The Swiss Chamber of Commerce is grateful that it had the opportunity to make a donation to the Children’s Khazana Foundation. This Foundation is a newly founded independent organization in the Netherlands in 2015, by three female executives working in the Financial Services sector.
Khazana’s aim is to provide funds to the Children’s Development Khazana (CDK) program of the Hamara Foundation. Hamara Foundation initially started in 1989 as a field action project of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) by Prof. Asha Rane in response to the emerging problems of street children in the city of Mumbai. The primary goal of Hamara Foundation is to empower children on the street so that they have a chance for a better quality of life.
The primary objective of the CDK program is to have a positive impact on the lives and futures of children living in the slums by helping them breaking the cycle of poverty.
In CDK, members organize general body meetings, nominate their own child volunteer managers (for six months) and members for the advance committee, who are then provided training to handle their responsibilities of basic book-keeping & accountancy, communication skills and to work in a team. As part of the practicum, children manage their own Khazanas on cooperative principles at set timings and members focus on becoming entrepreneurs or learning a professional skill and overcoming their situation of poverty and insecurity. The core objective of CDK is to promote life skills education through democratic participation, and inculcate knowledge of cooperative and financial management, fundamentals of management, accountancy & banking principles and promoting entrepreneurship.