Samarpan Foundation

Samarpan Foundation is an Indian charitable organisation founded in 2006 that works with people living in urban slums and other low income communities. It runs free schools and tuition centres, health and medical support, women's livelihood programmes, animal welfare work and disaster relief. Its stated position is that good health, education, food, housing and freedom are the base conditions for development, and that progress counts only when it is shared. The work is community based and long running rather than campaign led, with several of its school centres operating in the same neighbourhoods for over fifteen years. It has been validated by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) India.

Major Areas of Work

• Education: Free schools and evening tuition centres for children in slum and low income settlements, extending to board exam support, career guidance and alumni transitions into work or higher study.

• Health: Screening and treatment camps, vaccination drives, assistive devices, and patient and caregiver support at hospitals including AIIMS in Delhi.

• Women's Empowerment: Craft and tailoring livelihoods for women artisans, plus awareness work on menstrual health, financial provisions and documentation.

• Support to Families of Prisoners: Direct work with women and children of incarcerated people, who carry both the household burden and the social stigma.

• Animal Welfare: Feeding, rescue, vaccination and shelter for street dogs and cats, run largely through volunteer teams.

• Environment: Waste, recycling and climate sessions for students, tree and mangrove nursery work, and construction methods using PET bottles and fishnet.

Major Initiatives and Programmes

• Samarpan Schools and Tuition Centres: Its core programme, with centres in Delhi (Kishangarh, Kotla, Aya Nagar), Bengaluru (Bagalur) and Goa (Chimbel), covering both full school teaching and evening tuition support.

• Injustice of Justice (IJOJ): A Delhi project working with the families of incarcerated individuals, running health camps, emotional wellbeing workshops and direct family support.

• Women's Empowerment Programme: Trains and employs women artisans in Delhi centres including Malviya Nagar and Kishangarh, with their work exhibited at the Bridal Asia fashion exhibitions in Delhi and Mumbai.

• Animal Welfare Wing: Runs feeding drives, rabies vaccination camps, a water bowl programme for street animals in summer, and a cat shelter in Bengaluru.

• SPARCC (Samarpan Program for Adoption, Research, Consultancy and Care): A Pune based programme working on adoption, including documenting the journeys of adoptive parents as guidance for others.

The schools are the flagship. Each centre combines classroom teaching with sports, theatre, art, taekwondo, summer camps and field visits, and follows students past school into entrepreneurship training, vocational choices and first jobs. Several current teachers are former students of the same centres.

Impact

Samarpan states its work spans centres in Delhi, Goa, Bengaluru, Pune and Chennai, with past relief work in Tamil Nadu, Nepal, Haiti and South Africa; its own site cites over 2,000 beneficiaries reached in a single clothing distribution and around 1,000 people supported in one Delhi winter blanket drive. Its Shastri Park School and Tuition Centre received the SABERA Award, and it maintains partnerships with CanSupport, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, BC Jindal Foundation, United Colors of Benetton, AXA XL India, Bangalore Baptist Hospital, Centre for Sight, Saahas and Manzil Mystics.

Leadership

• Patrick San Francesco, Founder Trustee and Chairperson
• Romaine San Francesco, Project Director, Chennai

Working here suits someone who wants to be inside a community rather than above it. The centres are small, the same children are known by name over years, and staff carry a wide brief: teaching, health camps, family counselling, animal rescue and donor visits can all land in one month. It gives direct exposure to slum education, prison affected families, women's livelihoods and animal welfare across five Indian cities, and to a large partner network of hospitals, corporate foundations and arts organisations. It fits people who prefer continuity and direct contact over short project cycles.