During my time in India with CRED Partner FIAM (Faith in Action Ministries), I was able to catch up to some degree with all of the programmes that they have on their books. The big two for them at the current time are St Joseph’s school which I have blogged about elsewhere, and church planting with associated church leader training.
But that does not mean that the other smaller projects have been forgotten, and it was lovely to be able to visit all of them.
The elderly community that they support comprises 18 older members of society who would otherwise be living alone and abandoned by their wider family. Instead, these 18, along with another 12 who are supported by a partner source of funding, live together under the one roof, sharing meals, conversations, group activities, and just enjoying living out their dotage with others. The lifestyle is simple, but it is communal, and basic daily needs are met, as well as spiritual and emotional support.
In a similar vein, the community of individuals who have had leprosy is another example of simple but supportive cooperative living. In this community, each of the members has some degree of physical limitation due to the affect of leprosy, mainly seen on fingers and or toes. However they are all living independently within the community, and have their own rooms including space to cook alone if they prefer. Communal cooking also takes place, as arranged between themselves, and there is a central ‘day room’ for group activities, including their weekly church service.
Two things stood out in particular to me on this visit. First was the joyous and enthusiastic welcome that I got. I had been to the community about 10 – 12 years back, and remember sitting with the residents and taking part in some singing and very simple conversations (due to lack of language overlap). On this visit, the residents remembered me from back then, and so welcomed me like an old friend – very special. The second thing was the location – I had forgotten that this little haven is situated right next to a rubbish heap. This in part due to the stigma associated with leprosy, and so the local authority weren’t willing to give any prime land for use by the residents. Instead, they got a piece of land that, back in the day, was near to a small piece of wasteland. Now, that wasteland is covered with waste – making it smelly, fly-ridden, and generally not very nice to be near. It’s a sad reminder of how these beautiful people are viewed by the wider society, and I give thanks to God that FIAM are demonstrating an alternative way of viewing and interacting with them – as beloved children of God.
The third project that I visited is the goat farm, or should I say goat sub-farm. FIAM currently own over 400 goats and have been gradually building this number over the years. The goats are all traditional breed, and spread between 7 farming families who are given a small salary for looking after a group of the goats in an organic and humane way. The prime age for selling a goat is between 1 and 2 years old, and the prime time for selling a goat is wedding season, because the main use of goats in India is for meat rather than for milk. So, selling goats at times of celebration is the way to go, and by having the goats split across 7 locations, not only is there less pressure for a big piece of grazing land, but there is also an increased reach out to families who are celebrating in some way. The goat project is primarily seen as an income generation scheme for FIAM, and their aim is to increase to 1000 goats in total which will provide an ongoing level of income to support some of their other programmes.
Another income generator that FIAM has set up is their compost business. A generous landowner had some farm buildings that he no longer wanted to use, and these buildings had a bunch of very long compost making troughs in them. FIAM now rents the buildings at a low cost and has set up an organic compost business. They employ a cooperative of 10 families, and between them, these families collect buffalo and cow manure from neighbouring areas (and trust me, there are a lot of cows and buffalo in this area, so that’s a lot of manure available!), bring it to the site, load it into the troughs, water the manure, add the worms, and generally tend to it for a month until ready to sell. The manure is really good quality stuff, is much liked by the farmers (especially those who are working big fields of crops) and it fetches a very good rate. The families get a good and reliable salary from the work, and all the profit goes towards the cost of some of the other FIAM projects.
Talking of income generation schemes, one other project of FIAM that is going well, but that I wasn’t able to visit an example of is the small business programme. This programme is a bit more ad-hoc but still very effective, and is essentially a micro-loan scheme whereby FIAM gives seed money as appropriate to help a family start a new business or boost an existing one. In so doing, the family, who will have been identified by church and community leaders as suitable for a loan will be enabled to climb out of a precarious financial situation. Sometimes the new business is to help grow a tiny little endeavour into something that makes money – eg progress from selling a few home-grown products at the side of the road, to having a handcart that allows them to reach more customers. Sometimes the new business replaces a previous form of income generation that failed through no fault of their own. This is often the case with farming, and the seed money can help the farmer begin a new line of farming so that not all the focus is on one endeavour. Once the small business is bringing in some income, the family start making contributions to repay the loan, and so replenish the pot to allow another family to be helped. So far in this way, FIAM have supported 276 families, and all are now in a much better financial place than they were.
It's been such a joy and delight to visit all of these FIAM projects over the past few days, and I am very grateful to Janaki and the team for showing me round. Creativity, community, hope and resilience are 4 words that sum up the visits, all underpinned by an unwavering degree of faith in God. A very good recipe for life!
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