Project Mission:

The Mission of the Project is to respond to climate change with the aid of adaptation and mitigation measures which facilitates

 Sustainable Ecological development resulting positive Climate Solutions  Rehabilitation of forest-dependent communities  Women Empowerment through Self-help groups

Green Village:

A Green Village is an eco-village built using natural and traditional building methods that facilitates sustainable environment .It is a sustainable eco restoration project aimed at providing climate solutions, enhancing forest cover and facilitating livelihood for rural poor women through Self Help Groups.

Objectives of the Project:

 To create a Green Village by conversion of a dry land into a fertile land  Eco-restoration/afforestation resulting in the development in forest and tree cover  To facilitate to generate forest-based livelihood income for Poor rural women  Improvement of Uncultivable lands into cultivable lands  Promote Agro Forestry and Social Forestry  Administration of public forest/ non-forests project area by the women self help groups  Promote Agriculture and forest-based livelihoods

About Welfare Trust:

The project is being run by Welfare Trust, a non-profit community development organization committed to strive for women rights and empowerment, ending violence and discrimination against women. It works to connect powerless women to knowledge and resources that can improve their lives. http://welfaretrust.blogspot.com/

The vision of the Organization:

A society where women face no injustice on gender basis and should be empowered to have education, better health, and economic independence; having proper awareness of their fundamental rights, have right to make decisions affecting their lives and strive for positive social change.

Introduction about Self Help Groups (SHGs):

Self help groups are the backbones of Indian Villages. They form an integral part of the Rural Indian village women empowerment scenario. SHGs are groups of rural women from families with poor economical background. It is a system where all members of a group come together to address problems and plan to utilize opportunities for their livelihood. This is a participatory decision making process which aims at overall development of the group members socially and financially.

Why Self Help Groups ( SHGs) are important?

It is a basic platform which results in  Increased social interaction  Collective bargaining  Quality input sourcing  Collective Solutions for Problems  Micro finance.  Mutual Support  Financial Empowerment  Social Status

Problem Definition:

• The Project area is generally accepted to be drought prone, where the rainfall is uncertain. The agricultural practices are traditional and exploit (use) the local available natural resources optimally. • The average rainfall is 500 mm per annum. The area is generally degraded and the common lands are often barren. The vegetative cover on the land has more or less disappeared. The area is declared as “grey” for ground water potential. • Very less sources for clean water and hence people live in water scarcity. • Unemployment and Poverty among the rural women • Lack of education and no sources for livelihood among women

Anticipated Benefits /Outcome of the Project:

 A Green Village – adaptation of a dry land and converting it into a Green land  Social Forestry involving local communities  Afforestation – Increasing Forest Cover  Free Supply of Tree Sapling to the community around  Ensuring clean drinking water for the village people  Agricultural Jobs for the Women in the community  Social and Economical Empowerment  Creating an Eco friendly Environment  Improved health of the community and improved living conditions and quality of life for children.  Income generation for Community development programmes through cultivation in the identified land thereby providing employment opportunities for agriculture and agro based programmes like dairy farming and thereby improving the living conditions of the rural poor women.

What are the products offered by the Project?  Planting Materials – Sapling (Tree Sapling, Herbal Shrubs Sapling, Vegetable Crops)  Mushrooms & Other Cultivable Products  Organic Farming & Bio/Organic Products (Bio-fertilizers, organic manures and bio-pesticides)  Trainings / Field visits

Location of the Project:

Alagapuri Colony, Alagapuri, Chinnamanur PO District : Theni, State : Tamilnadu, Country : India , Pin code :625515

Project Location – A Location analysis:

Alagapuri is a large village located in Uthamapalayam of Theni district, Tamil Nadu with total 1416 families residing. The Alagapuri village has population of 5184 of which 2595 are males while 2589 are females as per Population Census 2011. In Alagapuri village population of children with age 0-6 is 503 which makes up 9.70 % of total population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Alagapuri village is 998 which is higher than Tamil Nadu state average of 996. Child Sex Ratio for the Alagapuri as per census is 877, lower than Tamil Nadu average of 943. Alagapuri village has lower literacy rate compared to Tamil Nadu. In 2011, literacy rate of Alagapuri village was 68.08 % compared to 80.09 % of Tamil Nadu. In Alagapuri Male literacy stands at 78.60 % while female literacy rate was 57.69 %.

Conclusion: Green Village Project, an Eco-Village initiative is a sustainable eco restoration project aimed at providing climate solutions, enhancing forest cover, facilitating livelihood for rural poor women. The project definitely has a long term impact in developing the environment of the village and would definitely build the lives of the downtrodden people of the village. The project would multiply in terms of more Green villages in the Neighborhood with the means and income generated with this project. This project would be a seed project for many future projects in the days to come and would become a ladder to create more Green Villages.

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