In service to humanity: HOPE celebrates 50 years

2024 is a very special year for HOPE: The NGO that was founded in 1974 celebrates its 50th anniversary. To commemorate this major milestone in its history, HOPE had invited more than 700 supporters, benefactors, staff, beneficiaries, and friends to the official Jubilee celebration on 16 March, 2024. Chief Guest was Rt. Rev. John Rodrigues, Bishop of Poona.

It was in 1974 that HOPE’s founder, late Sr. Noelline Pinto, started to teach poor women in the rural suburb of Pune. Topics were practical and related to daily life: hygiene, education of children, proper cleaning and cooking. And not only the topics were hands-on: Due to the lack of resources, the trainings took place in the open, in the shadow of a tree.

Since these humble beginnings, HOPE has gone a long way. Vocational trainings were added to HOPE’s agenda, activities for children, and a wide range of offers to empower, support, advise women and equip them with knowledge and skills to come up in life. And it has worked: In its 50 years of work, roughly 40.000 women and children have benefited from HOPE’s various offers, have prospered and grown and gained self-employment and upward mobility, true to HOPE’s long-standing mission: “Transformation through education”.

To celebrate this major milestone in its history, HOPE had invited more than 700 supporters, benefactors, staff, beneficiaries, and friends to the official Jubilee celebration on 16 March, 2024 at Vadgaon Sheri, Pune. The Chief Guest was Rt. Rev. John Rodrigues, Bishop of Poona. Guests of Honor were Sr. Bromadine Palokaran, Provincial Superior SCC, Pune Province, and Mrs. Marion Rigling, Journalist, Germany. The event was framed by a versatile program of dancing, singing and other performances, including a play highlighting HOPE’s 50-year story.