The Ernakulam District Kudumbashree Mission has embarked on a noble campaign of feeding extremely poor families in the district through its Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs).
The district has 5,650 extremely poor families which were identified as part of a State-wide government survey to devise micro plans to rehabilitate them with the support of local bodies and other agencies. Among them, families which are unable to meet the basic need of food are being served by NHGs.
The district Kudumbashree Mission has undertaken the initiative on its own as an expression of its social committent. The initiative is in tune with the Kudumbashree’s direction to every NHG to do a good deed as part of Chuvadu, a campaign kick-started by Kudumbashree on January 26 to mark its silver jubilee.
“As part of the initiative, NGH members visited the extremely poor families within their limits in a campaign that lasted for eight days from December 22. This helped a great deal in getting a first hand information about the plight of the families and motivating our members to go beyond the primary objective of feeding them,” said T.M. Rajeena, district mission coordinator.
Accordingly, NHGs formulated short, medium and long term plans for helping the families in various ways, including with the education of their children, clearing their debts, getting them relevant documents, insurance, job cards and finding sponsors wherever possible. In one such instance, NHGs in a ward in Muvattupuzha pooled together ₹25,000 to fund the semester fee of an orphaned graduate student.
“The families concerned are spread across the district with not more than two in a single ward. NHGs in those wards take monthly turns in feeding those families. Considering that there are 10-15 NHGs in each ward, the burden would not fall on any one NHG but is spread across while covering the families for the next one year by which time government’s micro plans for their rehabilitation would have kicked in,” said Ms. Rajeena.
Arrangements are also being made to feed them a day’s meal from Kudumbashree’s Janakeeya hotels.
