Introduction Thank you for your support of Arasanimangalam panchayat. Please find below the 18-months’ report covering successful stories of people benefiting from Hand in Hand India’s (HIH India) interventions as well as challenges in implementing the programme. Empowering people Arasanimangalam is situated in Uthiramerur block of Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. Eighteen months ago, HIH India introduced the Village Upliftment Programme-VUP in the panchayat. Since its launch, the VUP has implemented interventions in the areas of Women Empowerment & Job Creation, education, health, environment, and IT and governance. The integrated development approach has not only brought out a progressive change but has also laid the path for a better quality of life for villagers in Arasanimangalam panchayat. Women Empowerment & Job Creation (SHGs) Poverty affects women and children the most. Illiterate poor women in rural India have, for long, confined themselves to the conventional way of life — household chores, working as labourers, or assisting in family-based enterprises. By forming self-help groups and providing affordable microcredit they are now away from the web of poverty in Hand in Hand India’s self-help groups (SHGs) and microfinance programme has helped poor women emerge from a cocoon existence and carve out an identity of their own. With the backing of the microfinance programme, women have received business training, and enterprise creation initiatives and marginalised women have emerged as change agents in their communities. Based on the need, Hand in Hand India also conducts skill training to self-help group women. For many women, the SHG programme has given them the life of hope, dignity, and choice. Women receive microfinance loan to create and strengthen their family based enterprises and some women were linked with banks to receive loans. Address: Hand in Hand, SEED Trust Training Centre, Nasarathpet Village, Opp Pachayappa’s Men’s College, Little Kanchipuram, Kanchipuram District 631 503, Tamil Nadu, India Phone: +91-44-420 293 60 • Fax: +91-44-272 693 01 E-mail: info@hihseed.org • Web: www.hihindia.org
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