Divi Seema Foundation

Aim

DSF has been helping poor landlless labourer familes in south India fo twenty years.  We are in  a position to ask for more funds...

 DSF has been helping poor landlless labourer familes in south India for twenty years.  We are in a very  good  position to guarantee that any funds we receive will benefit the families directly because we have a well tested and effective structure of working through resident catholoic nuns, and, we have built up trust with the villagers over the years by our continuing presence and delivering help at crucial times.  A small amount of money has a huge human impact, for instance, last year we gave £750 to one community of sisters to buy a scooter so they could reach  very remote villages and start savings groups.  As a result 500 women joined the savings groups and their families benefiited when otherwise they would have been neglected.  According to the sisters this scooter has transformed the lives of these families. At present we support two communities of sisters in their social development, medical and education activities at a cost of £6,000 p.a but we now want to expand to other communities that have exactly the same highly effective cellular structure.  

In the last year alone with £3000 DFS money, the sisters at Nagayalanka have; 

• Taken on 2 new co-ordinators (total now 4) and created 10 new savings groups in 7 new villages making 54 savings groups in 50 villages with a total membership of over 3,500 women
• Taken on 2 new co-ordinators to supervise weekly Childrens’ Parliaments in 6 villages
• Carried out 15 medical camps (doctor, nursing sisters, medicines and referrals to their dispensary) in outlying (neglected) villages.
• Opened 2 sewing training centres (10 machines and 2 teachers)
• Arranged and carried out 2 x three monthly “ “Womens’ Celebration Day” meetings with the focus on empowerment and education for girls
• Set up scholarships for 6 girls in 2 villages

At Kottur with £2000 the sisters have:

• Paid matching matching grants (the last of their kind) to 10 savings groups (membership 200)
• Taken on 1 co-ordinator to supervise the saving groups
• Taken on 1 co-ordinator to supervise weekly Childrens Parliaments in 2 areas of Kottur
• Carried out monthly medical camps (doctor, nursing sisters, medicines and referrals to their dispensary) in tribal and urban areas
• Opened 1 new sewing training centre in addition to the existing one (15 machines in total and now 2 teachers)
• Arranged and carried out 2 x 3 monthly  “Womens’ Celebration Day” meetings with the focus on empowerment and education for girls
• Arranged and carried out 2 x 3 monthly Youth Camps 

In all over the 20 year period we have helped 6000 families.  

All these details  can be found on our website www.diviseemafoundation.org which also has three films about the work the sisters do and how the women cope. Please help them Thank you 

This project closed unsuccessfully on 29th January 2016