Cast off on the streets as an infant over 60 years ago, Prakash Kaur is well aware of what it is like to grow up feeling unwanted. That is why for over two decades, Kaur has dedicated her life to mothering little girls. Girls, who like her, experienced rejection early, or those who lost their parents at a young age.
In 1993, Kaur set up the Unique Home for Girls in Jalandhar, Punjab. Her mission is to reach out to every abandoned girl child and offer a safe, secure home where she can be loved, cared and provided for. From three-month-old infants to college-going women, 64 girls have found food, shelter and education here. "They are like my own children," insists Kaur.
With the money raised through the show, the organization was able to speed up work on a long-cherished project: a new residential home for abandoned girls. The home, which is being built on two-acre plot, will be surrounded by landscaped gardens and is likely to be ready by April 2014.
In a state like Punjab, which has one of the country's most skewed sex ratios, Prakash Kaur's efforts will hopefully spur others to rethink the age-old discriminatory attitudes towards the girl child.
"People from different parts of the world visited Unique Home in Jalandhar. They showed their faith in the home and in our work as well as in our attempt to give shelter to abandoned and orphaned girl children."
- Prakash Kaur, Managing Trustee, Unique Home for Girls
About Unique Home for Girls
Jalandhar-based Unique Home for Girls is run by the Bhai Ghanayya Ji Charitable Trust. The trust was established on May 17, 1993, and the organization rescues unwanted, abandoned or orphaned girl children. It attempts to equip them with education and all the social skills needed to face life on their own terms.