You Don't Need a Reason to Help People
Maitri : Identity, Dignity, and Respect
Derived from the Sanskrit word for compassion and loving-kindness, Maitri is a New Delhi-based developmental humanitarian NGO founded in 2005. True compassion means deeply understanding the emotional and physical needs of others without judgment. Grounded in this principle, Maitri is fiercely committed to securing every individual's fundamental human rights—most notably the rights to Identity, Dignity, and Respect.
Over the past two decades, Maitri has directly transformed the lives of more than 250,000 beneficiaries. By addressing severe social inequities and public health concerns at the grassroots level, the organization acts as a lifeline for India’s most marginalized populations.
History
In 2005, Lt. General Bhopinder Singh (Retd) and Winnie Singh founded Maitri in Shillong, Meghalaya. Recognising increase in cases of domestic violence amongst the soldiers in the uniform services, impacting the health of the soldiers and the families, the need to address Domestic Violence was felt in the Uniformed services and to support members of the Uniformed Services affected by HIV/AIDS in the North-East in India. The journey from Shillong was of learning, compassion and supporting the communities with information, awareness about gender based violence, its impact on health and HIV/AIDS. We curated issue based Film Festival in Shillong, on HIV along with road shows and corner meetings with film stars and the community, an International Conference on AIDS, with former President APJ Kalaam, as the keynote speaker. It gave the desired result, that Since 2007, Maitri has expanded its areas of reach through a variety of projects.