Non-profit · Est. 2005 · India & beyond
Livelihoods that hold. Skills that travel. Communities that last.
For twenty years We Care Society has worked alongside rural and underserved communities — not handing out relief, but building enterprises, skills and shared infrastructure that keep paying long after a project closes.
Recipient of the Earth Day Network Star, awarded by the New York based Earth Day Network.
What we do
Four focus areas, all aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Our vision is to align with the United Nations SDGs. Every programme we run sits inside one of these four areas, and every one of them is measured against the goals it is meant to move.
Sustainable Agriculture & Food Security
Promoting farming practices that raise yields and incomes without exhausting the land, so that food security today does not come at the cost of the next generation.
Livelihood, Skilling, Rural Development & Women Empowerment
Our largest body of work. We build rural livelihoods through an entrepreneurship lens — skilling people, upgrading their technology, and organising them into MSME clusters that can hold their own in the market.
Sustainability, Environment & Climate Change Mitigation
Implementing eco-friendly practices at community level, building awareness of climate impacts, and reducing the carbon footprint of the rural enterprises we support.
Community Healthcare, Water & Sanitation
Access to basic healthcare, clean water and improved sanitation, aimed at reducing health disparities in marginalised areas and creating healthier living conditions.
How we work
We treat a village enterprise like a business, not a beneficiary
WCS enhances rural livelihoods through an entrepreneurship development angle, paving the way for MSME clusters to flourish. The method is consistent whether the product is papad, jute bags, raisins or processed fish.
-
Understand the ground reality
A baseline survey of the cluster: who produces what, in what conditions, at what cost, and where the value is leaking to intermediaries.
-
Build capability before capital
Sectoral training, design thinking on new variants, product uniformity, food safety, branding, packaging and market exposure visits to working units.
-
Put in shared infrastructure
A Common Facility Centre gives producers equipment none of them could buy alone, plus a raw material bank that cuts input costs through bulk buying.
-
Connect to the market on their own terms
Common branding, e-commerce listings, modern format stores and corporate buyers — so producers sell under their own name instead of supplying someone else's label.
From the field
What the work actually looks like
Three projects that show the range — a women-led food cluster rebuilt from the ground up, a farming community moved up the value chain, and permanent technology hubs serving whole groups of villages.
From Grape Growers to a Raisin Processing Cluster
Grape growers in Vijayapura were selling fresh fruit into a volatile market. Organising them into a raisin processing cluster moved them up the value chain, into a product with shelf life and a wider buyer base.
The Gauribidanur Women-Led Papad Cluster
An 18-year-old women's papad enterprise was producing beside an open drain, losing a fifth of its raw material to aluminium vessels, and supplying Bangalore brands who repackaged the product under their own labels. This is what fixing that looks like.
RuTAG Smart Village Centres
Permanent technology hubs at Panchayat level, each serving 15–20 neighbouring villages with hands-on support and technology deployment sustained over several years.
Where we work
Present in 21+ states, connected across 10 countries
In India we have run programmes in most states — the exception is Jammu & Kashmir. Internationally we work both on direct projects and as a knowledge partner to others.
India
Karnataka · Tamil Nadu · Andhra Pradesh · Telangana · Maharashtra · Madhya Pradesh · Odisha · Chhattisgarh · Jharkhand · Uttar Pradesh · Bihar · Himachal Pradesh · Uttarakhand · West Bengal · Punjab · Rajasthan · Gujarat · Assam · Meghalaya · Puducherry · New Delhi
International
Ghana · Netherlands · Sri Lanka · Maldives · Madagascar · Middle East · Mali · Tajikistan · United Kingdom · United States
Trusted by
We deliver with government, industry and academia
From the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to NASSCOM Foundation, Intel, Bosch, SELCO, IIM Bangalore and the National Rural Livelihood Mission.
Let’s build something that lasts
Whether you are a CSR team looking for a delivery partner, a government mission seeking implementation on the ground, or a foundation funding rural enterprise — we would like to hear from you.