Our Journey

Rainbow Homes Program

Rainbow Homes Program offers a unique child and community-centric model of care that helps vulnerable children access their basic rights of a safe, loving, and happy childhood. The program aims to integrate them into regular schools and helps to put them on an equal footing with other children their age

Our Journey Timeline

1998

1998 Sister Cyril, Principal at Loreto Convent, Sealdah, Kolkata, opens up the gates of her elite school to homeless children living in the immediate neighbourhood, pioneering a new model for inclusion and integration of street children.

2002

Netherland-based Partnership Foundation, headed by Late Ferdinand Van Koolwijk, discovers and collaborates by providing financial support to the Program, collectively christened the "Rainbow Program" initiative. Between 2002 and 2006, four Rainbow Homes for girls (RH) were opened in the Loreto Schools across Kolkata.

2006

Harsh Mander, with a voluntary, passionate set of people, launches a campaign to establish a caring collaboration between governments and citizens to secure the rights, dignity and future of Street Children. The Department of Education, Government of Delhi, responds to the advocacy initiative and agrees to the idea of sharing spaces in running schools. The first Sneh Ghar opens in Delhi.

2007

Delhi gets its first Rainbow Home as a tripartite partnership of State Government, Partnership Foundation and Civil Society. Fifth Rainbow Home starts in Kolkata.
2008 Kolkata gets its sixth Rainbow Home. Two Rainbow Homes open in Hyderabad. Delhi gets its second Rainbow Home.

2009

Six more Rainbow Homes and one Sneh Ghar for boys opens in Hyderabad.

2010

Two Rainbow Homes & three Sneh Ghars opens in Hyderabad. National Rainbow Coordination Centre, headed by K. Anuradha, is established in Hyderabad to coordinate the expansion and monitor Rainbow Homes across the country; Indradhanush Academy is set up in Delhi to research and document good practices around children in vulnerable circumstances. Led by Satya Pillai, the unit lays down the standards of care and building capacities of the implementing teams to ensure these in the respective Homes.

2011

Four Rainbow Homes set up in Bangalore, and five Sneh Ghars open in Hyderabad. Based on the experiences of the non-custodial, comprehensive care home approach, the Department of Education decides to launch a scheme called "Residential Special Training Centres" (RSTC) to bring street children under the fold of RTE.

2012

Government of India sanctions the conversion of homes from RSTC, which supports a child only for one year, to the Urban Deprived Children (UDC) scheme, which allows continued accommodation and care until fourteen. Bangalore gets its fifth Rainbow Home. Three Rainbow Homes start in Chennai. Four Rainbow Homes are inaugurated in Patna. Two more Sneh Ghars start in Hyderabad.

2013

One Sneh Ghar opens in Hyderabad. Two Sneh Ghars initiated in Patna.

2014

ARUN starts nurturing Rainbow Foundation India to function with a similar spirit and passion towards achieving the collective goal of scaling up the Rainbow Home model.

2015

Pune gets its first Rainbow Home.

2016

Two more Rainbow Homes start in Pune.

2017

One more Rainbow Home and first Sneh Ghar starts in Pune.

2018

Five more homes open in Bengaluru (2 Girls' Homes, 3 Boys' Homes). Ranchi city gets its first Rainbow Home.

2019

Ranchi gets its first Sneh Ghar.

2021

Diversified models of child care launched and initiated. Community-based care models for children are initiated across Rainbow Homes.

2022

Rainbow Homes Program changes its organisational structure and programs. City desks are introduced in respective cities, and a new community-based care model via Rainbow Community Centres (RCCs).