About Us
Who we are
The Harbour Society was formed over three decades ago to serve the socioeconomically weaker communities of Pune City and beyond. Our objective is to “Provide the marginalized and weaker sections of the society a helping hand to restore dignity and value to life and also improve their standard of living”. We are committed to achieving these goals through various schemes such as educational institutions, relief and rehabilitation work in the Red-Light area, Educational Hostels for marginalized children, Microcredit for poor women of the urban areas etc.
Pune city has grown more than ten times in the last four decades. Hence, the need is greater than ever before.
History
Saddened by the plight of impoverished children wandering on the Dhole Patil Road in the city, a group of concerned citizens in 1993 joined hands to actively target begging and loitering. Harbour was registered in November of the same year as a Charitable Trust called the Harbour Society. Harbour is a place of refuge from the storm and our goal is to provide a shelter for those who are vulnerable to the storms of life. Since then, we have expanded our vision to reach out to those who are victims of societal problems such as poverty, violence, abandonment and victims of natural disasters. Apart from these, we also provide education to children from underprivileged backgrounds.
Our Approach
Our Mission
1. Educational Hostels for children coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.
2. Provide vocational training and adult literacy classes for sex workers and tuitions for their children.
3. School for children from low socio-economic groups.
4. Microcredit for impoverished women in urban areas.
5. Societal transformation through Traffic Awareness Campaigns
6. Relief for victims of natural disasters
Our Vision
The Harbour Society endeavors to uplift the downtrodden of our city and beyond through schooling, skill development, value education, microcredit etc. to enable them to become productive, self assured, citizens of our nation.
Bird’s Eye View of Our Work So Far
• Medical and Relief work for victims of Latur Earthquake in 1993
• Rehabilitation of 42 slum dwellers in ‘Pucca’ houses in Kothrud in collaboration with Birla AT&T
• Balwadi (Kindergarten school) for children of rehabilitated families
• Medical and relief work to victims of Bhuj Earthquake in 2001
• Harbour City School, since 2010 for socio-economically disadvantaged children (presently the school is in suspension to add additional floors to the school building)
• Four Educational Hostels for disadvantaged students
• Building ‘Pucca’ houses in Tadiwala road and in Nasrapur for poor families
• Microcredit to a number of impoverished women to start micro enterprises
• Educational scholarships to students for higher education
• Traffic Awareness Campaign in Pune City, since 2018 in coordination with corporates and educational institutions.
• Flood relief assistance to families affected by the 2018 Kerala flood
• Monthly financial support for one year in 2021-22 for 12 Covid affected families whose primary caregiver died of the COVID pandemic