BENEFICIARY: Pinky Mangaldas Parmar, India

Pinky Mangaldas Parmar,19, was devastated when she was forced to drop out of school. Life in the slums of Ahmedabad meant watching her father struggle with tuberculosis as her family went hungry.

“I am the eldest and I feel a lot of responsibility. I had to earn money for my father’s treatment and my siblings’ education. I thought I would have to sacrifice my love of studying,” she recalls.

Pinky’s situation led her to the Saath and its Umeed programme which creates links to the job market for young slum residents by teaching them life skills, technical subjects and basic English. She is now enrolled on an internet technology course and counts herself among the 19,000 young people reached by Umeed.

Funding from The British Asian Trust will enable the training of 15,000 young people to acquire a sustainable livelihood.

Story and photo by Manoj Pillai, outreach photographer at Creatives Against Poverty. All quotes are paraphrased.