CDS - Shoshana

2012-03-06T20:44:00.001-08:00

hello friends,

I am very sad to inform you all that our dearest friend Bob, Martha's husband passed away yesterday. May his soul rest in peace.

Dr.Berny's visit to Bapatla Sewing Project

2012-02-29T21:12:00.000-08:00

My visit to Bapatla Sewing Project along with Dr.Berny.

Shoshana Sewing centre, Bapatla is the nearest sewing centre we have from Chirala town. Manjula rani the tailoring instructor invited us to see her students working and showed us the products they were making for sale.

Manjula rani recently completed her 10 years of working experience with Shoshana. She has good experience of teaching at different places from Khammam to Vijayawada and then to Bapatla. So far in this 10 years she helped more than 90 women for their self help.

Manjula explained the different types of painting and embroidery patterns and also the products the students were making for sale.

Dr.Berny shared a good interaction with the students and manjula's family regarding their working experience and their future goals to achieve.

Dr.Berny's visit to Epurupalem medical project

2012-02-29T02:45:00.000-08:00

Dr.Berny from Germany one of the donors of Shoshana visited our medical project at Epurupalem.

Being a doctor himself is very much interested to see the kind of first aid help we are providing in the medical projects. Few pics showing his visit to Epurupalem.

The nurse Buela rani attending her patients who are mostly daily workers in that Christian colony.

Dr.Berny,Germany visit to Shoshana medical projects-Lohiyapuram and Epurupalem

2012-02-28T20:52:00.002-08:00

Dr.Berny from Germany, a very good friend of Martha visited our medical projects in Lohiyapuram and Epurupalem yesterday.

Dr.Berny checking the kind of medication available at the Medical centre, Lohiyapuram. Trying to find out from the nurse, Varadhamma the common diseases in that area.

Berny told the people in the medical centre that in western countries,though there are financial good compared to our country they have more mental problems like depression etc than physical problems.

since the medical centre is in the weaver's colony Berny is very interested to see the weaving unit and the hand woven sarees.

with local kids

Typical Government houses at Lohiyapuram and our medical centre running in one of them.

Tenth anniversary of Shoshana sewing centre, Bapatla.

2012-02-13T03:14:00.000-08:00

Tenth anniversary celebrations at Shoshana Sewing Centre, Bapatla.

Manjula the instructor at Shoshana Sewing Centre, Bapatla completed her 10 years of working with Shoshana. She belongs to Grace welfare society which started off with a sewing centre first at Ravinuthala, Khammam district.

Later in 2006 she moved to Gollapudi, Vijayawada-Krishna district.

Presently she is training the women at Bapatla in stitching for their self help. She moved here in 2010.

Picture of Martha at Shoshana sewing Centre, Ravinuthala in Feb-2002

We had a small gathering with some of the students from the sewing centre and with the friends of Manjula's younger son. We had cake cutting and very good lunch afterwards.

Dental camp at Shoshana Medical Project,Prasadha nagaram,Chirala..

2012-02-11T06:16:00.000-08:00

The local society(Bethesda Help Society) of Shoshana Medical Centre, Prasadha nagaram, Chirala organised dental camp on 10th Feb at the Medical centre premises with a team of dentists.

Team of dentists from Chirala and Guntur participated in the camp.

Program was started with Martha, Managing Director-Shoshana.Germany along with the society members and local politicians.

School children and the people from that area utilized the services at the camp.

On the whole Martha's Project visits for this time schedule finished with a good event which is quite useful for the needy people.

Prasadha nagaram and railway area medical project

2012-02-09T03:32:00.000-08:00

Pictures of the nurse Jaya Raju working at two medical projects.

Prasadha nagaram - One of the developing area in Chirala town but still having needy people for medical support among the well off people.

Second medical project is near the Chirala railway station .

With the help of a few local donors, society members who take care of this area were able to build a small room for the medical centre where the nurse Jaya raju could arrange the medical equipment.

The most needy slum in the town. People are very backward. No proper houses, illterally living on roads amidst the cementary in a very unhygienic surroundings. People are very poor rag pickers and coolies. Men are mostly alchoholics and drug addicts where as women are prostitutes.

Chirala railway station in a close distance.

Cementary beside the village of hope.

Rag pickers and coolies

Migrated people from different states living in temporary huts.

Children in need of vitamins, medication for cold and cough and for skin problems.

Shoshana along with other NGO's from Netherlands adopted this area to provide basic facilities to them like clothing, utensils and medical support.

Martur medical Project plus on the way

2012-02-08T21:38:00.000-08:00

Our visit to Martur medical project especially started in2005 to provide medical

support to the Granite workers families. Martur is famousfor Granite cutting

factories and the people of Adarsh nagar working in those factories havesmall colonies around

the factories and a few are working as coolies in the near by fields.

Work of the people both men and women in those factories ishard compared to

other jobs. They are easily prone to cuts, breathingproblems since they are in dust

most of the time, regular wounds since they work with heavygranite stones like

while crushing the stones to pieces or cutting them inshapes and on top they have

regular body pains.

Having regular medical help around their area turned out tobe a great help for them.

We have a new nurse for this area. Her name is Mumtaz. Sheis a married muslim

lady. She has two years of working experience as a nurse ina private hospital in

Martur. Besides taking care of the medical centre shestarted going around the

area to get familiar with the people and give out medicationto those who are

bedridden

The nurse Mumtaz got enough suggestions regarding taking good care of the medical project from the society members of Adarsh nagar and from Martha.

Visit to Shoshana medical Project in Epurupalem

2012-02-08T04:50:00.000-08:00

Shoshana medical project in Epurupalem recently moved from weavers’ colony toChristian pet. Pics showing in and around the medical project.

Buela rani is the nurse. Well qualified and has good experience of working in famous hospitals.She has been the incharge of our medical project for the past five years.

The medical project is recently changed from weavers’ colonysince majority of the weavers decided to leave their traditional work andsearch for other jobs since it is getting difficult for them to earn enoughincome for their living. Only the oneswho own the weaving unit are getting richer but the common weaver who isworking on daily wages has not enough money to support their family so most of them are migrating to otherplaces in search of jobs so Buela rani had not enough work in that area.

Medical project is recentlyshifted to her own house
which is in Christian pet and which also a very needy
area with majority of illiterate people who are daily workers.

Since Rani isliving in the same house she will be available to the people all the time andshe
could as well take in patients if necessary like for infusions.

People inthis area are very happy to have the regular medical support under the good
maintenance of the nurse.

2012-02-07T05:11:00.000-08:00

Our visit to Narasaraopet projects including two sewing and one medical project scattered on three different parts of the town.

Especially the medical project , situated on the outskirts of Narasaraopet town still towards yellamanda village. Area KSP nagar is purposefully selected by the society members to provide medical help where majority of the people are very needy for all kinds of support.

The Nurse Mary working at our Shoshana medical project worked as a volunteer for Government health department before she joined here and she was alloted this area for distribution of medication now and then. She is familiar with the people and their regular health problems. So people here both men and women are quite confident with the treatment given by this nurse and they are quite happy with the regular medical help at our medical project. The nurse has good connections with the government nurses and she is helping them during medical camps organized in this area.

Yesterday she had a patient with leprosy which is somehow rare case these days. She suggested him necessary precautions and she is planning to take him to a famous leprosy unit near to Kottappakonda village where he gets proper care and complete course of treatment.

Next our visit to the sewing projects one at Shalem nagar and the other at Navodaya nagar. Both started during the last four years time. Pics showing the ladies with their instructors at both the projects.

Santhamma, the instructor at Shalem nagar is one of the older instructors. She has more experience as a teacher even before started working with Shoshana. She is quite practical and up to date with the samples trying to teach all kinds of readymade patterns to the students which are necessary for their future tailor shops.

Second sewing project is at Navodayanagar and the instructor is Satyavathi. She started recently in 2010 working with Shoshana but she too has enough experience as a teacher. So far she finished one batch of students. She is slowly learning to organize and train the students according to the standards set by Shoshana which is only for the future benefit of the needy women for their self help. Our aim to to give good training to the women which they could use practically for their success in their betterment of lives.

Visit to Guntur

2012-02-04T03:17:00.000-08:00

Our second visit yesterday was to our second sewing project in Guntur . It was started in 2005 with Rajani as the tailoring instructor and till now she trained 64 needy women in tailoring and embroidery but for the last one year Rajani is trying to teach Beautician course for the ladies as a change and which is also one of the good income gaining source now a days.

She had 6 students in the first batch and two of them are working in Parlours and rest working on their own.In the present batch she has 6 girls for the beautician course. We suggested her to have a combination of tailoring , embroidery and beautician course so the women will have a chance to use any of these skills for their living.

Third tailoring project in Guntur.

2012-02-04T02:57:00.000-08:00

Picture details of our recent visit to Guntur sewing projects.
First is the sewing project at Venkataramana colony, Guntur. Anitha is the tailoring instructor at this project and she is the youngest of all our instructors and one of the best.

She was a child labour as a kid. She lost her father at a very young age. Her mother was the one who took up the responsiblity of a big family. She couldn't afford to send all the children to school so two of them had to do some work to support her mother. Anitha was sent to Singapore to work as a domestic helper. She worked there for a few years. Meanwhile she had no chance to go to school. After coming back from Singapore she learnt tailoring and other handicraft work which is now very useful for her self help.

