VARANASI WELFARE FOUNDATION

Women in the Varanasi Welfare Foundation sewing class hone their embroidery skills.

You never know who or what you'll find in India. While this makes for serendipitous traveling, it unfortunately also makes locating quality volunteer projects difficult as well. 


Not that there isn't a desperate need for help here--India is home to nearly one-third of the world's poor. And with 3.3 million registered NGOs, there are lots of charitable organizations to choose from. Yet sadly, the nation's non profit sector is rife with fraud and corruption.

There are good organizations out there, however, as we discovered one morning while battling the chaos of the train station in Varanasi.


While at the station, we were fortunate enough to meet Linda Cooper, a warm and friendly British expat. After Linda helped us sort out our train (figuring out railroad schedules in India is painful), we chatted with her about what she does in India. She told us about the non-profit that she works with to help disadvantaged women and invited us to visit their organization's office, which happened to be nearby. 

Located in the Cantonment area of Varanasi, the Varanasi Welfare Foundation is down a quiet (quiet for India) dirt road, in the basement of a building behind a few hotels. As we walked in, we were greeted first with the voices of chattering women, and then by the friendly handshake of John Baptiste, one of the teachers at the foundation.

The organization benefits disadvantaged women and girls of the Varanasi area by providing a place, teachers, and materials for them to learn marketable skills that, Linda hopes, will lead them to sustainable employment.

John Baptiste was thrilled we stopped in, and immediately introduced us to his class in the computer lab. We got to sit down and work with the girls on their project for the day, creating a PowerPoint slideshow using moving graphics. We were impressed! And the girls, at first shy, were proud to show us what they had accomplished. 

Big thanks to Linda and John Baptiste for letting us visit their organization and meet all the ladies they're helping. We had a blast. 

Anyone interested in helping out this organization should check out their website's "how you can help" page.