Inspired by her parents and her ‘Badi Maa’, Damini has been working to uplift the lives of the underprivileged children and women through her NGO- Durga Kriti

Damini Rathore has been running her NGO-Durga Kriti since September 2017 helping the orthodox rural people of 5-6 villages in Bhankrota near Jaipur.

Damini had her primary education from Sophia School in Jaipur and later did her higher secondary from Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls School in Jaipur as a hosteler. She has just completed her Master in Social Work.

Earlier, she has worked as an intern at two organisations. One of them was a very old organization which helps animals. Then she moved to ‘Prabha’ where she had to interact with the youth. But, something happened which drove her to start her own NGO. She had only three years of experience in the social service sector when she started her NGO. It has grown gradually and many volunteers are now associated with it. They provide education to poor children and also work on the health of undernourished children.

Damini says initially it was difficult to convince the highly conservative village people that Damini and her team were trying to help them. The villagers were sceptical about their intentions. Gradually, they earned the villagers’ respect and trust.

Damini says she had always felt motivated to work for others and help them. She was inspired by the social work which her ‘Badi Maa’ did. When Damini lost her Badi Maa suddenly in 2016, she stepped into her shoes. Damini realised that you don’t necessarily need a lot of money to help others, you must have a will to do social work. She says if you don’t have the will, what will money do?

According to Damini, success is when you are able to help others. She thinks you find success everyday when you achieve your day’s goals.

Her parents are Damini’s role models. They built everything from scratch which inspired Damini. She was also motivated by the stories of her grandfather who was an honest police officer and the brother of her grandfather who was an army officer.

Her favorite quote is “No one can help everyone, but everyone can help someone.”

Damini thinks that the biggest mistake which sometimes social workers make is that they don’t prepare the people they are helping to accept the help. She thinks that you must invoke in the people an acceptance to be helped to get the desired results. Besides, she also suggests that you must document everything by written records, recordings and videos.

Damini thinks everyone is a born leader but they don’t realise it. She feels true leaders are those who provoke love and respect among the people they lead.

In her opinion, experience matters more than your education in life.

In her free time, Damini does art and has conducted many art workshops during the Covid period. She has also taught the art of Decoplast to students of MGD School. She also is a home baker and supplies cakes as per orders she receives.