Stories from some of the beneficiaries of Shoshana Projects

Ø  Name: Deepa – Vijayawada

 

Deepa is a tailor. Her husband used to be an auto driver. 

For the last four years he is not working because of his heart disease. 

He tried to find work but he has no strength to work.  

Deepa runs the family by stitching clothes. 

She has the skill but do not have her own machine. She rents a machine for 50rs per day. 

Sometimes with all her house expenses and her husband’s medical bills, 

she couldn’t pay the rent for the machine regularly so the machine owner took it away.
 Though she is not a student of Shoshana, she approached us for help. 

Knowing her situation we contacted some friends to help her buying a sewing machine. 

Now she is very happy to have her own machine. 

She thanked for giving her an opportunity to be confident and earn her living.

 Ø  Name: Pallavi – Shoshana Sewing Centre, Gannavaram

Pallavi is 30yr old. Stopped studies after her 10^th grade.  

Husband is a daily worker and she is working as a helper in a local school earning around 100rs per 

day. She has two children. It is very difficult for them to run the family and sending the children to

 school with the meagre income they are earning.

She joined the free sewing class at Gannavaram in the year 2022 with the aim of becoming 

independent and not depending on her husband for daily expenses.  

After finishing the class, she got a sewing machine. 

She is very happy that Shoshana gave her an   opportunity to fulfill her dream of becoming

independent as well as she could provide better living conditions for her children.

 

Ø  Name: Subhashini – Shoshana Sewing Centre, Gannavaram

She is an illiterate, working as a daily worker earning around 300 rupees per day. 

Husband is a painter and has 3 Children. She has work only for 10 days a month and 

rest of the month she is out of work.

Her elder son stopped school because the parents couldn’t afford to send all the 

three children to school. He is also assisting his father in painting work. 

She heard about Shoshana sewing centre from a local pastor and joined the class in the year 2022. 

She finished her class and got a sewing machine.

She said it is very helpful for her to find an alternate income source besides her regular work 

and she expressed her happiness that in future she could send all her children to school.

She expressed her special thanks to Mrs.Martha.

Distribution of Sewing Machines at Shoshana Sewing Project, Chenchula colony, Gannavaram.

More than 1000 people spread in two blocks at Chenchula and Jangali colonies near airport at Gannavaram area. They belong to tribal communities, mostly illiterates.

Occupation wise some are fishermen, women mostly sell small plastic items going around houses, some men are parrot astrologers etc . They migrate from one area to other in search of work living in temporary shelters.

The situation is especially poor for women, because they have often little or no economic status and especially when their husbands are working elsewhere, they have to face severe financial hardship.

Girls usually get married when they reach the age of  puberty and boys mostly go along with their parents for work.

Local pastor is working for the economic upliftment of these tribal communities encouraging children to attend tuition points for primary education and women to learn some hand craft skills so that they could have an alternate income source.

With the help of Shoshana, a sewing project was started in Chenchula colony in the year 2021 and so far 10 women finished their course and got a sewing machine.

Here are some pics from the distribution of sewing machines.

SPECIAL THANKS TO  ALL THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE TO GET THE SEWING MACHINES FOR THE LADIES FOR THEIR SELF HELP.

 CDS-Shoshana Medical Centre - Vengal reddy nagar,Raavipadu

Raavipadu is an area on the outskirts of Narasaraopet town  beside the highway towards Hyderabad.

Vengal reddy nagar is moderately a big area with around 150 houses belonging to backward communities. Majority of the population are agricultural labourers. Both men and women work in fields and at building construction sites. Previously most of the children were school drops outs but for the last decade parents are sending their children to schools. 

Majority of the houses are Government built. Although people living in pucca houses, their is not much difference in their financial status. There are still many who are living in poverty. Many were out of work during the corona crisis but slowly the situation is getting better.

Shoshana under the supervision of the local society arranged a first aid centre in Raavipadu area in the year 2016 and giving out medical help with a regular nurse.

