By Jessica Broder | Outreach Director
Pudiyador indefinitely suspended all operations on March 18th 2020 in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. India declared a 21 day nation-wide lockdown on March 24th that was recently extended until May 3rd in efforts to contain the spread. Our Ground Team and teachers continue to work from home, organize relief efforts (including The Feed Chennai Initiative) and work ahead in lesson planning and capacity building! Visit our relief website for a timeline of action taken by Pudiyador against COVID19 and for real time updates: https://sites.google.com/pudiyador.org/covid-19-relief
In the days leading up to the lockdown, all Cradle Health mothers received workshops in groups of five or less about COVID-19: facts and myths, preventative methods, steps to take if infection is suspected, and the opportunity to ask questions. Cradle Health mothers also received practical workshops on physical distancing, hand-washing, and the transfer of viruses across surfaces.
Viji (one of recent cradle graduates) from Kakkan Colony community was hired a few weeks prior to the lockdown and was/continues to work closely alongside Nithya (our program coordinator). Viji has played a key role in distributing relief packages in Kakkan Colony. On April 6th and April 23rd, Viji spearheaded distributions to all 48 Pudiyador families in the community. All Cradle Health mothers received emergency grocery packages containing the follow items:
Looking ahead!
As Nithya reflects upon the pilot program in Kakkan Colony community, she is positive that there is room to build a strong network of educated women within this community. She also believes that our pilot program is scalable, and has the potential to have a multiplier of impact within other communities. Once this pandemic settles (and it will!), Viji will take on the responsibility of tracking and following up with the women (and their infants) that graduated from our pilot program, as well as gathering more data on our designated stakeholders within Kakkan Colony: newly wedded young women, pregnant women and mothers with infants. Circumstances permitting, we intend to pilot an awareness program for two dozen young women on the consequences of early pregnancies and family planning in the summer of 2020.
For now, Nithya and Viji are checking up with all our mothers via phone and remain indoors to stay safe and healthy. We will continue to update you on the situation in Chennai as things develop.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
