Have you ever found yourself lost in the different roles you play in life and forgot who you really are?

Have you ever felt that your purpose in life is determined more by people around you than yourself?

Have you ever felt that all you needed was one meaningful friendship, just one safe space for you?

We believe that every individual has the potential to discover their individual identity and have the agency to lead their lives the way they want to. Do you share this belief?

If you do, we would be honored and accountable for your support!

What Is Noor?

Noor is a Teach For India mentored community project that envisions creating a sustainable community of empowered women with a renewed sense of individual and social identity.

How Do We Work?

Our intervention to realize our vision is three-fold :

• English Literacy : To instill a sense of self-confidence and a belief to never stop learning.
• Financial Literacy : To enable our community of women to be financially autonomous and achieve financial well-being. 
• Mental Health Support : To create a sustainable community of emotionally aware, attuned and reflective women. 

We are currently operating in 6 disadvantaged communities of Delhi : Munirka, Moti Bagh, Sangam Vihar, Mehrauli, Chattarpur and Jahangirpuri.

Noor has collaborated with :

• Expressive Arts Therapy Practitioners, Rennet Attri and Tanvi Patil to develop an Expressive Arts curriculum, facilitate spaces for catharsis, and design resources and tool kits for women to navigate their emotions and develop an emotional vocabulary.
• Ex-Banker at Axis and Teach For India fellow Partha Dey to create and deliver a contextualized Financial Literacy module that is enabling women to hone skills and knowledge of budgeting, saving, and investing.
• A group of Teach For India fellows to execute English Literacy sessions.

What Led To Our Intervention?

The inception of Noor was based on innumerable heart wrenching stories shared with fellows during their work at Teach for India, followed by a need analysis survey across Delhi. Every conversation with the mothers of our students came back to the same problem - no support system, lack of autonomy and low self esteem.

Our Journey So Far

The project has been under operation since 2020 impacting the lives of 45 families in several under-resourced communities in Delhi. Our first cycle which lasted till May 2021, saw tremendous impact in the lives of the women who were part of our program :

• 93.8% women have started some form of saving after being associated with Noor. 
• Women believing their roles to be beyond that of a mother, sister, daughter and wife has increased by 40%. 
• 85.8% women have evidenced increase in their English reading levels and believe that it has contributed in boosting their self esteem and confidence.

With the overwhelming response from the community and visible impact in the the lives of our participants, we initiated our new cycle in September 2021 with another bunch of 50 women across Delhi NCR. Having built a strong community of over 100 women and making tremendous strides in the work that we do, our belief in our vision is only becoming stronger and we envision furthering Noor's impact and reach.

Why Do We Seek Your Support?

We are organizing a fundraiser to help carry out Noor's operations for the year 2022.
We have set a target amount of INR 1 Lakh primarily to cover costs of :

• Facilitation fees charged by our expressive arts practitioners.
• Rent for physical spaces and events in our community centers.
• Learning resources for the women ranging from notebooks and stationery to practice handouts and printed materials.
• Miscellaneous resources like certificates, tokens and other incentives for our community of women.

Noor is a stepping stone towards creating a community of empowered women . In order to make this vision a reality we need your support. If our work strengthens your belief in a hopeful future for all women, then please consider making a donation.

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