Six-year-old Payal and eight-year-old Anikini welcome you to Navsari. They were both very happy to have their photo taken for you. Taking photos is a rare occurrence for children like Payal and Anikini.So when ActionAid and Cohesion came to their village to take photos for their sponsors and this newsletter, there was much excitement!

Payal and Anikini rushed to get ready as they wanted to wear their best clothes. When a copy of this photo was shown to them, they were both delighted.

The children also had much fun creating their very fi rst messages for their sponsors. Payal said, “I never thought I would be able to do such beautiful drawings. The people from ActionAid showed me how to use water colours and potato shapes so I could make a lovely message for my sponsor.” Anikini added, “I learnt how to write the numbers 1 to 20 using coloured crayons. I want to learn more drawing skills as well as learning lots of other new things.”

We hope you enjoy receiving your messages and photos from your sponsored child as much as they enjoyed making them. Please turn to page 5 to learn how you can send messages and photos back.

Dear Sponsor,

A very warm welcome to this very fi rst update from Navsari, the area where the child you sponsor lives. ActionAid recently started working here in partnership with local organisation, Cohesion Foundation Trust.

In this update we would like to give you a glimpse into everyday life here in Navsari. We will share the challenges a typical family faces and highlight some of our immediate plans to address these challenges.

Community Newsletter April 2015

Child Sponsorship in Navsari, India

Child Sponsorship brings smiles and excitement!

Your support is very valuable to us and we are delighted that you are joining us on this journey to change the lives of tribal families living in Navsari.

Yours sincerely,

Rashmi ShettySponsorship CoordinatorActionAid India

Prince (right) and his friends are happy ActionAid has brought Child Sponsorship to their community

Payal and Anikini are very proud to be sponsored children for ActionAid and look forward to the changes Child

Sponsorship will bring

Send a messageAs well as the children enjoying the experience of writing and drawing messages for their sponsors they would love to receive messages from you. If you would like to send a message to your sponsored child then please send them to: ActionAid, 139 Richmond Road, Bangalore – 560025, Karnataka, India. Please include your supporter and child’s reference numbers on your message. Don’t worry if you can’t fi nd these numbers, if you call your UK Supporter Contact Team on 01460 23 8000 they will be happy to help.

How is your support going to change lives in Navsari?We have shared with you a snap shot of what it is like to live in Navsari. As you can see, children like Prince and their families, face many challenges in their everyday lives. But, thanks to your support, we can address these challenges and make lasting change.

With your support, children like Kajal Natubha Basta (9) will no longer have

to carry water long distances

Getting more girls to study beyond primary school is one of our main

aims

Karina (right) and her friend, Shrushti, do the Garba, a traditional Gujarati dance, to say

thank you!

More women will be able to raise livestock to improve household

incomes

We would like to see women reap their own rewards from their farming activities

Some of our immediate plans include:• Training people

on alternative livelihoods and promote sustainable agriculture

• Supporting families to access their right to land to grow their own crops and raise livestock

• Support women to be offi cially identifi ed as farmers so they can access government support and provide enough food for their families

• Promote women’s and children’s rights

• Raise awareness on the government employment scheme that provides 100 days of work to poor, rural families and support families to register and get work under the scheme

• Work with communities to demand from the government adequate water supplies for their villages

• Promote the Right to Education Act• Raise awareness on the importance of educating girls

beyond primary level• Train school management committees, teachers and

parents on their roles and responsibilities in educating children

• Support school management committees to request adequate numbers of teachers for their schools

Thank you!This is just the fi rst step on this journey together. We look forward to updating you in the near future on some of our achievements so far.In the meantime, on behalf of the child you sponsor, their family and community, thank you for taking this fi rst step with us.

Who are we working with in Navsari?

What’s it like to live in Navsari?

The peopleThe child you sponsor is a member of one of the tribal communities of Navsari. There are many tribal communities including the Kukana, Valvi, Dholiya Patel, Kolcha and Kotawalias. These tribal communities are the most marginalised and discriminated groups in Gujarat State, with the Kolcha and Kotawalia’s being the most marginalised of the tribal groups.