Anitha along with her students is working as group in selling the products made my them and also taking orders from outside sharing the profit among the group which is very useful for the women who are actually working as coolies for their living.

Since she came from the same financial background ,she has in her mind of helping the needy women who are going through the same financial crisis not just working as an employee from Shoshana.

Medical camp, Lohiyapuram

2012-02-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

Pictures from the medical camp conducted at Lohiyapuram medical centre.

Lohiyapuram is an area in Vetapalem village belonging to Prakasam district. This area is on the outskirts of the village specially alloted for the down trodden people by the Government. This area has people with different occupations like weaving which is a major work, agriculture, rickshaw pullers etc.

Government is slowly providing all the basic facilities to them but still medical help is lacking.

We started medical help in this area in 2008 with Vardhanamma as the nurse. This time society people decided to organise a medical camp with two qualified doctors in this area.

young doctors couple whose names are Dr.Nancy and Dr.Ben. Studied medicine in Guntur medical college. They are very co-operative and willing to give their free medical service to the needy people whenever they have a possibility.

Here we have the support of nice society members who are very active in taking care of the poor people in this area from time to time.

We are very happy to have the support of both German and Indian people who are caring for the benefit of poor people.

Visit to our Vijayawada Sewing Project

2012-02-02T04:21:00.000-08:00

Visit to our Sewing Project in Vijayawada. Vijayawada is a city in Krishna district. This place is famous for Krishna river and Prakasam Barage and there is a famous Temple of Goddess Durga. It is a busy city with lots of different business. Here we could see contrast economic situations like very rich and very poor people.

Rajeswari pet , where we have our Sewing project comes under old city. The area is little backward compared to the other part of the city. Here we see people who are rag pickers, daily workers, rickshaw pullers etc. Women are mostly domestic helpers. Children are mostly dropouts and child labourers.

Inorder to show an alternate livelihood for the needy women Trinity welfare Society which is a local society specially formed for the upliftment of downtrodden people approached Shoshana for their support in opening a sewing centre at Wynchpet, Vijayawada.

It was started in 2001 and so far for the last 10 years it is running effortlessly for the benefit of the poor women for their self help. Srivani has been the tailoring and embroidery instructor. She is very good in teaching, encouraging the women and see that they settle in life .

Students made special embroidery bags for the donors.What ever knowledge they have in embroidery, they were showing in on the bags.

Visit to Angalakuduru Sewing Project

2012-01-31T07:43:00.000-08:00

Pics of cloth bags with little embroidery made by the ladies at our Sewing Project in Angalakuduru.village which is in Guntur District.

Cloth Bags instead of Plastic bags which are very much used now in the market and also like nice small presents for the donors from the projects.

The tailoring instructor here is Mrs.Krishnaveni. She was in a bad situation when we first met her in 2004, mistreated by her husband and without job. Knowing about her from one of her society members ,Shoshana supported her and as of now she is quite happy with her work helping lots of needy women like her for their self help besides taking care of her children on her own.

Few pics from that area

Martha with present batch students.

Today's visit to Tadiparru medical project

2012-01-31T07:01:00.000-08:00

Today myself and Martha had a nice time talking to a lively bunch of women at our Medical Project in Tadiparru.

Tadiparru is a small village in Guntur District. It is on the way to Guntur about 20km away. Mainly an agricultural village. Group of people in that area built a community hall to conduct welfare programs for the needs of the villagers. As a part of it, they applied for medical help in that area which is very much needed.

The nurse working here is Sukhaveni. She is native of this area and she is quite familiar with the people. People are quite confident with her treatment and she is friendly towards them.

Presently there is no case of special problem, general medication is needed specially for body pains, cold and cough.

Visit to our very first medical centre, Kadavakuduru.

2012-01-30T02:27:00.000-08:00

Today we visited our medical Centre at Kadavakuduru. Our very first medical centre. Started in 2000 and giving services for the needy people in that area for the past 11 years.

Kadavakuduru is a small village in Prakasam District. Main occupation of the villagers is agriculture. They work all day long in fields under the sun so mainly they come to medical centre for pain pills and vitamins.

Presently the medical centre is located in a fishermen area belonging to a special tribe. In the surrounding area there are two day care centres those who take care of their children when they are away for work and their medical needs are taken care by the nurse Raja kumari.

The nurse in her leisure time, going around the area to look out for people those who are in need of medical help, like those who are bed ridden and helping some people go to a hospital in town those who are in need of major medical help

Visit to our beach medical projects

2012-01-28T01:20:00.000-08:00

Our visit to the beach medical projects located in Sampath nagar and Ramapuram. Specially started for the fishermen families who are effected during the Tsunami in 2004. Shoshana, Germany donated fishing nets to the fishermen families and with the intention of helping them for a longer period and knowing that there is no proper medical facility in that area we started a primary medical care centre with a regular medical help.

Nurse working here is Anandakumari. She recently lost her son Naveen aged 11 yrs. He had birth defects and many friends from Germany sponsored for his operation but inspite of all the efforts he passed away in last March-11.

Our second visit is to the medical centre at Sampath nagar. This area is also close to the sea on the outskirts of Chirala. Needy area for basic medical help. The Nurse Maheswari is taking care of the Centre here.

The people here are mainly agricultural labourers.

Karamchedu medical project

2012-01-27T03:08:00.000-08:00

Pics from our recent visit to Karamchedu medical project.

Karamchedu is a small village near Chirala. We specially planned to set up a primary health centre in that village because there is a particular slum area called Ambedkar colony on the outskirts of this village. which is surrounded by waste heaves. Since it is on the end of the village all the waste from the town is dumped in that area. The tribal people in that area are rearing pigs for their meat and they are living in a very dirty surroundings with lot of mosquitoes and unclean drinking water.

Inorder to provide the basic medical help we decided to start a medical centre in this area, one year back with Prasanna as the nurse.

Some elders in that area are taking care of the maintenance of the centre with major support given by Shoshana, Germany. People are very happy for the help.

Pedanandipadu Sewing project

2012-01-27T02:10:00.000-08:00

Tailoring Centre as well as work shop. Sivakumari is the tailoring instructor.

Pedanandipadu is a village in Guntur District. Myself and Martha visited that place to see the women who are getting training at our Sewing project. Majority of the woman are daily workers in chilli and cotton fields. They are balancing their time to utilize the free stitching course.

Its not just a training centre for needy women but also a work shop where they could produce items for sale. This way they could earn some money while training.

Women are very happy with the way Sivakumari is taking care of them and encouraging them.

Visit to Bapatla sewing project

2012-01-26T02:19:00.000-08:00

My visit to Bapatla tailoring project along with Martha.

Bapatla is a small town in the coastal area of Bay of Bengal. It belongs to Guntur district.

Manjula is the instructor in our Shoshana sewing centre.

It has been 10yrs since we started working together. She has been working at different places in A.P, training needy women. Firstly we started in Khammam District, then to Krishna district and now Bapatla is in Guntur district. Specially the driver's colony where most of the economically backward people are living.

We were moving around the area visiting some of our previous students who are working on their own.

The lady on the sewing machine is Pallavi. She is married and has small children. Her husband is running a small provision shop which is the only income source for them. She has been helping her husband in their work but it was difficult for them to run their family with that income. When Manjula started working for the women in their area she utilized the chance of getting trained in tailoring and now she is working on her own besides running their shop.

Our visit to Chilakaluripet Sewing Projects

2012-01-25T02:46:00.000-08:00

Our visit on 24th Jan to our Tailoring and Embroidery projects in Chilakaluripet.

First the tailoring project run by Sumathi. This project is mainly meant for training a special tribal community(Lambadi). Some tribal families migrated from their native places and settled in Sugali colony, Chilakaluripet for their livelihood. Men and women are mostly daily workers in the near by tobacco company and few are rickshaw pullers and domestic helpers. Working in dust all the time lead them to several health problems. After finding the facts about the area we decided to start a Sewing centre in Sugali colony which should be another alternative living source for the needy women.

This proved to be productive since many women who got trained were very happy that they were able to help themselves as well ,take good care of their family and children.

Sumathi's daughter Swetha is also working with Shoshana for the benefit of needy women. She is the incharge of our embroidery and painting project. Both mother and daughter are working together so the women have the chance to learn both since it became necessary to have the knowledge of both tailoring and embroidery to be successful in their business.

Swetha and her students are preparing products for sale like while training they could as well earn some income and also buy necessary stuff for their work.

2012-01-24T04:02:00.000-08:00

Our second visit in Guntur is also a to a Sewing centre which is located in the area called Nagaralu which is on the outskirts of Guntur.

This was the first visit of Martha to this project. Vasantha is the tailoring instructor. She is a widow and she has a son who is doing his computer hardware course. She has been working as a tailor in this area for the past 10 years and she has enough experience in training women. The society people appointed her in teaching the needy women in this area, Nagaralu.

This area has a lot of poor people who are mainly daily workers and rickshaw pullers. The society people decided that having a sewing centre in this area would definitely be a help for needy women for their self help.

The students also are very interested with the training and are very happy with the way the teacher ,showing individual attention and the encouragement they are getting.

Martha interacted with the students and she was checking the samples made by the students so far.

