This project, by Jeeva Rekha Parishad ("Lifeline"), will enable 50 tribal women in Odisha State, India to combat malaria by producing mosquito repellent from Neem trees. Helped by your donations, the women will form a collective to process Need seeds into oil. They will then bottle the oil and distribute it to vulnerable villagers for use against mosquitoes. Surplus oil will be sold and provide the women with an income. If successful, this approach could be widely used in other tribal villages.
Tribal communities in Odisha State, India, are vulnerable to malaria because they live in woods and are isolated from medical services. This makes education and prevention difficult. Pregnant women, children and the elderly are particularly at risk. Neem oil is a natural malaria deterrent and grows in the villages but is unaffordable for most families. This leaves up to 10,000 tribal villagers, including over 3,000 in high-risk categories, without protection against a killer disease.
This project will train 50 tribal women to produce Neem oil - a natural malaria preventative - from Neem trees in their villages. Lifeline will install an oil press and train the women to process up to 1,000 kilos of seeds this year. The oil will then be branded as Neemola Oil, distributed to vulnerable families and sold. Lifeline hopes each woman will earn up to $50 this season, raise awareness about the dangers of malaria in their villages and encourage other villagers to follow their example.
Lifeline expects that the 50 beneficiaries of the Neemola start-up will learn valuable skills and gain a stable income, helping to lift their families out of poverty. If the project meets its goals this year it will be incorporated into Lifeline's highly successful malaria campaign, which has reduced rates to zero in ten villages - and extended to other villages. Our hope is to eventually benefit up to 10,000 villagers and spark interest among international agencies.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
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