Who We Are

How it started

Vulnerable communities, particularly those from low-to-middle income countries, face complex and interconnected challenges, leaving them more exposed to risks like climate change and economic instability. These challenges are particularly acute for internal migrants, informal workers, survivors of violence, and other marginalized groups. Grassroots organizations embedded in these communities play a critical role in addressing these issues, from providing social protection and building resilience to preventing violence against women and children. Yet, these community leaders and organizations often struggle to sustain their work, including limited funding for capacity building. Moreover, investments in people-centred approaches to migration, climate change, and violence prevention remain scarce.

Founded in 2020, PCI is a US-based nonprofit that empowers community-led organizations across South and Southeast Asia. Our focus is on building resilience for internal migrants, strengthening grassroots organizations, and preventing sexual violence against women and children.

Initiatives we Support

PCI invests in initiatives that create lasting impact for those often excluded. We have a strong legacy of collaborating with grassroots, community-led partners serving marginalized communities. Our belief is simple: scaling our mission requires collaboration across nonprofits, philanthropy, and public-private partnerships.

How we do it

We support organizations working across South and Southeast Asia to:

Build resilience for migrants, informal workers, and vulnerable communities through climate-responsive social protection

Strengthen grassroots organizations' resilience through capacity building

Prevent sexual violence against women and children with a focus on prevention

Our Vision

Dignity and equality for all.

Our Mission

People’s Courage International seeks to end violence against women and children in South and Southeast Asia. Besides, it aims to ensure safe migration and labor security for the most marginalized social groups.

Our Values

In our work and interactions with both internal and external individuals, we uphold the following five core values:

Equity

Through inclusive strategies, we aim to dismantle social hierarchies. Besides, we also aim to minimize hierarchies within our organization as well. In order to promote an equitable culture, we give particular attention to the needs of the excluded.

Dignity

We respect and recognize each person's agency, autonomy and worth. Although the people we assist are among the most marginalized, we acknowledge their leadership and the labour they put into the fight against injustice and violence. We uphold reverence even when resolving disputes.

Integrity

We have a responsibility towards the community, survivors, and the partners who collaborate with us. We make it a point to communicate about our difficulties, successes, and failures which helps us to reflect and learn both from our own, as well as other people's experiences.

Co-Creation

We actively aim to draw the participation of the communities and survivors we deal with in, as well as the rest of our team, from advisors to field staff. As a result, we can innovate, improve our strategies, and develop our ability to expand our bandwidth for change.

Transformative Leadership

People’s Courage International means ‘people’s courage’. We want to foster this courage through our work so that those we collaborate with can become leaders, and facilitators of change.

Our Leadership

Ameena Kidwai

Ashif Shaikh

Binu Arickal

Madhumitha Hebbar

Nitish Narain

Puja Issar

Rajesh Balani

Siri Avalur

Varun Behani