Darash Ahava Foundation Partners with RagDream Weavers Association to Bring Brushstrokes of Emotion® to Street-Connected Children Across India

The Darash Ahava Foundation has signed a formal NGO partnership with the RagDream Weavers Association (RDWA), an Indian nonprofit based in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Under the agreement, executed in December 2025, Darash Ahava's Brushstrokes of Emotion® program is being integrated into RDWA's Bharat RailVidya Fellowship, a national fellowship focused on the development of youth and the empowerment of street-connected children through a child-rights and empathy-based approach.

Under the partnership, Darash Ahava trains Bharat RailVidya Fellows to deliver Brushstrokes of Emotion® sessions to children at locations across India. Through February 2026, the program is being implemented with up to 15 fellows across at least four cities, with each fellow conducting four to six sessions per month. Future expansion will be undertaken by mutual written agreement.

Many of the children the fellows reach are street-connected children living in and around railway stations, without stable housing and often carrying trauma from their earliest years. For many of them, a Brushstrokes of Emotion® session is the first time anyone has created a structured, safe space for them to express what they are carrying.

The partnership reflects the model the Foundation has been building toward: rather than delivering programs from the outside, Darash Ahava trains and resources local facilitators embedded in the communities they serve, people who already hold their neighbors' trust.

"This is what sustainable global impact looks like," said Foundation president David Widerhorn. "It is not about flying in and delivering a program. It's about finding the people already doing the work and giving them something powerful to work with."

Behind every partnership is a donor who made it possible.