Shrimati Malati Dahanukar Trust has been established in May 1960 by the Late Mr. ML Dahanukar who established Maharashtra Sugar Mills in Shrirampur, SMDT has been helping children get their rights to a healthy childhood and access to quality education. By empowering the women and self-help groups it is achieving financial parity among villagers to avail healthcare, education and nutrition. Through its various sustainable initiatives, SMDT is ensuring that we inhabit a healthier environment where animals are treated with as much care and concern as we enjoy.

Positive social change which is scalable and replicable is something that we NGO’s always strive towards. Sometimes, the passion alone is not sufficient, but what is needed is a structured method to address the issue at hand. After all, while dealing with communities one has to factor in a multitude of interlinked factors and understand what influences behavioral change.

Once we devised such a developmental model, we meticulously implemented it in Tilaknagar – Shrirampur during the year 2013-14. Not only did the model work very well, we were positively surprised at the immediate measurable results that a holistic community driven developmental model yielded.

While concrete steps towards change were undertaken in the year 2013-14, the year 2014-15 will now see us taking the holistic developmental model to reach out to the nearby villages. Thus was born this year’s theme “Lets Reach Out”. The issues being addressed by SMDT are prevalent in almost all the neighboring villages, degree of severance varying from location to location. It is this faith in a holistic developmental model through community participation that is compelling us to reach out to many more needy communities this year.

While, the journey towards sustainable and equitable communities has only begun, it is reassuring to have found the right path.