Jyoty Marg Education and Charitable trust, Odisha achieved another mile stone in its history by reaching out to thousands of people with Covid-19 relief programs in Odisha with the help of Sneha Charitable Trust and Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation. It was a great chance for the Trust to be with the poor and needy tribal people and widows of Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Rayagada and Koraput districts of Odisha. We executed this programme in four districts with the help of three Social Action Centres of the Trust, such as Nirmal Jyoty Social action Centre, Baliguda, Kandhamal, Sacred Heart Centre, Laxmipur, Koraput, Little Flower Mission, Kundra, Koraput.
Situation of Pandemic in Odisha: As per the government report TPR has come down to below 2.5% in many of the districts and the day to day activities of the people started normal. But many of the villages, which are deep inside the forest with tribal population, are affected with the pandemic. Lack of accessibility and medical facilities make it unknown to the public. The climate change with bad monsoon made the life of the tribal people more difficult and even to the situation of starvation. We could address a few of them through the awareness, medical aids and food and nutrition supplies in the month of August.
Project implementation and response of the people: The project was implemented in eight civil blocks of Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Rayagada and Koraput districts of Odisha. The beneficiary groups were selected with the help of government administration and village level institutions like SHGs and Asha Workers. The target groups were selected on the basis of economic situation, life status, places where government could not reach due to the lack of accessibility, presence of Maoists, etc. We could reach around 18 villages with 609 families and widows.
The Relief project by the Trust helped the poor and needy tribal people who were on the edge of starvation due to dock downs and unexpected poor climate. The distribution of the food and nutrition kit will help them to survive for few weeks and surely will help them to gain good health with this nutritious food items. The response from the people also was positive and they expressed their gratitude for being with them in the time of difficulties. The awareness programs on the pandemic and need to be vaccinated made them to be equipped with precautions to face the next waves of the virus.
Difficulties and challenges: The accessibilities to many of the villages made the implementation of the project more challenging and difficult. As many of the villages were deep inside the forest road facilities were not available and the severe monsoon made the task more difficult. External forces like fanatics, Maoists, few government administrations made the distribution challenging and difficult. But with the support of the village level unites like Asha workers, SHGs etc. helped the project to be implemented smoothly. The continued unemployment and difficulties in cultivation due to bad monsoon also will be a great challenge that we will be facing in the future. The people are also anxious about the future especially with this situation of unemployment and difficulties in cultivations.
As we summarise the one month Covid-19 Relief project we could feel the satisfaction and feelings of happiness and hope in the face of poor and needy tribal people of Odisha. It was a great opportunity for the Jyoty Marg Trust with the help of Sneha Charitable Trust and Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation to address few poor and needy tribal people of Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Rayagada and Koraput districts of Odisha. We do express our gratitude for the selecting our Trust to collaborate with you to implement the Covid-19 Relief work in Odisha.