In an increasingly global economy, we believe companies have a global responsibility to contribute to a more balanced quality of living. That’s why we support the work being done at Enable For Life, a children’s village in south-east India focused on caring for vulnerable girls and securing their future through education.

In India, girls are abandoned 10 times as often as boys. If they end up on the street, they are all too often kidnapped and trafficked for sex. Girls are also more likely to be sex-selectively aborted or killed as newborns – a practice that, fortunately, is disappearing. This is rooted in a cultural bias against girls, where parents are expected to pay a marriage dowry for their daughters, while sons take care of the parents in their old age.

Providing a safe home and a better future

Enable For Life provides a safe home and a better future for girls. The charity has built a small children’s village outside Tranquebar in Tamil Nadu, south-eastern India. Here the girls live together in houses as a normal Indian family with school and homework, chores, and play.

The girls are encouraged to visit their home villages and in their spare time enjoy singing, dancing, and Kabaddi, the popular Indian sport. Enable For Life ensures that the girls go to the best possible school, and empowers the girls through education.

Empowering girls and women through education

Labouring work such as construction pays women very little compared to men, and the work is physically demanding and often dangerous. Higher education or a non-academic alternative can help women secure well-paying jobs such as nursing.

The knock-on effects of this cannot be underestimated. If a woman can support herself and her family, she is in a better position to leave an abusive husband. Experience also shows that the more education a woman has, the more education her children will have. Equally important: the more education, the fewer children.

Growing the village

Since 2009, when the very first girl moved in, the children’s village has grown to 106 girls aged 5 to 18. Fifteen of these girls are attending college and five girls have finished their education.

The village currently has eight houses, with the goal to grow to ten to support up to 150 girls, and 100% of the donations the charity receives goes to help the children, with administrative expenses covered in other ways including voluntary efforts.

If you’d like to learn more about Enable For Life and some of the ways that you can support its work, visit enable.dk