Karnataka had to bear the brunt of one of the worst floods in August 2019. With villages and slums inundated, livestock killed, crops ruined, and houses and other community infrastructure damaged, the most vulnerable communities in the state needed urgent support. Together with our supporters, allies and volunteers, we reached out with relief material in the form of food kits, pressure cookers and solar lamps to the worst-affected families in Chikkamagaluru, Bagalkot and Belgaum districts, and distributed school bags, books and notebooks to several children.

As part of our long-term response, with support from Siemens India, we provided support for housing and livelihood regeneration to families who needed it the most. In consultation with communities, we identified the most vulnerable families needing support. We helped reconstruct and repair houses of a total of 118 families in Belgaum and Bagalkot districts; these houses had been damaged either wholly or partially as a result of the floods. Besides, our facilitation enabled 152 households to access the Government of Karnataka housing programme to the tune of Rs. 74 lakhs. Also, we provided goats, sheep and poultry as support for livelihood-rebuilding to 100 women from the marginalized Devadasi community in these districts.

In the wake of the pandemic outbreak last year, we had reached out with dry ration kits to 2,500 families in need in Belgaum and Bagalkot; these families are dependent on the informal economy and were the worst hit.