Bringing livelihood to 1200 poor rural youth

The reporting period of three months followed the peak of 2^nd wave of the Covid pandemic in this part of the nation. The extremely alarming situation of very high toll of positive cases and deaths in particular had been taking place during the preceding period sending panic and lockdowns.

And during the last three months the government has been carrying out vaccination on a feverish pitch and SPPD has been supporting the same through various ways. The youth forming part of the project are being facilitated by SPPD to attend the online classes for the different courses they study.

Most of the students do not possess the gadgets required for online classes and prices of the gadgets have risen very sharply in recent months. And hence we have been taking efforts to secure used smart phones laptops, desktops and tablets for the youth here to help them attend their online classes without fail.

Similarly, apart from ensuring that the youth of the project get vaccinated and follow the Covid protocols, they are made to facilitate their family members to get vaccinated. SPPD also has helped quite a few families of the youth of the project who have lost their bread winners with solatium of Rs. 30,000/. Similarly as the families of the project youth belong to section of daily wagers and unorganized labor a good number of them have been given grocery kits during the lockdown.

Similarly, a big number of children of these families are being helped with nutrition kits every month as they have been missing the free mid day meals offered in their schools for well over a year. We have been able to involve in these interventions with the aid and sponsorships from Give India.

We do hope that with all the sectors are slowly being opened up, the scope for the youth of the project to improve upon the vocational skills and finding suitable employments is being brightened up too.      

The reporting period of the three months of March to May 2021 unfortunately happened to be the period of heavy spread of Covid19 in its more ferocious second wave here in our region.

There was a big dip in the number of admissions in various vocational skill courses. The skills required in the tourism and hospitality sector have been the most preferred courses of youth in our working areas. This sector of tourism and the hospitality industry were the worst hit during the pandemic times and the drop in the new admissions the courses concerned.

And all the students undergoing various courses had gone on internship in different places such as Bangalore, Coimbatore, Ooty and Chennai. They were undergoing their internships in the reputed hotels, resorts and restaurants. A few of those who had completed the courses earlier had also been absorbed by the establishments in which they had undergone internship this year. This would not have been possible but for the kind help of GlobalGiving.

And these internees had returned from their work places due to the onset of the second wave of corona pandemic since the month of March. During the period sensitization were carried out among the youth who form part of the GlobalGiving project through tele-calling bulk messaging on the protective measures such as wearing masks, social distancing and vaccination wherever possible.

This apart, SPPD took the initiative of building confidence in the minds of both the current students who are part of the project and other youth in general here on the need for keeping themselves well equipped in the skills to be fit for the job market in the post pandemic times. This is because there was a general depression among the youth on the future as the covid19 pandemic has been ravaging the livelihood of the people all over.

Hence, we focused more on counseling them through instilling confidence in their minds that once the pandemic is over there would a brighter future for those who are properly trained in various skills. This apart, the younger children in the families of those who happen to be siblings who form part this project are given the nutritional food supplement kit every month sponsored by the online platform of Give India.  

On concluding this report, we again thank the GlobalGiving and the individual donors who are associated with the organization for helping the youth towards ensuring their future.