South Asia's dense cities and rural areas face intense resource competition. Interventions tackle climate challenges, food security, gender equity, and access to vital services.

South Asia is the world’s most populous region. Cities here are dense, resulting in intense competition for resources, a contest that becomes more acute as climate change accelerates. Yet many of the region’s residents are rural dwellers, isolated from access to infrastructure and quality of life services, such as education and healthcare. Many interventions in the region address these challenges, as well as food security, gender equity, and opportunities related to decent work and living wages.

Shanti Bhavan  For bringing life-changing education to India’s lowest caste  UN SDG: 4, Quality Education  India

Projects that attempt to make meaningful, life-changing impact often face skepticism. The ROI can be fuzzy and scaling them difficult, if not impossible. Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project built and opened a second school in Tamil Nadu, India, to serve 60 new students in 2024. No skepticism here — the model was so impactful that the school is the subject of the Netflix documentary “Daughters of Destiny.”

The school’s intense, immersive model selects one pre-K aged child from a family and commits to supporting them for at least the next dozen years, almost entirely through donor contributions. The school nurtures its students holistically throughout their academic careers, providing room and board, clothing, education, college counseling and placement support, healthcare, recreation opportunities, and mentoring — all at no cost to families — until the students graduate from college.

Since its founding in 1997, Shanti Bhavan has aimed to break cycles of intergenerational poverty by ensuring equitable educational opportunities for all students, regardless of caste or gender. A full 95 percent of Shanti Bhavan’s students come from India’s Dalit caste, often referred to as “untouchables.” Without Shanti Bhavan, these students would likely never receive formal education. Sixty percent of the school’s students hail from rural villages, while 40 percent come from urban slums. All the children come from families whose primary earners make less than $2 a day.

The new school features music and art rooms, a performance hall, and a counseling center, along with dorms and staff residences, creating comfortable and welcoming spaces for a new cohort of students who can benefit from the school’s comprehensive scope of services.