
Building a farm to provide livelihood support to women headed families and to provide employment opportunities
Groundnut, cassava and corn grow well in Panchenai. Due to its proximity to the deep forest, Panchenai comes under frequent attack from wild elephants. People have sleepless nights and wild elephant chasing, as the elephants routinely attack this village in search of food. These attacks are causing severe damages, including loss of lives, physical injuries and psychological effects. Properties and crops are destroyed and damaged resulting in livelihood loss and severe financial burden on the villagers.
Building an integrated farm inside the elephant fence will be beneficial to the village in general and for the six families in particular. With the help of our generous donors, Anpuneri-Panchenai Village Development Society has started building an integrated farm in 9 acres of land to grow cattle and crops such as peanut, corn, cassava and other vegetables. The main activities involve cleaning the land using heavy equipment and labour, building the fence using barbed wire and locally available posts, preparing the land and building a hut. Three villagers were paid full time salaries and others were hired on temporary basis. Priority given to women who are the breadwinners of their family in employment in the integrated farm.
The following women headed families are going to get benefit of this farm:
Thampipillai Yoheswary with five children
Balasingam Vava with two children
Poopalapillai Selvarani with five children
Nallathamby Leelawathy with five children
Krishnapillai Komala with three children
Sivalingam Yoheswary with three children
The farm was financially supported mainly by the following Anpuneri donors:
Mr. Paul Dharsan
Mr. Kokul Kumaraswamy
Mrs. Ahila Ponnampalam
Mr. Sasitharan Sellathurai
Mr. Chadagopan Nadarajah
Mahajana College O/L 89 Friends in Canada and Mr. Arasan
Mr. and Mrs. Senthilnathan
Tamil Friends Circle from Thales
Anpuneri and the Village Development Society thank the above generous donors for their contribution for the village development project.