RID POVERTY & HUNGER IN 50 INDIAN TRIBAL VILLAGES

THE EARTH TRUST (ET) REPORT JUN, JULY, AUG 2023

Safe food through sustainable agriculture

While sustainable agriculture continues to be our core focus, our methodology has had to evolve with the larger picture for the Nilgiri hills and its current requirements.

Many of our fledging farmers have flown nest and spread their wings finding their own markets with our help. This has been the raison d’ etre of Earth Trust’s 18 year journey. However, there are farmers who are still dependent on us as  ‘ethical middle men’ and for them we continue procuring at a farmer friendly price and selling to bulk customer who value their effort. Many of them with cows` make value added products such as organic ghee (clarified butter used in

Indian cooking) which are greatly appreciated by long term customers faithful to our products AND our cause.

Womens Programme for Optimal Health through Skill Development  

We began a new batch of our 3 month certificate programme in July. Our Women’s programme continues to be the cherry on the cake! We located a central venue to run the programme a semi urban location in the locales of a

factory, as different from our earlier rural settings. We attract wives of factory workers who are home makers or unemployed. The programme timings were changed to accommodate young mothers whohad to pick up preschoolers at lunch time.ET has always been sensitive to the needs of the people while structuring its programmes. Nineteen young

mothers got the benefit of our inputs and for the first time, we trained each student to handle our health classes and were surprised at how it elevated their confidence and self-esteem. The trainees also felt greatly empowered by being able to create their childrens clothes.

To drive home the message of healthy eating/ snacking, we encouraged students to bring a healthy homemade snack a day and share it with fellow students. The result was greater comraderie and conversations and understanding of healthier options for themselves and their families.

Eco clubs 

The programme continues in Hubathalai villageGovernment  Middle school. The children show deep interest in nature and environmental issues and are working on a kitchen garden and hope to experience the harvest over the months. Our young resource people are deeply passionate and highly qualified to run the programme give their countrywide experience in spreading the message of conservation among young people.

The Earth Trust Eco-club Initiative in Government Schools

HubbathalaiGovernmentSchoolComputerandEcoLiteracyProgram 04/10/2023

YouCANandEarthTrustsupportedbyMicroLand Progress Report 1

Startdate:08/07/2023

Session1-July18th

Participants-35childrenofclass6,7,8 Subject- Map your School Campus

Activity-Makingamap,navigationalintelligence,useofcomputers,criticalthinking,collaboration, proactivity, neighbourhood mapping

Someinsights-Afterashortintroductionanddiscussiononthefeaturesandimportanceofmapsquoting examples such as the Silk Route, the students were taken on a short walk across their campus to record different features of their school and incorporate their sightings into a map.

A visual demonstration by the facilitators helped groups put down detailed maps of their campus. Some groupsmarkedthetreestheyfound,orlabeledeachroomsuchastheteacher’sstaffroom,andeachclass. Others marked cars and water sources.

Session2–August3rd.

Participants–25kidsofclass6,7,8. Subject – Migration of Birds

Activity–PointCalimereFilmscreening,Movementgamedemonstratingbirdmigration.

Some insights – Through the film screening, the students learnt about the different habitats of Point Calimere and they were exposed to different migratory bird species that fly short, medium and long distances.Afewstudentswerechosenforagameactivitywheretheyassumedtheroleofbirdsandwere challengedtomigrateandandfrointheclass,whilecompetingforlimitedresources(foodandrest).They understood the natural phenomenon of migration, and also how migration gets disturbed with human/ other interventions.

Thestudentsbecameveryenergeticduringthegameactivityespeciallyasresourcesbeganrunningoutand competitionwentup.Manystudentsreflectedthatthebirdsalreadyhavetotravelsofar.Iftheycometoa new place and there is no food for them, they will all be stranded.

 Session3–August 4th

Participants–35childrenofClass6,7,8,9 Subject – Introduction to MS word.

Activity—Learningtotype,formattingtextandreflectingonprevioussessions.

Some insights – As part of the computer literacy incorporation, the students wrote about the documentaries that they saw in the previous sessions. Since this was their first time them using MS word, westartedfromsquareone.Theylearnthowtoopenanewdocument,typeonthekeyboardwithdifferent keys,aligntheirparagraphs,andchangefontcolourofthetext.Itwasaslowsessionandthestudentsneed more time to practice to develop this

skill. They were very interested when we used shortcuts and could type out capital letters so there is a lot of scope for improving.