Can a village pond, which was once used for daily activities – bathing, fishing, washing, irrigation – be a matter of oblivion for its community for over a decade? For the people of Pallassena in Palakkad district of Kerala, it has been.
The recurrent sightings of poisonous snakes clubbed with the contamination of water by people bathing cattle in summers forced them to forsake their village pond nearly a decade ago.
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At Pallassena village of Palakkad district, Kerala, community farming project continues to change the lives and fortunes of these ladies. Losing their job at tailoring shops and juggling between working as daily laborers at different sites, when Covid robbed them of all opportunities to earn money, they turned to a barren land. Today, they are harvesting organic vegetables like brinjal,
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For someone who has walked under the scorching sun for miles, words cannot express the happiness of sighting a bench, or the memory of a hearty conversation on it, waiting for a bus. The locals of Palghar Block in Maharashtra too felt a need for a spot where people could just come, sit and talk devoid of any discrimination.
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How we all loved to walk into those classrooms with its bright-hued walls painted with our favourite cartoons. For the kids of Foksadanga village in Alipurduar district of West Bengal, their emotions towards their ICDS centre (Anganwadi) was no different. However, when they were left without a play area due to the dilapidated condition of the centre,
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According to the locals of Chakbasto village in Kupwara district, Kashmir, the annual snowfall (of about 8 feet) and its subsequent melting often affects the stone structures in the region…one such was the boundary wall of a natural spring. It was in the wake of this situation that team Goonj motivated the locals towards the making of the boundary wall under our ‘Dignity For Work’ initiative.
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Located 13 km away from the Block headquarters in Rayagada district, Dalmeridi village in Odisha is home to 20 tribal families. For its residents, every year with the coming of rains, the sight of gushing rainwater from the hills making its way into the village pond has become a common sight. However, as the pond was getting buried with sediments,
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Today, one cannot imagine a snake charmer without intertwining it with some intriguing element of mythology. However, for anyone visiting Ramsai village in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal – home to a group of nomadic tribes – the idea of snake charmer will be an element of realism. Geographically, Ramsai is a low-lying region where every time it rains it results in severe waterlogging.
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To ensure safe travel for the 50 families of the village during the monsoon, 25 residents from Katkaripada, Talwada village in Palghar district of Maharashtra, came together to work under Goonj’s ‘Dignity for Work’ initiative to build a bamboo bridge across the village creek. Goonj motivated them and rewarded their efforts with Rahat Kits. Though paddy cultivation is at its peak during the monsoon,
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“If there was an emergency in our village, we would have been completely stuck and given today’s circumstances, emergencies can happen anytime,” says Niketan, a resident of cyclone Nisarga-hit Bandarwadi village in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district. It was this disposition of theirs and a little motivation from Goonj that encouraged 17 residents of his village to work under our ‘Dignity For Work’ initiative towards the cleaning of their 500-metre stretch of the main road that was completely covered with cyclone debris.
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There was a time when the waters of the village pond of Melaksahi in Puri district, Odisha, never ceased to ripple. However, with the invasive growth of water weeds, once a bustling hub of activity soon became a breeding ground for mosquitoes. As water-borne diseases became rampant in the area, Goonj motivated 52 locals to work towards cleaning the pond,
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