Visit to Shoshana Sewing Centre, Guntur

2012-01-24T03:04:00.000-08:00

Pics from our visit on 22/1 to our very first Sewing Centre,Guntur. Guntur is 60km from Chirala and it is very famous for chilly production and it has a chilli yard which is one of the biggest in Asian countries.

First we visited the sewing centre at Rajiv Gandhi nagar. Nirmala is the stitching instructor. She has been working with us from the beginning i.e from 2000.For the last 11years she is running the centre at Nehru nagar, Guntur and recently she moved to Rajiv Gandhi nagar, Guntur.

Till now Nirmala has more than 120 students who got trained in tailoring and embroidery and majority of them are successful in helping themselves and their families.

Nirmala had students from different financial backgrounds and family situations ofcourse all of them were needy. She encouraged them and helped them to get settled in life without any bias.

In the present batch she has 8students.One of them is a deaf and dumb girl.Her name is Mercy. She is around 20yrs of age. She is from a very poor family. Father is a daily worker and mother is a housewife.

She has one younger sister and brother who has the same problem. She finished her 10th in a special school meant for challenged people.Her parents couldn't afford to send her to further studies so they joined her in our sewing centre with the hope that she could live on her own after finishing the training.

Later we met Nirmala's daughter Kamala and her husband.
Kamala was a kid when Nirmala started working in the sewing centre and now she is also ready to work with us. Kamala is a trained nurse and she also got training in embroidery and painting. She is married recently and she has small children. She has to stay away from her hospital work for a few years to take care of her children so meanwhile she wanted to utilize her time in training the needy women in her area with her knowledge in embroidery and painting. She was showing us some of her samples.

Nirmala was showing us her vegetable garden and before we leave we had a group picture with the women.

First visit of Martha to our new medical project at Swarna village

2012-01-20T03:57:00.000-08:00

Today is my first visit to our new medical project at Swarna village along with Martha.

We got to see the villagers getting medical help from the nurse, Prasanna.

Most of the women and young men were at work in fields because of the harvest season and went around the area to see the situation of the village, talk to the people and get their suggestions and requests regarding the service at the medical centre.

The occupation of the villagers is mainly agriculture and selling milk products irrespective of religion and caste.During the day time we could see only old people taking care of their grand children and doing household work when their children are away for work.

The area where we started our medical help is more of a needy area, people still living in stray huts and without proper road facility and with no proper medical help around. We heard from the villagers that they have a primary health care centre for the village which is far for getting first aid help. For emergencies they have to go to either Chirala or Guntur. Here and there we saw one or two medical shops cum provision shops where the villages usually buy medication on their own without proper prescription from a qualified person.

We saw the difficulty of some who could not afford to buy medicine from shops and many old people who doesn't even have strength to walk to go to a hospital and also have no money for transportation to the hospital.

For them having a regular medical help in their area under the supervision of a qualified nurse is a great help which we could be able to set up in co-operation with some of the village elders after finding the need in Swarna village especially in that area where all the under privileged people are living.

Chilakaluripet Sewing project

2012-01-19T02:02:00.000-08:00

Pics from Shoshana Sewing Centre, Chilakaluripet. Present batch of women learning stitching and embroidery.

Sumathi is the tailoring instructor. She is from an agricultural background. Her husband is a farmer.Before started working with shoshana she was also into agriculture helping her husband besides stitching. After joining with Shoshana, her full time is for the training of needy women and see that they utilize their skills for their economic liftment
Sumathi's husband and her daughter is also very supportive in her work. So far she succeeded in training 36 women in tailoring and embroidery.

Pasumaaru Project ( Embroidery and Painting )

2012-01-18T22:44:00.000-08:00

Pics showing Swetha( instructor) with her students at Pasumarru project.

Swetha, the youngest of all our instructors. She is a well educated lady who is very much interested in social work. She has been working for the needy women for the last two years at our Pasumarru Embroidery Project.
Her mother Sumathi is also an insturctor at our Chilakaluripet Sewing project. Watching her mother for quite some time she developed interest in helping others and moreover she had the chance of meeting some of the donors of shoshana who are very dedicated for supporting the needy women in A.P for their self help so as soon as she finished her studies in business management she joined our project in teaching painting and embroidery and besides that she started helping the needy women in setting up their own business.

Till now she trained 29 students in painting , embroidery and block printing in Pasumarru village. Most of her students are young women who are school drop outs and a few are even illiterates. Family financial situations made them leave their education and support their family at a very young age. Getting trained in this handicraft work turned out to be one of the good income gaining sources for them and which is helping them very much in supporting their families

Inuguration of Medical Centre at Swarna Village.

2012-01-09T03:56:00.000-08:00

Hai friends,

Few pics showing the inuguration of new medical centre at Swarna village. Proposal for medical centre at Swarna reached us in September last year. After finding the facts about the need for medical support and possibility we finally started medical help in Swarna village.
Local Pastor and village elders doing the inauguration ceremony.

The nurse(Amala) at Swarna. village. She is a Christian and married. She did her three course in nursing. Had experience of working as a nurse in some private hospitals in Guntur.

Visit to Angalakuduru Sewing Project

2012-01-02T04:27:00.000-08:00

Pics of women learning tailoring at Angalakuduru Sewing Project.

Women as students here come from very very poor back ground. Majority of them are school drop outs. All most all of them work as daily workers. Angalakuduru village is full of lemon , banana and vegetable fields so women here work in the fields for daily wages but there work is seasonal so they have to look for other alternative job for their livelihood.

Embroidery and tailoring came to be the other alternative since it doesn't need much educational qualification and with regular practice and under good supervision even for illiterates it became easy to get the skill and more over it proved to be a good income earning source.They could work from home besides attending their household work. It is more easy for them compared to the field work.
Since Shoshana sewing centre is providing free stitching classes more needy women are interested to utilize the chance. The previous students who are successful in their work as tailors inspired many needy women to use the chance for their self help.

Change of room for Shoshana Medical Centre, Sampathnagar, Chirala.

2011-12-19T06:04:00.000-08:00

Pics from Shoshana Medical Centre, Sampath Nagar, Chirala.

Medical Centre at Sampath nagar recently changed to a new house.

Sampath Nagar is a remote area on the outskirts of Chirala. Earlier the entire area was agricultural land with ground nut and paddy fields. Government alloted this area to some tribals and constructed small houses for them instead of living in straw huts.

People slowly started moving to this area and i would say this area now comes under developing area but still there are lots of needy people.

The nurse here is Mrs.Maheswari. She has been working with us for the last 8 years. She is widow and has a daughter and son. Her children were very young when she lost her husband but she is a capable lady who is taking good care of her childrens education as well as serving the needy at the medical centre.

All the credit goes to all the donors of Shoshana who have been helping continuously for this noble work for the self help of no.of needy women .

New house for Shoshana sewing Centre, Pedanandipadu

2011-12-13T06:21:00.000-08:00

The sewing instructor at Pedanandipadu Mrs.Sivakumari changed the project to a new house. Few pics showing the surroundings and the new house.

Pedanandipadu is mainly an agricultural village.Majority of the women in Shoshana sewing centre come from agricultural background. Almost all the students are agricultural labourers. Besides their work these needy women believe that they could use this opportunity of taking free sewing class to improve their lives.

Sivakumari is the instructor at Pedanandipadu sewing centre. She has been working with us from 2003. So far she had 70 women who finished their sewing class.She come from a village background. Her husband is a farmer.Their main crop is paddy and cotton.

Both are very supportive to each others work. Their services turned to be very useful for the needy women in their area. Sivakumari is a very active lady. She takes good responsibility towards her work and has good relations with her students. All the women are working as a group, getting orders from outside and earning a limited income besides their training.The present batch of students started their course in Aug-11 and they will finish their class in about five more months.

Pics from Shoshana Sewing Project, , Nagaralu.

2011-12-09T06:18:00.000-08:00

The first picture showing the first batch of tailoring students at Shoshana Sewing Centre, Nagaralu, Guntur.

All all our Sewing projects, the stitching course goes with a systematic syallabus. Notes taking, maintaining sample maps, paper cutting and thorough practice. The instructors check from time to time and see that the students learn in a correct way so that they could shine well in their future work.

Most of the needy women in this area are daily labourers. Here we see mostly women working and men are alchoholic and hanging out lazily. Women have to work to take care of their families. When the society people decided to start our centre here many women are interested to learn so that they could have their own machine and work from home. Compared to the present field work they are doing stitching and embroidery is quite an income earning source and they can have a better life.

2011-12-03T05:59:00.000-08:00

Training and Earning at our Sewing Project, Guntur.

I would like to share a few pics of our students at Shoshana Sewing Centre, VP Colony, Guntur.

The instructor at this project is Anitha. She has a batch of young needy women who are learning stitching and embroidery.

At this project besides training we could be able to provide the women with some income by taking in stitching orders from outside and helping them work under the supervision of the instructor. By this they could earn some money while they learn as well as they will have enough practice for their future job as a tailor.

2011-11-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

Pics of Sewing and Embroidery class in Vijayawada.

The instructor here is Mrs. Srivani, aged 60. She is the senior most among all our instructors. Her husband is a retired train station master. She has 4 daughters and all are married and settled with their husbands at different places. Srivani is staying with her husband. She worked as a teacher in a primary school before joining Shoshana. She is a tailor and has been training needy women even before started working with Shoshana. In 2001 she started working with Shoshana and for the past 10 years she trained around 157 needy women for their self help. Her husband is also very co-operative with her in maintaining the project.

