Wayanad District, Kerala

In the second phase of help for children affected by the floods in Kerala, Hope Unlimited distributed school kit (school bag, pencil box, crayons, paint, water bottle, umbrella) to 45 students of a government aided secondary school in Eachome, Wayanad. Thirty per cent of the students in the school are from tribal communities. Wayanad being a hilly region bore the brunt of both flooding and landslides in August. 

Hope Unlimited also gave scholarships of INR10,000 each to 10 girls from marginalised communities. Hope Unlimited is thankful to Action Aid India and TUDI (Tribal Unity for Development Initiatives), a local organisation for their help in identifying the girls, who are from the most vulnerable, deprived communities, including tribal. 

Sumitra P.S. is one of them. Her father is a daily wage earner, making INR 3,000-4,000 a month, if he is lucky. The family from Cheriyam Kolli, saw their meagre belongings and the one-room makeshift structure they called home destroyed in the floods. Though the idea behind this scholarship was that the children could do something nice for themselves given the trauma they had been through with the floods, Sumitra was candid when she said she would use her scholarship money to pay off some of her parents’ debt. Despite the present reality, the 17-year-old who is in Grade 12 is keen on becoming a teacher. 

(August 2018)