What I love about India
What makes India so special? Here are some of the things I came to love during my time living and working in Kolkata. So let’
We Fund What Makes It Possible
Dharma is a Norwegian nonprofit that supports women in developing countries through local partner organisations. Training, tools, materials, opportunity. Whatever the barrier is, we fund what removes it. Right now, 20 women in Kolkata are learning to tailor. And to earn. We fundraise here. Impact happens there.
● Live
📍 Boral, Kolkata
SuiDhaga — Kolkata Tailoring Programme
Free tailoring training for 20 women in Boral. Five months, real skills, a path to earning from home. We fund the materials. AIM Foundation delivers the programme.
20Women enrolled
5Month programme
4Payment milestones
Live fundraising progress
Updates automatically as donations come in
Who We Are
Our Values
Four words from our Articles of Association. Not aspirational. Actual.
Joy
This should be fun. If building something good isn’t enjoyable, something’s wrong. We celebrate the small stuff because the small stuff is where change actually happens.
Curiosity
We’d rather ask a stupid question than make an expensive assumption. Learn first, act second. And when someone on the ground tells us we’re wrong, that’s not a problem — that’s the system working.
Solidarity
We don’t swoop in with answers. We show up, listen, and fund what local partners already know works. The relationship matters more than the transaction. Always.
Courage
We show our numbers when they’re small. We publish what we don’t know yet. We picked a model most NGOs would call too slow. Being honest about where you are beats pretending you’re somewhere else.
The Name
Why “Dharma”?
Dharma means duty.
Not obligation. Not guilt. The kind of duty that comes from seeing a gap between what people are capable of and what the world lets them do, and deciding you can’t just watch.
The founder grew up in Norway. He didn’t earn that. At some point, acknowledging that privilege wasn’t enough. It had to go somewhere useful.
So he started asking: what if we could support women who want to help themselves? Not with handouts, but with the tools, training, and opportunity they actually need?
That question became this organisation.
Read the founder’s full story
What We Stand For
Our Four Pillars
01
Community-Centered Development
Who sits with the knowledge of the real problem? It is and always will be the people closest to the problem. Let’s support and guide people to solve their own problems.
02
Women’s Empowerment
It’s not about sending women to space. It’s about giving women the chance to achieve the same opportunities as men have, and maybe out-do men’s achievements.
03
Entrepreneurial Investment
Entrepreneurs have always been the drivers for innovation. Let’s give them a fighting chance to solve real big problems!
04
Storytelling & Partnerships
Let’s be honest, we won’t be able to do anything ourselves. “If you wanna get somewhere fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, go together.”
Current Project
Kolkata Tailoring Programme
In partnership with AIM Foundation · Boral, Kolkata
In Boral, a low-income district in southern Kolkata, many women want to earn, but formal jobs are out of reach. Social norms, safety constraints, and the absence of nearby opportunities keep them at home. For many, there’s simply been no pathway.
Through AIM Foundation’s SuiDhaga initiative, we’re funding the materials that make free tailoring and embroidery training possible for 20 women. By the end of the five-month course, each woman has a practical skill she can use from home: stitching orders, working with local tailoring units, or building her own small business.
For many participants, this is their first opportunity to earn an income of their own. Beyond the money, it brings dignity, confidence, and a real sense of independence.
20Women in the programme
5Months to complete
Global Goals
What We’re Working Toward
Five UN Sustainable Development Goals. Every project we fund has to move at least one of them.
1
No Poverty
Women who complete our programmes earn their first independent income. In Kolkata, that’s ₹3,000–7,000/month from tailoring.
5
Gender Equality
Every project targets women who face barriers to formal employment: training access, startup capital, or social constraints.
8
Decent Work
We fund skills with real market demand. The test is simple: can she earn from this?
9
Innovation
Structured programmes over informal learning. Certificates, market linkages, and pathways to micro-enterprise.
17
Partnerships
Local partners run the programmes. We fund and track. Local knowledge leads, foreign money follows.
The People
Our Team
Our Partners
From the Blog
Latest News
How our work in India relates to "Dharma"
“Dharma” means duty in various Eastern philosophical traditions. Working in India felt like putting that idea of duty into practice—supporting others in accessing opportunities
Behind the Scenes: Setting Up our First Project in Kolkata
I just spent six weeks in Kolkata, India, helping set up our very first project with Associated Initiative for Mankind Foundation - and honestly, I
Keep It Going
A monthly donation funds momentum
A one-time donation funds a project. A monthly donation means we can plan ahead, commit to partners, and support more women.
€10/mo
Supports one woman through the full five-month training course
€25/mo
Covers three women across the programme
€50/mo
Funds a quarter of the entire cohort
Monthly supporters get direct updates on what was funded, what was learned, and what changed.
Give Monthly