Non-profit Share & Care Fdn. strengthens partnerships, moves forward amid pandemic

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Through 2021, the leading non-profit Share & Care Foundation based in Rochelle Park, N.J., found ways to help communities in India severely affected by the Covid -19 pandemic. It strengthened partnerships with non-governmental organizations in India, and in its signature forward-looking style of operating in the past, continues to implement development initiatives focusing on vulnerable women and children into 2022 and beyond.

A look at its history reveals what the future will be for this organization. Since 1982, the Share & Care Foundation has worked to create opportunities for deserving, yet economically disadvantaged individuals across India through their Signature Programs and disaster relief efforts (www.shareandcare.org).

The organization accomplishes that by partnering with other charitable non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground in rural and under-served areas of India to implement projects, with the goal that the supported community will become self-reliant within three to five years, a Jan. 5, 2022, press release from the organization said.

According to Share & Care, the projects it supports are thoroughly planned after studying issues confronting a community on the ground, consulting with partner NGOs, to design the program, training staff, setting project milestones, and designing plans to monitor progress.

Before these projects are implemented, Share & Care volunteers conduct a personal visit and submit field reports on the NGO’s work to ensure their validity, capabilities, and the project’s future success.

During the pandemic, however, these visits were no longer possible. That did not stop Share & Care, which quickly devised new methods to identify and assess partner organizations.

Share & Care turned to virtual meetings, like many, to connect with potential and ongoing partners and implement common goals.

Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust

One of the examples of partnership is that between Share & Care and Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust, RNCT. Along with its many other activities, RNCT has been pairing multiple times with Share & Care in India, to respond to floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The RNCT is just one of the NGOs that Share & Care partners with to support the common goal of improving lives in under-served areas of India. (For more information visit www.shareandcare.org)

On November 22, 2021, Share & Care held a Zoom meeting with Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust (RNCT) Co-founder Asha Mehta, which reveals the achievements such partnerships are able to achieve.

Presided over by Share & Care President Saumil Parikh and coordinated by Chair of the Women Empowerment Signature Program Dr. Ketki Shah, the virtual meeting was attended by some 30 individuals from the two organizations. President Parikh welcomed all attendees, and Amar Shah, chair of Share & Care’s Disaster Relief Committee, introduced Asha Mehta before turning the meeting over to Dr. Ketki Shah who interviewed Mehta about the type of work done by RNCT and insights on working with the next generation of philanthropists.

Mehta worked from a young age to serve the poor, first focusing on children, making hundreds of field visits to families wishing to adopt a child, when she was in college. Her inspiration – seeing a “child become a member of a loving family was what kept me going day after day,” she said.

Mehta subsequently became a Trustee of an organization run by a family friend. She told Dr Ketki Shah and those present at the virtual meeting of Nov. 22, 2021, that her 20 years of humanitarian work, “made me realize my true calling in life.” She founded Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust with her late husband in 1967, to serve underprivileged communities across the globe with a focus on children and individuals with disabilities. The  RNCT is working in several countries.

Asked about the challenges faced, Mehta said there were many – including “logistics, manpower, language, hygiene, safety, and motivating teams to work in dangerous areas.” Overcoming those challenges, RNCT provides mobility camps for those with physical handicaps, offering free prosthetics, mobility aids like wheelchairs and crutches, and orthopedic splints and braces, and distributing hearing aids at no cost

Working Together

In response to the challenges of the pandemic, Share & Care and Ratna Nidhi Charitable Trust partnered to provide much-needed relief to vulnerable communities in India. With the support of Share & Care, RNCT volunteers on the ground served hot and nutritious meals to daily wage workers, serving more than 1.2 million meals total.

Further strengthening the partnership, Share & Care secured oxygen concentrators to be distributed on the ground by RNCT. Within a week of their arrival, these devices were in use in 125 locations across India, benefiting thousands of patients affected by COVID-19, Share & Care said.

Founded in New Jersey in 1982 to give back by creating opportunities for deserving women and children living in poverty in India, Share & Care Foundation noes it works on education, healthcare, village upliftment, and female empowerment programs to create long-term impact and sustainable change.

For further information or to support Share & Care Foundation’s work, contact Tejal Parekh at info@shareandcare.org or call  (201) 262-7599.