The Story of Pezwadi

The Saaraakassh Team first visited the adivasi village, Pejwadi on January 14th, 2017 on the festive day of Makar Sankranti. At Pezwadi our observation was that all the children seemed malnourished. We had organized a preliminary health checkup on the same day, and our team realized that most kids are not having a healthy dietary habit which was negatively impacting their growth and development, thus hampering their overall health and well being.

Thus came into being the Pilot Milk project with Ashwagandha powder for the children of the Pejwadi ZP School!

Different research studies conducted have shown that Milk and Ashwagandha together make a remarkable difference in the overall growth of children. Vaishanvi trust, a friend organization of Saaraakassh Trust, functioning in Chennai and around had been successfully running this project for some time and it was from there that we got inspired to do the same.

To run this pilot project, we first took the permission of the Upamukhya Karyakari Adhikari, Mahila va Balvikas Vibhag, Zilla Parishad, Thane Zilla and requested their assistance in assessing and monitoring the health of the children before and after the implementation of this project.

After getting the necessary permission, this project was rolled out in a full- fledged manner. We held a proper medical camp run by Dr. Niraj Dandekar and Dr. Yadnya Dandekar, Ayurvedic Practitioners running Arogyakiran in Panvel. To arrest the issue of malnutrition, distribution of Ayurvedic medicines, supplementary food such as Gul-Chana Chikki and Kharik was done along with the milk and Ashwagandha powder. Talks were held with villagers by the Doctors themselves and by us too, to help them understand the importance of maintaining daily hygiene and good dietary habits.All this and a slight moderation in their mid day meal helped us combat malnutrition to a large extent. When the doctors visited the village 6 months later the weight of almost 52 children out of the 55 children had increased…Imagine our joy when the doctor declared that 52 children had crossed over and were no longer malnourished!!

We decided that we wanted to make Pezwadi a model village and not just stop at one goal of eradication of malnutrition. Work was first started by providing the village with a water tank so that the village can have a regular drinking water supply. We also went ahead to make the Sauch Khaddaas to help drain the dirty, sewage water. In an effort to make the village, open defecation free, we took up the project of building 38 toilets at the cost of Rs.11,000 per toilet. Not an easy task! However, realising that open defecation in a closely knit place gives rise to numerous health issues apart from contaminating the water body nearby, we took up this daunting endeavor. After lot of word of mouth publicity of the project, fund raising events, and such sustained efforts by October 2018, we had successfully been able to build toilets for all the families in the village.

In terms of learning, Pezwadi has been our Karma bhoomi. We realized that just having a desire to help is not enough and that it could not be arbitrarily decided as to what should be the plan of action. Certain processes needed to be in place. Thus our vision was streamlined into certain processes that henceforth would be practiced.

Our three major aims hereafter would be on the Three E's:
1. Eradicating Malnutrition
2. Encouraging Sanitation
3. Enabling Education

Thus distribution of uniforms, school bags, school stationery, and games and toys for learning and education is done on a regular basis. Also before the arrival of monsoons, Saaraakassh takes care in the upkeep of the school building by way of plastic sheets etc to keep the school dry and free from leakages.

Also to give an impetus to employment, bamboo products, honey and Mahua Oil is bought from the Pezwadi villagers which is then showcased in exhibitions and also sold through word of mouth.

Pezwadi was also the first village where in we had the ‘Urban-Rural Student Program' wherein the Urban children visited the village and helped teach the rural children by conducting various activities such as science experiments, drawing competitions, dance competitions, drama skits and so forth. The takeaway for the urban children was no less. To actually see adivasi places like Pezwadi with minimum facilities does make anyone realize the immense opportunities and conveniences that one has in cities. Things fall in perspective then and there. The first school to partner with Saaraakassh on this Student program was Guardian school of Dombivli. For the whole of the academic year 2018-2019 every month children of various grades with teachers and other school staff visited Pezwadi. Words are not enough to express the hardwork put in by both teachers, and students to make this program a success.

Continuing on the path of the third E, Enabling Education, on 20th October 2019, Saaraakassh finally launched its dream project: the P4 series. Pudchi Pidhi, Pudcha Paul with the children of Pezwadi where in the first Lifeskills workshop of the P4 series was undertaken. Under the initiative of Vidya Daanam, we want to conduct a series of various life skills workshops with the underprivileged adivasi children so as to help them develop better self confidence, leadership and an ability to face the world which lies beyond their remote and secluded environment thus hoping to help them seamlessly become part of the mainstream society.

Pezwadi in many ways has been our testing ground wherein we conducted many of our firsts, be it the urban-rural student program, lifeskills program, building of toilets, sauchh khaddes, cleaning of wells before the monsoons, putting up big water tanks to store drinking water for the village, so on and so forth. We have moved on to our third village now, yet Pezwadi holds a dear place in our hearts and work goes on …..

Tathaasthu
Shital...
To bring a smile to every wanting soul…