Project SEED - Health, Nutrition & Wellbeing in Marginalised Communities

Delivered by WORD, this 3-year initiative works with 140 Dalit women farmers & other low-caste villagers in 13 villages in North West Tamil Nadu. Beneficiaries generate income using cost-effective, eco-friendly technologies to sustain their organic farming: they collect, exchange & store organic seeds & produce organic fertilisers & pesticides for sale to non-project farmers from their Seed Wealth Centre. Another 75 Dalit women in Self-Help Groups are trialling the production of cloth sanitary napkins for local use. The project also improves the school retention rates of 150 Dalit girls & boys through evening tuition & conversational English. Membership of 965 women & adolescent girls in Watch Dog Committees also helps combat domestic violence, child marriage, child labour & other forms of sexual exploitation.

DID YOU KNOW…

• India is home to 1/4 of the world’s under-nourished population, over 1/3 of the world’s under-nourished children and nearly 1/3 of the world’s food-insecure people.

• Over 210 million people live below the poverty line in rural India alone.

We’re working hard to change that…. Through our Project SEED we are empowering Dalit women to break the cycle of poverty.

Please click here to download the full Project SEED handout.