India - March 2023 - Don Bosco Anbu Illam, Salem and Bosco Gramin Vikas Kendra, Ahmednagar, jointly organized a "Model Village Development" project on 23 March 2023. Five villages have been selected, focusing on families of those who lost their earning members as drivers. The Cummins India Foundation (CIF), through its Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives (CSR), supports the project. The project aims to support the widows in those families. Sankagiri in Salem, Tamil Nadu, once a lush pasture for farming and agriculture, is now a hub for lorry body building and associated work. After the arrival of motor parts manufacturing lobbies in the mid-1960s, a large labor force, partly from agriculture and other allied activities, moved to the area. The truck industry once started with just 20 lorries, and has now grown by leaps and bounds and accounts for about 25,000 lorries employing a great workforce with 80% of the workforce belonging to the male population, the breadwinning source for most of the people living in and around Sankagiri. Many drivers, due to accidents, have lost their lives, leaving their families to fend for themselves. These bereaved families suffer many hardships in earning their livelihood. So, to support them, tailoring machines have been distributed and the women trained to allow for a better living. 90 women have thus far benefited.

Fr. Joseph Charles (INT)