At the end of April we shall be making our third donation to our charity partner Just a Drop. We have already donated over £12,000 to the charity and in March agreed to designate the funds to sponsor a project in India.
Euromonitor will be supporting a project in Parangani Village in Tamil Nadu in the south of India. The village has 275 households, approximately 1650 individuals, who are members of the Scheduled Caste community. The community is quite neglected and isolated due to their caste status and live mostly in mud walled huts. Most of the villagers work as low paid agriculture workers, or maids in higher caste houses. The average income of a family is around £30 a month, although often payment is in rice or other food. Access to clean water and proper sanitation are limited with every person in the community currently practicing open defecation therefore suffering with all the issues of disease this brings.
Just a Drop will be working with a local partner El Shaddai to drill a new borehole well that will be connected to water tanks and a distribution system. In addition six families will receive tanks linked to their kitchens and a twin pit pour flush toilet will be constructed. The Indian government will provide funding for families to build proper toilets, but those applying for help must have a model. Many have no idea what to build and therefore cannot access the programme. The six families will act as “models” for others in the village to replicate with the support from government.
It is important to Euromonitor that we support projects in the regions where we have offices. With an expanding office in Bangalore I’m really pleased to see our first year of commitment support a project in India.
Work on the project has already begun and we expect it to be completed in January 2016. I will be posting regular updates with photos as it progresses and a visit will take place next year to see how the community has benefited from our support.
School children in Parangani