Giving hope to hard hit farmers

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In the rural areas of India, there are almost about 120 million smallholder farmers who contribute over 40% of the country’s grain production. The livelihood of these smallholder farmers completely depends on their harvesting. Every year farmers face different types of risk such as low rainfall, price volatility and rising debts. But the risks from the COVID-19 pandemic have created new challenges. The nationwide lockdown came at an unfortunate time for farmers, as it was the harvest season for the rabi (winter) crop. This season the farmers in the rural areas could not harvest their bumper crops - cereal and oilseed. In some places, the crops have been abandoned, while in others the harvest is coming more than a month late,  along with limited and more expensive labor.

In these challenging times, when regular transport and markets have not been functioning, GeBBS Foundation came forward to directly help the farmers in the rural areas of Aurangabad and Jalna. They along with other volunteers had set up vegetable stalls at the GeBBBS Healthcare Solutions Aurangabad office. Farmers with their freshly harvested vegetables had set up their stalls inside the office premises. GeBBS employees visited these stalls and purchased fresh vegetables directly from the farmers. This activity helped the cash-strapped farmers to earn some cash directly from the buyers. This initiative taken up by GeBBS Foundation helped a lot of families.

Along with this noble activity the GeBBS Foundation volunteers continued with their regular health check-up camps in the villages of Aurangabad and Jalna. Our volunteers from GeBBS Foundation along with the doctors from Hedgewar Hospital conduct these camps. Every day our mobile van visits different villages with our Hedgewar doctors and nurses to provide healthcare support. Recent camps that were conducted in the last couple of weeks are Lingdari, Toki, Waghola, Lohagadnandra, Donwada and Khamkheda village.

In this way, our GeBBS Foundation volunteers continuously protect the vulnerable people in the rural areas of Aurangabad and Jalna. Together, we will continue to fight the virus and stop the spread.


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