Kudumbashree Mission's Arts Festival 'Arangu' will be held at Palakkad from 1-3 November 2019. Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister, Local Self Government Department, Government of Kerala will inaugurate the festival at Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad on 1 November 2019. The Arts festival is organised by Kudumbashree Mission in association with Local Self Government Department. More than 2000 Kudumbashree women would take part in the procession which is proposed to be held prior to the inaugural function.

The three day Arts Festival will take place at the 6 venues named Karuthamma (Govt. Victoria, Palakkad), Indulekha (Govt. Moyans LP School, Palakkad), Suhara (Fine Arts Society, Palakkad), Nanimistress (Govt. Victoria College Auditorium, Palakkad), Sumithra (Govt. Victoria College Auditorium, Palakkad), Chemmarathi (Govt. Victoria College Ground, Palakkad). 1904 women from 14 districts across the state will take part in 34 competition items. The competitions are arranged in Junior and Senior sections. Those within the age limit 18-35 would come under the junior section and those above 35 years would be considered in the Senior section. Light Music, Fancy Dress, Mappila Pattu, Mono Act, Folk Dance, Mimicry, Elocution, Recitation, Drawing (Pencil), Poetry Writing, Drawing (Water Colour), Story Writing, Cartoon, Collage, Kathaprasangam, Group Song, Group Dance, Folk Song, Drama, Oppana, Margamkali, Thiruvathira, Skit, Mime and Shinkarimelam are the 34 competition items in which the women would compete with each other.

A competition was held for designing the logo for Arangu Arts Festival. The logo designed by Shri. Muhammed Safuvan, Student of Azharul Uloom Islamic College, Aluva, Ernakulam was selected as the logo of Arangu Arts Festival from the 13 entries received during the competition.The logo was designed incorporating the ideas of Freedom, Equality and Participation. The Arts Festival would be an opportunity for the women to present their artistic talents before the society.

Kudumbashree Mission celebrated International Rural Women's Day. Different CDSs in the state celebrated International Rural Women's Day organizing various programmes. Awareness classes, felicitations for the women who have proved their strengths in various sectors etc were organised in connection with this. The United Nations has dedicated October 15 as the International Day of Rural Women. Starting from agriculture to food security, nutrition, land and natural resource management, domestic care and work, rural women are at the forefront and are taking charge. 'Rural Women and Girls Building Climate Resistance' is the theme for this year.

Kudumbashree Kannur District Mission organised Moovandan Fest in the district. The programme aimed at producing value added products from mango, ensure better market for it, which would help the Joint Liability Group members and other agro entrepreneurs earn better income of their own. The Mango fest was organised at Thaliparambu Town Square, Kannur. 

The programme was organised by collecting mangoes from the Kuttyatoor CDS, Mayyil CDS, Malappattam CDS, Ulikkal CDS, Udayagiri CDS, Pariyaram CDS, Thaliparamba CDS, Cherupuzha CDS, Eramam Kuttoor CDS, Payyanur CDS, Ezhom CDS,  Kannapuram CDS and Cherukunnu CDS.  More than 70 value added products were produced viz., Mango Halwa, Mango Ice, Mango Dosa, Mango Samosa, Mango Masala, Mango Sauce, Mango Idli, Mango Chappathi, Mango Cake, Raw Mango Juice etc. In addition to this, Women Agro Meet, Agro Seminar, Open Agro Quiz, poetry competition for Balasabha students and District Mission officials were also conducted. By organising Mango Fest, they could help the women find a better market for their agro products.

Kudumbashree's international partnership with Azerbaijan is making fruitful results. During 2017, Azerbaijan Rural Investment Project (AZRIP) team visited India to study various models of livelihood promotion for women groups as they wanted to start a pilot project of ‘women’s activity group formation’ for inclusive economic empowerment. After ascertaining that the ‘Kudumbashree model’ of livelihood promotion and women empowerment has the larger scope of convergence in their country, they invited Kudumbashree Mission to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan Rural Investment Project (AZRIP) is a world bank supported project being implemented in Azerbaijan from 2005 (in various phases). The project aims at developing the basic infrastructure in the rural areas. Further project envisages development of economic activities and livelihood programmes.

