Our adventures today took us from the noise and bustle of Madurai out into the rural areas where we will be working for the rest of the week.  The contrast just a few minutes from the centre of town could not be more apparent.

The scenery is breathtaking – misty mountains, verdant green rice paddies, coconut palms and banana trees.  The countryside is lush and peaceful as locals plough their fields using ox-drawn carts.

Our morning was spent visiting rural villages where local women’s self help groups, or sangams, have been formed.  Each group of about 15 members come together and begin to save money each week, and after they have reached a certain amount, are given a loan to help them establish small businesses or a group enterprise.

The first village we visited greeted us with a full traditional reception.  The leaders of the 5 local sangams met us as we got out of the car with silver platters of oil and pigment, with a burning flame of ghee in the middle.  They waved the platters across in front of us three times in a clockwise circle, then dipped their finger in the oil and dabbed a dot between our eyes. 

Then the placed beautiful garlands of roses and marigolds around our necks, and presented us with a lemon as a traditional gift and welcome.  In return we made a gift of 20 rupees and then the whole group broke out in applause and celebration.

We were led through the village by the women with a group of men in front of us drumming and performing a traditional dance.  They took us all the way through to their major business project – operating a local quarry.

The quarry business is very lucrative in India, and for many years the people of the village had worked for a local businessman working the quarry.  When the lease came up for renewal 3 years ago, a group of women formed a sangam to try to win the lease contract.  It was a difficult fight against rich interests, but they succeeded in the end, and now they manage the lease and employ 50 local men and 50 local women in the quarry.

The quarry techniques are basic.  Along the cliff wall coir ropes hang down from the top.  Men climb up the ropes (no safety harnesses) with a pneumatic drill and bore holes to loosen slabs of rock.  Then they take long metal spikes and lever the cracks until slabs thunder down to the base of the cliff. 

Large rocks are then broken up by the men with sledgehammers into smaller pieces about 10 to 12 inches across, and the women use smaller hammers to reduce their size as required.  Large rocks are sold as foundation material, and small gravel sized pieces are sold to be mixed with concrete.

The women and men demonstrated their skills proudly and talked to us about how well the business was going.  They made gifts to us of pieces of rock to take home with us as well as a stack of coconuts that they broke open for us to drink the fresh juice on our way to the next stop.  The children of the village followed us like the pied piper all the way along, shaking our hands and asking our name, and then telling us in return.  The genuine openness and friendliness of the local people was touching.

We then traveled on to another village where we met with two more local sangams – one who had formed a local collective to do contract embroidering for a clothing manufacturer.  Before the sangam they had no work, but now they each earned around 6,500 rupees a year, a considerable amount in the local economy. 

The second group had come together to buy 17 diary cows.  Before the herd they had worked carrying bricks in a local factory, earning 40 rupees a day.  Now they averaged 80 – 90 rupees a day, and had an investment bond already for 15,000 rupees and a similar amount in a savings account.  Soon they plan to start making small loans among the group to set up individual businesses to earn more money on top of that from the dairy herd.

Our final women’s group had formed to set up a coir rope manufacturing business. They secured a loan from the government to buy a building and machinery, and demonstrated to us how they made rope from the raw fibre of coconuts.  Carolyn was invited to help and with two other women made a long piece of rope.  The business has been recognized by the government as a model project and other groups are brought there to learn how to set up their own business.

This group also invited 80 local children to meet with us.  These kids attend the local school, and in the evenings attend a tuition centre.  Most of their parents are illiterate and have no electricity at home, which makes studying after school difficult.  The free tuition centres provide a teacher and power in a local hall to help the kids with their studies after school.

All of these projects have been initiated with the help of local charity St Joseph’s Development Trust, who run the orphanage that we have come to support.

Our last stop of the day was Girls’ Village, the project we have come to support.  As it was Sunday all of the girls were home to meet us.  As we arrived they greeted us with flowers picked from their garden, and then took us on a tour of the cottages in which we live.

They all practiced their English on us, calling each of us “Auntie” and the afternoon resounded with cries of “Auntie, auntie, auntie – come!”.  They asked our names, the names of all our family members, and our ages. 

Finally we also met the 15 young children and babies we had come to help.  Our group had succeeded in raising enough money to build a purpose built cottage for these youngest children.

After a few hours with the children we headed back to our hotel and then up to the rooftop for dinner.  Today was a Hindu religious festival – the festival of the lights.  All businesses and houses lit a lamp outside their door to invite god in.  Fireworks burst out all over the city for 2 hours while we had dinner in the open, a spectacular end to an amazing day.