Women’s Livelihood
We are helping women to start micro enterprises, set up boutiques and to establish small business to contribute to a better livelihood.
GIVE TO THE WORK OF CBN FOUNDATION
The Women’s Livelihood program is changing lives and generous partners like you are giving women the skills they need to build a brighter future. Through training and skilling, you are helping women to learn to craft beautiful decorations, tote bags, pouches, and more—unique products that have real demand in the market. The women are learning to source fabric, price the products and market them too. These skills open doors to independence, enabling them to start their own businesses and contribute significantly in their families. More importantly, women are starting to dream of their own boutiques and labels. Thank you for making these possible!
DONATEPINKY’S RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
Pinky always wanted to contribute financially to her family, but she lacked the confidence and skills to take the first step. That changed when she joined a Self-Help Group, supported by CBN Foundation.
Over the course of a year, Pinky gained confidence, sharpened her skills, learnt to make digital transactions and learnt to care of her mental health. She felt quite prepared to take on the monumental task of starting a business. She pushed herself beyond her doubts and started cooking and setting up food stalls. Little by little, her efforts paid off. Today, she has reached a point where she can cover an entire month’s household expenses on her own.
But Pinky’s journey doesn’t stop with her success—she now encourages other women to start, no matter how small. “Even earning ₹2 may seem little, but it adds up and grows,” she tells them.
Thanks to CBN Foundation partners like you, women like Pinky are finding the confidence to take charge of their futures, one step at a time.
DONATEVANDANA’S DREAM, NOW A SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD
Vandana, a housewife from a marginalized community, had always dreamed of learning stitching, but high course costs kept her from joining any training center.
Thanks to partners like you who have generously contributed to CBN Foundation’s Women’s Livelihood Program, she finally had the opportunity to pursue her dream. Through workshops led by experts, Vandana learned essential sewing and design skills. But the program didn’t stop there—it also empowered her with entrepreneurial skills, financial and digital literacy, sustainable practices, and mental health awareness training.
With this knowledge, Vandana not only improved her stitching but also learned how to manage money, use digital tools, and build a sustainable business. Soon, she started stitching suits and salwars for others, earning her own income and contributing to her family’s needs.
Back in her village, there are no boutiques, and Vandana sees this as a great opportunity. She hopes to open her own shop, providing much-needed stitching services while also sharing the financial burden with her husband.
Because of your support, Vandana is now building a sustainable livelihood, creating a brighter future for her family and her community. Thank you!
DONATE Crafting Ornaments, Being a Star Earner in the family
We’re so thankful that our generous partners like you love to give a hand up to hardworking people who are struggling. And one of the exciting ways you’ve done do that is by training women to make traditional handcrafted items—including festive Christmas ornaments! Women artisans are creating beautiful handicrafts, that help them support their equally beautiful families. Thank you for making these small success stories possible!
“I want to go to my own village and open my own boutique after what I have learnt at the CBN Foundation sewing centre.” – Vandana Discover more voices
“I didn’t know a thing about stitching. At the CBN Foundation sewing centre I learnt cutting, stitching, sewing. They helped me go from zero to hero.”
– Aarti Discover more voices
DONATE Micro-Enterprise Initiatives
One of the best methods of securing a woman’s livelihood into the future is by offering a hand up rather than a hand-out. Through skills training and micro-enterprise support, you are changing lives for generations to come. Whether it’s a handicraft business in an urban slum in Delhi NCR, a lentil dumpling making business in Khatima, Uttarakhand, or the setting up of a small shop in Uttrakhand, you are helping women to earn more income to consistently and to provide food for themselves and their children.
Want to see the impact of these programs? Read the Changing Lives stories of women who have built thriving businesses
Click to see the women you can empower through your support.
DONATE Cyber Safety Awareness
Online scams are a major threat to women who are new to financial transactions, often causing them to lose money before they can start their businesses. You are enabling women to receive training in valuable skills like sewing, crafting, and product-making, along with learning how to market their work and build a business. Through the Cyber Safety Program you are helping women to navigate online transactions safely, recognise scams, and protect their financial information.
Your generous support is enabling women to gain vital cyber safety education, protection from online fraud and securing their path to entrepreneurship. With your support, women can confidently grow their skills into a successful business, support their families, and achieve financial independence.
DONATE Sustainability
CBN Foundation puts sustainability first in every step taken. Your generous support is enabling women to transform tailor waste into sustainable products like cloth bags, offering real alternatives to plastic. The Women’s Livelihood program is built on the bedrock of sustainability. You are helping to train women to upcycle and create sustainable products and to be environmentally conscious in everything they do.
DONATE Mental Health Awareness
In India, the suicide rate among women is twice the global average, largely driven by gender-based violence, societal pressures, and lack of mental health care. These struggles deeply affect not only women but also their children.
Your partnership is breaking this cycle through the Mental Health Awareness, which provides counselling, education, and community support to women in the SHG and Women’s Livelihood Program. By helping women regain emotional resilience, you create strong emotional foundations in families.
