Boarding Homes
Underprivileged girls have the potential to be exceptional students but aren’t given the opportunity or encouragement to explore their capabilities and discover their unique talents, especially if they live in rural areas. Many parents bring their daughters to Sambhali so they can access health resources, education, and improved living conditions that they are unable to provide.
The Sambhali Sheerni Boarding Home was established in May 2012 and designed to enable poor girls who do not have access to education in their own village to attend a high-quality school on a daily basis. This program began by establishing a family-run boarding home in Jodhpur for 20 girls from the rural desert region of Rajasthan, 100 km west of Jodhpur. The girls, who were 6–15 years old at the time, arrived in the boarding home and attended a good school nearby. Sambhali aims to provide all the girls with an education until the 12th standard (final year in school).
The second of Sambhali’s boarding homes, the Sambhali Laadli Boarding Home, opened in April 2017 for 20 girls between the ages of 6–12 years old, also from the rural desert area surrounding Setrawa village. These girls had all previously attended school in their village, but this program provided them with a better education and more opportunities in the future.
The Abhayasthali Boarding Home was created for the young women who had previously lived in the Sheerni Boarding Home and are now attending college—the first women in their families to do so. At Abhayasthali, they have formed a strong community and take care of their own daily needs, with support from Sambhali to navigate college and study for important tests, as well as the opportunity to participate in Sambhali workshops and self-defense classes.
Each boarding home has a live-in housemother and someone who cooks meals for the girls. Three to four Sambhali volunteers visit the boarding homes four hours a day from Monday to Friday to initially help establish the girls’ routine and arrange medical and dental check-ups and vaccinations in preparation for starting school. The girls also learn new personal hygiene routines such as bathing, shampooing hair, and brushing teeth. A tutor has been appointed for each boarding home and visits the girls every afternoon from Monday to Saturday to determine the educational level of each girl and act as a translator between the volunteers who speak English and the girls who speak Hindi and/or Marwari. Once the girls have started attending school, the tutors help the girls with their homework and provide individual and class tuition as necessary. The volunteers also offer weekly workshops and sports activities as well as educational trips.