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Nataraja Kalasamithi is Kudumbashree's first transgender dance group formed under Kudumbashree Ernakulam District Mission during November 2018. The Nataraja Kalasamithi was formed by 5 transgenders from Ernakulam district of Kerala. The members of the group include Amrutha, Saya, Faizal Faizu, Mereena and Shalu. Amrutha and Mereena are the President and Secretary of the group.

Almost all the members of the group are trans-women.They were living in Ernakulam for the past five years and had tried so many ways to get some job but nobody responded and finally they went to the Kudumbashree office seeking help. And later they joined Kudumbashree and formed a transgender NHG group named Lakshya. The NHG meets every sunday evening and have started accumulating their thrift. On consulting with Kudumbashree Ernakulam District Mission they realized that there is a project for them named Prathyasha which provide assistance to start a business.

When they seriously thought of a livelihood initiatives, they put forward the proposal to start a dance troop. Recognizing their talent, district mission also agreed to support them in this venture. The District Mission provided financial support to procure the stage properties. They consulted Ernakulam District Mission co-coordinator and ensured that they will get as many chances for performance. Now they are performing cinematic dance, epic dance dramas and bale. There are another 12 transgender artists cooperating with the troop as per need. Now they are getting more and more stages after each performance. Besides the stages, they perform various art forms in processions of temples, churches and other organisations. They are also getting opportunities to perform for commercial advertisements as well. They also became part of Rangashree, the community theater group of Kudumbashree Mission working to explore the ideas of Kudumbashree towards the community which allocate the members towards the different programs of LSGDs in the district. The team members of Nataraja Kalasamithi is thankful to Kudumbashree Mission for helping them achieve their goals.

Kudumbashree Mission had successfully conducted a training course on the ‘Basic methods in Community Education and Counselling for Community Counsellors of Kudumbashree’ in collaboration with Department of Psychology, University of Kerala from 3-7 December 2018. The valedictory function of the training was inaugurated and certificate distribution was done by Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister for Local Self Governments, Government of Kerala on 7 December 2018. The programme was inaugurated by Smt. T.N Seema, Chairperson, Harithakerala Mission and Kudumbashree Governing Body Member on 3 December 2018. Kudumbashree Mr. S Harikishore IAS, Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission interacted with the participants regarding the activities and future plans after the inaugural function. The training was conducted at Kariyavattom Campus, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. 350 counsellors from all the 14 districts across Kerala participated in the programme.

Detail sessions were conducted by eminent academicians and practitioners in eight parallel sessions. The training included wide topics such as counselling skills, yoga, positive thinking, happiness, personal development, premarital counselling, identification of behavioral problems, mental health issues, ethics to be followed, referrals to mental health services etc. Assessment examinations were conducted everyday in all the classrooms. Dr. Tissy Mariam Thomas, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology was the training coordinator of the programme.

There are 350 community Counsellors in the Kudumbashree network to give support and guidance to the community. They are the trained persons selected from among the Kudumbashree members. Community counsellors are involved with gender self learning activities by providing psycho social support, case study and analysis, crisis management, home visit etc. They mostly deal with cases related to gender based violence, domestic violence, sexual abuse, harassment, human trafficking, educational issues of children and referral services. They conduct awareness programmes and deal cases registered in the Gender Resource Centers and counseling centers of Kudumbashree Mission. Over these years, community counselors in the state dealt with a wide variety of cases and given them adequate support needed. The training programme enabled the community counsellors to identify and intervene in the wide variety of programmes they deal with.

Kudumbashree opened Cafe Kudmbashree Stalls at Kochi Muziris Biennale. The cafe is opened at Cabral Yard, the main venue of the event. It is as per the MoU signed between Kudumbashree Mission and Muziris Biennale Foundation that the Cafe Kudumbashree stalls are installed. Mainly there are two stalls set up at the venue. One is for tea, coffee and snacks and the other is for meals and juices. The Cafe Kudumbashree stalls would are opened by 10 AM everyday.

