Our safeguarding commitment — keeping the young women we support safe
The young women we support are often referred to us by people who care about them — a single mother, a superintendent at a children's home, a social worker. They are trusting us with someone who matters to them. We take that trust seriously, and this is how we honour it.
- We support
- Ages 18+ only
- Our standard
- POCSO & POSH
- Concerns
- Always welcome
In short
Vedicology Foundation supports only adolescent girls and young women aged 18 and above. We do not fund minors. Everyone who works with the young women we support — our staff, our Programme Officers, and our volunteers — follows clear safeguarding rules, and some roles involve a simple check. We maintain a safe environment for the young women and for our team. Anyone can raise a safeguarding concern with us at any time, and this page sets out that commitment plainly.
We support adults, not minors
Our support is for adolescent girls and young women aged 18 and above. We do not fund minors. This is a firm rule, stated on every part of our work: the education we fund begins at 18.
A clear safeguarding standard
Everyone who works with the young women we support follows clear safeguarding rules — our staff, our Programme Officers, and our volunteers alike. Some roles involve a simple check or an orientation before a person begins. This protects the young women, and it protects everyone working with them.
A few principles run through everything we do. We treat every young woman as capable and deserving, never as someone to be pitied. We keep what we learn about her life private. And no one ever has unsupervised contact in a way that could put a young woman at risk.
If anything ever falls short of this, we want to know.
When we encounter a child
We do not work with minors as the people we support. But our work sometimes brings us into contact with a child. It might be a younger sibling at a home visit, a young woman who has only just turned eighteen, or a referral from a Child Care Institution. In those moments, we hold a clear child-protection standard, in keeping with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
We also do not collect or use a child's personal information as part of supporting a beneficiary. Where records reach us from a Child Care Institution, they come from the institution as the proper source, and we handle them with the same care.
A safe workplace
Vedicology Foundation maintains a workplace free from harassment, with an Internal Committee in place as required by the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 (POSH).
In confidence
A concern under this policy can be raised in confidence with Praveen Saanker.
Email Praveen in confidenceHow to raise a concern
If you have a safeguarding concern — about a young woman we support, about someone acting in our name, or about anything that worries you — please tell us. You can reach us in confidence:
We take every concern seriously, and we are grateful when people raise them.
Important
Vedicology Foundation never charges any application fee, processing fee, registration fee, or documentation fee. Our support is completely free. If anyone asks you for money claiming to represent us, please report it immediately:
Have a concern? Raise it with us.
Whether you are referring a young woman or checking that she will be safe, we are glad to talk it through.
Referring someone? For CCIs & social workers