As we observed over the years there are many old people here who are in need of medical help. Since the area is around 7km away from the nearest hospital in town, Shoshana medical centre is quite useful for the people here especially for old people . Besides the basic medication, the med project is offering free B.P and blood sugar check ups.

Nurse Mrs. Bala sundari

Mrs. Martha  is supervising the projects and interacting with the staff through video calls and the people also are happy to often see her. Thanks to all the donors who made it possible to provide medical help for the people of Raavipadu.

 CDS-Shoshana Sewing Centre, Narasaraopet

Shoshana has been training needy women in sewing and embroidery in Shalem nagar, Narasaraopet area for the last 15 years.  So far more than 150 women finished their free sewing class successfully and using their sewing skills to earn their living.

Mrs. Santhamma has been training these women from the beginning ie from the year 2007. She was a teacher and a tailoring instructor before she started working with Shoshana. She used to take minimal fee to train the women. After many years of service, she is quite familiar with the people  in the area. She lended her own house to run the sewing project.

After she joined with Shoshana, she has the opportunity of  helping hundreds of women for free of cost to be independent. Her family is with her in this process. They supported her to continue her work all these years. Even though she  crossed her retirement age she is still continuing with the same spirit in training women.

In future one of her daughters or one of her previous students may take over the sewing project but she wants to continue as long as she could.

The students had the opportunity to meet our M.D. Martha and talk to her via a video call. It was nice that she could meet the women and see what they are doing.

 Shoshana Medical Centre,  S.C Colony, Epurupalem

Latest pics from our Shoshana Medical project - S.C Colony, Epurupalem.  Ms. Buela rani, the nurse has been with Shoshana for the last 15yrs giving first aid help in different areas of Epurupalem. First started with weavers colony and now in S.C colony of Epurupalem. Not only her , her entire family is behind her, helping her in taking care of the people here. 

Besides the patients coming to the centre, she also does house visits for those who can't come to the centre, assisting people to see the doctor if necessary. She does the Sugar and B.P checkups, if necessary she gives the normal salines like for dehydration etc

Besides Shoshana med proj, Epurupalem,  she has also  been taking care of medical projects at other areas too and she always comes first to help and assist other medical projects if there is a need.

According to the news that they may be a rise in Covid cases in the coming days, we Shoshana from our side is always ready to provide the necessary medication to the people.

 

Shoshana Sewing Project, Gaddipadu - Guntur.

New group of women for tailoring class

Instructor Mrs. Nirmala with her present group of women

Basically Tamil origin women, migrated to Andhra for work for over five decades. These families are in different kinds of occupation like construction workers, daily labourers, maids etc. 

The present group of women come from families who are sweepers in the municipality. These women are illiterates, into early marriages and are housewives. Due to lack of education they have no proper jobs. In order to support families they have no alternate income source except working as daily workers. Sometimes it is difficult for them especially when they have small children at home to take care of.

These women joined the sewing class so that they could support their families and could give their children a decent education. Work from home and be with the children. Besides giving the women a free sewing class, Shoshana is providing them with a sewing machine so that they could start working as soon as they finish their class.

Here are a few pics from the present group started in the month of July-2022

On behalf on Shoshana Sewing Project - Gaddipadu, I thank all the donors who are giving a tremendous support for their life changing program.

 Shoshana Medical Centre, Lohiyapuram.

Sharing some recent pics from Shoshana Medical Centre - Lohiyapuram.

Located in the weaver's community. Majority of the population are weavers'. Weaving sarees is the main occupation. Almost every household is associated with the weaving process. Shoshana opened a Medical project here 12 yrs  back with the intention of providing first aid help to the area here which is  far away from the town. 

There were no basic facilities like roads, electricity, drinking water etc for the people here at that time when we started off but slowly over the years the area is developing but still there is no  medical facility except the medical help from Shoshana.

There is a large population of elderly people also in this area who needs regular blood pressure and Sugar check ups. Besides providing the basic medication, Shoshana provides all these checkups for free of cost and there is a regular nurse who takes care of all the basic needs.

He does house visits also for  those who couldn't  come to the centre so having a  medical centre here is a big help for the people.