5.  OTHER COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
5a) Vrddhashramam – Shelter for Elderly

    Perhaps the most humble and most beautiful of all the programs in Srikakulam is the small initiative in solidarity with the elderly, especially those widowed and living alone who, as per our surveys, are the poorest of the poor.  They can no longer do even daily wage labour that had sustained their hand-to-mouth survival when they were younger.  

    While working to address this, AID-India started to provide lunch to elderly in Kotipalli by renting an unfinished  one-room house for Rs. 80 / month.   The 10-15 elders maintain a sense of independence, preparing their own meals at the shelter using grains, oil and vegetables donated by the village community and well wishers.   Ashrappa, an elderly woman leads the work.  This has run for the past two years, and the elderly look forward with pride to gathering every day.  AID India has also provided shawls and blankets during the winter.  

Every month, AID India workers go door to door appealing for donations to old-age home.  People may donate rice, legumes, vegetables, spices / tamarind, oil, clothing or money.

    In order to reinforce the traditional practice of collecting bhiksha or support  for the elderly, and taking care not to replace it by an external solution that cannot be sustained, AID India volunteers go door to door every month collecting donations for the shelter.  By and large, these are sufficient and if needed, AID India supplements to a small extent.
    
    In 2007, we started a second old-age lunch shelter at Dallavalasa village.  Seeing the value of our efforts, a church group offered to provide  meals to the elderly, with plans to build a house for this purpose.  As people opted to join the program run by the church, AID India stopped its program in Dallavalasa at the end of  2008.

Senior Citizen pensions:  In 2007, the Andhra government increased senior citizen pensions from Rs. 75 / month to Rs. 200 / month.  These are available for one senior citizen per rural family.  Seeing that several families, and in particular widows were not receiving these pensions, we submitted lists and secured them.

5b) Women's Groups

    Our Srikakulam effort started with women's thrift groups.   These groups currently have balances of a few lakhs each, and run independently of AID-India.   Occasionally they seek advice from AID India volunteers for settling any disputes that may arise.  Several other women's groups have also been started independently by village women and local government staff.

5c) Water

    Since the late 1990s and early 2000s have seen several drought years, we began to survey groundwater levels in 2006 with an idea to initiate rainwater harvesting and watershed development as needed.  However, since 2006, our surveys have indicated that groundwater levels are quite high owing to good rainfall in recent years.  The data will be useful in future, and we are continuing to measure the levels.  

    The NREGA works in these mandals in 2008 have largely involved desiltation of village ponds.  If maintained effectively, the ponds are likely to mitigate effects of drought that may occur in the future.