We wish you happy holidays in this feative season and pray for a better world with more compassion generosity all around in the new year ahead!
Our beneficiary families from the target tribal communities are chugging ahead through all the prevailing challenges because of the support from ACT community workers who connect with them and bring services, solutions and crucial linkages to income or empowerment.
Your continued prayers and wishes have resulted in creating huge outcomes and lasting impact on the vulnerable children, youth and women in this underserved community. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Sharing here the media coverage for a village outreach which helps spread awareness about the community and its needs and challenges and promotes well being among children, youth and women to pave the way for economic empowerment.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Links:
Hope you are in good health and protected from the Corona virus!
Our tribal community women and their families had tremendous vaccine hesitency, though the second wave hit these villages hard, with loss of loved ones.
Animedh Charitable Trust (ACT) advocated for vaccine protection and also ensured that our resource persons on ground were all vaccinated fully or at least the 1st shot and they were able to demonstrate covid protectiion safety protocols and spread this vaccine awareness to the families that they visit regularly.
Our women entrepreneurs have continued or revived income activities albeit slowly and cautiously. Seventy women beneficiaries' families received a month's ration staples to cope with the difficult times. Dairy farming beneficiaries have moved ahead in generating income through better market linkages and continue to reap the benefits of the mentorship they received through the early stages of the project.
Recently, we invited the Resident District Collector (RDC) , Principals of 2 schools, 3 social workers, 4 early child hood intervention centre and learning centre officials, Dean of the District Civil Hospital to jointly discuss and plan the way forward about connecting government and private resources and services to the people in the communities that need it the most. The new RDC fimly believes in the power of women as the enablers within the family for paying the path to development, education and prosperity and also recognized that the women are the most oppressed through systemic and socio economic and cultural barriers within the tribal communities that are already sidelined in the economic and development agenda of the rest of the country. The linkages and collaboration between these crucial stakeholders helps to recognize and map needs to services and fast track the referral and resolve problem situations in the lives of the people and communities better.
We are hopeful that the 3rd wave does not unleash on these communities and that the schools and economic activity in the union territory resumes normalcy.
Hi! Hope you are safe and well protected from the adversities inflicted by COVID.
The second wave that gripped the world has hit India hard and particularly the Dadra & Nagar Haveli villages are reeling under its impact, with the death toll rising steeply, hospitals overburdened and misinformation, superstition wreaking havoc among these tribals. ACT is making every effort to spread the awareness and provide assistance and correct understanding to staff, resource persons and beneficiaries. Dr C H Asrani, with medical expertise and experience over 40 years, gave helpful advice to our local community mental health workers to tackle misinformation and shared the Covid safety do’s and don’ts in a virtual zoom meeting- simple tips were shared in slides, shown here. Community Mental Health Trainer - Pravin Madur, from our Knowledge Partner Ummeed emphasised the importance of staying connected to avoid feeling lonely & sharing out loud, any mental anxieties arising due to COVID.
In March 2021, we also celebrated and honoured our 15 community mental health workers in a graduation ceremony as they completed two years of intense training on building trusting relationships with 1000+ villagers across 10 villages and creating mental and emotional safe spaces for children, youth and women. They are already working among the beneficiaries across 100 hamlets. But due to Covid, personal home visits have stopped and group community interventions and meetings have been pushed back. It is a remarkable achievement for these local tribal community people to emerge as mental health workers who can help families to cope with the ongoing COVID blues as well as overcome psycho social barriers that hamper their development.
Our agri entrepreneur women, among whom we found 40 outliers with great success and higher income in dairy farming and organic vegetable growing were reaping the benefits of the capacity building and supervision provided to them through funds donated by our various GlobalGiving and other donors. As on February 2021, their average incomes doubled and more over a two year period versus February 2019. They are able to show the way to other women in their respective 15 villages on how to increase productivity, cash crops, verni compost as fertiliser, best cattle feed mix for higher fat % protein rich milk fetching higher price per litre, and most crucially, the market linkages to sell and generate income in the most profitable manner.
