Vulnerable and poor children from tribal and Dalit communities of Melghat and Daryapur region of Amravati are taking hostel support at Nirmala Hostel run by R.C. Mission Kapustalani under Amravati Diocese of Maharashtra.

The region comes under the suicide belt due to the unimaginable rates of farmer suicide. It is mainly inhabited by the scheduled tribe with 90% belonging to the primitive Korku tribe.

Since fast few years, Catholic Church, Kapustalni, finding it extremely difficult to continue hostel program due to its poor financial situations. Established in 1907, the hostel depends on its agriculture land for the financial support to run the hostel and other expenses. Unfavorable weather and climate change play a greater role in agriculture production and many a time when the crop fails, the hostel is pushed to a very difficult financial constraint. The income from agriculture land is irregular and insufficient and the people are unable to support the institute to run the hostel.

The parents can hardly afford to pay the nominal monthly fee of Rs. 50/- to Rs.100/- for their children. The hostel does not get any Government support to run the tribal residential hostel where 125 boys and 100 girls are staying and pursuing their quality education.

Hostel’s Cooking cost with the gas cylinder is itself Rs. 73,920/- for the year, which was very high for the hostel to bear.

Caritas India through its Micro Project supported the Nirmala Hostel to install Gobar (Bio) Gas Plant with Dairy Farm meet the cost and also earn extra income to run the institution. The Bio-Gas is used for cooking food for children and dairy farm for producing milk for making some extra income to meet the hostel expenses etc.

Timely support from Caritas India not only helped the institution to save a huge sum of money from buying gas cylinders but also promote zero wood use in the kitchen and to enrich the quality of hostel agricultural field. Now, the hostel can smoothly run, and children are getting a quality education and get better positions, which can be a great support to their family.