| Social Development |
Why are we supporting social development? We have schools to educate and bring about positive transformations in Vrindavan’s poorest children. We also know that each day, these children return home to their parents and back into environments which essentially remain unchanged and which can potentially inhibit any progress made by a child. Food For Life Vrindavan therefore runs special projects to empower rural people and bring about social change in local communities.Schemes have been set up to improve the quality of lives of the villagers in partnership with local authorities, governmental agencies and other organizations and the key areas of focus to date have been: Empowering Women Despite the fact that women bear responsibility in virtually all areas of life (family, nutrition, education, health), they have a low social status in rural India and are often denied basic rights, resources and the freedom to take action.Our primary aim is to support the women through education and counseling to enable them to achieve improvements in all areas of their family lives. In talking with the women on a regular basis and through collaboration with the Savitri Polytechnic Institute for Women, it was possible to identify problems with the existing social structures. As a result, awareness and training camps were launched for village counsel members in order to correct these issues. Furthermore, special projects have been initiated to tackle education around early childhood development, healthcare as well as sanitation and hygiene. Vocational Training Food For Life Vrindavan set up basic courses for women on sewing and tailoring to enable them to make readymade garments and other handicraft. In addition to providing sewing machines to enable women to work from home, selected women have been employed by Sandipani Muni school to sew uniforms for the children. Before such projects were initiated, women had few prospects for gaining employment and now they are assured a regular income which helps them further support their families and they have a sense of self worth. This also provides free uniforms for the children!Click here if you have expertise in social development projects and wish to support us. Micro Credit SchemesFood For Life Vrindavan has set up micro credit and self help groups in cooperation with NABARD (National Bank for Rural & Agriculture Development) and DRDA (District Rural Development Authority). The small loans are offered to the poor and mostly women, to start businesses which enable them to release themselves from poverty. Our network of micro financing has reached more than 1000 families in 26 villages.
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