Handholding a village towards “a better tomorrow”
Vadachi Wadi is a small village with a population of hardly 40 families, comprising some 385 people, barely 13km from Aurangabad. Most of the families depend on farming for income and while the smaller farmers have landholding of 2–3 acres, the larger ones own land plots of 5–6 acres and most of them grow jowar, bajra, cotton, corn, pulses and vegetables.
For the last few years the Rotary Club of Aurangabad, RI District 3132, has adopted this village in a bid to bring around transformative lifestyle changes in the village with focus on children’s education, improving livelihoods, and above all introducing means of income generation for the women in the village.
The Rotarians adopted this village a few years ago to drive impactful community projects under the Rotary Parivartan Gram initiative. “We wanted to address the villagers’ needs and create sustainable solutions in education, farming and especially to enhance women’s income by either teaching them new skills or upgrading existing ones,” says immediate past president of the club Sarita Satish Lonikar.
With focus on girls’ education, the club began to beautify the village primary school by repairing and painting the building and providing seperate toilets for girls and boys. It invited IPDG Swati Herkel to distribute 10 bicycles to girls, who had to walk a distance of 8km to the secondary school. Eight more bicycles, each costing ₹5,000, are going to be given to girl students soon.
Next, the project focused on supporting “local entrepreneurship and self-employment of women through various initiatives as part of a broader mission to promote social change and improve livelihoods. To bring about economic empowerment of women and encourage entrepreneurship, the members organised Montessori training for six women who were interested, and of these three have been employed,” says Poonam Deodas, assistant governor, RID 3132.
Six of the village women were each given an atta chakki (flour mill), and now they are getting a regular income through the production of red chilli powder, turmeric powder, other Indian spices as also grinding foodgrains. A sewing machine was donated to the women who were trained to make cloth bags, small purses and pouches, with the club members helping to market what was produced by the women, including powdered spices, pickles, pappads etc.
Next, the farmers were trained in organic farming with experts organised to address and guide them. Fruit trees were planted in some farms and there is a plan to plant some 500 bamboo trees in the village this year. The total amount spent on this project so far is around ₹3 lakh.
One of the beneficiaries, Savita, said, “I am so thankful to the Rotary club and its president Saritaji for giving me and six other women an atta chakki machine, and training us how to handle it for different kinds of grinding. Now, by doing this work, we can earn about ₹200 to ₹300 daily.”
Says a very happy club president Sarita, “Engaging in these initiatives has been incredibly rewarding. Some of our members visit this village once a month, and seeing the smiles on the faces of the children, the gratitude of the women and the elderly, and the overall improvement in quality of life fills us with immense pride and joy.”
On future plans, she says the club is keen to encourage the education of girls and towards “this goal, we want to set up a scholarship for girls’ higher education. We also want to introduce digital classrooms and e-learning resources.”
She adds that healthcare services will also be taken up by holding regular health camps for medical check-up and vaccination. Skill development of women and youth will continue as also the planting of trees and educating and motivating the farmers to opt for organic farming.
“We are optimistic that all these components of the project will create a ripple effect of positive change and usher in a better tomorrow for the villagers,” smiles Poonam.
