Creating Livelihood Opportunities

Though there were restrictions, we saw this crisis as an income generation opportunity for the women in villages. Here are a few examples: -

• Producing Face Masks - Through the livelihood enhancement program, women in our operational areas have prepared 2,32,278 masks
• Establishing Kitchen Gardens - At the time when vegetables were not available locally owing to the lockdown, ACF encouraged women with small backyards to start their own vegetable gardens for local selling. Currently there are 325 women in Punjab involved in kitchen gardening initiative.
• Enabling Financial Access - 158 SHGs have applied for COVID-19 Sahay Loans and are expected to receive 2.36 crores across locations to carry on their own initiatives

Insurance Linkages for Farmers

Range De is a non-banking financial corporation which has been providing loans to farmers under a COVID-19 Special initiative. It has reached 65,000 farmers and provided loans worth Rs. 80 crores on a 0% interest. We have been linking at least 600 farmers for a loan of Rs. 20,000 each. Initially starting from West Bengal and Maharashtra, we will link Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) and Federations with Rang De.

Mental Health and Advisory Services

The lockdown has been affecting the mental health of many across India. Our own team members' health and safety is hugely important to us at this time. To ensure their mental well-being and address any anxieties and provide support, we have been reaching out to all team members on a regular basis. Advice is provided on how to cope with stress and how-to de-stress during this time. ACF has also collaborated with the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy, Pune to conduct webinar sessions with the ACF team along with a 'train the trainer' sessions

Building Partnerships

Along the way, we have partnered with various organizations to help us with support material during this crisis: -

1. Noora Health: Technology support with COVID19 awareness content in Image, Audio and Video formats
2. Tata Trusts: Video Information Support in regional languages for community awareness in Hindi and Gujarati
3. Centre for Mental Health: Mental Health support through Video messages and 'training the trainer' sessions
4. Gram Vaani: Technology support with state specific numbers for beneficiaries to access health information on IVRS platforms
5. IDH Netherland: COVID Insurance support to 25000 farmers

How we are helping some of our beneficiaries: -

1. Elderly: Providing Special Care & Support through Village Volunteers with regular calls and voice messages sent.
2. Farmers: Awareness creation and practice of social distancing in farms and market to be maintained and linking with insurance
3. Truckers: Targeted voice and video messages to reach our truckers
4. SEDI Trainees: Daily outreach with awareness messages, images, and voice calls. Training shifted to the online medium.
5. Pregnant/Lactating Mothers: Sharing Nutrition Content and MCH services, mobile phone counselling through WhatsApp Groups

For all our efforts, we have received good feedback from our beneficiaries:-

Till date we have reached the following milestones:

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• Reached 7 lakh beneficiaries through daily mobile messaging
• 3958 Village volunteers (Single Points of Contact)
• 215 Ambuja Volunteers
• 84,500 pamphlets distributed
• 315 walls painted
• 7138 Hand Sanitizers distributed
• 432 Village Fumigation
• 4136 PPE Distributed
• 177 info-graphics shared
• 98 Voice Messages shared
• 14 Animated Videos shared
• 98 Voice Messages shared
• 14 Animated Videos shared