Recently she bought a small house and shifted the sewing project to the new place. She has 10 students right now.

Five each in morning and afternoon batches. I am posting the working pics of the present batch.

2011-11-20T22:09:00.000-08:00

Pics of the nurse from Karamchedu medical Centre with her new born son who is 2month old. She had a C-section again.

She had facial paralysis while she was pregnant so she had to take medication for that which was not very good for her baby. She had not much hopes on the baby's health but by God's grace both mother and child are in good condition and she started going to work again.

2011-11-14T05:03:00.000-08:00

Students’ name: Mariyamma and Uma

Both women are married around 30yrs of age. Illiterates and each one has 3 children, living in small rented houses. Mariyamma has 3 daughters

and Uma has 2 boys and one girl.

Both their husbands are daily workers earning 150 to 200 rupees per day.

Both the ladies joined the stitching class one year back and now presently at the end of the course. Already started working besides learning. Both the ladies are working as a group sharing the work they get from the neighbours and they are very happy supporting each other for their self help and also their families.

Coming from a very poor financial background it is necessary for both wife and husband to work for their living. These ladies really are utilizing the knowledge they got from the sewing class for the betterment of their lives.

2011-11-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

Student’s Name: Sunitha

She is a Christian, married, aged 30yrs. She is living in a single rented room with her family. She has one daughter studying 6^th class and one son in 4^th class. She is a very poor, illiterate women. Husband is also an illiterate daily worker in a welding shop. He earns about 200 hundred per day but doesn’t give a single paise for the household. He is an alchoholic and uses up all the money for his drinking. She is a victim of domestic violence. Family is in a very bad financial situation.

Sunitha is working as a servant maid and cook in her neighbouring houses. With the little money she gets she is running the house, looking after her children and paying 600rupees rent for the room she is living. She is in such a bad situation that her husband even sold the door of her single roomed house for his drinking. It is more like an open house, with some of her belongings getting lost sometimes since the entire area is full of poor people.

One year back she joined in our sewing centre, Vijayawada in the free stitching class. She used the little leisure time she has for learning stitching and embroidery.She utilized most of the time in practicing and came out to be a very good student. She is at the end of the course and already started working on her own.

Hemima , instructor at our Vijayawada sewing centre encouraged her, helps her for more practice and sometimes giving her work if she has any stitching orders from outside. This way also she is quite happy in earning more money than regular income she gets while still learning. She is quite confident now that she could be independent and look after her children quite well and if the situation demands that she had to leave her husband if she has more problems from him and goes on with her life in a much better way than before.

2011-11-13T23:15:00.000-08:00

Student Name: Swapna

She is a Christian girl, single, aged 17 yrs. Both her parents died of HIV 5yrs back. She is a drop out. She had to stop her studies since her parents were bed ridden she had to take care of them. She has two elder brothers who are also drop outs.

All her relatives tried to avoid them and treated them as untouchables. Both her brothers were working as child labourers to help the family. She was working as a servant maid and sometimes she was begging on the roads for food. They have no house of their own and were literally on the roads. Good thing is that, all three of them are staying together.

Two years back Hemima saw her and she tried to teach her stitching. It was very difficult in the beginning since she was very slow in learning and very irregular since she had to work for her living besides learning. Hemima took special care of her besides teaching like now and then helping her with food and clothes,giving her enough time to learn ,she turned good in stitching and now she started her own shop.

She is earning a good income now, rented a small house and could arrange a few basic things for her house. She is using the front verandah as a kitchen and also for her shop and one more small room for sleeping.Her brothers also are staying with her and they are working as daily workers. They are quite happy now. She is very happy now that she could help herself and have a decent living instead of begging on the roads.

Success stories of some of our women at Shoshana sewing centre, Vijayawada.

2011-11-13T23:06:00.000-08:00

Student Name: Rajani

She is a Christian, aged 33 yrs. Illiterate housewife. Husband was an electrician. They have a small two roomed house of their own. Rajani has three daughters all below 13 yrs of age. She was married at a very young age and has been taking care of the children since then. Even though they are very poor she was not allowed to go out for work. Her husband didn’t like her working outside. Her husband was the only earning source for them. Only last year she was allowed to learn stitching at Hemima’s place since she is residing close to her. She turned out to be a very good student.

Sadly 4 months back her husband died of an accident. He was working at their neighbours house and got electric shock and he got major burns. He was in the hospital for a few days and died. Rajani was in a total depression. She has no education and on top she was at home all these years and now She has to take care of the house. Both her parents and in-laws are very poor to support her. Now her husband being the only son of his parents, they also depend on her. She was in a total confusion and she tried to commit suicide but somehow saved.

Hemima was constantly checking on her. She almost finished her stitching class and with the encouragement of Hemima she started her own work from home as a tailor. Now she is earning minimum 100 rupees per day. She is very happy now that she could take care of her children as well as her in-laws. Her mother in law is helping her in the household while she is working and her father-in-law is also helping her a little bit working as a daily worker. Her children are going to a Government school but she is very happy that she could take care of them herself instead of sending them to a hostel. She is very grateful that she had the opportunity of utilizing the sewing class with which she could help herself as well as her family.

Visit to Epurupalem medical Project

2011-11-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

Few pics from Shoshana Medical Centre, Epurupalem after shifting from Weaver's colony.

The present place is backward area with majority Christians and Muslims. After them weavers are the majority class. Mainly coolies and agricultural labourers.

Buela Rani(Nurse) from Weavers colony also belongs to this christian area and she is living close to the medical centre. That would be great help for the people here so they could approach here even if there is any emergency. She could even take in patients if there is any need for infusions.

Pics from Nagaralu Sewing Project

2011-10-26T23:21:00.000-07:00

Few pics from Shoshana Sewing Centre, Nagaralu, Guntur after two months of stitching class.

Majority of the women are married and working as daily coolies in chilli yard and tobacco fields. They are of great hope that the classes they are taking would help them to improve their living standard if they work more besides their regular work.

Visit to Guntur project (Beautician course)

2011-09-28T06:14:00.000-07:00

Few pics from Rajani's project, Guntur. Students learning beautician course for this batch.

Rajani is the instructor in this project teaching stitching and she is well trained in Embroidery and painting. Besides this she is a beautician herself so she wanted to teach beautician course to the present batch students just for change and which is also a good income source for the ladies . In this profession there are lot of job opportunities as beautician' helpers and as a group if they can afford they could as well set up their own parlour.

Visit to Narasaraopet Sewing Project

2011-09-26T03:51:00.000-07:00

Pictures from the present batch students at Narasaraopet, Shalem nagar Sewing project.

All the ladies learning stitching here are married and belong to a very poor background. Husbands are daily workers, auto drivers. All the women have two children each living in rented houses. All are regular and quite good in their work.

The teacher in this project is Santhamma. She is an elderly lady and she has enough experience in teaching students for quite a long time.

She has good interaction with the students and discuss about their family situations and encourages them to learn.

Visit to Lohiyapuram medical project

2011-09-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hai,

I would like to share a few pics from my visit to Lohiyapuram medical project.

It is one of the remote areas where i could see a drastic change in the developmental facilities of the area from Government and other N.GO's besides Shoshana.

This area is specially alloted to the poor community on the outskirts of Vetapalem Village . In this colony we can see three different religion people who are spread in three colonies. One is weavers colony who are hindus and they come under Saradha and Vigneswara colonies and other colony is Lohiyapuram who has Christians and Muslims.

Weavers have their own weaving Equipment at home and they get all the materials from the shop owners from the town and they are paid certain amount for each saree. It is more like daily worker wages. Christians and Muslims are rickshaw pullers and Agricultural field workers.

When they first came to this area all were living in small huts and even they don't have basic facilities like water, electricity etc and the area is full of snakes.

Medical facilities are far behind. We started the medical support here in 2008 on the request of the local incharge of this area. The local society people are quite capable of getting other facilities from the Government too over the period of time. Ofcourse the people have the same financial postion ,they were able to have permanent houses, water supply and could live in hygienic surroundings.

The Nurse here is Varadhamma. She is single and she is from this area and she has been giving good services to the people here. Especially the old people are very happy they are have a place where they could go and sit for a while and talk to the nurse besides getting medication.

2011-09-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

I have been to Swarna village again to have an over all impression of the village.

. It is 14 kms away from Chirala and it comes under Prakasam District. Its a big village with all different caste people. We got the request for medical support especially from the Christian community. As usually like any other village all the high caste people have different colonies and Christians and other backward caste have different colony .This colony has around 1400 families. Each family has around 4 members. 90% of the villagers in this colony are agricultural coolies and milk vendors and 10% are teachers and other jobs. The village is surrounded by paddy fields. Right now it is high time for the farmers since it is raining and they are busy planting rice.

Compared to the high caste people this colony has low economical status, no proper roads. In raining season the condition will be more worse. It is a muddy area.Mostly still living in huts, here and there some Government houses. I would say it is a poor area but not a very very slum area. They have drinking water facility from the Government and I saw a Government primary school in that area. They have a few small shops selling vegetables and other stuff for farmers.

The other side of the village have big houses, mostly propably belongs to rich landlords.

