About Brave Souls Foundation:
Brave Souls Foundation is a Delhi-based NGO focused on working with survivors of acid attacks. The organization adapts a holistic model of engaging with survivors through immediate support and outreach when they are notified of an incident to providing legal aid, medical support, psycho-social support, education, family counseling, rehabilitation, and reintegration support to a survivor. This model is informed through a survivor’s lens since the organization was founded and led by Shaheen, an acid attack survivor herself who has faced the challenges associated with figuring out legal support mechanisms, the cost of accessing healthcare, social stigma, and lack of job opportunities.
Here’s an attempt to give readers a glimpse of everything we experienced at Brave Souls Foundation, through the eyes of the people of Brave Souls, and our journey right from the moment we stepped into what felt like a warm and welcoming home, or as they call it, “Apna Ghar”.
People of Brave Souls Foundation:
Through our journey at the field visit, we had a chance to meet the extremely driven team that Shaheen has put together for a cause she feels deeply passionately about. The incredible team includes survivors who manage day-to-day operations of the shelter home, lawyers who dedicatedly manage the legal aspects of their programs (compensations, filing writs), and other staff members who manage social media, administration, accounting as well as the shelter and psycho-social support to survivors outside of Delhi.
Amongst this team, we had a chance to interact closely with some and capture their thoughts on the organization’s journey thus far, their roles within the organization, and what the future holds for the organization in their eyes.
Shaheen Malik (Founder and Trustee)
1. Shaheen Malik (Founder and Trustee)
Shaheen founded Brave Souls Foundation in 2021, 12 years after she faced an attack. While Shaheen shared about her recovery journey as a survivor over they years, what was exceptional in all of this was her journey as a sector professional working in with several other organizations supporting acid attack survivors.
Shaheen spoke in depth about the challenges a survivor faces beyond facial disfigurement, in terms of their medical complications which pose physical limitations alongside the mental trauma associated with an incident like this. Survivors are usually attacked at a critical time in their lives- 18-25, which is a critical time in one’s life in terms of one’s education and career. Not only is the aftermath of an attack a long and difficult journey, but the treatment costs are extremely high, going up to 30-35 Lakhs per survivor in their entire lifetime. Without a stable source of income, one cannot afford even regular medication (costs of which can go to 8k-10k per month), let alone surgical expenses. Reintegration into the formal education system is a major challenge given the trauma associated with an incident of attack.
Besides physical health support, Shaheen talked about the need for mental health support for survivors and the lack of it – “People barely understand the physical pain we go through, how are they ever going to understand the mental trauma a survivor goes through?”
Despite all odds, Shaheen went on to chart out a strong career path for herself whilst supporting other survivors as she now runs a shelter home in Delhi called ‘Apna Ghar’ and another one in Kolkata where survivors from all across the country find their ‘own home’.
“The work I do at Brave Souls Foundation made me experience a level of satisfaction that I have not experienced in the last many years. Each surgery helps slowly restore a survivor’s identity and confidence, as we need to understand that the crime of throwing acid stems from the deep-rooted importance of a woman’s facial appearance in our cultural context”, says Shaheen.
Reshma Bano Qureshi (Office Manager)
2. Reshma Bano Qureshi (Office Manager)
“Reshma is a constant source of support for me and the organization and also a key contributor in me starting Brave Souls in the first place”, said Shaheen as we were introduced to Reshma.
“I never thought we would reach as many people as we have or how big this was going to be, I just suggested that Shaheen Appi (elder sister) should start the organization and I knew she would succeed in this journey. She has been through this herself and understands what it means to be a survivor”.
Reshma exudes positivity in her approach as she talks about how survivors often reaching out to her at odd hours does not concern her, “I feel as though I must take those calls, no matter what” says Reshma.
Reshma looks at the overall management of the ‘Apna Ghar’ shelter home – including food and nutritional requirements, medicines, consultations, and ration distribution for all survivors supported by Brave Souls Foundation. She expressed the challenges in the sector about acid attack survivors, especially concerning survivors solely being used as a piece of content and being left without the organizations extending any actual support to them.
