Arise India Coordinator, Sr. Sherly Thomas, visited an Arise-supported programme in Alappuzha. The programme facilitates livelihood generation for widows, in order to create secure, sustained incomes. Sr. Sherly reported on her visit:
'On the 20th of February, I had the chance to visit the Alappuzha project site of Sr. Lissy Rose. At 10am I met the beneficiaries, all of them widows, in the pre-primary school of SMI sisters. There were around 40 widows benefitting from livelihood programmes from Arise. All of them were very grateful to Arise and for Sr. Lissy Rose to help them with financial assistance.'
'Each one of them shared how the project helped them to improve their lifestyle and improve their income. Most of them are very much struggling to cope with life and provide for families. Some of them told me that they are going for daily wage work from Government, and that is not enough to feed their children and pay for education. So this extra some income from the project of Arise helps them to boost their income.'
'I had also visited 5 families of beneficiaries to see how actually they are doing. Some are running petty shops, some are doing rope twining, and many have taken selling clothes to people. They all earn a bit more income than they would usually earn.'
Arise is committed to helping at-risk families and communities, and places a high value on financial independence and secure income generation as a means to mitigate the risk of exploitation.
Above: Photos from Sr. Sherly's visit to the livelihood programme (Photos: Sr Sherly Thomas)