Birds Nest focuses on the primary need for shelter and stability. Women and families living on the streets of Chennai are amongst India’s most vulnerable but it is a ‘place of familiarity’; a place they have often ‘known’ for generations.

 

Foxglove partners with Saraswathi Education Cultural Trust, a registered local NGO, to better understand the needs and the solutions for those living on the pavement. The Trust has extensive experience working with women and community projects to address underlying issues of poverty through family planning, health and maternity clinics, and finance lending. And often finds itself working with those outside the Government safety net. For those known as ‘pavement dwellers’, the challenges to permanent accommodation are complex. They begin with a lack of identity papers limiting a family’s access to health treatment and basic education. Without these basic needs being addressed, as well as access to vocational training and small business start-up loans, families cannot consider moving from the pavement into low-cost slum accommodation. But there is a problem. Before the women can access vocational training, take out small loans and start businesses they are required by Government to have a permanent address. It’s a case of which comes first. Birds Nest breaks this deadlock by supporting and equipping families for twelve months before they have sufficient funds and options to move into low-cost slum accommodation. During this period, women and families receive vocational training, written and financial literacy, education for children, family health checks and treatment. From there, Birds Nest helps the women find low-cost accommodation in the slum and join a Self Help Group. It’s still a choice. It’s still difficult. But for those who take the chance, the stories of life change are remarkable.

 

She makes her future.