Most of us who haven’t visited Dharavi have blinkered view about it reflecting the disdain of urban people for slums.When asked Nawneet Ranjan (Filmmaker of the Documentary Dharavi Diary) about his perspective on Dharavi, he said, “People of Dharavi have a drive in them. Here, a mother skips her one meal so she can send her child to school! The economic disparity and their circumstances are such that they are stuck up in a cycle of poverty.

Approximately 54% people of Mumbai living in slum help many industries and professionals to make their routine life easier, we need to start a dialogue where they can be included in urban socio-cultural and economic development process.”

Nawneet Ranjan started an uphill battle for slum innovation by setting up a Technovation Design Studio initially with his own investment and later on he got help from friends and family members.

At Technovation Design Studio, girls of Dharavi are trained for Technovation challenge, which is a competition with the motive to involve more girls and women in the process of technological innovation. As number of girls, interested in process are increasing, the resource constraint is one of the major challenge to deal with.

Dharavi girls – Ansuja, Kusum, Mahek, Rani and Shruti themselves decided to develop an app “Women Fight Back” which is available on Google Play Store. They achieved this with the help of  an MIT tutorial at Technovation Design Studio to help women with their safety issues and sexual violence.

Now these girls need YOUR HELP!

In January there was a fire in Dharavi that destroyed 50 homes, including many of them. Their studies, work with technology, and their lives have been disrupted. Many of the girls and their families are sleeping on the streets or in the open air.

Here’s how you can help the girls rebuild and recover!

1. Contribute to the Campaign – Please consider making a financial contribution of $50 to their campaign to recover from the fire and push forward. Your funds go directly to helping the girls rebuild their lives and to continue their technology studies. The money will not only buy the girls food, water, and clothing lost in the fire- it will go towards purchasing laptops for studying and building apps, networked fire sensors designed specifically for informal settlements like Dharavi, and giving the girls a safe space to learn about technology.Contribute to the campaign on the girls’ Generosity Page.
   

2. Spread the message to your networks.

Could you share this message and the crowdfunding campaign details with at least 10 contacts who you think may contribute?

You may also share the campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

Help the Tech Girls for Change of Mumbai in their campaign to recover from a devastating fire. #DharaviGirls https://goo.gl/77C1HK

Let us join hands and help recreate the lives of these people. 🙂