UDAAN

Aftercare Hostel

Ready to Fly

Goal: Care leavers from children’s homes and hostels will have completed their education and have gainful employment thereby becoming independent and responsible citizens in society.

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The Moment That Matters Most

Every journey needs not just a starting point, but a place to land. For young women who have spent their childhood in Sahaara's Minor Children's Hostels, years of care, education, and mentoring have built something real. But growing up is not a moment. It is a passage. And the years immediately following residential care are among the most critical and vulnerable of a young person's life.

When the structure of a hostel falls away, so does a great deal else. A room. A routine. A community of people who know you. Without a bridge, the risk is real: educational journeys are disrupted, employment stays out of reach, and the communities these young women come from can pull them back in ways that undo years of careful, patient growth.

For young women from red-light areas, turning eighteen does not erase the stigma they carry or the expectations placed on them. Without a safe space to keep growing, and without people who believe in their future and walk beside them through the transition, those expectations can quietly become reality.

Udaan exists so that does not happen.

Nearly

1 in 2

young people leaving Child Care Institutions are not financially independent

Source: Beyond 18: Leaving Child Care Institutions – Supporting Youth Leaving Care, Udayan Care.

Young people leaving institutional care often face financial insecurity, limited support systems and the challenge of building an independent life.

Our Reach



7

young women supported through
aftercare housing in 2025-26

girls are pursuing higher education

girls are developing employable skills

girls are experiencing mental wellness

girls have shown improved physical health

parents have made progress towards reintegration



What Udaan Offers

Udaan is Sahaara's aftercare hostel for young women aged eighteen to twenty-three. It is designed around one central conviction: that the work of the earlier years must not be left incomplete. The transition to adulthood requires its own safe space, its own programme, and its own patient commitment.

A Safe Residence to Grow Into

The most immediate thing Udaan offers is a secure and stable place to live. Housing insecurity forces compromises that ripple into every part of a young woman's life. At Udaan, she can focus on her future without the constant weight of not knowing where she will sleep. That foundation makes everything else possible.

Education and Vocational Pathways

Whether pursuing a university degree, a diploma, or vocational training, young women at Udaan receive the practical and financial support to see it through. Education at this stage is more than knowledge. It is a credential, a gateway, and a declaration about what comes next. Sahaara ensures that financial barriers do not become the reason a young woman's education remains unfinished.

Life Skills and Independent Living

The practical demands of adult life must be deliberately built for those leaving residential care. Udaan builds financial literacy, household management, the ability to access services, and the communication and decision-making skills to navigate the world on one's own terms. These are not extras. They are the core.

Emotional Wellbeing

The transition to adulthood is emotionally complex for any young person. For those who carry the weight of difficult histories, that complexity runs deeper. Regular counselling, mentoring, and group sessions at Udaan are not crisis interventions. They are the ongoing, relational structures that help each young woman process her past, navigate her present, and step into her future with clarity and confidence.

Work Readiness and Career Support

Employment is both a practical goal and a profound marker of dignity. Udaan prepares young women for the world of work through interview skills, professional communication, and workplace readiness. Career guidance is personal, taking into account each young woman's strengths, education, and aspirations. The aim is not to place her in any job. It is to help her begin a career she is proud of.

A Plan That Is Hers

Each young woman at Udaan has an Individual Reintegration Plan that tracks her progress across education, employment, finances, emotional wellbeing, and family relationships. Reviewed regularly, it ensures that support is tailored to where she actually is, not where a generic programme assumes she should be. Every pathway into adulthood looks different. Udaan honours that.

The Cycle Ends Here

When a young woman leaves Udaan, the hope is not merely that she holds a degree or has found employment. The hope is that she knows who she is. That she trusts her own judgement. That she can manage a home, plan a budget, navigate a difficult conversation, and ask for help when she needs it.

This is the completion of a journey that began, for many of these young women, when they first arrived at one of Sahaara's Minor Children's Hostels as young girls. The promise made then, that they would be supported not just to survive but to thrive, is fulfilled here.

The cycle of vulnerability is not broken in a single moment. It is broken in a thousand small moments of growth, courage, and steady support. Udaan is where that cycle is conclusively interrupted, and where a new story, chosen and built by the young women themselves, is given the space to begin.

Udaan means flight. And we have seen, again and again, what happens when a young woman is given the conditions and the belief to finally spread her wings.