Kudumbashree launched ARISE (Acquiring Resilience and Identity through Self Employment), the state level campaign for extending skill training. The campaign was launched at Thiruvananthapuram on 15 December 2018. The poster of the ARISE campaign was launched by Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister for Local Self Governments, Government of Kerala by giving to Shri S. Harikishore IAS, Exective Director, Kudumbashree Mission. The campaign aims at extending skill training to 50,000 flood affected families, thereby equipping them for paid employment. The campaign mainly aims at helping them in attaining resilience.

Those who reside in the non flood affected areas can also become part of the skill training programme. The tenure of the training programme will be 3 months. Interested men from Kudumbashree families can also become part of the programme. Along with helping people to start individual-group enterprises the campaign also aims at strengthening the micro enterprise sector of Kudumbashree. A survey was conducted using Kudumbashree Block Coordinators for finding out the sectors in which NHG women are interested. It was found that data entry, plumping, electronic repairing, electrical works, agriculture related jobs, laundry, ironing, sales, housekeeping, day care etc are the sectors in which they are interested. It was understood that by extending training they could get an income of their own which would help in eradicating their poverty.

The campaign activities are started in all districts, As per this, those who register will be given skill training. Interested people may make registrations at their respective CDSs from 15 December 2018- 1 January 2019. The training will be conducted during 1 Jan 2019 to 31 March 2019. The skill training would be extended through Government accredited training agencies and empanelled training agencies.

Attappady Centre of Excellence was launched by Adv. M.B Rajesh MP at Vayaloor Ooru, Attappady, Palakkad on 15 December 2018. It is as part of the the Attappady Comprehensive Tribal Development and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group Development Project, National Rural Livelihoods Mission, Attappady that the Centre of Excellence is launched. It is named a 'Mechinappally' which means Centre of Excellence in tribal language.

Centre of Excellence is a community owned Training centre which is managed by the Oorusamithi and it offers services on all the activities of the Attappady Special Project, their culture, livelihoods, different projects run by different departments could be learned from Centre of Excellence. Trained Resource Persons in different themes such as education, institution building, social development, health, livelihood and other facilitators are from the community itself. One could learn the tribal culture, language, arts, administration in ooru, the history of the ooru etc and could be get trained on the themes of education, health, livelihood, social development, career counselling, MGNREGS, Panchayath Raj, planning process, life skills and other activities meant for the development of the community from the Centre of Excellence. Exhibitions on community kitchen, bridge course, traditional livelihoods, other livelihood options, bala gothra sabha, convergence activities with other departments, Functioning of the three tiered structure of Kudumbashree etc are also arranged at the Centre of Excellence.The Centre of Excellence would serve as model for knowing the tribal development of Kerala.

Kudumbashree Palakkad District Mission organised Thudi Tribal Cultural Fest splendidly. The one day tribal fest was organised at Malampuzha Grama Panchayath hall during November 2018. Shri. V. S Achuthananthan, MLA and Chairman of Administrative Reforms Commission inaugurated the programme. Shri. V. S Achuthananthan appreciated Kudumbashree Mission for organizing such a mega event, which involved participants from different tribal hamlets. The programme envisaged the upliftment of tribal community to the main stream by empowering their cultural art forms, livelihood activities, ethnic food culture and hand craft products etc. Around 500 tribal Kudumbashree members and their families participated in the function.

Tribal folk play, Kaadar Nritham, Malayar Adivasi dance, Urula Dance and Kottum Muravum Kuzhalum etc was presented at the Tribal Arts Fest.The tribe folk play holds a vital role in transmitting the history, cultural traditions, and the way of living to new generations. Tribal songs and dances are the main media by which transmission is done. Kaadar Nritham is one of the common tribal dance forms of Kerala where only women participate. The performers arrange themselves in a semicircle during the performance. This dance form is popular among the Kadar tribe and is a primitive form. It is simple but a very elegant dance form. The food fest aimed at the promotion of tribal foods and their traditions. Three groups participated and exhibited their traditional cuisines. Main attractions of the food fest were mulayari puttu, mulayari payasam, kasthuri manjal payasam,ragi kali, cholam kali, njandu kari, kappa puzhungiyathum naadan kozhikariyum, pickles made from various forest products, pullu kappi etc.

Tribal fest concluded as memorable event as Kudumbashree Palakkad District Mission made it a great success by including the whole tribal communities with a great intention of promote them to main stream of the society. By organizing this program Kudumbashree District Mission of Palakkad could gather around 500 tribal families from various colonies and given broad opportunities to present their inheriting skills in front of mass crowd.

