Aid for Wastepickers
The Unforgotten provides direct humanitarian aid and emergency relief to wastepickers and other vulnerable, often overlooked populations worldwide, with zero overhead. These are long-term projects, and to this date, we are still one of the only charities in the world focused on these vulnerable women and children.
International Wastepickers Day
This year for International Wastepickers Day we would like to announce our new program in Dhaka, Bangladesh, educating 20 former child wastepickers. To help implement the program, we will be partnering with SPACE, a non-profit working in the slums in Dhaka.
March 1st is International Wastepickers Day. Originally recognized as a day of remembrance for the wastepickers who were murdered in Colombia in 1992; in their honor, March 1st became a global day where wastepickers can coordinate and bring to light the various struggles they face on a daily basis.
For more information, please take a look at the Mar 2024 edition of our newsletter.
No Overhead
The Unforgotten is committed to executing humanitarian relief projects at little to no overhead costs. Our charity is managed in the US by a very active volunteer Board of Directors. Our paid staff are forward-deployed to the field, or working completely on projects. We consistently receive donor support in campaigns like the CFC (Combined Federal Campaign) where donors seek out charities with the lowest overhead costs. Our charity overhead percentage of 0% is documented in our annual Form 990 filings, and we annually have our books externally audited by a CPA (who performs the service to us pro bono). We have received the 2017 “Gold Seal of Transparency” from Guidestar, and are certified as one of the “Best in America” from “America’s Best Charities”.
International Programs
We have ongoing, completed and planned projects in Bangladesh, Zambia, India, Sierra Leone, Nepal, Yemen, Djibouti.
Our Newsletter
Please take a look at the Mar 2024 edition of our newsletter.
Recent News
Aid for Child Wastepickers in Nepal
Thanks to your generous support, we are launching a new program in Kathmandu, Nepal for child wastepickers!
With this new project, The Unforgotten will partner with the Partnership for Sustainable Development (PSD) in Nepal to organize a series of programs aimed to address the needs of wastepickers in Kathmandu.
The aim of this partnership and the resulting program is to provide wastepickers, particularly children and their mothers, with sustainable skills that can help them achieve better standards of living through formal education, vocational, and practical work skills training.
This effort will be led by Shalini Puri and Shailaja (Sally) Brady. Feel free to reach out to them directly if you are interested in volunteering at shalini.puri@unforgotten.org and/or sally.brady@unforgotten.org
Milestone
Congrats to Christine! She is off to university to study medicine!
We started working in Zambia in 2011, with a cohort of grade schoolers. She was just a small child when we started. And thanks to all of you, we have our first student at university!
You Can Help!
Provide desperately needed relief to child wastepickers! 100% of your donation goes directly towards program services to improve their lives.
Projects
The Unforgotten implements projects in the field to provide life-saving humanitarian aid. Our emergency projects provide services in: 1 - Water supply, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), 2 - Food security, 3 - Shelter, and 4 - Health. Our longer term projects in UN Refugee camps include education, income generation and women’s empowerment.
Emergency Relief Projects
WASH – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
We install emergency drinking water supplies to provide refugees with access to safe drinking water. We drill boreholes, and install pumps to draw clean water from the ground. Safe drinking prevents water borne illnesses such as cholera and saves lives!
Hunger Relief
The children and their mothers who look through trash for food to eat are highly malnourished. We provide meals and meal supplements to the children whom we support.
Long Term Empowerment Projects
Education
We enroll children in primary school, and free them of the burden of needing to earn money by selling items found in the trash. We provide extra tutoring in bridge programs.
Income Generation
We provide microloans to the mothers of trash-dump children to start businesses, so that the families do not become dependent on our aid. The mothers have successfully used these microloans for opening small stores and for making and selling jewelry and dresses.
Our Partners
Humanitarian relief work in the world's emergencies would not be possible without them.