Providing mental health & psychosocial support: UNICEF is providing mental health services to children without parental care, as well as trainings for child protection workers to better care for and refer proper treatment to children. Strengthening families and communities: UNICEF is preventing the institutionalization of children and encouraging families to be the primary caregivers through support services such as cash transfer and COVID-19 relief programs. Scaling alternative care: UNICEF is developing more intentional family and kin-based after-care models for children who leave institutions. Improving standards of care: UNICEF is helping build stronger case management systems, care worker trainings and alternatives to juvenile detention to ensure children receive proper care. The program is responding to the protection needs of an estimated 500,000 children through: In this next phase of Project LION, the program is reaching half of all states in India, home to about 75 percent of the population of children ages 18 years old and younger in the country. Project LION aims to create sustainable, systematic change and centers its work around four core pillars: Project LION collaborates with 12 state governments and the national Government of India to implement non-institutional, family-based alternative care for children because every child deserves to grow and thrive in a nurturing place they can call home. Project LION is protecting more than half a million children

Inspired by the film and UNICEF's work in India, UNICEF USA New York Board Member Purvi Padia and her husband, Harsh Padia, teamed up with UNICEF USA to launch Project LION in 2018.

The saga of how 5-year-old Saroo Brierley survived life on the streets after being separated from his brother and his eventual adoption by an Australian couple inspired the 2016 movie ' Lion.' It also called attention to the plight of India’s “forgotten” children - those forced to survive without parents or family. Often privately run and poorly regulated, these institutions can leave children extremely vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and neglect. India has more children than any other country in the world, and an estimated 1.5 million children grow up in residential institutions. upcomingregionalsection.cms?parentid=61017241&genere=*:* /upcomingregionalsection.Donate Now Project LION is improving the lives of orphaned and displaced children in India

Lion in hindi sheroo