DONATE WASH-WATER, SANITATION & HYGIENE
Unwashed hands can be fatal! This August, CBN Foundation is highlighting a critical issue affecting mothers and babies in marginalized and remote communities: poor hygiene, inadequate water, and lack of proper sanitation in medical centers. Midwives, despite their experience, often struggle to maintain clean hands due to limited water or lack of knowledge, leaving mothers and babies vulnerable to infections. These conditions force healthcare professionals to overprescribe antibiotics, contributing to the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which makes infections harder to treat and increases the spread of diseases.
For over 10 years, CBN Foundation has been addressing these challenges by teaching the principles of WASH – Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene – to women and children in rural and urban areas, schools, clinics, and slums. This month, through the CBN Foundation WASH Campaign, we are intensifying our efforts to raise awareness about the importance of using clean water and ensuring easy access to it. Join us as we advocate for proper sanitation and hygiene practices, especially for expecting mothers and newborn babies, to prevent deadly infections and promote healthier communities.
By raising awareness, we aim to inspire action and change, but your support is vital. Join hands for clean hands by supporting the WASH campaign! Contribute today and help us make a difference.
Safeguard mother & child from deadly infections! Support the WASH programme. Join hands for clean hands -Donate today!
DONATE WOMEN’S PROTECTION
Gender inequality is a global issue, and India is no exception, with a ranking of 127 out of 146 countries in the 2023 Gender Gap Report of the World Gender Forum. In numerous small towns and villages across India, women face limited opportunities compared to men and often lack awareness of what inclusion entails. This glaring disparity emphasizes the urgent need to increase efforts to ensure women have equitable access to opportunities in all parts of life.
This March, we’re launching the Women’s Protection campaign to address gender inequality head-on. The campaign aims to reach marginalized women nationwide, raising awareness about the significance of inclusion and educating them about their rights. Through workshops, we will raise awareness on inclusion, deliver financial literacy training, and focus on empowering women with investment strategies and knowledge of government schemes.
With the support of volunteers and experts, we’re committed to empowering women to become self-reliant and advocating for their equal participation in society. Join us at CBN Foundation in empowering women to be included. Your support of the Women’s Protection campaign will enable our teams to reach remote areas and provide crucial awareness to women and families.
#InspireInclusion to help women rise above inequality and exclusion. Donate today!
DONATE Community Kitchen
The first CBN Foundation Community Kitchen has been opened in Delhi at what was once a hustling bustling Community Development Centre. Before Covid -19 infection tore through the little community, children came to attend after school classes and ladies came to learn livelihood skills like sewing and hair dressing, here.
The families comprising mostly of daily wagers who live around this area have been without work since the lockdown was first announced in March 2020. A long spell of being out of work for people who work, earn their daily wages and bring home a handful of rice, lentils and potatoes for the evening meal.
CBN Foundation opened up the Community Kitchen by employing the mothers of the children who attend the after school programme at the Community Centre. As of now 10 women are earning their wages here by making nutritious , hygienically prepared meals to serve to the long lines of hungry families.
The CBN Foundation Community Kitchen is prepared to serve 200 people one nutritious meal a day through the week. If the plight of daily wagers and their families moves you, support them now, with your donations.
DONATE Help Delhi Mohalla Kitchens Deliver Dabbas Daily
While family after family battles illness, nutritious meals become more difficult to put together for family members in the throes of the aftermath of sickness. The Delhi Mohalla Kitchens serve vulnerable communities with fresh, nourishing homemade meals, that are delivered twice a day to families in isolation. The Delhi Mohalla Kitchens are run by women from the community who have become unemployed in the pandemic and homemakers from the neighborhood. The ladies spend a good part of the day cooking and packaging hearty homemade dabbas to be dispatched to their neighbors.
With your support, the Delhi Mohalla Kitchens can reach more families in need to ensure that nutrition and care are served one dabba at a time.
To watch the campaign video, click here.
Just Rs 6000 enables you to deliver nutritious dabbas to 100 families a day.
Donate now to keep the Delhi Mohalla Kitchens delivering dabbas daily.
DONATE Empower Dignified Periods
We are all striving to cope and accept a lifestyle that includes the rise and fall of Covid cases, lockdowns and increasing uncertainty of the economy. The marginalised communities are struggling the most to simply survive. Women in particular face gender inequality, taboos and lack of access to menstrual hygiene products due to loss of income among other reasons.
At a time when dialogues about periods and the necessary facilities for healthy management are crucial, CBN Foundation is conducting awareness workshops for adolescents and women in remote parts of the country, such as Lamdon School, Ladakh. These workshops are designed specifically to address the fear, myths and taboos surrounding periods. They ensure that children grow up with the right knowledge at the right age, enabling them to make informed decisions for their bodies.
Women also receive, reusable, eco-friendly, cloth pads made from tailor-waste in a kit that enables them to experience dignified and safe periods every month. The Period Kits are made by differently-abled artisans in Ladakh making them a source of comfort for the receivers and a source of livelihood for the artisans. With your valuable support, we can extend this net of knowledge and Period Kits to more vulnerable communities in India.
To see the difference partners like you are making, visit Instagram and Facebook.