Charities in Rishikesh - Doing Something Meaningful Out of Your Yoga Retreat

Finding a deserving non-profit organization in Rishikesh to support can be a difficult task. There are many big charitable organizations in Rishikesh. Even the ashrams in Rishikesh are also involved in different forms of charity work. If you speak to the locals here, they might paint you a different picture of how these bigger charities work, especiallly those run by the ashrams in Rishikesh. But this should be in a different post.

I have chosen to highlight here 2 very small initiatives I found recently. They support the underprivileged in Rishikesh, and sometimes in the regions nearby, in different ways - food rations, medication costs, education fees, children day care centers, individual help for  difficult circumstances, etc. Their activities benefit the beneficiaries directly without all the resources wasted in bureaucratic matters or having the donated money passing through too many hands. These are joint efforts by both Indians, Rishikesh locals and foreign volunteers, doing what they can to care for the community they live in.

Atma Seva - they have a website as well but this Facebook page here has plenty of current updates about their work

Freedom Group Rishikesh - focuses more on the children in Rishikesh

If you have more time out of your yoga retreat or travel schedule and would like to spend some time getting to know the Rishikesh community better, I have written in another post about volunteering in Rishikesh.

Food rations by Atma Seva (photo from their facebook page)