Sponsor the cost of basic food and clothing for a poor senior citizen

Muthumari is a 75-year-old widow. She lives with her daughter Nangaiar and her two granddaughters in Maranthai village in the Alankulam Taluk of Tamilnadu.Nangaiar is a 41-year-old widow. She works as a daily wage agricultural laborer. She earns a meager Rs.35 ($.047) per day whenever she can find work. They struggle to make ends meet and go hungry many days.**To add to their troubles, Muthumari got diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Nangaiar was already struggling to manage the family. Her aged mother's illness turned out to be an added burden which she could not afford.**This is when the staff of Vizhuthukal Trust got to know about the family and visited them. The staff found out the pathetic condition of the family of four women.They first conducted a thorough checkup and arranged medicines from the Government hospital at Alankulam for Muthumari.**They enrolled her in their grocery program. She received 10 kg. of rice, grocery, a saree, health drink, and vegetables.**Muthumari's health improved drastically after the intervention. The regular medical care and groceries proved to be a boon to her. **Muthumari is no more a burden to her family. One can see the rays of happiness on her face now.****You can also help poor elderly citizens get access to basic food and clothing. You can donate so that they can live their golden years in peace. You can give with confidence because every program listed is [GIVEASSURED](https://www.giveindia.org/giveassured).**

Vizhuthukal Trust works with the marginalized elderly of the scheduled caste community to provide food, medicines, and clothing around Tirunelveli district.One unit of donation to this program will cover the cost of providing one set of clothes, groceries, vegetables and 10 kilos of rice to one poor, elderly citizen every month.In rural areas in low-income families, the sole breadwinners find it difficult to support their family members and children. It is because of this that the elderly are usually ignored and left uncared for by their families. Vizhuthukal Trust started this program to aid the helpless and needy, elderly citizens. Beneficiaries are selected by the Trust’s self-help groups based on criteria, such as age, the extent of dependence of the person, health, occupation, and family support. Priority is given to widows and destitute women. Vizhuthukal Trust works with more than 2,000 old people in villages. Currently, they support 25 to 30 seniors regularly. Their support to these seniors mostly depends on the donations that they receive.When you donate to this program, you help poor senior citizens not worry about their food in their old age and live with the dignity they deserve.

The vision of the organisation is to strive towards transforming the de-humanized and exploited to experience and sustain a dignified life. Being a Dalit, Mrs. Nancy was affected by three dimensions - within the family, being untouchable and having been born as a woman. This phenomenon is common to all Dalit women. This kind of injustice unveiled by the society on the women folk hurt her feelings from childhood. This inner urge and burning desire motivated her to start an organisation for the cause of women, especially Dalit.The founder's father was a school head master and she always had an inclination towards social service looking at the condition of the people living in remote areas of her village, especially women. Thereafter, she decided to start SHGs and also had offers to join the govt. but decided not to do so as that would mean having to succumb to political pressure. Slowly, the activities gained momentum and she increased the focus areas. She has received a lot of support from her husband. The organization is run by women and works for women beneficiaries from the dalit community (especially scavengers) irrespective of religion. Mrs. Nancy has 16 years of experience in organizing the unorganized labours like bullock cart workers, farmers, domestic workers, scavengers and rural artisans and development works. She has organized 680 women self help groups. She is a master trainer in Entrepreneur development training and self help group members and leaders. Vizhuthukal Trust primarily works for landless labourers, agricultural coolies and scavengers in Tirunelveli. Due to modernization and urbanization, agricultural activity has come down narrowly over the years. So women in the village find it very difficult to find any kind of work. The condition of destitute, abandoned and widowed women gets further worsened against this background. Vizhuthukal Trust runs various development programs for the welfare of the rural community under Tirunelveli Corporation. One of these is their educational program, through which they support play centres. In a survey that the Trust conducted amongst these children, they learnt that many children had expressed that their wish is to celebrate their birthdays with their friends and family. So the organisation has a program for celebrating birthdays of children.The organization's primary focus is to work for the betterment of children, women and the aged (primarily women). They do this through: 1) Organization of women working as house maids2) Self-Help Group formation for women3) education Support for poor children in slums/orphans4) Support for destitute women who are aged5) Children's birthday celebration programme6) Income Generation Programme