Today we’d like to introduce you to Sherry Naron.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sherry. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Of course! Several years ago, I found myself tucked away in a little village in the hills of south India holding a 7-day old baby girl that would have been dead had it not been for my friend who rescued her from female infanticide. Holding her in my arms that day changed my life forever.
Over the next few years, I spent a ton of time in India, and the more time I spent there, the more I learned about the byproduct of its suppression of its women and girls (female infanticide, child marriage, slavery, trafficking, malnutrition). With over 60 million missing girls and extreme violence against women, the researcher in me wanted to know what was at the core of it.
And the issues are extremely complex. I could talk with you for days about it, but at the very core is that many in India do not value their girls. The root of this stems from extreme poverty and an age-old practice of dowry that is deeply ingrained in its culture.
Girls are considered a burden, and that just broke my heart. I decided to do something about it. So, together, with some friends and amazing donors, we started Rescue Pink.
Today, we have four centers in rural locations in India fighting to make sure that every woman and girl is respected, valued, protected and empowered, with dreams of opening many more.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It isn’t always smooth, nonprofit work has its ups and downs. We are funded for the most part by individual private donors, and the majority of those are small donors. Getting Rescue Pink’s name out more and more is key. Finding new avenues of support and advocacy for us is crucial in order to grow our work. We work hard to try to make as much of what we do as self-sustainable as possible, but it does take some capital to continue and grow. On the personal side, it doesn’t help that I’m an absolute introvert, and even approaching people for money is the last thing I want to do. It’s rare that I directly ask for money, but instead keep sharing the vision to as many people as possible, and let those who want to grab a hold of it with me, join in. I have no problem sharing about the amazing women and girls who are doing all the hard work themselves, to change their own lives, and rescue their own daughters. We just need more people to join in and advocate for them with us.
Please tell us about Rescue Pink.
At Rescue Pink, it’s our desire to do the longer, harder work at trying to change things at its core. There’s this quote by the amazing human rights activist, Desmond Tutu, that says, “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.” You can find a lot of nonprofit organizations pulling drowning women and girls out of the river, (for example rescuing women out of brothels and rescuing them from brick kiln’s), and they are so needed because there are so many out there who are drowning. But it’s our desire to go upstream and help little girls to never have to experience even one moment of drowning if we can help it.
Another thing I’m really proud of is that our staff and work in India is 100% led by Indian women. I don’t pretend to know the solutions to issues in a culture that’s not my own. I just know it broke my heart. So, if I can stand behind and beside them, as much as I can, as they create change for themselves and others, then I’m all for it.
So far, they’ve accomplished a lot. In in a little less than four years, we have four centers in rural areas in India. We have 164 girls in our after-school program giving them tutoring and life skills needed to lift themselves up out of poverty. We have 125 mothers in our pregnancy and lactating program where they receive supplemental nutrition and learn how their own health affects their baby in-utero and during lactation. And we are also so proud to say that we have launched 205 successful women entrepreneurs by giving them business training and microloans to help them rescue their daughters, and gain a voice in their household about their own treatment, and the treatment of their daughters. We’ve also treated over 1,450 women and girls in our medical camps last year alone and reached over 2,500 people in awareness programs. Here’s a great video showing some of what we do: https://vimeo.com/257982098.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
This is an excellent question. I was so lucky to have a lot of friends and bosses in my life who are very successful entrepreneurs. Launching a nonprofit is really similar to entrepreneurship, except you are selling a vision instead of a product or service. In the beginning, I struggled a lot with fear, and many of them walked beside me pushing me forward, teaching me about leadership, scale, accounting, networking and more. They were invaluable to us getting off the ground and moving forward in a healthy way.
I’m also so very grateful for the tons of friends, supporters, advocates and cheerleaders to come alongside us over the years, especially when it’s been hard. And for the donors, nothing gets accomplished without them, they are the ones who make this work happen.
But most of all, it’s our female staff over in India. They are the reason it all works. Watching them lead and love, and inspire our women and girls every day is such a beautiful thing.
How you can make a difference:
- Donate: $28/Month sponsors one girl for tutoring, self-esteem building, life skills training, supplemental nutrition and more.
- Donate: A one-time $150 donation gives one loan to one woman to launch her own business to make a self-sustainable income and rescue her daughters. She in turn pays the loan back and it’s used over and over again to more mothers.
- Donate: $15/month will provide supplemental nutrition to a mom in our pregnancy and lactating women’s program and give their daughters a strong start, while giving us 9 months to build trust, and then move her into our entrepreneurship program to raise a self-sustainable income.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://rescuepink.org
- Phone: 281-684-7333
- Email: info@rescuepink.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rescuepink
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rescuepinkgirls
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rescuepink
- Other: https://vimeo.com/257982098
Image Credit:
Tina Francis Mutungu & Jordyn Cowan
Suggest a story: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
