Our 4 Areas of Focus
Keeping Girls in Education
96%
96% of children in Karuna projects
continue their education past age 14,
almost double the Indian national average.
Education is crucial to empowering maginalized communities. The structural discrimination and abuse these children face, especially girls, in schools often forces them to drop out. Teachers may carry out corporal punishment, deny access to school water supplies, segregation classrooms, and force them to perform clean the latrines on and around school premises. Fellow students and community members may also hold discriminatory attitudes and carry out discriminatory behaviors.
Karuna works holistically with schools, parents and children, providing support structures to enable underprivileged children to take full advantage of the mainstream school system.
Protecting Women and Girls from Violence
70%
Cases taken up by Karuna partners have a very high conviction rate of 70%
Where social exclusion intersects with gender, marginalized women and girls face severe discrimination. They are routinely denied access to justice, education, health and other services. Almost half of all women from the poorest backgrounds report domestic violence. Without intervention and proper support, many of them will live lives of isolation and internalize victimhood.
Karuna supports women to find their own strength and independence so that they can become leaders and social change-makers. Through our projects, we support women to reclaim their rights and choices, access education and vocational training, and become champions in their communities.
Building Climate Resilience
13 million
People were affected by cyclone amphan
South Asia experiences some of the worst extremes of climate change, including droughts, floods, cyclones and heatwaves. Living with chronic insecurity, the poorest and most marginalized are the most severely impacted. Karuna USA builds resilience among the communities to help them mitigate against threats, and to respond to them with life-saving solutions. This includes climate change awareness, trainings on preparedness, support for livelihoods, hygiene, water treatment, sanitation and protection of women and girls during and after disasters.
Access to Livelihoods & Protection from Exploitation
8,000 people
The number of marginalized people who are empowered through access to decent work
Millions of marginalized people are condemned to illegal and dangerous jobs, such as manually collecting and disposing of human waste from sewers and dry latrines, often times with only a bucket and their bare hands. They can even be forced to work for well below subsistence income-levels.
We believe that sustainable, humane and dignified livelihood is a basic right. By giving marginalized workers access to meaningful skills and training, we improve their quality of life while simultaneously challenging societal perceptions.
Read our 2024 Annual Review
The Karuna family, comprising the Karuna Trust (UK), Karuna Germany (DE) and Karuna USA, achieved a combined total income of £3,003,692 for the financial year 2023-24. Thank you to all the individual donors, Trusts and institutions who made this possible.
