May 2007
The Unforgotten is founded in the USA, with headquarters in Maryland. In the next two years Board Members raise funds for projects and hire in-country staff to execute them.
March 2009
The Unforgotten begins development of the first rainwater harvesting project in Wangni, India, in the state of Maharashtra. Construction is completed in April 2010. The stored water now provides each of the 60 people in the area with 5 litres of safe and clean drinking water during the dry season. The water harvesting system is operational to this day.
June 2009
In coordination with KKPKP (a union of wastepickers, in Pune, India), The Unforgotten begins the sponsorship of child wastepickers from the slums of Pune, India. Initially, 15 children are enrolled when the school year begins. Children stop wastepicking and attend school instead. In June 2010, the program is expanded to 31 child wastepickers and the sponsorship of 33 primary school age girls at the Bal Shikshan Orphanage in Sangamner, India.
July 2010
The Unforgotten – Zambia is registered in Lusaka, Zambia. The Unforgotten begins working closely with the Zambian Ministry of Community Development to identify water projects and child wastepickers.
January 2011
The Unforgotten begins support of child wastepickers and their mothers, at the trash dump in Chingwere, Zambia. Initially 13 children and 7 mothers are supported. As of today, 28 children and 20 mothers are supported.
March 2011
The Unforgotten completes the installation of a borehole and handpump in Ngwerere, a community with a population of 7,000 in Zambia, Africa. The beneficiaries include the villagers of Ngwerere as well as travellers who come to the nearby health clinic and women’s shelter (approximately 500 people per year).
January 2012
The Unforgotten staff travel to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to plan a pilot-scale program to provide aid to child wastepickers and their mothers. The Unforgotten – Sierra Leone is registered in September 2013.
February 2012
The Unforgotten partners with a UK based charity, “Kabanana Care (Zambia) Trust” to create a water supply in Kabanana, Zambia, to benefit orphans affected with AIDS. In September 2012, The Unforgotten and Kabanana Care Trust complete the installation of a water supply that serves 150 HIV/AIDS orphans and 300 people of the neighboring community.
May 2012
The Unforgotten signs a four-year contract with the Mapalo Trust School to create a “Center for the Unforgotten” for enrolled The Unforgotten children.
March 2013
Dining for Women (DFW) selects The Unforgotten for a $41,100 grant, to provide aid to 100 mothers and 50 daughters presently surviving as wastepickers in Pune, India. Funds will be used to provide microloans and skills training for the mothers, and to pay for the educational expenses of the daughters.
June 2013
20 mothers (2 Self Help Groups) from Panmala Vasahat (a wastepicker slum in Pune, India) begin a three-month long tailoring course. 10 girl children begin receiving educational support. Program will be scaled up over a two year period to 100 mothers and 50 daughters with DFW funding.
October 2013
The Unforgotten is DFW’s featured charity of the month. DFW members raise funds for The Unforgotten.
January 2014
The Unforgotten constructs small schools in the bomehs (trashdumps) of Freetown, Sierra Leone — one in King Tom and one in Kissy. Schools will serve as bridge programs to prepare girls for primary school.
January 2014
Planète Urgence sends filmmakers Alain and Michelle to Pune, India, to help The Unforgotten make a documentary. They train our local staff.
March 2014
The Unforgotten starts schooling girls in the King Tom bomeh of Freetown, Sierra Leone. 10 girls begin the program.
May 2014
The Unforgotten starts schooling girls at the Kissy Bomeh in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Another 10 girls begin the program.
May 2014
Ebola epidemic strikes Sierra Leone. The brave Amanda Ward of the Unforgotten travels to Sierra Leone for the summer.
August 2014
The Unforgotten conducts Ebola sensitization workshops, and provides needed supplies to avoid spread of disease to the women and children in our programs.
November 2014
The Unforgotten starts an Agricultural Project in Chingwere, Zambia to empower mothers surviving as wastepickers. The project is intended for the women to raise chickens and pigs, to provide for their families and to sell excess meat, eggs and produce. The Unforgotten purchases arable land and improves the property with a borehole, exterior walls, chicken coup, pigsty and water drainage/irrigation. At the time of project initiation, 22 mothers are in the program.
June 2017
The Unforgotten is accepted into the the United Nations Association Council of Organizations — a grouping of NGOs that predates the UN that helped to draft its charter.
August 2017
Flooding in Sierra Leone slum communities. The Unforgotten team helps flood victims and recovery efforts.
October 2017
Mariama Jimmy, the project manager of the Wi Yone Moni Project (Women’s Self Help Group) in Sierra Leone wins a scholarship to attend the Sustainable Microfinance Development Program in Accra, Ghana. She now applies lessons learned to our field projects.
December 2017
The Unforgotten’s Shalini Puri starts a project in Shimla, India to support orphans.
December 2017
The Unforgotten, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Pune Shivajinagar, deliver 108 bikes to girls in rural schools around Pune, India, to endable them to continue their schooling.
February 2018
Shalini travels to Shimla, India, to deliver backpacks, school supplies, and gifts for orphans.
June 2018
The Unforgotten’s Executive Director (Amit Kapadia) elected as Chair of United Nations Association’s Humanitarian Relief Committee.
August 2018
The Unforgotten’s Capital Projects Director Ramé Hemstreet travels to Zambia to assess progress of projects. The animal husbandry cooperative is intended to permit the mothers in our program to become self sufficient. Until then, The Unforgotten continues to provide supplemental food assistance.
December 2018
The Unforgotten starts water, sanitation and hygiene projects (WASH) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh for Rohingya refugees. The Unforgotten partners with SPACE to execute projects under the auspices of the United Nations Association Humanitarian Relief Committee in Camps 5 and 17.
March 2019
Amit Kapadia and Carolyn Ross from the Unforgotten travel to Bangladesh to visit project sites and to assess progress of WASH programs.
September 2019
Vedrana Pantic Velickovic, Aaisha Bhuiyan and Nahiyan Naser from the Unforgotten Board travel to the Rohingya refugee camps to close out WASH projects and to assess program effectiveness. Projects completed include 4 deep tube wells for drinking water (benefiting 500 people), 4 community toilets (benefiting 107 people), 8 women’s bathing and hygiene management facilities (benefiting 140 women). Total project cost of $31,801 USD.
October 2019
The Unforgotten starts a health post project in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh for Rohingya refugees. Project will benefit 100 to 150 patients each day. Health Post is deep inside the Camps and desperately needed, especially to provide prenatal and postnatal care for mothers and their children. At the time of project initiation, only one in five children is born in a health facility in the camps. Project is executed in partnership with Global One UK under the auspices of the United Nations Association Humanitarian Relief Committee.
January 2024
The Unforgotten starts a program to educate 20 child wastepickers in Kallyanpur Pora Bosti in Dhaka Bangladesh on Jan 1, 2024.