Martina Aphunn from Caritas Germany, the largest welfare association in Germany and one of the leading funding partners of Caritas India made her visit to the Caritas India Sabal programme supported by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Martina is recently appointed to look after the Caritas Germany and BMZ supported programmes implemented by Caritas India. This visit can be seen to develop a strong understanding and clarity about the Sabal programme. She was accompanied by Dr. Saju MK, Zone Manager – West and Mr. Dileesh Varghese, Manager – MEAL during the 3 days visit to Khandwa & Amravati districts.

Gram Sabha planning and preparation meeting in Kumharkheda with the Korku community helped the German delegate to develop her understanding of various developmental issues being raised by the community. She also learned how Sabal programme supports the community by creating awareness on community rights on Gram Sabha and facilitating in developing consensus on common community issues.

The community members on this occasion voluntarily shared the memorandums drafted on various issues for her. One of the senior persons of the community voluntarily told that marriages at a younger age are more susceptible to future causes of malnutrition. When ladies were asked about the diversified food intake, the majority raised their hands to vote for a nutrition garden setup.

Martina also took an opportunity to visit the various sustaining model of nutrition gardens set up by the collective members. She was happy to see how the ladies are voluntarily fencing and protecting the gardens with locally available resources. A malnourished child who has recently stepped down to normalcy demonstrated 7 steps of handwashing technique to Martina using the Sabal low-cost model of handwashing station. At Richdikheda, the Anganwadi worker showed her nutrition garden model developed with the support of Sabal and also shared how it is benefitting the children and mothers with fresh vegetables.

It was a good opportunity for Martina to visit the on-going voluntary work organized by the community members to develop various soil and water conservation structures. “We have witnessed the benefits of last year Sabal knowledge and work programme and now we are doing it on our own with the guidance of Sabal team”, shared one of the ladies from the village. 

She also visited the organic practicing farmers and had interacted about their experience of shifting from synthetic methods to purely organic methods of farming. One of the lead farmers of Sabal Mr. Laxman Batu Sawalkar, Duni village expressed that – “I have learned so much from Sabal about organic farming during the course of 3 years of programme that I have completely switched all my farmland to the poison-free zone. Today with the support of the Sabal team, I have a vermin bed, azola unit for my livestock and preliminary kit for the regular preparation of bio manure solutions.”

Another Sabal model farmer, Rajkumar from Inderakheda village shared – “Sabal has been instrumental in helping us save a lot of money which we used to invest in agricultural inputs. Now I can save that money for investing in more productive works”. The representative also had an opportunity to learn about various Korku forest uncultivated foods and herbs, various millet grains grown by the community and also Korku traditional assets at Khorda village.