EMPOWER 1400 WOMEN FROM UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES

Hi I am Ann Anra from Chennai and I am raising funds to empower women at the Perumbakkam Housing Board (OMR,Chennai) from 1400 families relocated from different slums. I aim to build a self sustaining ecosystem & give them and their families a shot at a brighter future. Due to the Covid-19 lockdown they are severely affected long term and definitive action at this time will make all the difference. 

THE PROBLEM

Most of these women are the sole breadwinners of their families and socio-economic injustices render them income-less for most of the year and making it more difficult at this time. As they have been in lockdown their problems have multiplied leaving them penniless and without any supplies. 

A large portion of the funds will be re-routed to the well being of these families for the next month for food rations, masks, toiletries, sanitary napkins and drinking water supply. Our project was eligible for funds from government grants but in this new situation we are unable to move forward and rely on you for help.  

THE SOLUTION

We aim to make them micro entrepreneurs & skilled trainee-employees and continuously increase their skill set so they can be employed in various waste management and other related service fields.  

The saying goes, “If you give a person a fish, they can eat for a day, if you teach them to fish, they will eat for a lifetime” 

With this in mind, we will set up and support them by teaching entrepreneurial skills,creating new opportunities for them by providing necessary inventory and machinery,updates training & personal development sessions, teaching arts to children, thereby giving this community the means for holistic development.

THE STORY

Last year, through my social entrepreneurial venture, Wasted 360 Solutions, we began interviewing & identifying women across the age group of 18 to 50 who need a livelihood from this community. We employed trainers to impart art-based skills and taught them in batches on how to make products out of waste materials and skills in waste segregation & collection processes . The results of this exercise were phenomenal. Few of these ladies are equipped with their new found talent in “waste handloom” and other essential waste management services are ready and need your help.

NGO PARTNER 

I work along with Arpanam Trust, a well known NGO established in 1996 run by the Church Park Sisters that helps under-served communities (tribal, urban poor,rural poor) across Tamil Nadu. They rescue, rehabilitate and focus on empowerment through skill development, job creation, personal development and provides them a collective voice to fight issues that plague their community. Together, we are determined to bring about holistic change to this community by not just providing them handouts but a long term livelihood. 

I have been supporting myself since I passed out of college in 2010. After researching waste practices for a year while I was still in a consulting position in an IT company, I quit to pursue this full time in early 2019. Using personal funds, savings and friends support, I launched Wasted 360 Solutions as a social venture that has identified and created sustainable solutions for low-value waste that is the main cause of toxic waste and overflowing landfills. We tackle dry waste in 10 categories - cigarette waste, cigarette boxes, multi layer packaging, used beverage cartons,broken helmets, fabric waste,glass, e-waste,plastic, aluminium and other post consumer waste.   

I look to you all now to help me make a change in a community that I have been working closely with for a year now.

CONCLUSION

Keeping in mind that we are working through a pandemic, and with data that we may soon be facing another crisis with the virus spreading through littered waste, this project will have a multi pronged positive effect for women and our city.

It has been a long journey of research and understanding the nuances of working with the urban poor to reach this point but words from Nehruji’s speech always resonate with everything I have started to do. 

“The future beckons to us. What shall be our endeavour ?

To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man, to fight and end poverty ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man.

We have hard work ahead. There is no resting for any one of us till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be.” 

This project is also aligned with the UNDP's Sustainability Goals. 

I appeal to you to support this cause by donating or sharing this fundraiser with your friends and family.