Saura Report

India Impact Update WHEN NO ONE NOTICED THEM, YOU DID!

Focusing on the Saura People of O D I S H A , E A S T I N D I A1

Project Overview Thank you for supporting one of India’s most vulnerable jungle tribes, the Saura people.

This tribal group lives in isolated terrain, hidden in the mountains and connected by steep winding paths. Their far distance from the urban centres has caused social isolation and limited the tribes access to social services.

The government ignores them, and other development organizations are not present. They suffer from chronic poverty, debt, high illiteracy and poor health due to poor nutrition. Two seasons of poor crop growth had left the Saura people desperate. With a changing climate, they now have 8 months of drought, followed by 4 months of torrential rains. Then last year they were hit by Super Cyclone Amphan in May 2020.

It was the strongest storm recorded in the Bay of Bengal since 1999, with wind speeds of up to 270 kilometres per hour. Over 33.6 million people in India and 5.3 million people in Bangladesh were affected by the storm.

The Saura people were heavily impacted, yet the disaster barely made international news and help was limited. A local pastor told us, “thousands of mud huts have been levelled, trees uprooted, roads washed away and crops destroyed”

When no one else noticed them - YOU DID! Here is the impact you made!

Beneficiaries

Your support has helped the most vulnerable:

Single Mothers

Child-headed Housholds

Elderly-headed Housholds

People with Disabilities 2

Local Church is Catalyst For Change The local Church is truly following Jesus to where the need is greatest within their own communities. In the last 30 years, the number of Saura believers has multiplied from 2,000 to over 200,000 - literally one hundred fold with over 60% of the population professing their faith in Christ! Spiritual needs were being met, but physical needs were not.

Since 2017, we have been working with local churches to meet the Saura people’s intense physical needs – regardless of caste or religion. We provided training to help the most vulnerable grow more food, helping Saura families break free from the curse of poverty. The results are very encouraging as local pastors become a catalyst for change in their communities.

Your Support Has...

• Provided training for 515 farmers on new agriculture techniques to increase their yields.

• Trained farmers to plant cashew trees on hillsides as a new cash crop and as a means of preventing soil erosion.

• Provided new seeds to replace crops lost to typhoons.

• Trained 61 Village Savings Groups (averaging 18 members per group) marketing skills to sell their produce and cashews in local towns. 1,098 villagers have received basic numeracy training and have been empowered economically through these groups.

• Equipped pastors and churches to continue providing spiritual, social and physical support to the most vulnerable in their communities.

• Improved the diets of 2,446 people.

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Madhu’s Story: Life-Transforming Agriculture Techniques Madhu Arika is a 35-year-old farmer from the village of Kangmanguda, a district in rural India. Madhu’s home is busy and full, with his wife Shanti, their son and parents all living in one home. Together they farm 1.5 acres of sloping land. Farming becomes problematic when heavy rains come, which completely wipe out their crops. The large rocks in the soil make future planting seasons even more of a struggle.

Before attending Tearfund’s training, Madhu’s agriculture yield was not substantial enough to feed his family for over a year. As a result, Madhu had to supplement their income with side jobs that took him far from home.

Madhu was eager to participate in Tearfund’s agriculture training. He learned how to dig trenches and ditches to help prevent the rains from washing away all his hard work. Next, he put his training into practice by using a technique called inter-cropping. This farming technique adds various crops together in one field, to encourage biodiverse nutrients and prevent soil erosion. Madhu planted teak wood, cashew, coconut and banana trees while also growing pigeon peas. To protect his crops during the growing season, he received training on natural remedies for crop pests.

Here are the before and after photos from Madhu’s field, as he sends his heartfelt thanks to all the Tearfund partners who made this happen.

BEFORE

AFTER 4

Nagu’s Story: Vegetables Changed My Life Mr. Nagu Patika is a 35-year-old farmer from Morma village in the hills of Southern Odisha, India. He lives with his wife, three sons and brother. Nagu has 2 acres of land that he has traditionally used to grow rice.

Before Tearfund’s training facilitated by the local Methodist church, Nagu shares the following: “I used to think that I could only use the land to cultivate rice and cotton; I did not know that I could also use the land to grow vegetables.”

Inspired by the training, Mr. Nagu bought vegetable seeds and devoted 100 square meters to test this new idea.

When the COVID-19 pandemic escalated in March 2020, India’s Government enforced a national lockdown, and all activities became suspended. Despite this setback, Nagu began to see the fruits of his efforts. The yield from his vegetable crops fed his entire family! He even had surplus cowpea to sell in the local market.

Nagu tells us of how Covid-19 has changed his outlook on providing for his family: “Before learning how to grow my own vegetables, I would spend more than half of my income purchasing these same vegetables at the market. Covid-19 has made the inflation of food prices even worse.”

He added, “Now, I can grow my own vegetables to feed my family and have enough left to sell.

This extra income helps me save for our family’s well-being in future times of crisis.”

‘I fail to understand why I was not farming like this earlier, despite having the land. I am thankful for all the training and encouragement Tearfund has provided to my family and me.’

-Nagu Patika 5

Looking Forward • The younger generation is highly motivated to obtain a formal education.

• Farmers have realized they can grow more than just rice and cotton; they are expanding their knowledge of vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and chilies for personal consumption and for sale.

• Farmers have learned how to grow mango and cashew trees as additional cash crops.

• These new varieties of crops are providing families of the Saura tribe with new income-generating opportunities.

• In 2020, India has been hard-struck by Covid-19. The government enforced a lock-down that limited savings and business opportunities. Thankfully, members of Tearfund’s Self Help Savings groups already had savings available for these lean times.

EFICOR (Evangelical Fellowship of India Committee on Relief) is Tearfund’s Implementing Partner in India and our oldest partner having worked together for over 43 years.

EFICOR is our strongest local church partner and have trained a volunteer army of over 4,000 with a high capacity to lead for emergency relief, development, learning and advocacy.

Your donation has brought the Saura people the urgent life-saving training needed to survive this global pandemic. When no one else was willing to look upon the needs of this marginalized people group, YOU DID!

THANK YOU! For more information, you can contact:

Don Miller

Wayne Johnson

Roshani Morton

Church Relations Director

Executive Director & CEO

Partnership Director

613-371-6246 dmiller@tearfund.ca

416-707-9066 wjohnson@tearfund.ca

905-415-8181 ext. 203 rmorton@tearfund.ca

tearfund.ca

PO Box 3220 Stn Industrial Park, Markham ON, L3R 9Z9 Canada T (905) 415-8181 E contact@tearfund.ca /tearfundcanada Registered Charity No. 10822 2191 RR0001

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