Sambhali News July

Sambhali Trust Newsletter

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Sambhali Trust in July 2021

Dear Supporters & Friends,

We hope all of you are well, safe and healthy. Welcome to our July news!

The current COVID situation in India seems to improve slowly but continuously. Yesterday, the country reported nearly 40,000 new registered cases, especially in the state Kerala. The situation in Rajasthan is looking quite promising at the moment. Because of the increasing numbers of positive cases in other Indian states and other countries, Rajasthan’s Chief Minister, Ashok Gehlot, has urged people to keep following all guidelines and norms.
In the whole country, the daily positivity rate is at 2,27% and has been less than 3% for the last 12 days. About 11% of the eligible population is already fully vaccinated.
We hope that the vaccination progress, ongoing testing, safe guidelines and good behavior of everyone will prevent a third wave.

After nearly 1 1/2 half years, the state of Rajasthan discussed the re-opening of educational institutions since the second wave was under control. This idea was rejected by many opponents, especially parents who do not want their children to return to school yet. Now, the decision is on hold until most students are offered a vaccine. Most probably, schools won’t reopen before October.

Empowerment Centers

The month of July couldn’t have started any better - on 1st of July, we were able to reopen our Women Empowerment Centers in Jodhpur & Setrawa!
The last few months were very difficult for all of us, some may have lost a dear one, others didn’t know how to get through the next month without any support. Although everyone has suffered, we know that women specifically are not safe during lockdowns at home. We hope that we can somehow provide some assistance for them to feel safe, be happy and rebuild their lives.

3 of our Empowerment Centers changed their location and moved into new buildings. The new places have enough space, especially for social distancing, and natural light. The women in the new areas are very excited to join Sambhali. Surveys by our tutors in the Empowerment-Center-areas have shown us that our students are happy to learn and set an own earning as a main life & future goal.
To improve the learning progress at the centers and their own work, our tutors have monthly planners so they can check if they have achieved their goals at the end of the month. In total, Sambhali runs 8 Women Empowerment Centers at the moment - 7 in Jodhpur, 1 in Setrawa.

At the moment, all girls and women are learning the core subjects Hindi, English and Maths, as well as General Knowledge of health, law, environment, etc. in weekly workshops conducted by our local volunteers. The other main part is hand embroidery, stitching and sewing. The new students start with their first stitches and hand embroidery before they try to cut out first pieces by using paper and leftovers of raw material. When they have learned the basics and are ready, they can finally create their own clothing pieces. From August on, we plan to establish self-defense classes in all Women Empowerment Centers. We wish that the classes will help our participants to understand and learn more about self-protection and to gain more confidence. 2 weeks ago, the Police Department of Jodhpur already organized a self-defense course for women and adolescent girls. Sambhali has offered its participants to join the professional training in front of Sambhali HQ.

Boarding Homes

After our Sheerni girls returned back from their homes and continued with their online classes, our Laadli girls have joined us as well again. All are healthy and excited to be back in the city and in the hostel with the others. The Laadli girls continue to follow the same schedule as before: regular tuitions with all tutors throughout the day. In their free time, they enjoy their time together, do yoga on the rooftop, dance, play, cook and watch TV. The life at Sheerni Boarding Home is very similar: the girls follow a certain time schedule as well and study with their tutors. Additionally, they have their online classes in the mornings. Our 5 college girls are living at Sambhali HQ and are also doing pretty great. One of them, Priya, will attend her final exams in August.

Our Graduates

Last month, we had to say goodbye to our long-term Manager of the Graduates, Ms. Kavita Bihal. Until we find a professional successor, one of our Trustees, Mrs. Mukta Kanwar, has taken over the whole team voluntarily with the help of Mrs. Anju Choudhary. Anju Choudhary is the project developer and designer who takes care of patterns, designs and orders while Mukta Kanwar is the sewing manager and manages the team & supervises the orders. Our main goal at the moment is to establish Sambhali in the local market to receive regular orders.
If you know anybody who would like to get some clothes or decoration items done by our Sambhali ladies, feel free to contact us via boutique@sambhali.org.

Thank You!

Thank you very much for your ongoing support. We are grateful for every single one of you and hope that we can continue with our mission to help as many people as possible. 22 families in Dechu Tehsil are continuously supported with rations every 2 weeks. Our Milaap campaign is still online - every cent can change something. 🙏🏼 https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-govind-singh-rathore

To learn more about volunteering with Sambhali please follow the link below: Volunteer with us

Text by Roxanne N.

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