From building a biogas plant to eliminating illiteracy among girls — the top Social Stories of the week
This week, SocialStory saw the stories and initiatives of hard-working individuals who want to make a difference in their own and others’ lives.
Vimalaben Dabhi, a farmer in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, installed a small biogas plant on her land, which also produces 30 kg of slurry per month from the organic waste that is fed into the plant.
The Josh Foundation is working to help children who have hearing loss with hearing aids. Meanwhile, Sakhiyon Ki Baadi — an initiative by IIFL Foundation — is working to eliminate illiteracy among girls in Rajasthan,
Insectifii, on the other hand, is working to find an alternative to animal feed with sustainable insect protein made with the Black Soldier Fly Larvae.
Here are the top Social Stories of the week:
This vegetable farmer from Gujarat built a biogas plant on her small farm to increase her crop output
Vimalaben Dabhi is one of the many farmers with small land-holdings in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district. The family earns a living growing lime, bajra (pearl millet), vegetables, and rearing livestock. One of the biggest challenges she faced was collecting firewood for cooking.
She heard about the advantages of using biogas when she attended an awareness meeting at Utthan — an Ahmedabad-based NGO — along with members of her self-help group (SHG). She decided to build a small biogas plant on her land and started getting all the necessary approvals.
In November 2019, the unit installation was completed, which produces 30 kg of slurry per month from the organic waste that is fed into the plant. Vimalaben uses this as organic fertiliser on her plot.
How Josh Foundation is working to create inclusion of children with hearing impairment
According to the World Health Organisation, about 6.3 percent of India’s population, i.e., about 63 million people suffer from hearing impairment. But audiologist and speech therapist Devangi Dalal believes this number can come down if we create more awareness.
In her 30+ years of experience, Devangi shares she has never come across a single child whose hearing loss cannot be treated. She says they may have at least 5-10 percent hearing, based on which they can be supported with hearing aids.
To cure hearing impairment in children and bring in inclusion at a large scale, Devangi Dalal and Dr Jayant Gandhi, an ENT surgeon, started Josh Foundation in 2014. The Mumbai-based organisation supports and assists children who have hearing problems.
Meet the startup addressing environmental concerns caused by animal feed production
Over the years, India’s forest cover has reduced significantly because of crop plantations and commercial purposes. This has resulted in wide-scale deforestation, gradual depletion of the nutrition of the soil, and increased erosion, resulting in the overall increase of the carbon footprint.
In fact, forests are also cleared to grow animal fodder crops like corn and soybean.
Narendra Pasuparthy, Founder and CEO of Nandu’s — an omnichannel meat retail brand — says about 85 percent of the world’s soybean crop — a resource-intensive crop — is used as animal fodder.
To tackle this problem, Narendra, along with Mitali Poovayya, founded Insectifii in 2019 to replace soy protein with insect protein. Insectifii makes insect protein with the help of the remnant organic food surplus from the kitchens, food processing units, etc.
How IIFL Foundation’s Sakhiyon Ki Baadi is eliminating illiteracy among girls in Rajasthan
Rajasthan has the lowest female literacy rate at 57.12 percent, owing to poverty, illiterate parents, inaccessibility to a school, and taking care of family and cattle.
“Being from Rajasthan, I always wanted to do something about the situation, and thus we launched Sakhiyon Ki Baadi as a platform to help girls attain literacy and access to a wider world of opportunities,” says Madhu Jain, Director, IIFL Foundation – Sakhiyon Ki Baadi.
The phrase ‘Sakhiyon Ki Baadi’ literally translates to a gathering place for female friends in the local dialect of Mewari.
Founded in 2016, SKB is active in about 12 districts of Rajasthan, including Udaipur, Rajsamand, Pratapgarh, Banswara, Dungarpur, Sirohi, Bali, Pali, Jalore, Bhilwara, Jodhpur, and Ajmer.
How Tech4Good Community is helping 600 NGOs scale through curated tools and solutions
Online Tech Training Engagement Resource (OTTER), developed by Tech4Good Community, is a social change initiative that offers NGOs access to tools and mentorship from companies like Google, Salesforce, Atlassian, GiveIndia, and Razorpay. Tech4Good Community was incubated by The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation.
The first step for the Tech4Good team was, therefore, to create awareness among the NGOs working on the ground, and increasing their access to these tools. The team also reached out to software companies to offer mentorship or access to their products and overall tech solutions.
Edited by Suman Singh