As the villagers said there is not much medical facility here from the Government. Once in a while there is nurse coming from the Government giving medicines for pregnant ladies and if there is any spread of contagious diseases.

The main business is at the entrance of the village like few shops, bank and few temples. As far I saw there is no medical shop in that area. Propably the general stores sell a few medication for little bit more price.

Heard from the villagers that there is a primary health centre but it is far away from this area and it is not much help for the people.

I would say opening a primary health centre in that Christian area would be definitely a help for the people there.

Having a medical project would be more apt than a sewing centre in this area.

New sewing project at Nagaralu area, Guntur.

2011-09-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

Hai,

Shifting of sewing project from Visadala, Guntur dt to Nagaralu - Guntur City. Keeping in view the health problems of the instructor Lavanya at Visadala, her society people decided to shift the centre to Guntur and start the new batch of tailoring at Nagaralu area with Vasantha as the new instructor.

Mrs. Vasantha is a 45 year old widow with a son who is a Engineering student. She is a Christian from a below middle class family and is staying with her mother. She has been working as a tailor in that area for the last 10 years so she has enough experience in tailoring. This has been the main income source for her to support her family. The society people selected her for working in our charity. She seems a very nice humble person and i hope she understood the social responsibility of taking care of the needy women in her area. I am confident that she will keep up to our expectations of helping the women for their self help.

Karamchedu medical project

2011-09-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hai,

Few pics in and around Karemchedu medical project.

The nurse working here is Mrs.Prasanna and she is 8 month pregnant. Very soon a new nurse will replace her for a short period.

Visit to Pedanandipadu Sewing Project

2011-09-05T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hai,

My visit to Pedanandipadu sewing project to meet the new batch of Students who just started their stitching class. Pedanandipadu is half way to Guntur from Chirala. It is a village surrounded with tobacco and cotton fields. Almost all the women who joined the class are from agricultural background working as daily workers and one or two girls who are college drop outs.

This time we have students who are familiar with sewing for some extent so they is no need for them for basic training. They started off with blouses which is the difficult and time taking part. Interesting part is here in this project we could see good interaction between the teacher and the students, they are friendly and discuss their ideas with the teacher without any trouble.

Sivakumari is the teacher here and her husband is a farmer. He is quite helpful to her in her work. Siva kumari is a very easy going lady and she is quite capable of dealing with all kinds of women without any trouble. Here also the teacher and students are working together in making products for sale.

Swarna village - New medical application

2011-08-31T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hai

We got a new application for the need of medical support at Swarna village. It is 14 kms away from Chirala and it comes under Prakasam District. Its a big village with all different caste people. We got the application especially from the Christian community. This colony has around 1400 families. Each family has around 4 members. 90% of the villagers in this colony are agricultural coolies and milk vendors and 10% are teachers and other jobs.

Like any other village it has the basic facilities from the government like water supply, Primary school etc. As the villagers said there is not much medical facility here from the Government. Once in a while there is nurse coming from the Government giving medicines for pregnant ladies and if there is any spread of contagious diseases.

We were walking around 10 streets in this colony just to have an over all look of the area. They have a few small shops selling vegetables and other stuff for farmers. Heard from the villagers that there is a primary health centre but it is far away from this area and it is not much help for the people.

Visit to Bapatla Sewing Project

2011-08-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Bapatla belongs to coastal region. Our Sewing project is around 8km from the beach. Location of the project is an area alloted for back ward communities so almost all the students who attend the stitching classes come from very poor background mostly agricultural labourers and building construction workers.

Manjula is the instructor and this is the second batch of students for her in Bapatla. This project turned out to be a free tailoring class as well as shop so the students have the chance of working as well as learning. They are quite successful in making products for sale under the supervision of Manjula. Not just learning they could earn while learning.

2011-08-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

Late rains this year. All the fields look empty. Actually rains should have started in July itself but even at the end of August not much. For the last one week it is raining here and there. Good news for the farmers.Propably they will hurry up now.

Most of our projects are in villages surrounded by fields so i could see a few with cotton plants just started. I hope we have enough rains this year and all the farmers will have enough work..

Since majority of our beneficiaries are from Agricultural background, i hope the ladies would utilize their skills to support their families when they have hard time.

Visit to Embroidery project, Pasumarru

2011-08-22T05:37:00.000-07:00

My today's visit to embroidery project, Pasumarru.

Its a training centre and work shop.
The present batch students are towards the end of their course. They started their class in March - 11.

They already started taking orders from neighbours and working as a group and sharing the money they get among themselves. Few previous students also are gathering here and working as a group. It takes more time if they work individually so two, three students are forming as a group and working together.

This project turned out to be more like a training centre as well as a shop. Since the previous and present students are working together it is easy for them to share ideas and get out some creative work.

Swetha the instructor in this project is recently married and she has enough support from her husband to carry on with her work.

Most of the needy women she has are from agricultural back ground. Not much educated , mostly housewives and few college drop outs. This course really turned out to be a income source for them to support their families.

Thank you very much for your support.. Shoshana is there for needy women for their self help because you are there.

Visit to Epurupalem medical Project

2011-08-07T23:19:00.000-07:00

Medical support in a special community belonging to weaving occupation. The entire area is a weavers colony. Both men and women do this work. Most of the time we see people either dyeing, starching the cloth, weaving, doing different steps of weaving sarees and other dress materials.

People here are prone to breathing diseases since they work with chemicals while dyeing and while making thread from cotton. People doesn't take any precautions while working. So most of the patients here are suffering from ashthama, body pains and gastric problems for not following proper eating habits.

Majority of the families work as daily workers for certain shop owners. They provide them with materials and pay them by each saree. The amount they get per saree is very low when compared to the actual market price. They doesn't have enough capital for starting their own business. They are made to work for the shop owners.

Compared to earlier years most of the people here are looking for other jobs, changing their occupation, migrating to other places for work. Atleast now Government should find some solution to help these people to protect the ancient art releasing them from the slavery of a few rich shop owners.

The nurse here is Ms.Buela Rani who is a well trained nurse, has the experience of working in good hospitals.She is taking good care of the people here.

Anitha - Instructor, 2nd tailoring project in Guntur.

2011-08-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

Hai,

Few pics of Anitha at her project with her students. House and work place in the same building. Project started in 2008. So far 21 students finished their training.

Anitha was a child labour before and we wanted to help her to be independent. She is well trained in hand work and painting. With our support she is helping herself as well she could help others to improve their financial status with their skills. Anitha is happily married now and she has a son of 2 yrs old.

Nirmala working at her Sewing project, Guntur.

2011-08-02T23:18:00.000-07:00

Nirmala - Instructor in our very first sewing project started in 2000.

More than 100 students got trained in her project and majority of them are running their own shops. Right now she is doing her 12 th batch of stitching and embroidery class.

One of her Students showing her embroidery work on a Saree.

Nurse Jayarao working at our medical project - railway station area

2011-07-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

Few pics showing the railway area and the nurse Mr. Jaya rao working for the people there.

Visit to our very first Sewing project in Guntur.

2011-07-20T00:19:00.000-07:00

This is our first Project and also the first Sewing project in our Organization started in 2000 September. Nirmala is the instructor. This is the place where we started our first batch of stitching course, ten years ago. Till now Nirmala had around 108 women who completed their tailoring and embroidery course and majority of them are independent now with their own business. Now she has a present batch of 8 students who started their class in April-11.

The place where she is staying now is a rented one and her society people are taking the responsibility of paying the rent for her house. The house is an old one and it is difficult for her to work there in the rainy season so she is planning to move soon to a different house. The present students will complete their course end of Nov-11. For the next batch we could expect her working in some different area where there is a need for poor women for their self help. She herself is a victim of domestic violence and with the support of Shoshana she became independent and she is successful in taking care of her children all by herself and as well helping many women who came from similar situations by teaching them besides encouraging them to stand on their own.

Our new Office Gate

2011-07-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

Hai friends,

we have a new gate for our office lately. I would like to share it with you.

Visit to P.T.Parru medical project

2011-07-12T00:35:00.000-07:00

Hai,

Atlast rains started here in our area. Some relief from the hot weather. It was raining when i visited P.T.Parru medical project. It is 4km away from Ponnur besides the main road.

I am happy that it is working fine and more people are utilizing the services. The Nurse Mrs.Sukhaveni also got used to her work and she is taking more responsibility of the needy. Government is conducting medical camps now and then so the nurse has the opportunity to take advice from the doctors too.

New Sewing instructor, Guntur

2011-07-07T23:26:00.000-07:00

Instructor Replacement

Our Sewing Centre at Visadala completed two batches of stitching course successfully. The instructor at Visadala Mrs. Lavanya has some health problems so for better treatment her family is moving to a different place. Keeping in view the need of the area, the local society people decided to continue the next batch at Guntur. They introduced me to a new instructor lady who is interested to work with us and to take care of the needy women who are willing to learn stitching in her area.

The new tailor lady is Mrs.Vasantha. She is a widow and has a son who is studying his Engineering second year and she is living with her mother. She has enough space to set up the sewing project at her house itself. She has been stitching since long time . She used to conduct crash course in stitching in summer time for some women in her area so she has enough experience in teaching. In this area there is a scope for helping some needy women. Keeping in view the requirement i think we could continue the next batch of training in stitching here in Guntur.

