Problem : 1000s of women are thrown into poverty when their husbands die. They have no choice but to work extremely long hours, often in hazardous conditions to support their family.

Solution : Widow pension is a civic benefit that supports widows with a consistent fund of INR 1250 coming in every month. Many poor women miss out on the widow pension they are entitled to because of a complicated application process. IASEW has already supported over 2000 women claiming their widow pension in the last 10 years.  
Through your generous donation, we will help 100 women to get their pensions this year.

Impact :  Women have benefited from a steady pension funds in many ways, including

1. Pension funds were used to pay low-income and BPL families with the monthly food ration and household utilities.
2. Helped women buy medicines for their own and families health
3. Pension funds were used to repay loans taken out due to widow poverty.
4. Gave women an agency to say “NO” to unhealthy work and offers coming their way 
5. Helped many women restore their dignity over the long term.

With your support this year, we will support 100 women to claim their pension 

Meet Pushpaben, one such woman in need of urgent support -
Pushpaben is a 45-year-old home-based garment worker.  After her husband's death, she was left alone and helpless with unsupportive in-laws, a difficult financial situation, and the neck-deep pressure of maintaining the basic household of three. Even her husband’s funeral bill of INR 30,000 was unaffordable. This crisis caused her to overwork in hazardous conditions because quitting a job means no money  in the house.

She is barely getting by and is still working in a job she was advised not to do due to health concerns, but she is forcing herself to do it due to the obligation of maintaining basic household necessities such as ration, gas cylinder, light bill, debt, and medicine. Her life is miserable as a result of having to go through it all alone and without any help, and we're only talking about money here, not health, emotional, or mental support.

Consistent money coming into the household every month enables our sisters like Pushpaben to live a self-sufficient life in which -

1. She does not have to worry about making ends meet
2. Does not have to spend hours in an unhealthy work environment
3. She feels confident and dignified enough to say "No" and decline any unhealthy offers coming her way.

How IASEW helps widows to receive their pensions?
In our 30 years of working with sisters like Pushpaben, we have helped 1,00,000 of them gain empowerment and self-sufficiency through a variety of civic benefits. A widow pension is one such civic benefit. Until now we have reached over 2000 women through widow pension and helped them end to end with -

1. Providing awareness and checking their eligibility for the pension
2. Checking available documents and providing hand holding support for missing documents required for pension eligibility
3. Fill up pension forms
4. Accompany the widow or guide her to the government office for applying. (sometimes multiple visits) 
5. Post form submission awareness and follow ups until the money reaches the widow's bank account.

This year to support 100 women more to claim their pension we require financial support totaling INR 5,00,000 ($6000)  for that.

Through your generous donation, INR 550 ($7) would allow us to arrange one death certificate for one widow to receive the widow pension  
INR 1000 ($13) would allow us to arrange one income certificate and one no re-marriage certificate for one widow to receive the widow pension
INR 1500 ($18) would allow us to open a bank account for one widow to receive the pension money 

Let's give this year help and hope to a widow because किसी के घर मे दिया जलाओगे उजाला आपको भी मिलेगा  (If you light a lamp in someone else's home, you will also receive light)

We could really use your network to reach our goal. We need your help to spread these words with your Facebook and Whatsapp contacts. You can simply copy-paste -   'I am supporting the campaign to help widows and her families a life free from poverty this year'

 
If you want to support us in other ways or have any questions then please email us on iasew1905@gmail.com 

With Gratitude