Week 4 Photos

Photo Diary for Week 4 ~ The Current Problems and Struggles faced by the Villagers of Kevadiya Colony and the Surrounding Tribal Villages

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A local villager inviting me into his humble home and allowing me to hold and play with his pet parrot.

A mountainous road (recently built) leading to one of the adopted villages in which members of Project ASHA distribute free medication and provide free general check-up and consultation.

One of the villages, located on the foot of the Satpuda Mountain Range, that Project ASHA has adopted.

Another village situated within a valley of the Satpuda Mountain Range that Project ASHA has adopted.

A village on the foot hills of the Satpuda Mountain Range that Project ASHA has adopted. 

An adopted village within the Satpuda Forest Range during the monsoon season.

An adopted village within the Satpuda Mountain Range during sunset.

Corn chapatti (makai-na-rotla) is the main meal constituent for the majority of the villagers in the Satpuda Region. To prepare this meal, dried corn kernels must be milled into corn flour using the hand mill seen here.

A local "well-to-do" villager's humble home. 

Calves are often housed inside the villager's homes. This can predispose the inhabiting family inside the house to a host of diseases or infectious illness when proper hygienic and sanitary practices are not performed correctly or consistently. 

Another local "well-to-do" villager's humble home.

A woman performing her daily household chores.

A semi-enclosed space serves as a place to wash clothes, dishes, and shower. This type of set-up is for "well-to-do" villagers.

Two village brothers taking a short break from their daily farming activities and chores.

During the dry summer season, villagers of the Satpuda Region collect fire wood from the mountain and forest range and carry about 20 kilograms of wood down the mountains (approximately 6 to 7 miles or more a day) to sell in urban centers for a meager earning of about 50 rupees (roughly 90 US cents).

A village farmer during the monsoon season.

An elder village woman (age 85) using an aquifer water pump to collect ground water for drinking and use in cook, clean dishes and clothes.

A group of village women and adolescent girls carrying fire wood  to urban centers to earn some income for the family.

Adolescent village girls from a village adopted by Project ASHA medical relief team.

Middle-aged village women trekking down the foot hills of the Satpuda Mountain Range to collect drinking water from the nearby village well.

Villagers expanding their straw hut.

An adolescent female villager.

A villager going inside a drying well to collect drinking water; the well use to be completely filled during the monsoon and winter season but has long dried up during the summer season.

A village mother bathing her son in a village lake where other villagers bath, wash dishes and clothes, and where animals drink water from.

An elderly village farmer waiting for the monsoon season in order for his crops and plants to grow. (NOTE: This year, the monsoon rains did not fall in the Satpuda Region, causing the villagers a great loss and famine).

Another elderly village farmer anxiously waiting for the monsoon season.

A villager preparing dinner for her family.

A middle-aged female villager carrying water collected from the Narmada River  back to her home for consumption. (NOTE: the Narmada River is about two and a half miles from her house and the two matlis filled with water (drinking storage vessels) weighs approximately ten pounds each).

A best friend trio that I encountered in one of the adopted villages surrounding Kevadiya Colony.

A young boy waiting to receive his free medication from a medical officer from Project ASHA.

When villagers get sick and need intensive or advanced medical treatment and care...they are transported by foot by villagers in a hammock that is tied to a bamboo branch (above). The villagers take them to a local road, where they try to find a bus or someone willing to transport the sick to a hospital. If the sick villager makes it past these hurdles, then once at the local hospital they face the greatest obstacle--paying for expensive medical treatment and care. Countless villagers have fallen victim to all of the obstacles mention above have perished while trying to receive some sort of medical treatment.

Many of the uneducated villagers still follow the advice of a medical shaman. In this picture, the shaman diagnosed this villager with "jaundice" and prescribed him to where a necklace made of animal teeth. In actuality, this villager suffers from iron deficiency anemia and should be given iron folate (or iron supplements). 

A villager in his kitchen frying a corn batter and green peppers for lunch. The food is cooked on a mini fire pit and the amount of fire and heat produced is controlled by how much firewood is being exposed.

A mini road (wide enough to accommodate one jeep) was recently built in this adopted village. The construction of this road has been a boon to this village.

A little girl (who is stunted) is waiting for her mother to come back with medication provided by medical officers from Project ASHA.

Villagers use stagnant, unhygienic, and potentially parasitically infested water to wash clothes, dishes, and themselves.

Both physical and mental stress has caused this 40 year old man to age drastically and look and feel older than he really is.

Due to extreme poverty, parents take their children along with them to work. In this picture, the woman is taking both her children (ages 4-boy and 6-girl) to help her tend the crops in their  agricultural fields.

Water that is pumped out of the aquifer is used for a variety purposes. Here a young villager is taking a bath from the same water that the buffaloes are drinking out of.

During the monsoon and winter season, the villagers grow crops to generate a small source of income. They usually also induct their children to help tend the fields as soon as they as are able to walk and hold a wheat cutting knife.

An elderly farmer is plowing his fields before the start of the monsoon season in the Narmada District of Gujarat.

Because the majority of the villages within Narmada District live below the poverty line, the villages are unable to provide adequate sources and amounts of food to their live stock (especially their cows). As a result not only are the villagers suffering from malnutrition and undernutrition, even the livestock show signs and symptoms of undernutrition, malnutrution, and micronutrient deficiencies.

Another picture containing underfed cows within the Satpuda  Mountain and Forest Range.