India entered a state of total lockdown on Tuesday 24th of March for a period of 21 days. This is an unprecedented state of affairs for a country populated by over 1.3 billion with a poorly financed and inadequate health system and a low level of government infrastructure.

It is too early to tell what the priorities are and will be for the villages we support in Tamil Nadu but we are anticipating a great deal of extra hardship. We are in good contact with all three of our partner organisations and we are in the process of evaluating how best to use the funding we have at our disposal.

Fortunately, our partners are all well known in the villages they work with and by the local government officials. These relationships will be crucial in delivering services. They have experienced and well-respected staff who live in the villages and there are hundreds of well-established Women’s Self Help Groups as an additional resource. They are, therefore, very well placed not only to assess the needs of their clients but also be in a position to deliver aid and assistance.

We will be posting regular updates on this website and we do hope that you will feel able to continue your support. All of us here in the western world are going to experience some sort of hardship in the coming months but it is more than likely that our brothers and sisters in Tamil Nadu will fare much worse.

Thank you, Murray

Coronavirus update - Tamil Nadu