Vasudha USA & Hyderabad Team Visit to Asifabad

On December 10th, 11th, 12th December 2022, Vasudha team from USA along with our Hyderabad team visited Asifabad to participate in a number of our activities and first hand examine effectiveness of our activities.

On the first day, our team met with Lions Club Bellampalli team to discuss if there are any opportunities to extend the physical wellness activities to cover women health using a local Gynecologist. Lions Club team mentioned currently they are only focussed on Eye surgeries, but are open to discuss with their trust members to extend into this area to help with this critical issue in the area where many women suffer from gynecology related issues.

Our team went to Tiryani where we have been conducting an Eye Camp once every month to help the elderly in surrounding villages to get their eyes examined and get cataract surgery done if necessary. This is being done by working with Lions Club of Bellampalli and Asifabad Police. Around 25-30 people came to the camp to get their eyes examined. While talking to the villagers, the biggest problem seems to be communicating to the villagers to inform them of the upcoming camp. Most of them were not aware of the camps happening regularly for the last couple of years, though we have been communicating through various means like village patels, sarpanches, and asha workers. We resolved to improve our communication of the camps through any other means we can find like Dandora and Cable advertisements.

Our team next visited Pangidamadira where we distributed Tailoring Machines to 18 women who have recently completed tailoring training in our Pangidamadira camp. We have also distributed blankets to 100+ villagers to help them handle the winter weather in the area. Asifabad SP Suresh Kumar garu, ASP Acheshwara Rao garu and several other officials from Police Department, Pangidamadira Sarpanch, Patel and other village officials participated in the distribution.

Our team next went to Ginnedhari to meet the women we have trained in the last few camps in the area to understand how they are utilizing the skill they learned. Some of them are able to use the skill to stitch their own cloths and some were able to stitch for others for a fee and earn some living. During the discussions with the women, it became clear that having a central tailoring center operated by the local women would be very beneficial. We will be facilitating such a center to help the women earn their living using the skill they have acquired through our training.

Our team next met the farmers in Ginnedhari area supported by Dham foundation. Farmers are working towards natural farming with the guidance of Dham foundation, but none of these farmers we spoke to have completely moved to natural farming due to various difficulties. Need to conduct more discussions with Dham foundation volunteers to understand collaboration we can do to help the farmers.

We then came back to Tiryani where we met the women currently getting trained in tailoring to understand how they are progressing. They are getting trained for about a month now, but the kind of stitching work they were able to demonstrate was pleasantly surprising. It is clear that they were quick learners and able to grasp the training provided and able to learn and use it to stitch not just basic items but also able to stitch some creative designs. They explained some of the problems they are facing, and we are working on resolving their concerns.

On the second day, our team went to TTWR Junior College to address the students on the personality development. We interacted with large gathering of students to help them understand what personality development is all about and what role yoga and meditation plays towards personality development. We took a number of action items to improve on our efforts on personality development.

Next we met the farmers managed by Chetan Organic for producing organic cotton in the villages around Asifabad. Around 6000 farmers are producing organic cotton under the supervision of Chetan Organic. Since Vasudha’s interest in natural farming is to help the farmers produce their own living needs through natural farming way as opposed to produce one variety for third party business purposes, we are not seeing any opportunity for collaboration through this firm.

Visited Jainoor where a number of women got trained in tailoring through our earlier training camps in this location. For some of these trained women, they are waiting for a tailoring machine to be given for use at home. We have explained them about the central production facility we are looking to setup where they could leverage the tailoring machines like going to a library for reading. They liked the concept and we are working on getting these setup next year. We will at least be setting up two such facilities.

Next we went to Konda Patar village in Jainoor Mandal to distribute blankets to 100+ families from 3 surrounding villages. These villagers gave us a heart-warming traditional welcome to the distribution site.

On the third day morning, we visited Telangana Model School to take our personality development activities with the school further. We were very impressed by the work happening in this school and how the school management is encouraging well rounded development in the students by promoting various extracurricular activities by the students. Interacted with several students and addressed large gathering of students to impress upon the need for well rounded personality and how it can be inculcated.

At noon on the third day, met SP at his office to update him on our activities. We have also met district collector to update him on our activities. Collector suggested us to collaborate with DRDO office to collaborate on natural farming activities in the district.

As a final activity on the trip, visited TTWRDC for Women to talk to the students on the personality development and to understand any other needs they have. Took a number of action items to work on them further.

Overall the trip has been very satisfying and gave us a first hand experience on the impact of our activities by talking to the people on the ground and understand the on the ground realities and gave us further motivation to keep improving the work we do and make it reach more people.

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