Asha Honor Site visit Report Project S2S
Project S2S
From Suicide to Self Reliance
Prevention of Suicide Among Farmers in Andhra Pradesh
Site Visit Report
Requested by
Sudhama (Phoenix), Joe Curiale (Los Angeles), USA
Conducted by
Dhanalakshmi, Jeba Durai
Asha Honor Academy Fellows
Chennai, India
June 25th - 29th, 2006
The increasing pressure of globalization is pushing thousands of farming families in rural India into the brink of extinction. Struggling with unpredictable monsoons, straining to keep pace with relentless competition, unable to pay back borrowed money and going deeper into debt, several farmers have started committing suicide. This project is an effort to reach out to the children and widows of affected families and facilitate a turaround from suicide to self reliance.
Contents
I. Background & Purpose of Site Visit
II. Reaching Hyderabad
III Site visit notes & observations
IV Asha Intervention Strategy
V Asha Fundraising Target
VI Site visit expenses
VII About Asha Honor Academy Fellows
VIII References
IX Photos taken during site visit
I. Background & Purpose of Site Visit
In villages 300 kilometers away from Hyderabad, there is a rising trend of farmers committing suicide being unable to pay their debts to the landlords. Seeing a CNN report about this, a volunteer and musician from Los Angeles, Joe Curiale, wanted to do something about the situation. He caught the next flight to India and with funds collected from his friends and collegues, he began helping widows to get out of debt. In this report we document observations made during Joe’s second site visit. Asha volunteers from Asha Hyderabad and Asha Honor chapters accompanied Joe during this trip.
The purpose of the site visit was to understand the plight faced by farming families affected by suicide; to assist five widows in getting out of debt and to evaluate self reliance options for them; to support education of affected children.
II. Reaching Hyderabad
Traveling by train, we left Chennai on 25th June Sunday night at 6:30 PM and reached Hyderabad on 26th June Monday morning at 7.45 AM. We were welcomed warmly by Joe’s friend Shivashankar and given accommodation at MLP quarters.
III. Site visit notes & observations
On 26th June after resting at the MLP quarters a bit, we began planning a meeting with Hyderabad volunteers. We contacted Puranachander Rao over phone. He reached the MLP quarters shortly after noon and we had a short meeting with him. We talked about the project and invited Asha Hyderabad’s participation in the project. We then went to Bangara Hills to meet with Giridhar of Asha Hyderabad. We enjoyed a visit to the famous Charminar tower in the Hyderabad city on our way thanks to Shivashankar who helped with a car.
Dhanalakshmi, Shivashankar and I had dinner in a hotel and went to airport to receive Joe Curiale. We dropped Joe at a hotel and went back to our quarters. The plan was to visit the villages the following morning at 8.30 AM.
On 27th morning we got ready at 06.30am in the morning and picked up Joe from his hotel. Once again thanks to Shivashankar we had a car to move around. We went to the residence of Shri Madhu Goud Yaskhi (Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha) for breakfast. Madhu garu had guided Joe when he visited Hyderabad on April 2006. Together at that time they had helped three families affected by suicide. The breakfast gathering consisted of Madhu Goud Yaskhi, Joe Curiale, Sureka( Joe’s friend), Mrs Madhu Suchitra, Jeba Durai, Dhanalakshmi, Puranachandra Rao, Gayathri, Dr. Shiva Shankar, Krishna, Dr. Sugit Devalaya. We discussed about the problems of farmers that were pushing them towards suicide. In particular the discussion was focused on the Nizamadin constituency in Hyderabad.
Joe had raised $16,000 from his fundraising efforts and had brought the funds in the form of Traveler’s checks. To convert the Traveler’s checks into Rupees would typically take 3 days but we were short of time. Joe wanted to distribute the funds during his site visit. Purnachandra Rao’s wife worked in a bank and came to the rescue. After a tense few hours we were finally ready to go to the villages.
We left Madhu garu’s house at 2.45 PM and after traveling for more than three hours from Hyderbad we reached the villages named Hunsa and Bodhan Mandal of Nizamabad parliamentary constituency. Joe’s presence stirred up a lot of excitement for as soon as we reached the villages a lot of people surrounded us. The NDTV team and the Nine Channel team were present to shoot the entire programme.
What happened next was a most amazing demonstration of what commitment of one man can do in lifting the spirits of a community in distress. Joe relentlessly kept reaching out to villagers at every step.
Joe entered the house of a most affected family in the Hunsa village. A two year old child Sweeti had lost her father and mother and was standing all alone. Her future looked uncertain and bleak until now. This was a heartbreaking moment for us as we connected with the deep pain of the child from the sadness in her eyes. Joe hugged the tiny kid with a smile and told her grandmother things are going to be better from now on. He handed over Rs 1 lakh to be put in the bank to earn an interest from which the child’s welfare can be taken care of.
Other families that benefited from Joe’s visit include:
Smt.Susheela is living in Erajpally village. She has two children; a girl and a boy. The girl is studying in fourth class and the boy is studying third class. Susheela is working in Beedi company for the monthly income of Rs 150 to 200. Her husband Amarendar had committed suicide. One lakh was given to this family.
Mrs Lakshmi has no children and her husband Lingam had commited suicide. Now she is living with her mother in law. Joe helped her family with a check for one lakh.
Smt Kurma Poshavva in Bodham village had lost her husband Peergondha to suicide. Her daughter Kalai is 16 years old. This family received Rs 55,000.
Mrs Yasodha in Thanggeli village lost her husband Ambadas. She has two girls and living in Thanggeli village. One girl is studying seventh standard and another girl is not in school. This family received 90,000 Rs.
