Navajyothi (Kerala)

The journey of our first self help group fully funded by TGG Foundation started in late 2015 with the participation of 3 women from the farming community in Wayanad assuming collective responsibility. They started their livelihood creation with a stitching unit and a farm under organic conversion with the financial support and guidance extended by TGG Foundation with a minimum wage support and free lunch. On I st April 2017 the first self help group of women was constituted with a 5 member team registered with TGG Foundation and the group was named as “Navajyothi (Kerala)”. Subsequently necessary licenses and permissions were taken to start various revenue generating activities. After hand-holding for over a period of 36 months, the SHG was put on a self sustainable mode and the trust focused on creating new revenue vertical to provide better income and more livelihood opportunities, however due to poor team work, lack of commitment and vision, excess of expenditure over income and mismanagement, the operations suffered resulting into the dropout of the team which was followed by the resignation of the Group Head. Subsequently Navajyothi (Kerala) was taken over by Sushama Harikumar who was the Financial Coordinator of the group managing the activities of The Green Gardens Farm. As part of the troubleshooting exercise carried out by TGG Foundation, recommendations were made to amend Navajyothi (Kerala) by-law to make it more responsible and accountable and the amended by-law was approved by TGG Foundation, Sushama is made the permanent Group Head of Navajyothi (Kerala) under TGG Livelihood Mission with full time work opportunity. The code of conducts are monitored by the Ethics committee of TGG Foundation. This reform has ensured greater accountability, responsibility and sustainability. She has now engaged more women members on minimum support wages based on the work flow. The women’s group now produces an exclusive variety of Chemical Free, hand crafted food items (most of them are LIMITED EDITIONS due to the fact that it comes from one single garden which is organically certified).