Shri. Sebastian Molineus, Regional Director, World Bank had shared a note through his twitter handle after visiting Massaly of Azerbaijan which itself could be considered a measure of the success of the project. (Twitter Post)

During 2018, a four member team from Kudumbashree went to Azerbaijan for the initial scoping study and to provide a 10 day training. Kudumbashree aimed at training the master trainees of AZRIP project, who in turn will train the interested women entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan. Kudumbashree's team visited different places in Azerbaijan including Separadi in Massaly, Chakrili in Lankaran and Gysa in Balakan and understood the field reality and needs and framed the training as per requirement. The master trainee team were given classes on ‘Kudumbashree Model’, Neighbourhood groups, activity groups, livelihood promotion methods and on women empowerment activities. 16 people including the community mobilisers of AZRIP project and livelihood specialists took part in the workshop as master trainees. During the time of initial training itself, 56 women came forward to form 4 Activity Groups. As of now, with the participation of 468 women, 38 enterprise units had already been started in Massaly of Azerbaijan. They are coordinating more than 100 business projects. The success of this project, which is being implemented with the support of World Bank is also the success of the international interventions of Kudumbashree.

It is a moment of pride for Kudumbashree that our team is capable of framing a training programme at any place in the world after assessing the country’s requirements and are able to provide the required assistance/ support/ knowledge to ensure continuity and growth. The Azerbaijan Rural Women's Association’ is the network of ‘Women Development and Enterprise Groups’ in the country. When they bagged an award from Government of Azerbaijan for their activities, Kudumbashree's contribution was also mentioned.

Snehitha @ School is a special initiative programme of Snehitha Gender Help Desk was launched. The programme  was inaugurated by Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister, Local Self Government Department, Government of Kerala at the function held at Government Higher Secondary School, Puthuveli, Kottayam on 4 October 2019.

The programme was piloted in 3 schools in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. It was on finding the programme to be successful that the same was extended to all other districts. It was started to extend the services of Snehitha to the adolescent students in the district, to help them to ventilate their personal, behavioral, family and learning issues. From the cases reported at the Snehitha Centres, it was understood that the violence against the children and their issues should be addressed. And it was understood that there exist the need of personality development training and gender development activities among the children. Snehitha would act as a 'friend' to the students. The support of the legal clinics functioning at the Snehitha Centres would also be made use of at the 'Snehitha @ School' programme.  The service of Snehitha counsellor will be made available in the school, which would benefit the teachers, students and parents. Also, the services of Snehitha @ School would be available at the school if any emergency comes.

Kudumbashree mission launched E-Nest for the geo-tagging the 43 lakh Kudumbashree families which would smoothen the Micro Plan preparation from the grass root level. The programme was inaugurated by Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister, Local Self Government Department, Government of Kerala at the function held at Chaithanya Pastoral Centre Auditorium, Thellakom, Kottayam on 4 October 2019.

The programme aims at identifying the needs of the families with the help of Geographic Information System. On understanding the needs of the each families, plans would be prepared and compiled bin the ADS level and in the CDS level and would be included in the priority project lists of Local Self Government Institutions and Kudumbashree. The survey for the programme would be started soon.The data received would be checked by the officials and plans would be prepared in NHG level, ADS level and CDS level.

Social Development Plan, Livelihood Plan, Livelihood Plan, Basic Development Plan and Resource plan would be prepared in the NHG level. The micro plans of the NHGs would be compiled in the ADS level and the ADS plans are prepared. In the CDS level, the ADS plans in the area is compiled and is submitted to the Local Self Government Institutions. From the suggestions received from the CDS level would be compiled in the district level and would be submitted to the district/ block panchayaths. The need analysis would be carried out in the district level and the Kudumbashree District Missions would submit it to the Kudumbashree State Mission. Based on this, Kudumbashree would modify the future projects for the families. Kudumbashree had already been implementing the projects like Yuvashree, Prathyasha, Destitute Free Kerala, Snehitha calling Bell, Special NHGs etc. E-nest would help smoothen the Micro Plan preparation from the grass root level.

Mother Kitchen from North Paravur started supplying food in steel boxes to Kochi Metro Rail Limited. They had tied up with Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) for supplying homely food in steel boxes to the employees of Kochi Metro. The freshly prepared homely food is packed in steel boxes (dabbas) and are distributed to the employees of Kochi Metro. The food is served by the Mothers Kitchen functioning at North Paravur which functions under the North Paravur CDS of Ernakulam district.The Mothers Kitchen was set up as part of the Self Employment Programme Component of National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM). Kudumbashree Mission is the nodal agency for implementing the centrally designed programme, National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) in Kerala. The Mothers Kitchen functions under North Paravur City Mission Management Unit.

