Raah Foundation

Dadar, Mumbai 400028
info@raahfoundation.org

About Us

Who We Are?

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world, indeed, it has ever has.
- Margarita Mead

We are a group of passionate people using our education, background, and experience to create a better world. Cliched it may sound, but we are determined, and we are in a hurry. We work with some of the poorest communities which are also the innocent victims of climate change. Our approach is outcome-focused, impact-driven, and bottom-up. We delayer the intertwined layers of social problems and work both inside out and outside in to make a sustainable change that spurs growth and development.

In 2010, after selling her ITES business, Sarika along with Girish and Mr. GR Thengdi (father/ mentor) decided to start Raah Foundation. Raah means path in Hindi and this name came from their belief that a journey well traveled can lead to a desirable and happy destination. With just a passion they registered Raah in 2011 and went into self-incubation for the first three years. They found their calling in the tribal indigenous areas of Maharashtra after a chance visit. In just a decade the organization has surely come a long way - from 3 founding team to that of 55 directly impacting the lives of 60,000 people and counting.

We however believe that we have barely scratched the surface and have a long way to go.
Come join us as we are changing this world - one community, one village and one barren land at a time.

What are we trying to do?

Vision

A world where the marginalized communities live with dignity
Mission

Improve the quality of life and well-being of marginalised communities through sustainable livelihoods while addressing the issues of climate change

We work with some of the poorest communities in the world - the indigenous tribal communities living along the northern part of western ghats - the Sahyadri mountain range. The intergenerational poverty needs a very different approach as clearly in spite of multiple efforts by multiple stakeholders and lot of money the situation has only marginally improved. With climate change looming large and these vulnerable communities being the innocent victims, the chances that they might slip back into poverty losing the critical progress is extremely high. Clearly the situation is extremely critical and needs a different approach and out of box thinking.
There is no single solution and to see the real change we need to take multiple small steps while incorporating the rapidly deteriorating climate and its impacts on the people. We keep climate change at the core of everything we do and make communities resilient to ensure better adaptation. Delayering of the problem and identifying the root cause allows us to curate a sustainable solution for the communities we work with. Building the leadership capabilities of the people and making them responsible for the change they want to see in their world is our key focus.