CRY- Child Rights and You America Inc

Mission

In 1979 in Bombay, India, 25 year-old Rippan Kapur, along with 6 like-minded friends, pooled together Rs. 50, (approximately $1) as well as their core belief that every person has the potential and power to make a difference in the lives of children, and thus CRY - Child Relief And You was born. Twenty-eight years later, CRY is one of the leading Child Rights organizations in India with an established reputation of effectiveness and trust, that has enhanced the lives of 1.5 million children.CRY America Inc., an independent 501c3 registered non-profit organization, was established in November 2002 to represent CRY in the US. CRY America aims to garner support in the US for India?s children. Our raison d?etre is hence to ensure that the story of India?s children is heard, and to enable people and organizations to take action for children.In summary, CRY America works towards restoring basic rights to underprivileged children, primarily those in India. The idea is to create effective grassroots change movements in India that will empower marginalized communities to build sustainable futures for their children.Mission: To enable people to take responsibility for the situation of the deprived child, especially Indian, and so motivate them to confront the situation through collective action thereby giving the child and themselves an opportunity to realize their full potential.

Programs

CRY has learned that the only way to make lasting change happen is to adopt what we call the child rights approach. Stripped of all jargon, what this entails is:i.first, looking at childrens issues in their entirety, rather than through the narrow prisms of education, health, child labor, child abuse, feticide/ infanticide etc. ii.then, seeking the underlying root causes of the deprivation, gender, caste, livelihoods, displacement and the likeiii.and finally, mobilizing each local community to find long-term solutions to these problems by ensuring the relevant laws and policies that guarantee their rights are actually implementedCRY Americas activities are aimed at achieving the long term outcome of creating A JUST SOCIETY in which all children enjoy the rights of survival, protection, development, and participation as defined by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989. i) Civic Engagement: CRY America supports volunteer-led Action Centers across the US with the goal of building a nation-wide volunteer base committed to Child Rights. Volunteers work among their colleagues, friends, family and local community to create awareness about the situation of underprivileged children and help harness resources, (both financial and non-financial). The aim is to enhance or create communities where there were none before -.communities that are bonded by social purpose. ii) Fundraising: CRY America partners with individuals, networks, corporations and foundations to raise funds. Some key fund-raising strategies include direct mail, promoting and marketing the organization through the website www.america.cry.org and facilitating events.iii) Grant Making: CRY America provides high-engagement philanthropy to development initiatives focused on Child Rights especially in India. The criteria for selecting initiatives to support in India is determined by district-wise analysis of child-rights parameters like infant mortality, school enrolment, gender ratios, the incidence of poverty and the prevalence of social ills like caste discrimination, female infanticide, child labor, child trafficking, exploitation and abuse. These need-based criteria are overlaid with an analysis of the availability of other government and private resources to ensure that resources are directed towards those issues and geographies that are relatively resource scarce. Finally, the criteria of innovation and replicability are applied, to identify nascent initiatives that offer the best promise of impact. With the aim of enabling sustainable instruments of social change, CRY America then provides selected grassroots initiatives with: financial support, program development, organizational capacity building, training, networking, perspective building on Child Rights and Programmatic and Financial Accountability