By Alyce Biddle | Community Manager
In November and December 2015 the state of Tamil Nadu, and in particular the areas around the city of Chennai, were hit by terrible rains. Vast numbers of homes and businesses were flooded and many people were left injured or died as a result of the weather.
The Londor Community in which we work was hit badly. One of the old ladies in the community passed away and many lost their poorly built homes. My Name is Kumar stepped in to provide emergency support and offered food and shelter to everyone affected. The parents of the My Name is Kumar children were left without their belongings, food and safety – it was not possible for our children to visit their mums and dads and without help their parents would have been utterly destitute.
Thanks to the very many of you who responded to our emergency appeal we set up on GlobalGiving, we were able to support the whole community and offer shelter and food to those worst hit. It was fast response, an opertaion for which we had no budgetted for, but the support you showed us helped us cope.
Nearly 18 months on we have come a long way. The damaged caused by the floods prompted us to connect with Mexican social enterprise Programa VACA and begin our sustainable building project to replace some of the homes that were lost – more on that below.
Although we were already working within the Londor community, with the parents of the children we support, the floods solidified our relationship as we further proved to the community our committment to help. As a result, our relationships with parents and families were strengthened and we have begun a number of new projects focussed on community development (in addition to our pre-existing education projects).
The floods helped confirm to us something we already felt, that we couldn’t continue to only help the children of Londor. If we wanted to break the cycle of poverty then we needed to be able to support their families too.
So we began working with Programa VACA, a Mexican organisation which works with talented volunteer architects visiting communities with high poverty levels to build low cost homes using sustainable materials and local techniques. Programa VACA don’t just turn up in a community and start building. They work with the community from design to moving in day and involve the community in every process – even the cement mixing!
After some initial work in the Spring 2016 when we began planning the new homes and community skills centre, Programa VACA volunteers are now back in India and have started building.
These new homes are made using traditional mud and bamboo materials, with solid cement foundations. Whereas the old homes were just one simple room where everybody in the family slept, ate and lived, the new homes will have partitioned bedrooms and cooking areas.
Building has now been completed for these 16 new homes and children's tution centre. We have supplied this buildings with solar electrcity and are currently trailing a new safe stove iniative to replace the dangerous kerosin stoves and open fires.
Once more, a huge thank you for your generousity and quick response during a testing time for us. You helped us ensure we were there when the Londor communtiy needed us most and got the ball rolling for further positive development.
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