Visit to Narasaraopet Projects

2011-07-06T23:53:00.000-07:00

My visit to Narasaraopet Sewing and Medical Projects.

First i visited the Medical project which was started in December last year in one of the slum colonies on the out skirts of Narasaraopet. The project is running well. The Nurse, Mrs.Padmavathi worked as a health worker in the local Government sector before and she was alloted this area for distributing medicines once a month so she has good connections with the people in this area and she has the knowledge of the common diseases of the people here. Having a regular medical help here in this area turned out to be really helpful and the people also seems to have no inhibitions visiting the centre since they have faith in the treatment of the nurse. This centre is even convenient for the Government to distribute medicines on their behalf when they have medical camps and the nurse also has the scope to assist and learn from the doctors during the camps.

Second one is the Sewing project which was started in December last year. The first batch of 10 students completed their course end of last month and from July- 1st onwards the teacher Mrs.Satyavathi has new batch of ten students. Majority of the students are married women coming from a poor background like daily workers, house maids. They seem happy with the opportunity of free stitching course and interacting with them i was convinced that they seems confident of using their skills for their self help and also supporting their families after the course.

New office gate.

2011-07-01T21:18:00.000-07:00

We are going to get a new front gate for our office in a couple of days. Still under work. It will be ready by the end of next week.

Visit to Angalakuduru sewing project

2011-06-24T01:53:00.000-07:00

My visit to Angalakuduru Sewing Project which was started in 2004. The instructor is Mrs. Krishnaveni. Angalakuduru is a big village which is near to Tenali and is full of banana and lemon fields. The students we have over there are mostly from agricultural back ground. Either farmers or daily workers in fields. Lately it is difficult for them to depend completely on farming because of in sufficient rains or flooding so the people are looking for other alternatives for their livelihood besides farming .

Women are interested in tailoring and embroidery with which they could earn some money working at home. It is a sure income source for them provided how much time they spend per day. At this Sewing centre, we completed 7 batches which is around 67 students and we have a present batch of 10 students, morning and evening batches. It was started last year September so they are towards the end of the course.

Krishnaveni recently changed her sewing centre to a different house and my visit was mainly to check out the area and meet the students since they are going to finish their course soon.

Inuguration of Medical Centre at Railway station area, Chirala.

2011-06-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

Hai friends,

Yesterday evening we had the inuguration of the medical centre at railway station area , Chirala.

As you know we have a mobile medical centre in this area for the last 6 months for the tribal people. The same nurse from Prasadha Nagaram, Chirala, Mr.Raju has been working here.

Since there is no place for him to set up a medical project, he has been giving out medicines to this people here on the road under a tree but it was hard for him to stay there on the road in the hot weather or when it rains so the local society people and a few friends came together to set up a multi purpose room for the benefit of the people.

Local society people and few volunteers from Netherlands have been helping the people here now and then. The people here are migrated from different states and they are leading a very pathetic life far behind the normal life. They have small temporary huts and mostly they are living on the roads.The entire area is filled with dirt and very unhygienic surroundings. Some localites with the help of other friends helping the people here bringing their requests to the Government and preaching them the word of God and striving hard helping

them to get rid of their bad habits and illegal activities.

Now we have a small multipurpose room here in this area which is used as a prayer hall, medical centre as well as cyclone relief shelter for the people. It is called Village of Hope. It is no more called a slum area but

it s a village which has lot of hope of complete change in their life style.Yesterday it was inugurated with a small prayer and all the people who supported for the construction participated in this program and the people here are very happy to have a medical centre so that they can have a regular medical support for them.

visit to Ramapuram medical project

2011-06-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

hai,

My recent visit to Ramapuram medical project. Ramapuram is one of the beach areas in Chirala with fishermen community living there. Ramapuram is far away from the town. It is the second most needy places among our medical projects till now. First is the railway area with tribal community with no knowledge of health and hygiene. Ramapuram is the second one. I can say it is slowly developing. Besides Shoshana some other NGO's are also working for the development of this area . The way to this area is peaceful and beautiful with fields and palm trees.

Ananda Kumari is the nurse working there. She is Naveen's mother.She lost Naveen two months back and she is slowly getting along now. She has one more son, elder brother of Naveen. He is 15yrs old studying 9th standard in a residential school at Visakhapatnam. Sad thing is her elder son also was born with a defect, with a cleft on his mouth. He had problems, eating and drinking.

He had a surgery before but it was not fully rectified. Recently he had the same problem difficulties in eating, he had a small hole on the roof inside his mouth and small particles were coming out of his nose while eating or drinking. He had an operation to close the hole, a week back. It takes a few days to heal. Right now he is staying with his mother in Chirala and i met him at the Medical project, Ramapuram.

visit to medical area - train station, chirala.

2011-06-07T05:59:00.000-07:00

Hai friends,

Today my visit to the railway station area, chirala where we are giving medical support to the tribal people for the last few months. Its actually on the outskirts of Chirala, area specially alloted to the Cementary but some tribals, specially migrants from Tamilnadu are staying there in small temporary huts besides the Cementary on the roads.

This is the area with utmost unhygienic conditions which needs necessary medical support as well as cleaning from the local Government. Till now our Nurse Mr. Raju has been running a mobile first aid service there since we have no proper place to set up a medical centre.

Lately the society people who are taking care of this place got permission from the Government to build a temporary room for the medical centre. The estimation for the construction is around 30,000 rupees and some local people are really helpful in sharing the burden of paying for the construction which is meant for the noble cause of helping poor people with proper medicine. Most propably the room will be ready by the end of this month. This would really help the people there to have a regular nurse even during the rainy season once they have this centre.

Happy news is that the people here got drinking water facility(municipal tap ) just one week back from the Government.

2011-06-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

hai friends,

I am happy to inform you all that one of our embroidery instructors Ms.Swetha got engaged today at Chilakaluripet. Swetha is an M.B.A student and she is very much interested in handicrafts. She was teaching painting and embroidery to her mother's students who also has a sewing centre at Chilakaluripet.

After she completed M.B.A ,she wanted to start her own embroidery centre at Pasumarru for the needy women there in that area with the support of Shoshana . Being a business management student she wants to teach business skills for her students besides teaching them her knowledge in painting and embroidery. She is one of our best teachers and most of her students also are very successful in their self help.

She got engaged today to a banker and her marriage is on 19th of this month. Hope her husband supports her in her work and i wish them all the best for their future.

Latest visit to Karamchedu medical centre

2011-05-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

hai friends,

Today i visited our newly started medical project at Karamchedu. It is working quite well. The people from that area are quite comfortable with the nurse and they are very happy with the medication they get. Since it is known in that area by now, more people are using the services of the centre. It is quite interesting to see the pakka village atmosphere in that area.

It was evening when i went there so most of the villagers came back from their work and we can see people in front of their houses doing their household work. There was power cut at that time so most of the people are on the roads getting some fresh area. Little bit relaxing from the hot sun. All similar type of houses with cattle in their back yards. The area looks mostly clean.

Happy bunch of children playing on the roads enjoying their summer vacation.

Since the area is away from the town by the side of fields not much sound pollution. Having a first aid centre in their area proved to be a real help for them.

2011-04-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

Just wanted to give information about CDS-Shoshana for the new viewers of the blog.

Shoshana is basically a German based charitable Organization with Ms.Martha B Foerch as the Managing Director. She is the founder and Director of Shoshana. Shoshana started its work in India in 2000 September. Shoshana started working with Community Development Society (local society) with the main aim of helping needy women for their self help. The work started in Andhra Pradesh at Vijayawada as the main office, later changed to Guntur and now we have our own office building at Chirala town, Prakasam District.

CDS-Shoshana started its work with two projects in 2000, one is a Sewing Centre and one is a Medical Centre. Each project is selected after thorough examination of the facts and possibilities for opening a centre mentioned in the applications we get from the local societies from different areas of Andhra Pradesh. Our work is spread in Prakasam, Guntur and Krishana Districts of Andhra Pradesh.

.In Sewing Centres we have a tailoring and embroidery instructor, teaching 10 women as a batch for 8-9 months for free of cost depending on the learning capabilities of the students . Students are selected irrespective of their caste and age but priority is given to poor , uneducated and. needy sections of the society. After completion of the course, students are supported with a sewing machine so they can start their work for their self help.

Second is the Medical Project - Medical projects are mainly started in areas where there is no medical support from any where. There will be a trained nurse at the project for 5 days a week giving out free medication and infusions and going around the village to attend old and disabled patients.

For the last 10 years we have 26 projects - 10 Medical and 16 Sewing Projects. I visit the project twice a month and Martha our Director visits the projects twice a year and checks the all round progress of the projects and see that majority of the needy women gets support from our work. We have an official audit once a year and we take utmost care that the money we get from the donors goes directly to the needy people.
We are very thankful for the donors for their continuous support for the last 10 years helping hundreds of needy women for their self help.

New batch at Bapatla sewing project

2011-03-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

Hai,

New batch of 8 students started at Manjula's place, Bapatla. Officially they start from 1st of April. Majority of the students are housewives belonging to poor background. All of them are married with two children each and husbands are masons and carpenters. They are from surrounding area of Drivers colony, Bapatla where our Sewing Centre is located. They will be taught stitching and embroidery. Some of the students said they want to stitch for their own family and some said they want to start a business after finishing the course. I hope they will utilize the time and make themselves able for their self help. Some of the previous batch students are still coming to Manjula for practice. The road opposite to the Centre is almost ready now so there will be no problem for the students even in rainy season.

