I am fundraising to help the victims of the farmer suicides in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra

and we have done it - together we raised 10 lakhs and in fact more (10,41,443.00) and its still going strong.

We had contributions from people belonging to different parts of India, different countries in the world, speaking different languages, having different beliefs and faiths, all coming together to stand in solidarity and give a simple message to the farmers "We are with you".

The campaign also gave us an opportunity to highlight not just issues but also solutions. The samwad yatra undertaken by Kishore ji and his team helped reach farmers in district across almost 35 villages.

Also Kishoreji's active role in criticizing government's policies, their in actions, finally yielded results. he know is appointed by the Maharashtra government to look into the farmers issues (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Tiwari-to-head-panel-to-curb-farm-distress/articleshow/48208959.cms)

Lessons from the campaign

• Small contributions from a large number of people is more effective than large contributions from a select few
• There are many concerned individuals around us and the challenge is to simply reach out to them
• Providing financial help is important as an immediate relief
• Questioning the government's in action is also equally important
• Understanding the underlying issues leading to the distress is a must
• If we 275 of us can help contribute to a 10 lakh fund, then imagine what 2000 of us can do

The campaign also helped us reach to thousands of people and helped us highlight the issues - Thanks to Milaap for providing the platform, thanks also to TheBetterIndia's (http://www.thebetterindia.com/23841/us-based-indian-helping-indian-farmers-vidarbha-suicides/) coverage for highlighting the issues.

So whats next?

• Provide updates from the families who had received financial help
• Continue to work with Kishore Tiwariji
• Work on creating awareness not just about the farming crisis, but also about the various government policies that were created to benefit the farmers
• Work on bringing technology closer to the farmers

Other Updates on the project:

• https://sureshe.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/samvad-yatra-vidarbha-project-phase-ii-update/
• https://sureshe.wordpress.com/2015/03/11/vidarbha-action-plan-march-2015/
• https://sureshe.wordpress.com/?s=vidarbha
• The Milaap Campaign: https://milaap.org/campaigns/help-the-vidarbha-farmers

The campaign will end on July 31st. A big thank you to all the donors and to all the friends and their friends in helping us realize that together we can do small things that can have a big impact. 

Dear well-wisher,

Thank you for your wonderful support. As of today we have raised a total of Rs 534131. As stated in the project details, the money will be used to serve two purposes

•  To help provide immediate relief to the suicide family victims
• To organize samvad yatra which will be headed by Kishore Tiwariji, VJAS (Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samithi). The yatra is an outreach program 
  • to reach out to especially the farmers in distress 
  • to help organize a representation to the authorities detailing clear demands
  • to create awareness about govt. policies, some of the best farming practices (Reduce dependency on pesticides etc.)

Rs3,98,065 has already been transferred to VJAS as of March 13th. The initial list of the families can be found here - https://sureshe.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/list-of-farm-widows-families-and-details-1.pdf

More updates will be sent in the coming weeks.

In the meanwhile, please feel free to share any comments/suggestions or anyother questions you may have.

thanks

Suresh & Kishore Tiwariji