Empowering India's Rural Poor through Poultry

As another successful year for Shivia draws to a close, we would like to thank everyone who has supported us with generous donations towards our Livelihood Development programme in West Bengal.  These valuable donations have meant that our poultry farming enterprise programme - Poultry Development Services (PDS) - is going from strength to strength.

Here are some key facts and figures to round off the year and give you an idea of the amazing impact your support is having on poor families in West Bengal....

• In the last 12 months alone we have registered over 1,600 new poultry farmers across the four locations surrounding Kolkata where we operate.  

• The total number of farmers who we have worked with and trained in poultry rearing now exceeds 6,500 and we have distributed over 19,000 poultry toolkits.

• Whole families benefit from the training we give and from the extra income earned from the enterprise - we estimate that PDS is impacting over 38,000 men, women and children.

• Women are most likely to register for our poultry farming enterprise as it allows them to earn money from home - they feel empowered, valued and confident.

• The priority for most of our farmers is to earn money for their children's health and education.

• Many farmers use PDS as a 'stepping stone' to start a new enterprise, for example using money earned to buy a sewing machine to start a tailoring business or repair a rickshaw to start a taxi service.  

• The demand for PDS in the villages surrounding Kolkata is increasing rapidly and we are opening a new location for our services in 2016.

Over the last year we have gathered feedback from all our stakeholders....our farmers, our colleagues at Shivia India who deliver the programme, our donors, volunteers and Friends of Shivia who have travelled to India to witness PDS in action.  Here are just some of the many supportive and inspirational messages they have sent us:

• “The PDS project has helped a lot to improve my family’s life and means of income.  Now I can buy many things for us and we eat good food regularly.  I am very happy that I can earn some extra money to pay for private tuition for my child and keep her in school and give her nutritious food to eat.  I am very interested to start another farming enterprise and I want to start raising goats one day.”  Beneficiary and Shivia poultry farmer

• “We can try and measure our impact through data collection and analysis but ultimately, the smiles of the people says it all.  They are no longer smiles of hope but smiles of achievement, no longer smiles with resignation in their eyes but smiles with twinkles in their eyes".  Chandrani Banerjee: Head of Livelihoods, Shivia India

• “A truly remarkable and fascinating trip so see the incredible work that Shivia is doing.  It was hugely pleasing to see the reception of the Shivia LSPs by the poorest of poor farmers, and to understand the improvements to their wellbeing and livelihood that the Shivia team is able to make.”  Friend of Shivia following field visit

• “Shivia has developed a really cost effective way to enable West Bengali people to raise their own standard of living. Furthermore, they continue to move towards the ultimate goal of any development organisation which is to hand over the management to local people with the passion and drive to take it onwards and upwards.”  Nick Jenkins, Patron of Shivia (entrepreneur and Dragon in BBC Dragon's Den)

• “It was heartening to see all the women whom we met, who are either new or relatively long-standing users of the Poultry Development Services, beaming with happiness and self-confidence as they were earning money, probably for the first time in their lives, which could upgrade their families’ economic status”.  Friend of Shivia following field visit

• “It’s an easy decision to go on supporting an organisation that delivers such concrete impact on the ground.”  Donor

• ”Thank you Shivia. I have finally been able to afford to send my children to school and I am now important to my sons which I wasn’t before. I feel empowered.” Beneficiary and Shivia poultry farmer

• “I have photographed Shivia’s work for several years now. I do it because I have seen how these communities in India live and I believe Shivia’s work enables them to improve their lives in a significant way.  I hear stories first-hand from the very poor when we are in the villages and I hope my photos create awareness as well as raise funds to continue and expand Shivia’s excellent work.” Garlinda Birkbeck, professional photographer and Shivia volunteer

• "I chose to support Shivia after my friend shared with me your efforts to help people out poverty. I was really encouraged by the fact you enable others to start their own businesses so that they can work their way out poverty. The 'give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime' really rings true with your charity! So, when it came to me picking a charity to support, Shivia was my first choice." Aba Ansah who did a sponsored bike ride for Shivia in 2015

Thank you for reading our report and for your valued support for Shivia.  We wish you joy and happiness for the remainder of 2015 and look forward to updating you on our progress in 2016.

Links:

• Find out more on Shivia's YouTube channel
• About Garlinda Birkbeck