Who we are
A community organisation working where help is needed most — and where too few others reach.
Our story
Founded in 2010, built on one belief
Zaitoon Educational & Welfare Society was officially established in 2010 by people who refused to accept that a child's future should be decided by their family's income and backgrounds.
Since then we have run educational projects and welfare work across Siddharth Nagar, always guided by the same conviction: that the way out of Marginalisation, Deprivation and Exploitations are through Education and Training.
The name Zaitoon — the olive — stands for the peace, growth and resilience we want to see take root in this community.
The region we serve
Siddharth Nagar, Uttar Pradesh
To understand our work, it helps to understand where we work — and why so little help arrives here on its own.
An unwritten language
The everyday language of the area is a spoken dialect with no written form. Children grow up without the written mother tongue that makes learning harder.
Schooling only the few can buy
Poor families cannot pay for Education and Educational necessities, so the poorest children never enrol — and the cycle Marginalisation, Deprivation and Exploitations
No work close to home
There are no factories, and farmland has been divided down the generations until it can no longer support a family. Work means, for men and boys, leaving for big cities and women and children staying at home.
Migration and exploitation
Most of the time men and boys travel to Delhi, Mumbai and other cities for work. Without qualifications or the city's language, many end up exploited in the shanty towns — women and girls most of all.
A word of welcome
From our founder
Dear friends — welcome to the Zaitoon family. If you can read these lines, you are among the fortunate ones; millions cannot. In places like Siddharth Nagar, illiteracy is so widespread that daily life is hard to describe.
Bringing about positive changes isn't easy, that's why we are resisting and we will not give up until every child is educated.
We established Zaitoon Educational and Welfare Society because we believe the answer to Marginalisation, Deprivation and Exploitations are in Education and Training. We ask you to join us in making the change this community has waited so long for.
Your help and support will make this most needed work easier.
— Ozair Akhtar, President
How we work
Our approach
Reach the poorest first
We prioritise the children and families that are in need most.
Education that leads to work
We pair schooling with job-oriented and vocational training, so learning translates into a livelihood people can build at home.
Lift girls and women
We invest deliberately in girls and women, because their education changes the direction of a whole family and community.
Rooted in the community
We are run by and for the people of the area — accountable to the families we exist to serve.
Careful stewardship
We keep our operations lean and transparent so that support goes as far as it possibly can.
In it for the long term
Real change is generational. We are building institutions meant to outlast any single campaign.
Governance & transparency
Run responsibly
Zaitoon is a registered educational and welfare society governed by a committee drawn from the community it serves. We operate to a full set of safeguarding, child-protection and financial policies.
- A registered society — Society Reg. No. G-46588
- FCRA registered — FCRA Reg. No. 137360019
- Governed by a management committee
- Safeguarding and child-protection policies in place
Help us keep going
The need is still here — and so are we. Stand with the families of Siddharth Nagar.