COVID Relief for Tamil Nadu Families

Greetings from VOICE Trust.

WHO chief declares end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency:

A public health emergency of international concern by the WHO chief on 30 January, 2020 - was here to stay: “It is still killing and it is still changing. The risk remains of new variants emerging that cause new surges in cases and deaths.”

He said that the decision had not been made lightly. For the past year, the WHO-led Emergency Committee had been carefully examining the data, on the right time to lower the alarm.

For over 12 months, the pandemic “has been on a downward trend”, he said, with immunity increasing due to the highly effective vaccines developed in record time to fight the disease, and infections. Death rates have decreased and the pressure on once overwhelmed health systems, has eased.

“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before COVID-19”

Until now VOICE Trust has provided seeds, saplings, carts, value added product creation training and support of raw materials, capacity building sessions and a lot more. As COVID is getting reduced month by month and people are getting back to normalcy. Farmers who have got supports are running their start-up successfully, we have a lot of success stories. A women is now taking care off her family, child's education and is expanding her agribusiness and opening a shop shortly.

Thank you all for transforming their lives and helping them to live a good life.

VOICE Trust puts one more request to you all dear friends. 

Please support us in virtual volunteering, especially the technical aspects..!! If interested please email to connect@voice-trust.org, voicetrust.try@gmail.com

In India, Agriculture employs about 80 percent of rural women. Empowering and mainstreaming rural women workforce in agriculture can bring paradigm shift towards economic growth. It will enhance food and nutrition security and alleviate poverty and hunger. Studies have shown that women have less access to inputs (seeds, fertiliser, labour, and finance), critical services (training, insurance) and organised markets when compared to their male counterparts. This inequality comes with a social and economic cost.

ICAR research revealed that the participation of women is 75 per cent in the production of major crops, 79 per cent in horticulture, 51 per cent in post-harvest work and 95 per cent in animal husbandry and fisheries. Their activities typically include producing agricultural crops, tending animals, processing and preparing food, working for wages in agricultural or other rural enterprises, collecting fuel and water, engaging in trade and marketing, caring for family members and maintaining their homes.

Seeds given to 4100 women in Alathur Block

Tamil Nadu State Rural Livehood Mission TNSRLM (Mahalir Thittam) in collaboration with VOICE Trust given seeds to 4100 women for raising Nutri Vegetable Garden in 39 panchayats of Alathur Block of Perambalur District. The Introduction of this programme was given by Mr.Julius Caesar theoder, Assistant Project Officer. Mr.Magasean, Block Machine Manager welcomed all in the event.

Mr.Karuppasamy, Project Director / Joint Director had explained about the nutrition levels in vegetables and greens. He asked the participants to intake more nutritive foods for better healthy generation. He demonstrate by sowing the seeds in the model land.

The Team of TNSRLM distributed the 10 varieties of seeds such as Papaya, Murungai, Bhendi, Cluster Bean, Ridge Gourd, Bitter Gourd, Snake Gourd, Broad Beans, Siru Keerai and Mulai Keerai.

Mrs.R.kavitha, Agriculture Coordinator of VOICE Trust explained about how sowing the seeds and how to prepare the land and how to raise the plants and she also explain about the organic inputs were given to the plants like Panchakavyam, Fish extracts, Vermi compost and Organic Manure.

In the end of the meeting the Team of TNSRLM Mahalir Thittam Block Coordinators Mrs.Anjugam, Mrs.Amala Jayaseelan, Mrs.Malathi with the help VOICE Trust Team of Mr.Karthikeyan, Mr.Prakash, Mrs.Victoria sowed the seeds into the farmers land and helped them to start the Nutri Vegetable Garden in their own land.

We will continue to do great things and thank you dear all for being with us!!

…

Madhavi, a transgender who is risiding with her mom is not interested in getting money from people directly. She does a lot of work to get a standard income for her family. She goes for daily wage to agriculture fields, has 5 goats and most of the time she is in rearing them and this is her source of income.

During COVID lockdown, she faced a lot of problem to gain income for her family. She shared that, she is good in preparing healthy traditional food using small grains which are energy boosters and immunity developers. She had a temproray bench stall in front of a big hospital and may patients were benefitting out of it. But, it was hard for her to maintain and organize things. So, as a part of COVID Relief Project we gave her a cart of Oct 15 (International Rural Women's Day), she was very happy to receive it.

She said, "Thank you to each good heart for gifting this cart to me, this will increase my income and I will take it to door steps of families and children will also be benefitted out of that, and this will definelty change my life"

With all your supports this is possible for VOICE Team to create a start-up for a transgender. She said "this is the beginning and at any situation this will not leave me behind"

On behalf of VOICE Trust our team along with Ms. Madhavi express our gratitude for transforming one more family who is most deserving of such help.

We have planned to give 10 goats for 10 single women of Theni District. We seek your continued supports to achieve great transformations and impact lives of individuals and families. 

From today she has started to use the cart provided by you.

Thank you all..!!

Rural Women's Day was also celebrated with 100 Women and they all were supportive and encouraging her to take up business in an effective way.

Basic Tailoring and Garment Making Technique are one of the basic and foremost needs to develop the sustainable rural, even the urban livelihood among the people. We have basic demands about the apparel in every household despite the cast, creed, and religion. So, the trade Tailoring and Garment Making have an aspect among the rural women folk to help their families and maintain their minimal livelihood through these trades. We had provided a training module helps the trainees in making apparel techniques and marketing of value and developed capabilities of young entrepreneurs in establishing a rural business based cortege industries.

A group of women in the village of Manikapuram, Tiruchirapalli had lost their wage employment in the garment designing business. Hence, they were not able to meet their family expenses to run their family.

VOICE Trust has provided them with two cloth stitching machines to initiate their own business, which was more helpful for them to get sustain income for their family. And now, they are expanding their business to the nearby city.

Pandemic has been brutal in destroying the world order as we knew it. It had particularly brought the lives of the marginalized sections to a crashing halt. As more and more small and marginal farmers are pushed into the informal sector workforce, women are in a particularly difficult space given the gender wage gap that exists in India. Pappa's case was no different. 

"The rains had destroyed my crops and I was out of cash to buy even the bare necessities for the house. My husband and I couldn't even find work in the Trichy city as laborers at construction sites due to COVID", says Pappa staring into vacant space as she sits beside her husband Raman recollecting the difficult times. Tiruchirappalli, a tier II city of India has considerable small and marginal farmers in the periurban space and post-pandemic economic recovery has been slow owing to climate change-induced torrential rains.  " VOICE Trust believed in us and helped me out by giving me money to buy groceries and a pair of chicken and rooster. This was a lifesaver for us/" she says heaving a sigh of relief. 

Backyard poultry farming is one of the easiest and low-cost methods that are taught to beneficiaries by the Voice Trust team to ensure that they get basic income and assured nutrition. Mustering all her courage Pappa had started out with the monetary assistance received. Now she sits at her verandah surrounded by 27 little hatchlings peeping around her and dreams of starting a poultry business using country chicken in the future. She is a stranger to the modern fancy world of entrepreneurship. But she says, " I want to learn more about country chickens, bank accounts,  and I know VOICE Trust will help me with the knowledge". And that's how we knew she had decided to embrace the path of entrepreneurship and we couldn't be happier.