Coronavirus: Rebuild Lives in India and Nepal

Two years on from the end of the Pandemic, Karuna continues to work with its in-country partners to support people from some of the most vulnerable communities as they struggle to rebuild their lives.

During the year 2022/23, Karuna worked directly with 129,000 people from vulnerable communities in India and Nepal with indirect impacts reaching an estimated 650,000. Our work in the aftermath of the pandemic has focused on three main priorities.

• To support the most vulnerable children, especially adolescent girls to stay in school and complete their education.

• To protect women from marginalised communities from the increased threat of domestic and caste-based violence.

• To help some of the most economically disadvantaged people, especially migrant workers, to gain greater economic security through access to Government Welfare schemes.

Education. Learning Champions Girls’ Education Project (Nepal)

During the lockdown, all schools in Nepal were closed and children in rural areas missed out on their education leading to an increased risk of children, especially girls, dropping out for work or early marriage.

This project aims to support 8,500 adolescent girls between the ages of 12 and 16 to stay in school resisting family and economic pressures to drop out.

The project is in its first year of implementation and the past year has seen some significant progress towards the achievement of planned outcomes.

• 30 women groups have been formed comprising 555 women from Dalit and marginalized families.

• Seven Dignity Centres and 6 Learning Hubs have been established supporting out-of-school girls to re-enroll in schools.

• 450 teachers received 10 days (about 1 and a half weeks) of teacher training on educational materials development and teaching learning strategies.

• Ten entrepreneurship capacity development training courses involving 387 mothers of school age children have been delivered.

Livelihoods. Migrant Labourers’ Resilience Project (India)

Migrant Labourers in India were among the people worst affected by the pandemic with millions forced to leave their places of work and return home on foot.

Over the past year the project has engaged directly with 43,000 migrant labourers, benefiting a total of 120,000 family members. 24,000 migrant labourers have been supported to receive payments under government welfare entitlement schemes and 20,000 have received training on safe migration, making them aware of relevant rights and legal protection and better able to avoid becoming exploited by traffickers. 1,184 calls were received on the Migrant Workers’ Helpline, 240 cases were registered, and 113 workers and their families have been physically rescued from dangerous or exploitative situations.

Womens’ Empowerment. Voice of Women Project India

The pandemic saw a sharp increase in number of cases of domestic and other gender-based violence with police and courts all too often unable to respond to the needs of women from the most marginalised communities.

Over the year 2022/23 the project supported a total of 2,698 vulnerable women.

• The team collected information from 958 cases and out of these cases fact-finding was done in 641 cases.

• In 246 cases the team received consent and supported the survivors of violence. The survivors were provided various types of emergency support.

• In 126 cases the survivors received mental health and counseling support.

• In 27 cases, the survivors received compensation, totaling Rs.39,60,000 (£40,000). 96 cases went on trial. In 2 cases, the accused were convicted.

• 38 Community Based Organisations (CBOS) and 32 SHGs were formed in this reporting period.

• 258 paralegal volunteers were identified in various communities across the 12 project area districts.

Thank you for your continued support in helping us to maintaining this essential work for these communities as the continue to recover from the devistating effects of the Pandemic.