Economic empowerment for tribal women -Role Models

Here's wishing all our champion Donors a very Happy Diwali! Diwali is the widely celebrated Indian festival and we pray that this festival of lights dispels darkness, ignorance and evil from the lives of our beneficiary women and girls!

We started this project with your outstanding support in November 2018 and the year that passed has been eventful for Animedh Charitable Trust (ACT) as well as for our beneficiaries all over!

Throughout the year, the number of women undergoing vocational training under ACT for dairy or poultry or organic vegetable farming increased beyond 100 and final count was a stupendous 129 women! They were also given continuous mentorship and they went for numerous exposure visits so as to get them started on their income generation activities. As the women worked hard, we also understood that there were a lot of social injustices against them in the family, community and society. We chose an integrated approach by training 20 resource persons among them to become mental health counsellors and enabling their empowerment and sustainable livelihoods.

From among these 129, we identified 40 women that demonstrated higher income generation and enterpreneurial spirit. We also identified 2 full time supervisors - Sarita Bhusara from Warli community and Lata Mahala from Konkana community to hand hold, monitor and gulde the women to make market linkages over the next 3-4 months to enable increaseiin incomes upwards of INR 15000 each month sustainably. They interviewed the beneficiary women on last year's performance, sales, profit, savings, etc. and ascertained their interest in continuing further. The purpose behind this was to make them the role models within their village and communities and motivate others through their success. In the adivasi communities of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, there is a tendency to follow a proven path towards success and we are confident that many other women will emulate our champions and overcome financial, cultural and social hurdles and become financially empowered. Here are some of the inspiring stories:

Savita of Talavali village (Rudana District). expressed that after the project she has become self sufficient and doesn't need to ask her husband or in laws for money. She also expressed that their financial constraints had reduced and they were more comfortable now than ever before.

Mid way through the project, Dhaklu of Kherdi villafge (Aamboli District) discovered that she had cancer and was able to use her earnings from dairy farming for the cancer cure and medication, hospitalisation, etc.She will now sell her cows as she is unable to tend to them due to her illness. She felt that she would not have been able to survive without the treatment that she could afford thanks to her dairy income, 

Many others like Mina, Kalpana, Radhu, are part of Year 2 and are earning more than INR 10,000 and will continue to strive for higher earnings and greater goals like their children's college education, buying a two wheeler, etc and moving towards prosperity. 

It is thanks to your donation support and encouragement that the project has witnessed so many transformations among the vulnerable population of women, youth and children in Dadra Nagar Havel communities. We remain grateful for your support. 

Last but not least, ACT along with 2 of our Embroidery artisans Rukhsar and Rubina from Mumbai were invited by our Garment Partener to Milan, the Fashion Capital and were honoured on stage as the real heroes behing the brand I Was A Sari, which won the Green Carpet Award of Sustainable Fashion for respnsible disruption! It was a Milestone day for all of us and women everywhere that have overcome all kinds of adversities and excelled through their skill and grit and the world noticed and applauded!