I am excited to present before you the annual and audited report of Reaching Hand for the year 2010-2011. Looking back at humble beginnings as a registered charitable organization in the year 1996 at Bangalore, Karnataka, it is with wonder and deep gratefulness that I have witnessed its continued growth during the past sixteen years into the dynamic organization it has become. Our vision to “Build, Care, and Serve” is directed towards bringing about positive and measurable social change in the lives of the people that we seek to impact.

This last one year has been very much a year of learning, as we reflected on how we have performed in the past and how we can do things differently in the future so as to reach out to a lesser privileged community more effectively and deliver real change, touching and transforming the lives of the many children and women we work with. And as such, it is with great joy I make note here that within the last year, we have witnessed an expansion of our support base. This has helped us to provide scholarships to 40 more deserving children, bringing the total number of children we support by scholarships to 225. Our New Home concept, which we started in 2006, are residences where destitute children are provided with safe shelter, proper nutrition and healthcare, and not only so much, but also a high quality education (they are enrolled in an English medium school and tuitions are provided until they can meet with their peers). The children have done excellently well and many of them have excelled far beyond their classmates. They have done us proud!

We have also been able to assist a total of 60 women, as part of our women empower program, by providing skill-based training such as tailoring and embroidery to select women. The women selected for the program are mostly from families where there is no income providing member.It has been great satisfaction to see the women work and provide for their own families, meeting the monthly financial needs themselves.

The School Adoption Program (SAP) has been the most effective program of Reaching Hand so far. Under this program, we adopt a lesser equipped school, such as a government school and work with them to provide better amenities in terms of infrastructure, healthcare, and nutrition, thereby hoping to achieve better academic development. The objective of the SAP is to provide easy access to high quality education for underprivileged children and bring them to the mainstream.

For the future, we look forward to focusing more on creating an inclusive society, wherein the marginalized and less privileged can live a life of dignity. This coming year, our deep desire is to be able to rescue and shelter greater numbers of children into our New Homes, to establish and expand on our skill training centres for women, and to adopt more schools and advance the quality of education available to the poor.

In order to bring this vision to reality, we are looking for people or organizations with a heart to serve the poor and underprivileged in society, to join hands and partner with us in this endeavor. We assure you that the satisfaction of seeing lives transformed will change you for life and challenge you to do more.

As we march ahead in our journey, I would like to thank my colleagues on the Board for being pillars of strength and support towards building this vibrant organization. I extend my sincere gratitude to our donors, staff, volunteers and stakeholders. In addition, I would like to thank our children, community well wishers, bankers, auditors, consultants and other service providers. Each of your contributions has made a difference that I am sure will remain written on the lives of the people we have touched, for years to come. I am sure with all your continued support, we will continue to move forward towards achieving our dream of living in a society where every human being is not just entitled to but actually living out their dream of a life of dignity, having all their basic rights realized.