towards many aspects of attaining an education in Nepal.  You can help to cover all the costs associated with these women’s education including tuition, books, room and board fees, uniforms and transportation fees.

You can provide a woman with the opportunity to decide when to have children, allowing her to continue her education and work until the family has the means to feed their children. A planned pregnancy is often a healthier pregnancy. Your donation of $30 will help provide a woman with eight months of contraception.

Nepali village midwives provide regular prenatal examinations that include a history and physical examination and pregnancy counseling.  For just $30, you can help Himilayan Healthcare administer tetanus immunization and provide a supply of vitamins, iron, and folic acid to one pregnant woman in Nepal.  

You can help sponsor student's education who are served by the Disabled and Helpless Children New Life Centre.  This is a children's home located in Kathmandu that serves children with disabilities and/or without any means of support.