Our Story

In 2005, a group of colleagues at Baruch College (City University of New York) came together to assist their friends, Gerry Pinto and Rita Panicker, with their New Delhi, India-based grassroots organization, Butterflies NGO. These Baruch administrators included a two-time Fulbright Scholar in India who was impressed by Butterflies’ unique rights-based, non-institutional approach, which strove to keep children with their families rather than orphanages. The result: Butterflies USA, Inc. was established as a 501(c)(3) charity to raise funds to support Butterflies NGO. Since then, Butterflies USA, Inc has attracted supporters from across America and around the globe. Most years, selected board members have made site visits to Butterflies’ headquarters in New Delhi, India. In 2014 a larger delegation participated in a week-long, child-centered celebration to mark Butterflies’ 25th anniversary. In early 2020, right before the national lockdown due to COVID, the board participated in the dedication of Butterflies’ new headquarters, for which Butterflies USA had purchased the land. The new eco-friendly green facility, which houses Butterflies’ School of Culinary and Catering, as well as its short-stay Resilience center for children in crisis who have been rescued through one of its three CHILDLINE 24/7 hotline operations.

Butterflies USA recognizes that the protection of street connected and working children’s rights is a critical issue in all urban centers in the developing world. While India has seen an enormous expansion in its national wealth, wealth disparity has increased and fully half its population continues to survive in extreme poverty. The result is an increased demand for the broad range of services for children in need. That an organization like Butterflies NGO, of minimal size and overhead, accomplishes its mission, serving today some 1,200 children on a monthly basis is an amazing achievement that continues to convince American and many other donors of the urgent need to support this activity in the world’s largest democracy.

The Butterflies’ philosophy to advance and promote the rights of children to self-determination and help amplify the voice of Rita Panicker in promoting this bedrock tenet internationally. Butterflies USA is a supporter of Butterflies NGO, in a global effort with German Bishops (Misereor), Comic Relief UK, and Indian, Asian, and European corporations.