Ananda back to work

2011-03-16T01:02:00.000-07:00

Hai,

Naveen's mother, Ananda (Nurse from Ramapuram) started working again from last friday. I hope she recovered from all the sorrow, losing her son. Her elder son who is studying 7th standard in a residential school near Visakhapatnam is also back to school. She said she is planning to get him over to Chirala for the year.

New Med centre, Karamchedu

2011-03-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

Hai,

Our new medical centre at Karamchedu started working officially. Our new nurse Prasanna is slowly getting used to her job responsibility. Not many patients last week. She is working in the morning and evening. Majority of the people here are field workers so most of the patients are coming in the evening time. The nurse is happy with her work. Today i visited the place just to check with the people there and give some suggestions to the nurse if necessary. The centre needs to be known more, that many people can use the services we are giving. Local people seems happy with the medical support.

Inauguration of new medical project - Karamchedu

2011-03-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Yesterday we opened a new medical centre on the outskirts of Karamchedu village. I have been telling about this village in my previous blogs. Quite close to Chirala town. We opened the centre in Ambedkar colony which comes under one of the backward areas which mainly consists of Christian and other tribal community. People living in Government houses and mainly working as field workers and rag pickers.

We ourselves took initiative to give medical support here having seen the need. We had meeting with the village elders. First we thought of opening the centre in the village community hall which is used for village social activities but keeping in view that health centre needs to have its own space and hygiene, the villagers suggested a seperate individual house and they voluntarily gave the house for the centre. The participation from the villagers for the betterment of the village facilities is really appreciating and it gives us scope to help them more if the local people care for their own area.

Yesterday evening we had the inuguration with a small gathering including the village elders and local pastor. It was late evening since we wanted to have the people participate in the gathering after they come back from their work..

Meeting started off with a small prayer and followed by the introduction of the organization and its work in different parts, introducing the nurse to the villagers and the facilities they get in the health centre. The local representative of Ambedkar colony opened the centre and the president of the tribal colony also participated in the meeting. Both are women. Our organization is also mainly women based project it is quite co- incindental that both the heads from this area including the nurse are women.They made annoucements among their groups regarding the medical support and they thanked the whole team of CDS- Shoshana for noticing the need in their area and for taking care of their village.

Naveen's death

2011-03-03T18:10:00.000-08:00

Very sad to inform all that our Naveen ( Son of Ramapuram nurse) died this morning. On one hand he is lucky that no more suffering for him but his mother lost her only companion. I pray God that his soul rest in peace. Thanks to all who are caring for Naveen. Life is Short and the end is very tragic.

2011-02-22T06:30:00.000-08:00

hai,

Today is the last office day for Martha here in India for this trip. We were discussing a few things about the betterment of our work. Tomorrow morning she is leaving to Chennai and from there, she is flying back to Germany. I believe this trip went successful for her. We enjoyed our company and i think its great working together.

Karamchedu new medical centre

2011-02-21T02:27:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Today we visited Karamchedu, the new medical centre area. Karamchedu is a village 15kms away from Chirala. It is a village consisting of both very rich upper caste people and very poor communities too. All the upper caste people are towards the centre of the village and all the other backward people are on the outskirts of the village. Many times we passed this village going to Guntur and we saw the needy people on the outskirts so we ourselves wanted to support this needy area with medical help which seemed very much necessary.

The area where we are going to open the centre is a christian minority area which is called Ambethkar Colony surrounded by two more backward communities.The people here are mainly agricultural labourers and milk vendors since the entire village is surrounded by paddy fields . Almost every family in this area has their own cow. Government started building houses for them and the area is mostly clean but still there are areas which needs immediate help from the Government which include tribal area which has people who are mainly rag pickers , sweepers and some are rearing pigs for meat. There are about 500 families here which come under backward castes.

We came in contact with some of the village elders and discussed our plan of arranging medical help in this area and they offered their village community hall for starting a medical centre. The nurse is also from this area. Her name is Prasanna. She had 5 years experience as a nurse in one of private hospitals in Guntur and Hyderabad. After her marriage she moved to Karamchedu to stay with her husband and he is working as a daily worker in a tobacco factory. She has a son who is 1year old and presently she is free, taking care of her son. She is willing to work at the medical centre since her in-laws are there to take care of her son at home and also she is living close to the medical centre.

Very soon we are going to open the medical centre here within a week's time. . The community hall needs painting and as soon as we finish that work, the centre will be ready for inuguration.

Office

2011-02-17T03:10:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Today we are free since we finished all our project visits. Myself and Martha did some shopping and some accounting. Martha bought a new dress for herself but she was furious bcoz all the nice dresses are in small sizes.We were looking for a music player for Naveen but not sure if he needs a radio or real ipod.

Sampath nagar and Ramapuram medical projects

2011-02-16T02:02:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Today is our last visit to projects. Two medical centres on the outskirts of Chirala.
One is Ramapuram medical centre which is located in the fishermen area 1km away from the beach. The medical centre here started in 2005 after the Tsunami effect.

Around 12 fishermen died and many nets and boats were lost in the Tsunami here in Ramapuram. Shoshana helped many families here with nets and rice bags.Many N.G.O's and Government extended their help to this area which was only one time but Shoshana wanted to give regular help to the people here with a medical support which is very much needed here.

The nurse working here is Anandakumari. She is a divorcee and she has two boys who has genetic disorders by birth. Shoshana helped one of her sons(Naveen) to get operated on his intestines in 2008. Lately two weeks back his health deteriorated and he was almost on death bed. Many people are praying for his recovery and by God's grace he is getting better. Ananda was on leave for two weeks and she joined her duties only three days back. We visited Naveen at his home and he is getting better but he seems lonely for staying alone at home all the time. He is so weak that he is unable to walk so we are planning a care taker for him until he gets better and be on his own.

Second project is also a medical centre in Sampath nagar, Chirala. This was mainly started to give medical support to a tribal community. The nurse working here is Maheswari.. The centre here was stared in 2003. The area here was backward and away from the town when we started and now it is slowly developing. Martha gave suggestions to the nurse regarding the betterment of her work and also for the renovation of the centre for having a better impression of the people who get help here.

Martur medical and Narasaraopet Sewing Project

2011-02-15T05:56:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Today along with Martha i visited two projects. One is Martur medical centre which is in Prakasam Dt and Narasaraopet Sewing project which is in Guntur District.

Martur is famous for Granite Cutting factories.People all over the country come over here to work as daily workers and they have special colonies near the factories for their living. Dry and dusty areas with lots of pollution. Factory workers are facing breathing problems and they are constantly hurt lifting those heavy rocks. Men and women work here and even children who are drop outs are working. Majority are granite workers , some are rickshaw pullers and daily workers in fields.

Some people from Martur formed as a society and started social activities in some needy areas like locating the drop outs and bringing them to School, water facility and as a part of their work they approached us and explained us the need of medical help in this area and requested for a medical centre.

We surveyed the area and started giving medical help here from 2005. The nurse here is Mrs.Sujatha. She is a trained nurse and midwife. She is taking care of the people here and before she used to attend delivery cases on her own but now she is not allowed to do so she is bringing the people to the near by Government hospital if there is any emergency case. The rest like giving out medicines and infusion , she is doing at the medical centre.

Second project is a Sewing centre in Narasaraopet. The instructor here is Mrs. Santamma. She is an experienced tailor ,working for the last 20 years and besides that teaching a few needy women stitching for free of cost. She came to know that with our support she could help more needy women for their self help. We started working from 2007 onwards. The sewing centre area is a mixed area with middle class and very poor people. Santamma besides stitching is good in teaching wool, plastic handicrafts which are useful in everyday life and she is giving chance for the students to share their knowledge with their fellow students if they have any new ideas and lately they started putting their products even for sale.

Guntur Sewing Projects

2011-02-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Today our visit was to Guntur. One is a Sewing project with Anitha as Instructor. She is the youngest instructor among our projects. She is specially trained with handicrafts like embroidery, painting and producing art forms from waste materials. She came from a poor background and her parents couldn't afford to send her to school so she was working as domestic helper for a few years in Singapore. She suffered working as helper so came back to India and she started learning handicrafts.

We started working with her from 2008 onwards. She had only 5 students for the first two batches. The present batch i.e third batch has 10 students. She got used to teaching and started really getting into details and teaching the students exactly what is necessary. She has a son who is 3yrs old and her husband is a home guard. Her son was detected with intestinal problem which needs operation. She is worried and need your prayers for his speedy recovery.

Second project is also a Sewing Centre in Guntur recently changed to a beautician course for the present batch.The instructor here is Rajani . Besides tailoring she is also a beautician. She has been working with us teaching embroidery and stitching from 2005.

Being a beautician she wanted to teach beauty course for the present batch just for a change and which is also a good source of income in this present day's society. The students after finishing their course they could work in any parlour. People now are very beauty conscious and this opportunity of learning free beauty course would definitely be a help for the needy women to earn their living. I hope this small experiment from our regular work really would be a help for the women for their self help.

