The people of Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh were devastated by floods in September, 2021. “We identified hundreds of flood affected families and provided them with drinking water, food kits, clothing and street lights, and also cleaned the drainage. People were extremely grateful to us”, said Ms. Sumalatha and Mr. Ravi.

Mr. Ravi, a volunteer during flood relief said, “I have taken around 1,200 flood affected people to the school for shelter and arranged food for them with the help of my friends”. Mr. Venkatesh expressed his gratitude for the training and said, “I am grateful to Indian Social Institute for the Capacity Building training which helped me to develop my leadership skills and self-confidence. I was able to help many flood affected people with the support of others”.

Mr. Laxman, a trainee of ISIB said, “Knowledge of Right to Education was my strength and I supported about 60 poor children below Class 5 to access quality education freely. I succeeded in motivating many dropout children to return to school. All this was possible because of the ‘Rights based Approach’ I developed during the training sessions”.

Backward Community Development Society (BCDS), a NGO from Kadapa journeyed with ISI-B since 2017. The Director of BCDS felt proud of Mr. Rajesh Jelli, a trainee from Kadapa district and said, “Mr. Rajesh belongs to the Dalit community and contested in assembly by-elections as an independent candidate from Badvel Taluk, Kadapa District, in October 2021, at the age of 34. Leaders of various political parties pressured him to withdraw his nomination. He made a complaint to the election commission and he was given two security guards. He went ahead with courage and submitted his nomination. Rajesh also contested in Municipal Corporation elections. Though Rajesh got only 338 votes in by-election 2,000 votes in the Municipal Corporation elections, various political leaders had an eye on him for demonstrating extraordinary courage. Later, they learnt that Rajesh was formed by the BCDS organisation in collaboration with Indian Social Institute Bangalore”.

Adv. Karuna Rao

Facilitator of programmes

Andhra Pradesh and Telangana