Dairy cows – self-sufficiency and income for families
A large proportion of the people in southern India are landless farm workers who are dependent on landowners. In order to change this, Kolping Switzerland has launched a project to make dairy cows available to farm workers. This project will be financed partly from the money received by Kolpingfamilie Wolfenschiessen from TEXAID.
TEXAID and the Kolpingfamilie Wolfenschiessen
The Kolpingfamilie has carried out street collections on behalf of TEXAID in the past. Today there are more than ten TEXAID bins in the Nidwalden region collecting in favour of the association. Some of the funds generated from the sale of textiles are used to co-finance the apprentice home in Stans and the dairy cow project in Tamil Nadu (India) organised by Kolping Switzerland. The project in India is presented in more detail below.
Promoting independence
Due to their social standing, landless farm workers in southern India are not allowed to run their own farms. They are therefore heavily dependent on landowners, who often employ them for very low wages. They are not paid during the rainy season or when there is no work to be done. Many suffer from undernourishment or malnutrition, disease and illiteracy. Widespread poverty means that many children also have to work to enable their families to survive. Kolping Switzerland’s dairy cow project aims to make these families more independent and improve their general living conditions.
Self-sufficiency and income for families
Making dairy cows available to families should improve their nutritional basis and create an additional income through the sale of milk and self-produced cheese. It can also help ensure that the children no longer have to work and can attend school regularly.
Further information about the Kolpingfamilie Wolfenschiessen can be found at www.kolping-wolfenschiessen.ch. More information about the project can be found here.
August 2019