Lohiyapuram and Epurupalem Medical Centers

2011-02-12T02:59:00.000-08:00

hai,

Yesterday we visited two medical centers around Chirala. One is at Lohiyapuram towards Ongole and one is at Epurupalem towards Bapatla. Two areas belong to weavers community. Majority of the people here do their traditional occupation from several generations.
Some have their own weaving Equipment and some work for a company who pays them little amount for their work which is not sufficient for their living. Majority of the weavers said that they have no unions to fight for their rights and no proper support from the Government to start their own business so some are going for different work like coolies and some old generation people who are afraid of losing their skill to pass on for future generations are staying back.

Government is allotting special areas for them to build houses instead of staying in rented houses. The Government is building houses and they have to pay back a little amount each month but most of the colonies are on the outskirts of the town. So the people living there are far away from the town and even away from all the basic facilities.Local Government recently started building roads and giving water supply but still they doesn't have proper medical help.. Some of the local people took initiative to come up to us asking for medical help.We surveyed the area and we felt it is really needy and it would be useful for the people to have a medical help to those who can't afford to buy medicines and to those like old and handicapped people who can't afford to go to the town for even first aid help.

We started our medical support in Epurupalem in 2006 and the nurse working there is Buela Rani. She is a trained nurse with good knowledge about medication and people around her area are very happy with her services.

The Medical centre at Lohiyapuram started in 2008 and the nurse is Mrs. Varadamma. She is a village health worker who goes around the village and gives out medicines and injections. She is very familiar with the area and people there and people don't hesitate to go to her to just talk to her about their problems besides getting medical help. We are very happy with what she is doing their in that area.

Pedanandipadu Sewing Project

2011-02-10T05:29:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Today we visited Pedanandipadu Sewing Project. Village surrounded by paddy and cotton fields. People mostly farmers and agricultural labourers. Mixed area with both landlords and daily workers.Majority of the single students in the sewing centre are farmers' children or married women working as daily workers.

Our instructor is Mrs. Sivakumari who's husband is a farmer too. Family depended on farming. Last year they had heavy loss on crops due to unexpected floods. At that time Sivakumari is the only support for their family. There are many such student families who are similar to her who are supporting their families in need with the knowledge they got from our Shoshana sewing centre and who are running their small tailor shops at home.

Sivakumari is a very good instructor who takes lots of care in teaching the students different new patterns available in the market. Her husband is also very supportive to her work which is a very essential part and necessary part in our work helping the society. Family support and local society support which makes her work more effective and gives scope for helping more needy women for their self help.

Railway medical centre

2011-02-10T04:16:00.000-08:00

Visit to Shoshana medical centre- Railway area on Wednesday. One of the most needy places in Chirala who need desperate medical help. Most of the habitats in this area are migrated people from Tamilnadu in search of work. They are living in the outskirts of chirala illegally occupying the railway and municipal place for several years.

No proper place for living , in the middle of cementary and mostly on roads in small huts. No electricity or water facility for them.People go for collecting dead animals on the railway tracks, meat for eating and selling dried bones.Some are rickshaw pullers and rag pickers. People here are far behind from the society ,un hygienic,backward and wild. Most men and women are drug addicts, thieves and all kinds of illegal activities.

Government started allotting housing plots for them and half of them still left behind waiting for the houses. In rainy season the situation is even more worse, people living in half drowned houses.Shoshana started regular medical help in this area for the last three months. The nurse from Prasadha Nagaram Mr. Jaya raju is also working here in this area. There is no permanent place for the centre yet but Jayaraju is managing to give out the medicines on his bicycle just like a mobile dispensary.

The local society people applied for the Government to allot a place for them to build a medical centre so the people in this area gets regular medical help which is very necessary for these people living in such unhygienic area and no awareness of healthy life.

Vijayawada Sewing Projects

2011-02-09T01:03:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Yesterday we visited our sewing projects in Vijayawada. We went along with our German friends to the projects since they are making the documentary on the work of Shoshana.

First we went to Wynchpet, Vijayawada via prakasam barage. The centre is more in the old city. The instructor, Mrs.Srivani is working with us from the beginning i.e from 2001 onwards. She is the oldest instructor compared to all our insturctors .

She was a regular teacher before in a school besides stitching and that helped her very much in teaching the students stitching with more patience. She is very helpful and friendly to the students and more like a mother to them and really fighting for those women who need help since her class is in a muslim slum area. Her husband is a retired railway employee and he is also very helpful in sharing her work. We are very happy with their work.

Next project is Shoshana Sewing Centre, Giripuram. The instructor lady is Hemima. She is a trained dress designer so she has new way of teaching the students which is very practical. She is making special maps for the other instructors too to make their work more easy and effective.We met her family and one of her sister is also a social worker for street children and her aunt is running a day care centre for the needy children in her area so her family is more into social work. Hemima acts not just like a regular employee but really see that the needy people in her area get help to get up from their poor situations and be independent.

On the way back to home, we were at a cotton mill and chilli fields to see the situation of the people working there .The entire process like picking cotton from the fields to making the threads and cloth is very interesting but the life of people working in hot sun, dusty and noisy mills is very pathetic. Our students who are former daily workers feel much more comfortable and happy compared to their work before setting up their own tailor shops at home or outside, earning more money than a regular worker and take care of their children.

Pasumarru and Chilakaluripet Sewing projects

2011-02-07T08:25:00.000-08:00

Hai

Today we visited two projects along with some special friends from Germany. One is Silke, member of Shoshana and a dress designer who has been helping our projects by sharing her stitching knowledge for the last 9 years and the other one is Benjamin who is a photographer, making a documentary on Shoshana and its projects in India.

First we went to Pasumarru where our project incharge Swetha is running her embroidery and painting class. She is an MBA graduate besides embroidery teacher. This is her third batch running presently. Her class is full of new and old students besides the present batch. Old students are using the centre as their work place where they meet the instructor regularly and have a chance to work under her supervision. Most of her previous students who finished the course are very well using their skills and earning sufficient money to support their families and present batch also started working while learning, about to finish their course at the end of this month. New batch is ready for the start and they came to watch the class and find out what they are going to learn. So it was a happy bunch of different students at different stages. Benjamin and Silke made an interview with Swetha and her students and they tried to capture their nature of work.

Secondly we visited Sumathi, incharge of Shoshana sewing centre, chilakaluripet. She is the mother of Swetha. She is teaching only stitching and Swetha is helping her students with painting and embroidery in her free time. Martha felt very happy with the work of Sumathi and we had a chance to go around the area and meet some of her previous students who has small tailoring shops at their houses.

Previous students are very happy for setting up their own business at home instead of working in fields all day long and staying away from their family. They are still beginners but they are quite successful in growing their work day by day. We felt very happy to see them using their sewing class for their self help which the basic aim of Shoshana.

Swetha who is a business management graduate is in the process of using her knowledge to teach her students how to make necessary products and market them besides teaching her regular class which we expected from her from the beginning and to be an inspiration to other projects as well.

2011-02-04T22:45:00.000-08:00

Hai friends,

I feel very sad to say that the son of our nurse from Ramapuram Medical centre is in a very serious health situation. The name of the boy, Naveen was born with several genetic disorders. He is 12 years old.Three years back Shoshana helped him getting operated on his bladder but he is very weak to get along with several operations from his birth. He was better for sometime but slowly his health started getting deteriorated. We tried to make his living better but his body is not co-operating.

He is admitted in a Government hospital for the last 3 days and i hope he will make it for some more days. We need your prayers for him.

Angalakuduru Sewing Project

2011-02-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

hai,

Our visit to the second project today is Angalakuduru Sewing Project. This is the last visit for this week.

Angalakuduru is a village, 4kms away from Tenali.

Our Sewing Project at Angalakuduru is working for the last 7 years. Around 67 women finished their stitching class successfully.

Present batch has 10 students. Silent bunch of women, learning embroidery today. The instructor Mrs.Krishnaveni is teaching them some embroidery pattern to put on cloth bags which can be used instead of plastic covers. They already prepared a few with nice simple thread work.

Already some people are interested in using them. In future if there is prohibition on plastic then the women have a chance of going into the business of making bags besides stitching.

Pacchala thadiparru medical project

2011-02-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

Hai,

Today we have been to two projects, one medical and one sewing. Medical Project is in a village called Pacchala thadi parru which is 4kms away from Ponnur and 20kms away from Guntur.

It was started recently and located besides the main road to Guntur. P.T.parru is more a village and the location of the medical project is in a Christian area. Local people provided their community hall for the medical centre. The area is still very poor and needy and majority of the people are daily workers. There is no near by medical help for them.

Starting a medical centre and providing free medication in that area turned out to be very useful for the people and quite practical. Ponnur is the only near by place where they can get medicines before.

Nurse working in this centre is Sukhaveni. She is a trained nurse and midwife. She improved quite a bit than before, getting along with the patients, treating them and bringing them to the doctor if necessary.

People around the area are very happy with the services and expressed their heart ful gratitude to all the donors of Shoshana.. Martha is also happy with the nurse and advised her to be patient with her people, give some space for the people to open up ,share their problems and give them counselling and bring out the real meaning of serving people.

Government people also came to know about our help in that area and they came forward to provide some medicines for the centre from their side sometimes, taking the help of the nurse in some of their medical help programmes and work together with the nurse.