We are Ahimsa, a non-profit social enterprise focusing on bringing personal, social and health education to the youth of India through our illustrated children’s books Alisha’s Adventures. Our mission is to create a shift in stigma among the Indian communities by normalising PSHE issues. As of now, we have created our first book Behaviour and Manners, which we have already distributed among several government schools and NGOs in India. Our second book on Puberty is currently under way, and we should be publishing it within the month.
Over the years, we have fundraised over £1200 for the manufacturing and printing of our books and hope to adopt a sustainable business model in the future where we sell our books to NGOs for a small profit and then use this profit to give books free of cost or at a subsidised price to local schools in India.
Beyond books, however, we have created a website as a means to globally spread our message- on it, we provide free PSHE content, a blog, along with our new initiative AhimsaConnect.
AhimsaConnect is an online platform that bridges small, unheard NGOs in India with sponsors and donors globally. Through this, we hope to create a diverse network of communities working towards the same mission as us.
As for the future, we really hope to kick off our AhimsaConnect project, truly allowing small organisations that are doing brilliant work on the ground get the support they need. It will also make our business sustainable, as the model of AhimsaConnect can continue to run without our input.
We have also delivered several talks in school, encouraging the youth to take up social entrepreneurship. We truly hope to spread our message and encourage others to dream big and start something up too.
Molisha Shah and Aanya Tanti (L6)
