The Lok Manch program ensures social protection and builds climate-resilient communities in India.

People living across coastal communities in India are heavily dependent on the natural environment around them, such as forests and oceans, for livelihoods in fishing and agriculture.

The effects of climate change continue to threaten the crucial ecological system and communities are determined to take action for better protection and management of coastal ecology—before it’s too late.

But these communities have been pushed to the margins and excluded from society. This ongoing discrimination has caused deep-set vulnerabilities for families who find themselves unable to access the resources they need to survive, including food supplies, housing, education, and healthcare.

Our local partner, Jesuit Research and Development Society, is working alongside a number of coastal communities in India through the Lok Manch project. The focus is to empower community leaders—both men and women—to act as changemakers.

The project team has helped over 302,000 people to know their rights around government schemes and entitlements, so communities don’t miss out on accessing the support they need.

The project is also raising awareness about climate-induced vulnerabilities and guiding communities on practical steps to become climate-resilient, such as learning eco-friendly fishing practices. Strengthening the capacity of leaders in this way is setting communities up for long-term sustainability.

Jesuit Mission supporters are helping to fund the training of women and men to lead their communities out of the cycle of disadvantage. With their new skills and knowledge, leaders will be in a position to identify their community’s own needs and engage with government departments to ensure these needs are met. Building up strong leaders now will pave the way for future leaders and resilient, thriving communities.

Community leaders can be empowered to end the social discrimination their people have faced for generations. They can receive tailored training to enhance their access to entitlements and influence policymakers by building constructive relationships with all levels of government.

Jitni’s Story

For Jitni and her community, the program has been life-changing.

A 50-year-old mother of two, Jitni has long rebelled against discrimination. However, it wasn’t until she enrolled in the Lok Manch program that she was able to build her skills as a Dalit leader and develop strategies to bring equality and resilience to her community.

“We learnt about human rights and dignity, and the ability to stand against the odds”

Jitni (standing right) speaking with her community

“Before we met the staff of Lok Manch, we had a lot of problems,” Jitni says. “We didn’t know about our socio-economic entitlements and human rights.”

That changed with the Lok Manch project. “We learnt about human rights and dignity, and the ability to stand against the odds,” she says.

Leading with enthusiasm and skill, Jitni is now a Ward Member in the local government, fearlessly rewriting the narrative of oppression for her people. She’s working to ensure her community receives just access to entitlements including free housing, water connections, ration cards, pension programs and other government schemes.

Redressing institutionalised injustice will take time, but thanks to the generosity of our Jesuit Mission family, change is underway.

The Sustainable Development of Indigenous Tribal Populations program empowers people to overcome generations of disadvantage.

Tribal communities in the Karnataka state of southwest India need healthy, thriving forest land for their agricultural livelihoods. However, communities are facing an ongoing lack of land for housing and farming, on top of the constant threat of being moved off the land by the government. As a result, many families are struggling from a shortage of essential resources to survive, such as nutritious food, clean drinking water, education for children, and livelihoods for sustainable income.

With the generosity of Jesuit Mission supporters, our local partner North Karnataka Jesuit Educational and Charitable Society – Loyola Vikasa Kendra is on the ground working closely with tribal villages in the region. Our program for Sustainable Development of Indigenous Tribal Populations is specifically targeting the deep-set causes of disadvantage that generations of tribal communities have faced.

The program objective is to empower individuals and groups in rural villages with the resources and training they need to help their community flourish—now and into the future. This means facilitating inclusive and quality education for children so they can have bright futures full of opportunity. It means empowering women to become self-reliant community leaders. And strengthening men with the education required to know their rights around land entitlements.

People living in tribal villages have been pushed to the margins of society with the ongoing threat of having their land taken away. Rural families are fighting to survive with extremely limited access to life’s essentials. This program empowers people at all levels of the community with the resources and know-how they need to defend their rights and protect their future.

Thanks to your compassionate support, the Karnataka Jesuits supported over 1,300 Indigenous tribal people in the last year, with innovative, empowering programs.

Rathnavva’s Story

After joining a self-help group run by the Karnataka Jesuits,  Rathnavva has started a thriving brickmaking business and hopes to uplift other members of her community.

For Rathnavva (43), learning brickmaking has been life changing. Before learning this new skill, the mother of three would have to leave her family behind to seek work on distant farms.

“I want to build the business so that I can invite my companions in the group to work for me, I want to uplift the community as a whole.”

Rathnavva with her husband Nagappa standing in front of their brick collection.

Now that Rathnavva’s established her own brickmaking business, she’s able to support her family with her income, and her husband and children can also work alongside her.

“The work is a little bit harder, but it is much more rewarding,” she says. “It’s better because I prefer to run my own business rather than work on other people’s agriculture. We are able to earn more for ourselves and we enjoy staying together and working together.”

Rathnavva is using the skills she learned at her local self-help group, not only for making the bricks themselves, but also for financial planning and budgeting.

These days, she’s making around 10,000 bricks per month. This brings Rathnavva great joy, but she has bigger dreams that include helping other women from the self-help group find employment.

The Ecology program empowers communities to restore and enhance crucial surrounding forests.

Many families living in rural villages rely on a healthy, diverse natural world to farm for the food and income they need to survive. But over the past two decades, Cambodia’s natural resources have faced a number of threats—climate change, illegal logging, over-fishing, and biodiversity depletion, to name just a few.

Communities simply cannot afford to lose forests as a critical part of the ecosystem.

The Ecology program is carried out by our local partner, Jesuit Service Cambodia (JSC), across Cambodia. The key focus is on forest conservation efforts to enhance capacities of local communities.

The program team works closely with school communities as a way to teach and empower children to become caretakers of their surrounding environment. Young students, teachers and families can get involved with activities such as managing plant nurseries and the production of seedlings.

Funding from Jesuit Mission and our generous supporters provides the ongoing supply of seedlings to local schools along with tools and training to support a thriving ecology system.

These activities are an important ‘hands on’ way to raise community awareness around forest conservation and combat the detrimental effects of climate change—with the youngest generations leading the way.

The program targets the dangerous impacts of the Climate Crisis on vulnerable communities who depend heavily on our natural world to survive.

The ongoing loss of surrounding forests is a detriment to community health, safety from natural disasters, livelihoods and, ultimately, the ability to break free from the cycle of poverty.

Our focus is to work with local school communities to contribute to forest conservation and raise awareness of the ecology system.

Chanda’s Story

Since 2013, Chanda (29) has been working in the Ecology Program for JSC. In 2021 she began teaching and empowering primary and secondary school students to become caretakers of their environment.

I hope my knowledge can help our society in Cambodia in the future.”

Chanda

“In Cambodia we have significant environmental emergencies, including disasters like flooding, droughts and storms,” she says. “The Ecology Project supports students through environmental awareness education as well as provides seedlings for each student to plant and grow their own trees.”

Chanda has run ecology classes in over 10 different schools to promote sustainability and also teach the students about the dangers of plastic pollution and climate change.

Switching from an accounting background to receiving a scholarship from the Jesuits to study a Master’s of Tropical Risk Management at Ateneo De Manila University in the Philippines, Chanda is passionate to educate the next generation of Cambodia.