Dhanalakshmi and I had informal meetings with the village people during this time in parallel. Dhanalakshmi could speak Telugu and this helped overcome the language barrier. As Asha volunteers we wanted to understand the education scene for the children. Interestingly we found most people in the villages feel education is the most important tool for their children. In talking to the village youth going for work in the agricultural field we noted they had typically dropped out of school during seventh to tenth standards.
We had a meeting in the village panchayat hall. Joe had bought some sarees for the village people and toys & chocoloates for the kids. Joe‘s friend Surekha had also bought some dress materials. It was a treat for the kids. In a remote village, one man was making a real impact. Dhanalakshmi and I strongly felt commitment like this and access to education will change the lives of people for the better.
Then we went to the bank in that village, State Bank of Hyderabad at 9.30pm. The bank manager was also there. Joe wanted to deposit the amounts in fixed deposits in the children’s name for five, seven and twelve years ranges. We deposited the cash in the bank and Joe handed over all the cash to the manager. The manager issued receipts and announced the benefiting village families will typically get an interest of Rs. 600 per month.
Joe is happy to do this kind of work. He felt very happy when he gave the monies to the village people. We knew he would have taken care of the entire village’s debt had he had raised more funds.
Then we visited an orphanage in Rasakapet, which is run by the government. They have 71 orphan girls; the food and shelter were given by the government. Ms Manjula is working there as a warden. She has completed her B.Com degree and looking after the girls. Girls belong to the age group of 6 to 14 years and the girls studying from first to seventh classes. After seventh they move to the SC hostel for their higher studies. They have 5 staffs, 2 for cooking, two watchmen and one warden. All are government staffs. A need was identified - they don’t have enough toilet facilities there.
After a long day’s work (done without lunch) we started to a village in Nizamabad 25 km away. Madhu Goud Yaskhi M.P. has an office in Nizamabad. We reached there at 11.30pm. Around 12.00 midnight we had our dinner. We reached Hyderabad at early morning 4.30am. Exhausted we dropped into sleep.
On 28th we wake up at 9.30 AM, called Purnachandrao over the phone and fixed up a meeting for Asha Hyderbad volunteers to meet with Joe in his hotel at 6.30pm. Joe, Jebadurai, Dhanalakshmi, Giridhar, Puranchandrao, and Udaya Kumar (Asha Hyderabad Coordinator) were present and discussed about the projects.
IV. Asha Intervention Strategy
Nizamabad has 150 villages. The Mandal has 18 villages. 9000 people live in the Hunsa village. The village has two schools. One is a government school and another one is a private school. The government school consists of classes from first to seventh standard and the private school is from KG to fifth standard. For 8th standard education they have to go out to another village which is seven kilometer away from this village – a common problem of distance faced in many rural villages across India. Many students drop out as a result. There appears to be a correlation between early dropouts and early marriage. Another problem is the villages have electricity for only seven hours a day.
Asha’s intervention strategy could focus on:
(i) Following up on the education of the children in the suicide affected families
Implement through 4 site visits per year (Asha Hyd volunteer, Jeba, Dhanalakshmi)
At $62 per site visit, total cost for this would be ~ $248 per year
(ii) Improving the facilities in the village schools where these children go
Work with Madhu garu to explore the opportunities from the government’s side
Help develop libraries to excite the children to go to school
Prevent drop out
To do this effectively we will need to identify 1-2 young full time volunteers in the villages and support them with honorarium. Amount will need to be determined and confirmed during Joe’s upcoming site visit in Sept. Rs 1000 per full time volunteer per month should be a bare minimum.
(iii) Offering Self reliance training programs especially for widows and young girls
After consultation with Hunsa village youth and elders*, we propose a tailoring center for the girls as a pilot project. At Rs 2500 per machine total cost will be Rs.10, 000 ($232)
*If they get this slowly they can come out from beedi company says Mr Anu maragam who lives in the village for thirty years.
V. Asha Fundraising Target
4 Site visits per year - $ 248 per year
2 Full time volunteers in the villages - $ 558 per year
4 Tailoring machines for pilot self reliance training programs - $232
Improvement of schools - To be determined
Total - $1038 + TBD
VI. Site Visit Expenses (for Dhanalakshmi, Jeba)
1. Train Journey Rs 1786
2. Food (4 days) Rs 800
Total Rs 2666 ($62)
Site visit expenses were supported by volunteer Sudhama.
VII. About Asha Honor Academy Fellows
Dhanalakshmi is grass roots expert of Asha Honor chapter in Chennai, India. Her strengths are in being able to travel to rural villages, bond with local women and facilitate long term intervention towards self reliance. She is involved in 8 diverse Asha projects benefiting children in challenging environments including brick kilns industry, low income families, gypsies. She is currently engaged also in conducting a comprehensive survey of issues affecting deaf children in the Chennai vicinity.
Jeba is the coordinator of Asha Honor chapter in Chennai, India. He holds an MA in public administration from Madras University and is deeply involved in over 20 Asha projects. He looks forward to site visits as exciting avenues to facilitate India-wide team work towards Universal Quality Education (UQE).
VIII References
1. Summary of Beneficiaries from Joe’s site visit:
Name Village Amount (Rs)
1. Smt.Kavitha(sweeti) Hunsa Village 1,00,000
2. Smt. Susheela Erajapally Village 1, 00,000
3. Smt. Laxmi Amdapur Village 50,000
4. Lakshmi Mother in Law Amdapur Village 50,000
5.Smt Kurma Poshavva Bodhan Village 55,000
6. Smt. Yasodha Thaggeli Village 90,000
Total 4, 45,000
All are from very poor agricultural families from the villages of Bodhan(Mandal), Nizamabad Parliamentary Constituency.
2. Link to Joe Curiale’s web page
http://www.s91680232.onlinehome.us/curiale/
IX. Photos taken during site visit
Link to Asha’s datastore to be attached by Jeba
UQE 2047