Location: Prayagraj (formerly the Allahabad District) / State of Tamil Nadu

Project 1: Empowering Women and Girls through Education, Well-Being and Income Enhancing Strategies

Project 2: Empowering Prison Inmates and Families

Partner: ACTS / KRUPA

The people of rural Uttar Pradesh are very poor. Girls and women face many inequalities, with limited or no schooling offered to girls. Domestic violence against women and girls is prevalent. Child marriage is illegal, but still happens a lot. ‘Dowries’ are banned by the government, but still continue between families. The people in this region often live in unsanitary conditions, suffer from malnutrition and have high maternal mortality rates.

Project One: Empowering Women and Girls through Education, Well-Being and Income Enhancing Strategies

Goal of the Project

This project is funded by ChildLink supporters and SHE supporters. The goal is to educate educate, train and build the financial capacity of highly vulnerable girls and women in semi-rural villages around Allahabad (northern India). This is to increase their independence and economic resilience.

Improve the understanding of health and hygiene and teach illness prevention. There is particular emphasis on sexual health (especially HIV), family planning and mental health
Assist 76 women to develop viable businesses over the next four years through the Women’s Microfinance scheme. Small business budgeting workshops will be held and loans provided. Loan beneficiaries will be empowered.
Target girls and young women between 12 and 20 years old for the Vocational Training Program. They will be taught skills in sewing, dressmaking, stitch craft, knitting, crocheting and other forms of handicraft.

Specific goals:

Educate 120 10-18 year old girls, 5 days a week
Train 250-300 girls 4 days a week in Gohri villages in dressmaking and needlecraft
Train 80 girls 1 day a week in Neva villages in dressmaking and needlecraft
600-700 girls and women participate in health education, family planning and basic first aid every year
76 individual savings accounts established

Progress Update (from July’20 till June’21)

115 girls attended school classes in small group clusters to maintain social distancing recommendations,
More than 235 girls attended vocational training classes, and their sewing and craftwork was performed in small group clusters,
A few girls from various village centres tailored clothes for weddings, which continued despite the lockdown with COVID protocols, so some families benefitted and earned an income to help assist their families,
Health education awareness was conducted in groups of 2-4 women in homes or 8-10 girls in clusters,
Basic medicines like paracetamol for fevers and electrolytes, B-complex and iron were given to people in need.

To help educate, train and build the financial capacity of highly vulnerable girls and women in semi-rural villages in northern India, donate today.

Project Two: Empowering Prison Inmates and Families

Chennai is a city on the Bay of Bengal in the south-east of India, and is the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu. The city is home to a museum showcasing the city’s roots as a British military garrison and East India Company trading outpost, when it was still called Madras. The Tamils form the majority of the population and more than 40% of the families live below the poverty line. Petty crime, especially theft of personal property, is common, particularly on trains or buses, but for foreigners it is one of the safest cities in India.

Goal of the Project

This Krupa project is funded by a private donor for work in prisons where the aim is to ensure the holistic development of prisoners in Tamil Nadu, to bring about transformation and integration of prison families into society. Families of prisoners face poverty, stigma and isolation from their community, and ex-prisoners find it difficult to get work which increases the chances of re-offending.

The Empowering Prison Inmates and Families project aims to address this through:

Training 300 prisoners/ex-prisoners and their family members in printing, agriculture, 4-wheel driving and paper bag making,
Seeing 200 prisoners/ex-prisoners attain employment,
Provide counselling sessions for 200 families for improved family unity,
Ensure 400 children of prisoners can access education,
Improve the health of prisoners.

Progress Update (from April’20 till March’21)

Employed inmates after release: 53 men and 17 women in various jobs as Painting, Fishing, Driving, Tailoring, Accountants, vendors, mobile phone service etc.
27 male inmates are growing individual plots of okra, eggplant, pumpkin, and leafy greens – all of which are used in the prison kitchen. The program is conducted by trained inmates,
2 medical camps were held in the one of the prisons and medicines were distributed,
56 girls and 10 boys received educational assistance,
The Block Printing program was restarted towards the end of the COVID lockdown, and 13 women were trained,
Weaving, candle making, paper bag making and leadership training could not be done due to the pandemic,
Cluster meetings, house visits and counselling meetings with family members were mostly done over the phone or online.