We pray for your and indeed everyone's safety and for the COVID nightmare to abate and for all those who have lost loved ones in a losing battle against Covid we also hope that our organisation and staff also recover from severe personal constraints due to over work stress- work from home and work for home, illness or worse caused by Covid and stretched resources.
2020 has been an unprecedented year for all humanity and an extremely difficult time for the underprivileged and underserved. Many businesses have closed, people have lost their jobs and livelihoods - many even family members. The after effects of the pandemic will endure for years – but it’s our sincere prayer that we have collectively used the time to better ourselves, and others in the process. For us at Animedh Charitable Trust (ACT), it has been a time of reinforced rigor and passion to give and ACT to make an even bigger difference. Thanks to the fantastic and relentless support of our team, donors and sponsors, we continue to look at the positive side of things. Life is beautiful, all we have to do is look. As I reflect on our 2020 journey, I would like to share some highlights that make us grateful and blessed.
Rukhsar and other warrior artisans made life saving masks
Covid 19 pandemic proved to be the darkest period that stretched over several months, during which ACT artisans and their families were struggling to cope . In Rukhsar’s words, our Jogeshwari centre artisan, “ I am deeply grateful to ACT for my tailoring skills training, which enabled me to get orders for mask making and could work from home, keep myself & my family safe and manage my household expenses, solely from my income. I also worked with other ACT artisans and in all we made more than 33000 masks that kept thousands of people safe and protected. ” Bravo, Rukhsar and all our warrior artisans, so proud of each one of you!
This year, we redefined our Mission statement to encompass what we do and how we intend to make a difference: Animedh Charitable Trust (ACT) acts to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable children, youth and women in underserved communities by:
With that intent, we worked on these crucial thematic areas and impacted lives as given below:
With 50+ staff and field personnel, our team works very passionately and is committed to the above mission.
ACT is registered with the Mumbai Public Trusts Act, 1950 and also under IT Sec 12 AA and Sec 80G which permits donors to avail 50% tax rebate. We are also registered under FCRA. Our transparency pledge is, ‘We will do what we say and say what we do’ and you will witness this on our website as well as social media.
We shall be ever grateful for your support and shall utilize the donation funds on the thematic area of your choosing from above, towards creating a positive impact in society through our endeavors with underserved children, youth and women.
This week is our biggest fundraising moment of the year. It’s when we launch the 'Act to Make a Difference' campaign that brings in donors who will propel us into 2021 and beyond. You are one of our loyal donors and so I am reaching out to you once again. Please consider making a donation to a vertical of your choice by clicking on the link above and do forward to your friends and colleagues who may be as generous as you.
All of us at Animedh wish you and your loved ones a healthy and peaceful holiday season and a happy 2021!
Warmly,
Nivedita Desai – Managing Trustee
In the post pandemic phase, as the world limps back to recovery and some sense of normalcy, all of us are still grappling wth fear and anxiety. There is a sense of loss, of near and dear departed ones, loss of the freedom to do things easily without restriction. to move freely without personal protective gear, loss of the chance to socialize, which the very nature of human beings.
Deep in the hinterland, where our tribal women reside, life has become harder due to loss of income, restrictions on income generating activities, return of family members that had migrated to cities, causing a strain in the family's economic resources. They have turned towards their land and agriculture for growing their annual rice and lentil crops during the monsoon months. Over 5000 years their tribe has survived and sustained through rain or shine and this Covid Pandemic is another setback that they atre coping with, by turning inward and towards family. Since September, all vocational activities like dairy farming, organic vegetable growing and poultry farming are slowly picking up as the lockdown is being partially lifted. Our women have resumed earnings and savings activities and have proved to be resilient and enduring. Our supervisors and mental health community workers have started visiting homes across villages, building trusting relationships and helping to change the narrative from bleak to hopeful.
Our hope is to visit each one of our 40 Role model women to trace their journeys and successes and trials through the last few months and we shall share the same with you over the next few months.
Ahead of the festive holiday season, here in India, as we celebrate a muted Diwali. we THANK YOU! for the impact that you are helping to make in the lives that are most marginalised and here's wishing each you and your loved ones safety good health and well-being. God Bless!!
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