To help communities during that period, Gravis started active relief measures, supporting about 150,000 people. The organisation distributed food and hygiene kits to nearly 40,000 families (around 3,20,000 people).
NEW DELHI: Seven years ago, 36-year-old Santosh Vaishnav joined Gravis, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working with impoverished rural communities in Rajasthan.
Her association with Gravis began in 2015 when the NGO came to Rajasthan’s Samrau village in search of volunteers. It was then that they got to know about Santosh and her stitching skills through a group of villagers.
Gravis then asked Santosh if she could teach stitching to a class of 20 village women, and offered her Rs 6,000 for a month. Santosh said yes. It was her first income, and then there was no looking back. She later taught another batch of women, helping them start their own sewing work.
Today, Santosh also runs a group of 11 women from her village who make soaps, papads, etc with their own funds and sell them to earn additional income.
Santosh is now able to earn Rs 10,000-12,000 thousand a month. Her husband, a school bus driver, supports her in all her endeavours, she says. They both work hard so they can educate their children – one boy and three girls.
Santosh, who learned stitching from her mother, says the decision to join Gravis changed her life. “After joining Gravis, I learned how to go out, talk to people and started teaching my kids. Earlier I wasn’t as confident,” she says.
Covid No Deterrent
In 2020, when Covid-19 first hit the country, many people in Samrau lost their livelihoods as the pandemic severely affected the labour market and the mining sector. The Covid lockdown left the villagers without any source of income, making it difficult for them to procure food and other essentials.
To help communities during that period, Gravis started active relief measures, supporting about 150,000 people. The organisation distributed food and hygiene kits to nearly 40,000 families (around 3,20,000 people). It also built mobile medical teams which offered health check-ups and medical support to over 3,000 people every month.
In Samrau, Santosh took up the responsibility of leading a team of volunteers who helped Gravis with door-to-door distribution of food and hygiene kits.
Apart from this, her team stitched hundreds of cloth masks to be distributed among the villagers.
Santosh now says she wants to continue working with Gravis so that she can help the people of her village.
Article Credits: The Indian Express