• Location : Washington State, US
• Community Served: multiple childrens homes in India
• Focus: sponsoring education for children in orphanages in India

Organization background
Hope Abides (HA) is a U.S. based organization whose mission is to provide help and hope to orphaned and destitute children in India. HA works with established orphanages and organizations in India that (i) assist up to 200 children, (ii) who have been established long enough to have a track record of some sort, and (iii) who have support from within the local community. They look for leadership that is committed and has a vision, but needs help in moving forward. They identify potential partners through personal networks or through online research. Subsequently, they contact the potential partner and invite them to submit a short preliminary application to us based on a template they provide. These applications are reviewed by the HA Board, and organizations that pass the preliminary review are invited to complete and submit a full more detailed application. Organizations who pass the full application review are visited by a HA representative (usually a Board member), and if they pass the site visit, then HA starts providing support (usually on a long term basis).

During the early stages of their operations, many of the children at their partner orphanages are in primary education meaning that their education costs are not too high and so HA helped build better infrastructure, provided food as well as funding for education. Later, as the children grow older, the aid transitions to helping them primarily in their education costs for secondary educations in vocational training, college, university and even medical school. The organization has been operating since 2010.

Project background
In 2018, some of the orphanages HA worked with in India are

• Ahead - provides therapy, education and vocational training to dozens of severely mentally and physically challenged children in Kolkata.
• Aum Pranava Ashram (APA) in Ilanji, a rural area in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, cares for approximately 75 children. Of these about half a dozen are post 10th STD. HA provided tuition for 2 or 3 of these children with the rest of the money going to help some of the primary and high school students.
• Sphoorti Foundation is located in a rural area near the city of Hyderabad, cares for approximately 200 children.
• Premdham, located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, cares for approximately 130 boys and men who are severely mentally and physically challenged.
• Saraswati Anath Shikshan Ashram (SASA) in Pune, cares for approximately 30 children. They have 5 boys in 2018 who are in various polytechnic and regular colleges. One boy was accepted to a government institution and HA supports the remaining 4.
• Mission for the Rural People (MRP) in Kerala cares for approximately 130 children.
• Kuriakose Elias Service Society (KESS) in Kerala is not an orphanage but provides help to many children in need.

Project description
In 2018-2019 GKF will provide support to HA for helping Aum Pranava Ashram and Saraswati Anath Shikshan Ashram.