Purpose
To support the old age people of Nandivali village and help them lead a peaceful and comfortable life with access to healthy and hygienic drinking water as well as providing them with alternative sources of income through crops other than rice. The idea is to stop the migration of their children and reunite them with their families by making this village a model village.
Objective
Nandivali village is predominantly occupied by senior citizens. The nearest Water body was almost 5-6 km away and roads were uphill and downhill also mostly inaccessible. Most of the youth have migrated to nearby cities leaving these people vulnerable. In an effort to empower the community in Nandivali Village, Taluka Mulshi, the RSB Foundation has taken an extraordinary step by providing a water tank with an impressive capacity of 30,000 litres. The foundation aims to encourage the villagers to explore alternative agricultural products and diversify their crops, including the production of turmeric and other medicinal and aromatic plants. This initiative is expected to enable the villagers to become self-sufficient and independent also improving their health conditions by regular checkups through qualified doctors and health workers. This project aims to benefit more than 100 village members.
Initiatives
On a preliminary survey along with the gram panchayat and the villagers, we came to a conclusion that hygienic drinking water was inaccessible therefore we built a 30000 ltr capacity water tank and laid a 4km pipeline with a community participatory approach so that they can access hygienic drinking water at their doorstep. The plan is to help them build a farm pond and train them in alternate sources of agricultural income opportunities other than Rice cultivation. We have lit the entire village with solar lights so that the roads are visible on cold dark nights. We further shall educate the villagers on the preservation of soil erosion due to natural heavy rainfall in the region and we plan to build sustainable internal roads and educate them on the usage of renewable sources of energy and self-dependant. We run a mobile health check-up van with qualified doctors and health workers from Pune Rural Dist Health Department once a month for their regular checkups as the nearest hospital is more than 10-12 km away in Male block and quite impossible for them to travel alone at their age.
Impact