Project Why – Because it makes that little difference

MITHU'S SCHOOL FUNDRAISER

Because it makes
that little
difference

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Transformed lives of 10000 children and women

Go to @ProjectWhy2000

MISSION

Creating Spaces To Dream, Learn And Transform Lives

Project WHY’s vision of a desirable world is where all children have quality education and are able to complete their schooling years. Where all the children have the support to build their skills and have a voice. We also believe in gender justice and self-reliance in improving socio-economic status through skill enhancement.

What We Do

WE EDUCATE

Quality education to underprivileged children.

WE EMPOWER

Skill Development programs for women and youth.

WE EMPLOY

People from the community and our alumni.

OUR NEW DONORS

We are extremely grateful to Mr Mahesh Navani of USA for supporting our two centres – Khadar & Yamuna. We are also very thankful to Adish & Asha Jain Foundation for sponsoring Okhla centre. They are the two biggest donors of Project WHY.

Their contribution is enabling Project WHY to –

Sustain holistic education of 700 students from grades 1 -12
Provide supplementary nutrition to youngest students of classes 1 & 2
Conduct talent profiling of 213 students
Offer Computer education to 600 students & 20 teachers
Conduct Digital learning sessions for high school students
Equip students with tablets and computers.
Build capacity of students and teachers through workshops
Develop as an organisation

Adish & Asha Jain Foundation helped us to set up the community based digital studio, initiate a dedicated youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectWHYOnline) to regularly upload lessons for 9th, 10th , 11th &12th grades.

The foundation is also supporting the digital documentation of project WHY’s impact stories of transformation ( https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectWhy2000)

Adish and Asha Jain Foundation Lpgo 050624_240513_110008

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CENTRES

Project WHY runs 5 after school support centres for underprivileged communities in South Delhi and 1 center in Dehradun reaching out to 1200 children every year.

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Latest News

What a year it has been!

On November 1st 2025 we celebrated our silver jubilee. Yes believe it or not we are 25 If it were left to me, I would have had a small celebration much in sync with who I am. Those who know me will understand what I mean. But that was not to be. MM our feisty and...

You melt my heart – Merry Xmas

The Project Why children are busy preparing their Xmas party. At Project Why we celebrate all festivals. That has been so since the very beginning. Since my illness I have taken a back seat leaving the day-to-day running of the project to my stellar team. I keep...

Reminiscing

I have written a blog entitled "what a year it has been" where I looked back at the year gone by through my Project Why lens. It was indeed a very special year one that will usher a transformation for Project Why. But today I would like to take a walk down memory lane...

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Impact Stories

Stories of transformation of Yamuna Team

Stories of transformation of Khadar team

Okhla Teachers Stories

Manu

Two Angels landed in my life without any warning and changed my life forever. The first was Manu. Manu was the kind of being you pass on the street and never look at. To many he would be just a beggar who seemed deranged and bedraggled. He roamed a street I passed regularly. I often wondered what could have got him there, but it was a fleeting thought that disappeared in a trice. But one fateful day the heart...

Utpal

In March 2003, the day after Holi, we learnt that the 'little boy next door' had fallen in a boiling pot and, was believed to be dead. We barely knew him, as the family had shifted to Giri Nagar a few days earlier. We felt sorry for the baby, and went on with our lives A few days later, we heard that the baby was not dead, and was back from hospital. When we saw him, we were shocked. A little bundle swathed in...

The Boarding School

UTPAL, BABLI, ADITYA, VICKY, MEHER, MANISHA, YASH Like all else at Project Why the boarding school project began as an answer to a deafening why. In the summer of 2006 Utpal found he was without a home as his mother had to be admitted in a rehab urgently and the 'father' stole all he could from their minute home and vanished. Utpal needed a safe house and the answer was a good boarding school. He joined school at...

Heartfix Hotel

SPONSORING HEART SURGERIES FOR THOSE MOST IN NEED> True Project Why is first and foremost an education support programme but when seeing with your heart is its watchword then it takes no time to widen your horizons. Answering every Why that comes our way has been our endeavour and what can be a more deafening why than the cry of a helpless parent in search of support to repair her child's broken heart. And when...

Sanjay Padiyar: From camps to fashion Ramps

Sanjay’s story starts with a camp of the Lohars of Maharana Pratap, which has a longstanding relationship with Project WHY. The Lohars (ironsmiths) are a nomadic Indian tribe from Rajasthan (Chittorgarh), known to repair arms and shoe horses. One of their camps, containing 30 families, was located close to Project WHY Govindpuri centre. The sight of the Lohar children running and playing amongst the traffic light...

ANITA: The Power to say ‘No’

Anita’s relationship with Project WHY started in 2002 when she was a young girl studying in Class 3. Her father comes from Bihar and moved to Delhi in the late 80s to look for education. Due however to financial problems, he was forced to start working in the nearby factory at an early age and settled in the Giri Nagar area. In 2004, with Anita in Class 6, her father, the family’s sole earner, was told that there...

Geeta – A Girl Uninterrupted

Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, passed in 2009, a free and compulsory education is guaranteed for all children aged between six and fourteen. The most recent figures for primary school enrolment in India stand at a seemingly impressive 98 per cent. But going to school is a very different thing from receiving a quality education. Those monitoring progress on the sustainable development goal of achieving...

Gyanti Devi – A stitch in time

Born to a poor family in Bihar, Gyanti Devi never had the opportunity to learn as a child. Soon after her marriage, her husband, who is severely handicapped, required treatment. This meant moving her life and her two children to Delhi in 2006, where they lived on rent in the village of Madanpur Khader. The area houses mostly migrant families and has a high dropout rate from government schools as well as issues of...

Bindaas Babli

When Babli first came to Project WHY in 2004, she was a bright-eyed, feisty girl; what some Indians would call Bindaas, meaning carefree and confident. She loved books and seemed to always have a smile. It took Project WHY’s resource persons some time to realize that every breath she drew was an effort. Babli had a hole in her heart from birth and needed corrective surgery. Her family was unable to come up with the...

Shehnaz: In pursuit of education

Whilst literacy is essential to breaking social barriers, the problems faced by Muslim women in India extend beyond this. A quality, broad education is required to combat the issues of poverty and political marginalization faced by these girls, and it is essential that parents encourage this. It has been observed that after the first few years of the primary education afforded to the Muslim girl, one of two things...

Munna: Passion for Life

Indian society continues to treat disability with indifference, pity or revulsion. Low literacy, school enrolment and employment rates are making mentally disabled people among the most excluded in Indian society. These people are deterred from taking an active part in most families or even communities. Moreover, there is a stigma attached to children with disabilities, especially in rural India, and often even...

Sehroonisha – Breaking Barriers

Muslim women are among the most educationally disenfranchised, economically vulnerable, and politically marginalized group in India. Their poor socio-economic status reflects a lack of social opportunity that, though not a feature exclusive to Muslim women, is exacerbated by their marginal status within an overall context for most Indian women. Muslim women in India have a low literacy rate compared to the...

Priya – Hungry for Education

Priya is a 5-year-old girl who lives on the Yamuna Floodplain. Her parents, like the majority of those living on the plain, have no skills other than farming. Priya lives with her parents, two brothers and two sisters. Nobody in the family has received any education, as the expectation is that they will join the family farming business. As soon as they are of age, they will learn to harvest vegetables, which their...