The Keshav Suri Foundation has been working towards livelihood building and creating education and jobs opportunities for marginalized communities. For its third year anniversary, they organized a walk-in Diversity Job Fair for the LGBTQIA+ groups, people with disabilities, and acid attack survivors. This job fair was held across 11 cities of the country at The Lalit Group of Hotels.
There were more than 109 queer folks and PWDs who participated in the event out of which 60 have been selected for training to take on roles across functions and positions at The Lalit. The endeavor will go a long way in building confidence and providing opportunities for people often shunned into the margins.
The foundation also offers Aditya Nanda Scholarship in Food Production and Bakery at The Lalit Suri Hospitality School. A fully paid one-and-a-half-year diploma course is working towards creating a level playing field for the trans community. It is awarded to deserving candidates after a screening process and covers the entire tuition fees and campus boarding. For 2021-22 the scholarship has been awarded to four deserving students Sohail (bisexual man), Arjun Saini (transman), Jayraj (transman), and Raj Chauhan (transman).
The foundation has been self-funded since its launch in 2018. However, Keshav Suri the founder has not stopped in his dream of building an egalitarian nation or step up to support the nation in time of crisis. During the pandemic, The foundation worked with a variety of supply chains, assisting over 100 CBOs and NGOs around the country, assisting over 50 corporations in their D&I journeys, and providing food and essential supplies to over five million people. In the previous three years, the foundation has trained over 2000 queer people via various programs at KSF, provided over 200 queer people with various possibilities at The Lalit, and given over 500 queer artists opportunities at Kitty Su and The Lalit.
“It has been 3 years since I started my foundation. The road to equality is still a far-fetched dream .and we are doing our best to build an egalitarian nation. Sensitizing workplaces, providing education, and creating job opportunities are the three important pillars of our work at KSF. We are also providing free mental health counseling for community members. I am sure our consistent efforts will bring about a positive change to the queer and marginalized lives and enable them to lead a life of dignity,” said Suri, Founder, Keshav Suri Foundation.
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Though this event has been a success, the foundation has also organized a Gender Queering Workshop at The Lalit New Delhi on October 23 and urges media personnel to participate and understand the important issues faced by the community, the correct verbiage, and why queer stories need to come into the fore.