Kudumbashree opened Cafe Kudmbashree Stalls at Kochi Muziris Biennale. The cafe is opened at Cabral Yard, the main venue of the event. It is as per the MoU signed between Kudumbashree Mission and Muziris Biennale Foundation that the Cafe Kudumbashree stalls are installed. Mainly there are two stalls set up at the venue. One is for tea, coffee and snacks and the other is for meals and juices. The Cafe Kudumbashree stalls would are opened by 10 AM everyday.

Varieties of juices are being served through the stalls. Beet berry, cool berry, honey berry, diabetic berry, gooseberry, sweet berry, green berry etc are the other special juices being served through Cafe Kudumbashree stalls. The diabetic berry is made of honey, beetroot and mint. Avil Shake, Milk Sharbath are also available at the stalls. Meals along with fish curry is served at a rate of Rs 50 and ghee rice with chicken curry is served for Rs 120. Different varieties of puttu (steam cake ) made of rice, wheat, oats, corn, tapioca and ragi etc are also available at the stalls. ‘Mutta kilikkoodu’, ‘vaazhakoombu cutlet’ and ‘pazham niravu’ are some of the unique attractions being served at the Cafe Kudumbashree stalls.

During every 20 days, the Cafe Kudumbashree members undergo rotation and the new batch of cafe Kudumbashree members would join and by the end of the event, cafe Kudumbashree members from all districts across Kerala would get an opportunity to be the part of the programme. Around 12- 15 Cafe Kudumbashree members work at a Cafe Kudumbashree stall. The Cafe Kudumbashree members are drawing more food and art lovers to the stalls. They are also expecting more footfalls in the upcoming days.

The biggest natural disaster in Kerala was happened during August 2018. Lakhs of people have faced huge loss in the disaster. The Government of Kerala had announced the interest free loan facility for flood affected families named as Resurgent Kerala Loan Scheme. The Resurgent Kerala Loan Scheme is aimed to provide immediate financial support to regain the life and livelihood and to hold and pacify those who stands in misery along with the loss of this state followed by impact of the worst natural disaster faced by Kerala.

The Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission was authorized to facilitate the bank loan as per the RKL Scheme up to Rs 1 lakh to family head for the purchase of domestic appliances and other purposes. As per the scheme, the beneficiaries may buy utensils from the registered dealers in 40-50 % discount from the market rates. The selected companies have made necessary arrangements to make avail the utensils, products to the beneficiaries in discounted rates through their accredited dealers/ stockists in each districts.

Interested Kudumbashree members who are the beneficiaries of the State Government grant of Rs.10000 are eligible to get bank Loans upto Rs.1 lakh and the interest of the loan at 9% will be borne by the government and applicant should be a member of Kudumbashree Mission was the eligibility criteria. This scheme was implemented as a Kudumbashree loan. As per the scheme, maximum of Rs 1 lakh is given to one Kudumbashree member. The applicant should be a member of the Kudumbashree Mission and the repayment period is fixed as 36-48 months. The loan repayment installments is arranged in a step up mode in NHGs. A total of 1,42,715 Kudumbashree members have submitted applications in the CDS through 21,204 NHGs which have been submitted to the bank. So far the banks have sanctioned loan for 9039 NHGs which consist of 58,871 beneficiaries. Under this scheme Rs.463 crores has been sanctioned so far.

Parents always complain about the learning disabilities of their children. But they doesn’t think about the reason behind the complaints they have raised. Most of the parents are leading unhappy life in mental conflict by laying all the complaints on the children and putting all the guilt on the teachers. Nowadays many parents are finding it difficult to the capacity and capability of the children and thereby to provide the education needed. It is very important that the parents and teachers should know the issues and solutions, which children faces during their school life and which hinder them to perform well. It is seeing this aim ahead that the Child Guidance Clinic was conducted.

It was on 10 November 2018, the Child Guidance Clinic was inaugurated. The programme was jointly organized by Vellangallur Grama panchayath and Kudumbashree Gender Resource Centre. After the launch, Child Guidance Clinic was conducted to understand the learning problems of children and a counselling session was also arranged for parents.The Child Guidance Clinic was attended by various students from kindergarten to higher secondary classes. The programme was announced two weeks before through ward members and CDS members. The registration was also started simultaneously with the announcement of the programme. As per this initial process about 70 students registered for learning disability assessment. The Child Guidance Clinic was conducted by arranging separate counters in the hall. In order to recognize and understand the learning problem areas, special assessment sessions were conducted by the experts in the field of remedial education. The screening was lead by Smt. Nisha T.S and Smt. Bini Paul, who are working as Community Counsellors in Thrissur district. On progress, the learning disability assessment counselling section was conducted by Smt. Priya Antony, Counsellor, Snehitha, Gender Help Desk and Smt. Jomi Jinson, Community counsellor, Vellangallur Gender Resource Centre. From the assessment of the participated children , it was found that the eight children has learning disability and 30 children in need of remedial education.