The dabba system stands out unique that only Rs 40 is charged per meal which includes rice with sambar etc including fish curry. The steel boxes are later collected and are brought back to the Mothers Kitchen. The unit is now distributing food in 100 dabbas now. They are making an income of Rs The members of the unit makes around Rs 8000 as monthly income.

Kochi Metro is maintained environment friendly. The dabbawala system was implemented to discourage the employees from bringing food in plastic containers and with the launch of the dabbawala system, there has been a decrease of plastic waste across all the metro stations. The Mothers Kitchen is also serving food to the Metro canteen.

Kudumbashree was felicitated with the 'Changemaker' Award by Save the Children, a global non-profit organisation and is India's leading independent child rights NGO. Smt. Amrida G.S., Programme Officer, Kudumabshree Mission received the award from Shri. Rajinder Pawar, Board Member, Save The Children at the National Summit held at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 30 September 2019.

'Save the Children' run programmes in the remotest corners of India and urban areas to provide quality education and healthcare, protection from harm and abuse and life-saving aid during emergencies to children. In 2019, they complete their 100 years of impact globally and 10 remarkable years in India. They had organized 'The Right Start'-an initiative to bring the focus on celebrating and safeguarding the early years of children and ensuring they are future-ready and step up their work on critical themes of under nutrition, pneumonia, school readiness and violence against children for the most marginalized as those areas can be the biggest enablers or barriers towards a child’s development. And as part of The Right Start, they are organized 6 consultative state children’s summits that culminated with a national-level summit in Delhi where children from all states are brought together along with National level functionaries from the Government, Donors, UN Agencies, Civil Society, media etc.
Kudumbashree would be formally acknowledged and would be felicitated you as a 'Changemaker' in the presence of our board and key stakeholders at the function for the interventions of Kudumbashree for the welfare of the children in Kerala.

Kudumbashree Women Construction Groups have been appreciated by Ramoji Group for their time bound approach in completing the construction of the houses using the CSR Fund of Ramoji Film City. Kudumbashree had received appreciation letter from Shri. Ramoji Rao, Chairman, Ramoji Group appreciating Kudumbashree Women Construction Groups for constructing the houses with the stipulated specifications. He said that the time bound approach of Kudumbashree women construction groups has helped them complete the project within the time frame. He also added that they are greatly satisfied by the work of Kudumbashree Construction Groups and shared their immense pleasure to recommend the services of the groups in similar projects.

Kudumbashree had received Ramoji Film City's CSR fund for constructing 121 houses in the flood affected areas of Alappuzha district of Kerala. Ramoji film city, the world’s largest integrated film city and India's only thematic holiday destination had offered Rs 7 crores for building houses for the people in the flood hit areas of Alappuzha. It is as per the request of Shri. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, Government of Kerala that Ramoji Film City came forward with the CSR fund for constructing the houses in Alappuzha. As per the agreement, a total of 121 houses are being constructed in the district. Construction of each house cost around Rs 6 lakhs. The agreement regarding the same was signed at the function held at Camelot Convention Centre, Pathirappally, Alappuzha on 1 March 2019 in the presence of Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister for Local Self Governments, Government of Kerala and Dr T.M Thomas Issac, Minister of Finance and Coir, Government of Kerala. Kudumbashree Mission had identified the beneficiaries and forwarded the list to the CSR committee of Ramoji Film City. The project was implemented in three phases.

Kudumbashree would be felicitated with the 'Changemaker' Award by Save the Children, a global non-profit organisation and is India's leading independent child rights NGO. The award would be given away at the National Summit proposed to be held at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 30 September 2019.

'Save the Children' run programmes in the remotest corners of India and urban areas to provide quality education and healthcare, protection from harm and abuse and life-saving aid during emergencies to children. In 2019, they complete their 100 years of impact globally and 10 remarkable years in India. They had organized 'The Right Start'-an initiative to bring the focus on celebrating and safeguarding the early years of children and ensuring they are future-ready and step up their work on critical themes of under nutrition, pneumonia, school readiness and violence against children for the most marginalized as those areas can be the biggest enablers or barriers towards a child’s development. And as part of The Right Start, they are organized 6 consultative state children’s summits that culminated with a national-level summit in Delhi where children from all states are brought together along with National level functionaries from the Government, Donors, UN Agencies, Civil Society, media etc.

Kudumbashree would be formally acknowledged and would be felicitated you as a 'Changemaker' in the presence of our board and key stakeholders at the function for the interventions of Kudumbashree for the welfare of the children in Kerala.