The partnerActionAid is working in partnership with local organisation, Cohesion Foundation Trust, who have been working in Navsari for six years. The focus of their work has been: education, livelihoods, health, child rights, natural resource development and rural development. With your support we will strengthen and develop these projects with further focus on women’s rights, water and sanitation and disaster preparedness.

A typical home in Navsari. Prince’s family live in a house very similar to this.

The Gavari family of Panikhadak village would like to share with you aspects of their day to give you an insight to life in this community.

The Gavari family are: Prince (7), his mum Rikaben, his dad Chhanabhai and sister Anjali (10). They are members of the Kotawalia community and, because they are the lowest of the tribal groups, they live in a small hamlet outside the main village.

Prince tells us about the start of his day. “I get up early in the morning. I brush my teeth and then drink some black tea. I cannot have milk with my tea as we do not have a cow and my mum can’t afford to buy any.

If there is any food left over from the night before, usually chapatti and rice, I will eat some of that. We very rarely eat any vegetables because we don’t have any land where we can grow them.

I then help my parents in their bamboo work. I do small things like cutting the bamboo and putting it into piles. I really enjoy doing this.”

Prince’s mum, Rikaben, tells us a little about how the family earn an income from bamboo. “As Kotawalias we are landless. And like most Kotawalias our livelihood is dependent on bamboo. We make different products from bamboo like topla [baskets] and sudpa [an item used for cleaning grains], which we sell at the local market.

We used to collect all the bamboo we needed from the forest but now there are restrictions by the forest department stopping us from collecting what we need. We have to buy the bamboo from the market which means we don’t make as much money when selling our fi nal products. This has made a huge impact on how my husband and I support our children. We struggle to provide them enough food or everything they need for school, which upsets me.”

Apart from making bamboo items, the main livelihood activity is farming. Most families do not own their own land so they work as day labourers on other people’s land. The main crops grown are paddy, vegetables such as cucumber, gourd, tomatoes and chilli and fruits such as mango, grapes and bananas.

Prince continues to tell us about his day, “After helping my mum and dad, I go to school. I am in class three and I attend school regularly. The school is about 1km from my house and takes me about ½ hour to walk there each morning. I really enjoy going to school but I wish we had more teachers to help us with our lessons.”

Like Prince, most children in Navsari go to school. As is typical of the area, the school is brick-built and there is a playground for children to play. The main challenge with schools in Navsari is the quality of education. There is a lack of teachers, meaning class sizes are large. Also girls are rarely encouraged to study beyond primary school.

Prince enjoys helping his parents make their traditional bamboo items

A typical way to earn a living Off to school we go

A typical classroom in Navsari. This is like the classroom Prince studies in.

Food is typically cooked over an open fi re. Maniben is cooking chapattis, a staple of most meals.

Women like Ambaben and Sumitraben, pictured here, do 80% of the farming work such as sowing, weeding, watering, harvesting, thrashing and storage of grains

Fetching water – an essential choreAfter school, Prince has some more chores and then time to play with his friends. “Water has to be fetched at least twice a day. When we are not at school, my sister and I help my mum to fetch water. We do not have a hand pump in our hamlet. We have to walk about 1km to the nearest pump in the main village. It takes about an hour each time to fetch enough water. It would be good if we had a hand pump nearer our home.”

The main sources of water in Navsari are boreholes with hand pumps, open wells and rivers. During the dry season water supplies are scarce and at all times the quality of the water is poor. Waterborne diseases like dengue fever, cholera and typhoid are common.

Prince concludes “After helping my mum fetch water, I help my dad again with his bamboo work. Then I play with my friends. We usually play games using bamboo sticks.

I am happy that ActionAid has come to work here. I loved taking part in the child message collection. The people from ActionAid and Cohesion gave us beautiful colours to draw with. I love drawing but had never had the chance to use such colours before. I drew a Chhota Bheem cartoon [Chhota Bheem is a famous Indian animated series] for my sponsor. I would love to study drawing and painting further as I get older.” Women fetching water from a hand pump