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Aahaar
Project Aahaar is an initiative to rehabilitate underprivileged women by providing them with culinary training and enabling them to market their acquired skills in order to transform them into successful entrepreneurs in the culinary business.
Project Aahaar endeavours to uplift underprivileged and commercially exploited women and enable them to become a part of mainstream society by training them to become entrepreneurs in the food business.
We aim to achieve this objective by providing the women with culinary training and better access to demand avenues in order to market their acquired skills. Apart from culinary training, the women are also provided with training in basic accounting, kitchen management and environment awareness, so as to develop them holistically.
When:
12 February 2011
Where:
New Delhi, India
Figures:
Women Empowerment, Removal of Social Stigma, Economic Independence
Change:
10 underprivileged women
empowered, Nutritious food
provided to 300 people.
// Rehabilitation of underprivileged and commercially exploited women
The community includes women who were victims of economical backwardness and homelessness and have been exploited and harrassed in the past. Project Aahaar endeavours to make these women economically independent,while also attempting to remove the social stigma associated with them.
// Provision of sumptuous and nutritious meals to other underprivileged women
The chosen community receives certified training and cook nutritious meals for other underprivileged women and children.
Reclaiming lives, the culinary way
This photograph won the Photo Contest organised by Enactus Worldwide, and was the only Indian team to win in this category.
The girls receive training in bulk Indian cooking from recognised institutions to ensure quality and nutrition standards.
This photograph won the Photo Contest organised by Enactus Worldwide, and was the only Indian team to win in this category.
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// The Community and the Business Model
Four girls from the Children Home for Girls (CHG), Nirmal Chhaya Complex are our current beneficiaries. Under Project Aahaar, they were trained in bulk Indian cooking by the Taj Group of Hotels. After the training period, the girls, under the brand of Project Aahaar, cater to the inhabitants of the shelter home, for which they receive remuneration from the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of NCT. This makes the model highly sustainable due to demand-supply proximity. All the vegetable and food waste is converted to compost in a vermi-composting pit.
// Triple Botton Line Impact
The girls are now in a position to start cooking under the supervision of the existing cooks of the shelter home's kitchen, for which they will be remunerated. Bank accounts for the girls will be opened shortly to promote financial management and to encourage them to save.
Economic
The girls now have access to a sustainable source of income which leads them to a life of economic independence and self-sufficiency.
Social
This project has effectively removed the social stigma faced by the community of women and has contributed in their integration into mainstream society, thus restoring their dignity.
Environmental
The use of energy saving cooking techniques as well as the use of the vermicomposting as a method of waste disposal creates a positive environmental impact.
// Our Vision
Our vision is to expand the reach of our project, and empower many more women by setting up similar business models, adapted to the situation and needs of the community and helping them become entrepreneurs – thereby enabling them to reclaim life, the culinary way.
After a fruitful completion, the project was phased out of in 2013.