Sponsor a village in India

Fund vital programmes for an entire community living in rural poverty.

Salt of the Earth (SOTE) funds life-changing projects across over 200 rural villages in Tamil Nadu, South India.

Once allocated your village, you will help to ensure that vital SOTE programmes continue to benefit the people living there. You will also help to fund extra support, as sponsored villages are some of the most deprived communities we work in. The villages viable for this scheme are in need of extra support to ensure their basic needs and rights are met.

Our village sponsorship scheme:

Your donations will fund multiple life-changing programmes in the village you sponsor. Most importantly, by sponsoring a village, our interventions can be extended to benefit the communities that need it most.

Village sponsorship donations have funded:

• Bicycles for school-aged children

• Hygenie camps

• Water generation and purifcation

• Toilet building rennovations

• Building fences

• Home rennovations

• Waste management systems

• Tree planting on communal land

• Mobile Health Clinics

• Training programmes

• Women’s Self Help Groups to help women save money and apply for loans

Our intervention is dependant on the particular needs of the village. We listen to our partners on the ground and provide services each year that best meet the needs of the people.

How much does it cost to sponsor a village in India?

Salt of the Earths village sponsorship scheme costts £2,000 per year. Donations directly impact the lives of families within a particular community in Tamil Nadu.

We have village sponsors who have visted the village they support. Some sponsors are made up of groups of friends, who split the yearly fee. £2,000 goes much further in South India than here in the west.

Register interest:

If you are interested in becoming a SOTE village sponsor, please fill in the contact form below. Our team will get back to you as soon as possible.

‘NAIKANAPALLI’ Village Sponsorship Case study:

Naikanapalli is a village in Tamil Nadu that is sponsored through our scheme. The village has 3,360 residents and it’s closet town, Hosur, is 21 kilometres. The main source of income in the village is irregular ‘daily’ agricultural work. Men earn an average of Rs. 350 a day (£3) and women earn around Rs.250 (£2.50). There is a quarry here, which provides a few villagers with jobs, but the overall un-employment rate is high. The closest highway is situated 9 kms away via an impractical road and the village has no connection to public transport.

There are no shops or local businesses in Naikanapalli. There is no rubbish collection facility, causing rubbish to be thrown into the street and the village has no drainage system. Some toilets are connected to underground septic tanks, but those who cannot afford the rates use open air fields for defecation.

Before SOTE’s intervention, the village had no access to any form of healthcare. The water supplied to the village enters through government taps, which are turned on for around 15 minutes today. The water is unreliable and unsafe for human consumption.

Impact of village sponsorship scheme:

This village has been sponsored for three years. In that time, we have implemented a multitude of projects and have already influenced significant change.

Village Animator, Archana, has been living in Naikanapalli since she was 12 years old (the time she got married) and has one son, aged 11. Archana is the backbone of all our programs in Naikanapalli. She updates SOTE on her village, implements aid, and organises programmes.

We have provided Archana with first-aid training so that in the absence of our doctor, people are able to approach her for immediate support. If the case requires, Archana contacts our doctor who arranges a further consultation.

• Health intervention: Our doctor visits the village twice a week and sees an average of 20-25 patients. The common illnesses attended to are viral fevers, dengue fever, diarrhoeas, vitamins deficiency, anaemia, malnutrition, scabies, joint pains, urinary infections, and skin infections.

• Water purification: MASARD provided 15 families with Sawyer Water Purification Kits, along with training on how to use and clean the device.

• Adult literacy classes: More than 65 women from this village have attended adult literacy classes and are now able to read and write, understand basic financial matters and are now able to use digital devices.

• Women’s Self Help Groups (WSHGs): We have worked hard to form 10 WSHGs in this village. There is currently a total of 160 members. The women regularly save small amounts of money which is then made available to the members as loans for their immediate needs. We have also supported the groups in obtaining fair bank loans, ranging from Rs. 20,000/- to Rs. 50,000/- (£200 - £500). Repayments have been 100%, as we ensure the women receive reasonable interest rates. The suppliers of the loans are so impressed, that they are now willing to provide higher loans, to help fix homes and fund education.

• After school tuition classes: All school children from this village are provided tuitions and spoken English classes.

• Improving Day Care Centres: There is a Government funded Day Care Centre in the village that cares for 25-30 children a day, but there were no toys or items for the children to play with. We have provided the centre with mats so to sleep on, as well as lot of toys, play items, and hygiene equipment.

• Administration of Vitamin ‘A’ Multi-nutrients and De-worming tablets: Once every 6 months MASARD administer Vitamin “A” multi-nutrients and de-working tablets to all the children from this Village under the supervision of our Mobile Medical Clinic doc-tor. It gives the children immunity against numerous infections.

• Women’s skills training: MASARD have trained more than 60 women in the making of Clay Jewellery and Saree Embroidering, ten of whom are from Naikanapalli Village. The women are lead by Archana, and make clay jewellery in their leisure time to sell. The women have been able to improve their income and feel a sense of community.

• Skills training for teenagers: MASARD put forward 62 young people for college courses. The skills courses last 3 to 6 months and focus on obtaining regular paid work. Since completing the training, the six students from Naikanapalli who took part in the scheme are in permeant skilled work.

• Child and family counselling services: A professionally qualified counsellor conducted counselling services in our nearby Rural Development Centre. On average there are 5 to 6 children, and 4 to 5 women who used the services every day for two years.

• Support during COVID-19 Lock-down: To the lowest earning and most vulnerable families in the village, MASARD provided two Goats each. Other low-income families were also given ten native Chickens, to establish some level of livelihood security. We provided TV boxes to all students, to enable them to learn through government school programmes and supported farmers in obtaining loans to stay employed. We also paid particular attention to adolescent girls, and made sure they were safe from domestic violence and child-marriages throughout the period. 1000 masks, 1000 hand sanitizers and 1000 bars of soap were distributed between local families and we trained WSHG members on preventative practises. Our partners on the ground also acted as a source of information about the news and continuously updated the people. We are pleased to report that Naikanapalli had no positive COVID-19 cases. We believe that is influenced by the donations from our sponsor, and our timely intervention.