Kudumbashree Mission in association with Kerala State Coir Corporation is conducting a coir mat production training for women in the Alappuzha District of Kerala as part of PK Kalan Project. The training is provided to the women between 18 and 50 years of age. 60 women in 3 batches have been working in the cluster of south panchayaths in Mararikulam Village of Alappuzha. The first batch training was started on 8 January 2018 as Dr.Thomas Isaac, Minister for Finance and Coir, Government of Kerala inaugurated the programme.

The second batch was started on 8 March 2018 and the third batch was started on 1 October 2018. The training period is of 4 months tenure. The first two batches are already completed. The beneficiaries are paid Rs 225 and food during training. After the completion of training, Rs 300 per day will be deposited in bank account as monthly basis and the proportionate amount would be deposited to those who work more based on the quantity of the coir mats they produce. The working hours are from 9 AM to 5 PM. Kudumbashree Mission provide skill training as well as social skill training for the trainers. During February 2018, a one day trip was arranged for the trainers to Ernakulam. In the month of April, the trainers' family get together and the medical camp was also held.

PK Kalan Family benefit Scheme was launched for the development scattered tribal families in Kerala. Project formulation for each settlement shall be based on a micro plan through participatory rural appraisal tools conducted by Oorukoottams. Extensive consultations with the line departments is also necessary in participatory rural appraisal and resource mapping and also in finalizing the implementable action plan. Each micro plan has to be duly prepared and approved by the concerned District Collector .

DDU-GKY training centre Jan Shikshan  Sansthan- Malappuram  introduced an online learning mobile application for students. The switching on of this learning app was done by  Shri. P V Abdul Wahab, MP on 4 December 2018. This app can be installed in the tablet computer of the students. Each student will have an individual username and password which they can log in and attend the test series. Each test is prepared by the trainers,based on the classes he took. Every test is time bound and a student can attend  the same only one time.The student may also review his answers after each test.The same app can be used by the NULM (National Urban Livelihoods Mission)  students also. Also an alumni group of the automobile students was formed to strength hold the future placements of the training center.

DDU-GKY, the skill training and placement programme under the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) occupies a unique position amongst the other skill training programmes due to its focus to the poor rural youth and its emphasis on sustainable employment through the prominence and incentives given to post placement tracking, retention and career progression. Kudumbashree SRLM is planning to give skill training to 30,000 rural youth during 2018-2019.

Following the success in extending the state of the art facility management services to Kochi Metro Rail Limited, and Ernakulam Vyttila Mobility Hub, Kudumbashree also took up the fee collection in Vyttila Mobility Hub. Kudumbashree Facility Management Centre acquired the fee collection contract for collecting parking, bus entry, toilet user fees etc through open tender. The contract regarding the same was signed between Shri. T.P Geevargheese, District Mission Co-ordinator, Kudumbashree Ernakulam District Mission and Smt. R.Girija IAS, Managing Director, Vytilla Mobility Hub. Kudumbashree took up the duty at midnight on 8 December 2018 and started fee collection.

Along with the house keeping and security services, Kudumbashree women had also been taking care of gardening sector as well. It is on following the notable and successful implementation of the services provided in Kochi Metro Rail Limited, that Kudumbashree Mission was entrusted with the facility management services of Kochi Vyttila Mobility Hub. By taking over the fee collection Vyttilla Mobility Hub, Kudumbashree became in charge of all the management services of Ernakulam Vyttilla Mobility Hub. Vyttila Mobility Hub is an integrated transit terminal in the city of Kochi, designed as a converging point of various forms of public transportation, such as local and long distance buses, metro rail and inland water transport.

The Cake Fest organised at Perinthalmanna of Malappuram district of Kerala under the leadership of Kudumbashree Malappuram District Mission attracted masses.The cake fest was organised at Rits Hall, Perinthalmanna, Malappuram on 8 December 2018.  A sale of Rs 4.12 lakh was recorded at the cake fest. More than 1400 people visited the cake fest.The exhibition and sales of different types of cakes including instant cake, lava cake, black forest cake, white forest cake, gold cake, vancho cake, strawberry cake etc were arranged at the cake fest.

Along with this, the sale of  wine, pudding, lollipop, french snacks were also arranged. The exhibition and sales of the handicrafts made by Kudumbashree members in Malappuram District arranged at the Cake fest added more color to the programme. 26 Micro Enterprises from various places across the district became part of the cake fest. 11 Micro Enterprises making handicrafts also participated in the programme. The cake fest was wholeheartedly welcomed by the public.