Brave Souls Foundation is a special place for Reshma and all other survivors who spend even a single day at ‘Apna Ghar’, where they come closer to living a better life, of dignity and independence. “We go out for trips; when the entire team leaves office, all of us go and chat with Shaheen Appi for hours, and often talk about our dream to go to Goa for a trip together!”
Brave Souls Foundation continues to be a home away from home for survivors even after they leave the shelter. “We continue to keep in touch with them regularly since reintegration into one’s family and the larger society is also a challenging process that we need to support them through,” says Reshma.
Ali Zia Kabir Choudhary (Principal Advisor)
3. Ali Zia Kabir Choudhary (Principal Advisor)
Kabir is a lawyer and the Principal Advisor at Brave Souls Foundation. Kabir and Shaheen for us were an example of what a truly strong team looks like, not just in terms of complementing each other’s skill sets at work but also in terms of understanding one’s co-worker as an individual, there is a lot one can learn from the two.
Kabir spoke about the several legal challenges that an acid attack survivor goes through. Even with a legal support person, accessing compensation is complicated as it is assessed on a case-by-case basis since there is no direct policy that governs systemic support for acid attack survivors.
In the case of male acid attack survivors, accessing legal support is even more challenging as there is no compensation benchmarked for them. The repercussions of this include losing access to any form of income or support system for families who are dependent on male members as the sole bread earners. Besides, survivors who do not have visible facial disfigurement but internal injuries due to acid burns also face challenges in accessing support under any provisions. Beyond understanding challenges in accessing legal support for survivors themselves, there were key takeaways on the larger sector-level challenges for organizations offering legal support – predominantly associated with access, costs, and human resources.
Talking about Shaheen and her journey as a proximate leader, extremely engrossed in her day-to-day as a founder of the organization, Kabir highlighted the need to focus on one’s self, health, and wellbeing, which continues to be a challenge for most grassroots NGO leaders, especially those who are directly from the community. The importance of mental health for organizational staff, and the need to step out for retreats are things Kabir continues to reiterate and drive in the organizational culture.
The Road Ahead; A Café of One’s Own:
Shaheen is a strong and resilient leader, building an organization that is equipped to support survivors through their recovery journey and has truly achieved a remarkable feat in an extremely short span of four years. However, as someone relatively new to the sector, she continues to face challenges in aspects like fundraising due to limited access within the sector.
She aims to internally strengthen the organization, and focus on capacity-building initiatives – communications, MLE, strategic fundraising, and leveraging peer-network connects in the sector. With her team, she dreams of building a sustainable source of income for survivors by opening their own survivor-run cafeteria, to financially empower them post the incident. The hope is to support them in overcoming the challenges faced by survivors in traditional job markets that are not as willing to hire them given their facial disfigurement, and inability to spend long hours on computers due to the damage caused to their eyes from acid burn.
The café is not merely an intervention, but a dream that Reshma and all the survivors continue to envision for themselves. “The next time you come here, I’m sure you’ll visit us in our café”, says Reshma.
Shaheen aims to continue expanding her work to other states to support survivors at a larger scale across the country.
“Brave Souls is built on the foundation that we will never say no to accommodating a survivor of any form of violence, and we want to continue expanding our work to do this more effectively”, says Shaheen.
Supporting Brave Souls in the Journey Ahead:
Brave Souls Foundation was inducted as part of Rebuild’s 5th Cohort of NGOs, and our visit exposed us to the immense number of ways in which one can support organizations that are still young but thriving! You can support Brave Souls Foundation in any of the following ways:
a. Fundraising for the Survivor Run Cafeteria: Brave Souls Foundation is currently on its journey to set up the survivor-run cafeteria and seeking financial and in-kind support for various aspects of this intervention – human resource costs, set-up costs, skill development, connections with any popular restaurant chains, etc.
b. Networks and Connects: As a young organization in the sector, they could benefit from collaboration, peer connects, or support the organization across thematic areas like legal support provision, engaging men and boys in conversations around gender-based violence, or means of community mobilization.
c. Financial Assistance for Health and Education: Support from educational and health institutions for acid attack survivors through scholarships, medication support, other necessities like sunscreens and sunglasses, and aid for treatment costs.
If you are an individual or an organization who believes that they can support the organization across any of these fronts, please reach out to Udita Shome (uditashome@dasra.org) from the Rebuild India Fund team.
