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Kudumbashree handed over the keys of the houses built for the residents of  the Alakkukuzhy Slum of Kollam Corporation, constructed by Kudumbashree women construction groups. Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister for Local Self Governments, Government of Kerala handed over the keys of the houses to the beneficiaries at the programme held at Kollam on 23 October 2019. The 20 families who were living in bad conditions at Alakkukuzhy slum are therefore rehabilitated to newly constructed houses of 500 sqft each. Every houses have two bedrooms, one sit-out, kitchen, hall and bathroom.

Rs 1.70 crores was the total project cost of the Alakkukuzhy project. The Kollam Corporation entrusted the Kudumbashree women construction groups for building these 20 houses one year ago. Kudumbashree women construction group members were able to finish the entrusted work with good quality, keeping up the professionalism. They were able to complete the work with dedication and commitment, two months before the stipulated time and could handover houses to the authorities of Kollam Corporation. The contract regarding the construction of the 20 houses was signed between the Executive Director of Kudumbashree Mission and the Kollam Corporation during November 2018. The construction works were started on 1 January 2019. 

Phoenix Construction group of Kottankara Panchayath of Kollam district of Kerala provided the leadership for the construction activities. In addition to this, Kudumbashree women construction group members from Sasthamkotta, Kallada, Ezhukone, Thrikadavoor also became part of the construction works. The works were completed with the hard work of 32 Kudumbashree women. The Shivashailam of core group and Devi group of Padinjare Kallada had also made their active participations during the construction works. The project worth more than 1 crore was therefore completed by Kudumbashree team keeping up high quality, time limits, and without any escalation of costs. Kudumbashree has written a new story of success in the history of Kudumbashree Mission.

Nutrition Garden Mobile Unit, the new innovative venture of Kudumbashree was launched at Attappady. Smt. Sreelakshmi Sreekumar, Panchayath President, Agali Grama Panchyath inaugurated the Nutrition Garden Mobile Unit. The Attappady Nutrition Garden Mobile Unit is launched as part of the Attappady Comprehensive Tribal Development and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group Development Project. The organic vegetables, pulses and tubers cultivated at the 10 selected hamlets of Agali as part of Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) farm livelihood Programme would be brought to the community kitchen in the hamlets of Attappady. The nutrition gardens are set up to ensure nutrition. 32 Nutrition Garden units had been set up so far. Each unit cultivate in about 2 to 4 acres of land. Kani Gulume, the enterprise unit would collect the products of the Joint Liability Groups and would bring to the community kitchens. It is also planned to extend this initiative to other hamlets as well.

Attappady Special Project (Attappady Comprehensive Tribal Development and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group Development Project) is the project being implemented by Kudumbashree in the Attappady block of Palakkad district of Kerala. The project aim to uplift the social and economic status of Irula, Muduga and Kurumba tribal communities of Attappady. It was the pilot project of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Ministry Of Rural Development, Government of India, which envisaged the formation of exclusive institutions of tribal people for bringing in sustainable development in Attappady. Kudumbashree functions through women neighbourhood groups (NHGs) aiming at their development and empowerment. Kudumbashree Mission implemented this innovative idea of formation of exclusive neighbourhood groups for the tribal families in Attappady for bringing social development and empowerment. This project, which was launched at Attappady in 2014 with a big vision has moved much forward with many notable achievements in hand.

Kudumbashree Mission celebrated International Rural Women's Day. Different CDSs in the state celebrated International Rural Women's Day organizing various programmes. Awareness classes, felicitations for the women who have proved their strengths in various sectors etc were organised in connection with this. The United Nations has dedicated October 15 as the International Day of Rural Women. Starting from agriculture to food security, nutrition, land and natural resource management, domestic care and work, rural women are at the forefront and are taking charge. 'Rural Women and Girls Building Climate Resistance' is the theme for this year.

Kudumbashree Kannur District Mission organised Moovandan Fest in the district. The programme aimed at producing value added products from mango, ensure better market for it, which would help the Joint Liability Group members and other agro entrepreneurs earn better income of their own. The Mango fest was organised at Thaliparambu Town Square, Kannur. 

The programme was organised by collecting mangoes from the Kuttyatoor CDS, Mayyil CDS, Malappattam CDS, Ulikkal CDS, Udayagiri CDS, Pariyaram CDS, Thaliparamba CDS, Cherupuzha CDS, Eramam Kuttoor CDS, Payyanur CDS, Ezhom CDS,  Kannapuram CDS and Cherukunnu CDS.  More than 70 value added products were produced viz., Mango Halwa, Mango Ice, Mango Dosa, Mango Samosa, Mango Masala, Mango Sauce, Mango Idli, Mango Chappathi, Mango Cake, Raw Mango Juice etc. In addition to this, Women Agro Meet, Agro Seminar, Open Agro Quiz, poetry competition for Balasabha students and District Mission officials were also conducted. By organising Mango Fest, they could help the women find a better market for their agro products.

Kudumbashree's international partnership with Azerbaijan is making fruitful results. During 2017, Azerbaijan Rural Investment Project (AZRIP) team visited India to study various models of livelihood promotion for women groups as they wanted to start a pilot project of ‘women’s activity group formation’ for inclusive economic empowerment. After ascertaining that the ‘Kudumbashree model’ of livelihood promotion and women empowerment has the larger scope of convergence in their country, they invited Kudumbashree Mission to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan Rural Investment Project (AZRIP) is a world bank supported project being implemented in Azerbaijan from 2005 (in various phases). The project aims at developing the basic infrastructure in the rural areas. Further project envisages development of economic activities and livelihood programmes.

Shri. Sebastian Molineus, Regional Director, World Bank had shared a note through his twitter handle after visiting Massaly of Azerbaijan which itself could be considered a measure of the success of the project. (Twitter Post)

During 2018, a four member team from Kudumbashree went to Azerbaijan for the initial scoping study and to provide a 10 day training. Kudumbashree aimed at training the master trainees of AZRIP project, who in turn will train the interested women entrepreneurs of Azerbaijan. Kudumbashree's team visited different places in Azerbaijan including Separadi in Massaly, Chakrili in Lankaran and Gysa in Balakan and understood the field reality and needs and framed the training as per requirement. The master trainee team were given classes on ‘Kudumbashree Model’, Neighbourhood groups, activity groups, livelihood promotion methods and on women empowerment activities. 16 people including the community mobilisers of AZRIP project and livelihood specialists took part in the workshop as master trainees. During the time of initial training itself, 56 women came forward to form 4 Activity Groups. As of now, with the participation of 468 women, 38 enterprise units had already been started in Massaly of Azerbaijan. They are coordinating more than 100 business projects. The success of this project, which is being implemented with the support of World Bank is also the success of the international interventions of Kudumbashree.

It is a moment of pride for Kudumbashree that our team is capable of framing a training programme at any place in the world after assessing the country’s requirements and are able to provide the required assistance/ support/ knowledge to ensure continuity and growth. The Azerbaijan Rural Women's Association’ is the network of ‘Women Development and Enterprise Groups’ in the country. When they bagged an award from Government of Azerbaijan for their activities, Kudumbashree's contribution was also mentioned.

Mother Kitchen from North Paravur started supplying food in steel boxes to Kochi Metro Rail Limited. They had tied up with Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) for supplying homely food in steel boxes to the employees of Kochi Metro. The freshly prepared homely food is packed in steel boxes (dabbas) and are distributed to the employees of Kochi Metro. The food is served by the Mothers Kitchen functioning at North Paravur which functions under the North Paravur CDS of Ernakulam district.The Mothers Kitchen was set up as part of the Self Employment Programme Component of National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM). Kudumbashree Mission is the nodal agency for implementing the centrally designed programme, National Urban Livelihoods Mission (NULM) in Kerala. The Mothers Kitchen functions under North Paravur City Mission Management Unit.

The dabba system stands out unique that only Rs 40 is charged per meal which includes rice with sambar etc including fish curry. The steel boxes are later collected and are brought back to the Mothers Kitchen. The unit is now distributing food in 100 dabbas now. They are making an income of Rs The members of the unit makes around Rs 8000 as monthly income.

Kochi Metro is maintained environment friendly. The dabbawala system was implemented to discourage the employees from bringing food in plastic containers and with the launch of the dabbawala system, there has been a decrease of plastic waste across all the metro stations. The Mothers Kitchen is also serving food to the Metro canteen.

Kudumbashree opened AC waiting Hall at Kannur Railway Station. Shri. M. Surjith, District Mission Co-ordinator, Kudumbashree Kannur District Mission inaugurated the waiting hall on 5 September 2019. The AC waiting hall opened by Kudumbashree at railway station is being a boon for many people especially women and the elderly. The air conditioned waiting hall opened at Kannur Railway Station  works 24 hours a day and provide a comfortable halt to the travelers. Feeding console is also arranged for lactating mothers is one of the attractive feature of Kudumbashree Waiting Hall. 

  An amount of Rs 30 per hour is charged for availing the services of Kudumbashree's AC waiting hall. Television and reading area is also set up along with. The AC waiting hall has also set up a clean, hygienic bathroom and special area for mobile charging as well. As per the agreement,  Kudumbashree and Railways would share the daily collection on 50:50 ratio.

Four staff are entrusted with the smooth functioning of the waiting hall. Kudumbashree rest rooms are opened at Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Thrissur and Tirur railway stations. The clean and safe rest rooms opened by Kudumbashree is a boon to the women passengers who travels alone. Yet another waiting hall with the same facilities would be opened at Thalassery railway station by October 2019.