Varieties of juices are being served through the stalls. Beet berry, cool berry, honey berry, diabetic berry, gooseberry, sweet berry, green berry etc are the other special juices being served through Cafe Kudumbashree stalls. The diabetic berry is made of honey, beetroot and mint. Avil Shake, Milk Sharbath are also available at the stalls. Meals along with fish curry is served at a rate of Rs 50 and ghee rice with chicken curry is served for Rs 120. Different varieties of puttu (steam cake ) made of rice, wheat, oats, corn, tapioca and ragi etc are also available at the stalls. ‘Mutta kilikkoodu’, ‘vaazhakoombu cutlet’ and ‘pazham niravu’ are some of the unique attractions being served at the Cafe Kudumbashree stalls.

During every 20 days, the Cafe Kudumbashree members undergo rotation and the new batch of cafe Kudumbashree members would join and by the end of the event, cafe Kudumbashree members from all districts across Kerala would get an opportunity to be the part of the programme. Around 12- 15 Cafe Kudumbashree members work at a Cafe Kudumbashree stall. The Cafe Kudumbashree members are drawing more food and art lovers to the stalls. They are also expecting more footfalls in the upcoming days.

The biggest natural disaster in Kerala was happened during August 2018. Lakhs of people have faced huge loss in the disaster. The Government of Kerala had announced the interest free loan facility for flood affected families named as Resurgent Kerala Loan Scheme. The Resurgent Kerala Loan Scheme is aimed to provide immediate financial support to regain the life and livelihood and to hold and pacify those who stands in misery along with the loss of this state followed by impact of the worst natural disaster faced by Kerala.

The Executive Director, Kudumbashree Mission was authorized to facilitate the bank loan as per the RKL Scheme up to Rs 1 lakh to family head for the purchase of domestic appliances and other purposes. As per the scheme, the beneficiaries may buy utensils from the registered dealers in 40-50 % discount from the market rates. The selected companies have made necessary arrangements to make avail the utensils, products to the beneficiaries in discounted rates through their accredited dealers/ stockists in each districts.

Interested Kudumbashree members who are the beneficiaries of the State Government grant of Rs.10000 are eligible to get bank Loans upto Rs.1 lakh and the interest of the loan at 9% will be borne by the government and applicant should be a member of Kudumbashree Mission was the eligibility criteria. This scheme was implemented as a Kudumbashree loan. As per the scheme, maximum of Rs 1 lakh is given to one Kudumbashree member. The applicant should be a member of the Kudumbashree Mission and the repayment period is fixed as 36-48 months. The loan repayment installments is arranged in a step up mode in NHGs. A total of 1,42,715 Kudumbashree members have submitted applications in the CDS through 21,204 NHGs which have been submitted to the bank. So far the banks have sanctioned loan for 9039 NHGs which consist of 58,871 beneficiaries. Under this scheme Rs.463 crores has been sanctioned so far.

Parents always complain about the learning disabilities of their children. But they doesn’t think about the reason behind the complaints they have raised. Most of the parents are leading unhappy life in mental conflict by laying all the complaints on the children and putting all the guilt on the teachers. Nowadays many parents are finding it difficult to the capacity and capability of the children and thereby to provide the education needed. It is very important that the parents and teachers should know the issues and solutions, which children faces during their school life and which hinder them to perform well. It is seeing this aim ahead that the Child Guidance Clinic was conducted.

It was on 10 November 2018, the Child Guidance Clinic was inaugurated. The programme was jointly organized by Vellangallur Grama panchayath and Kudumbashree Gender Resource Centre. After the launch, Child Guidance Clinic was conducted to understand the learning problems of children and a counselling session was also arranged for parents.The Child Guidance Clinic was attended by various students from kindergarten to higher secondary classes. The programme was announced two weeks before through ward members and CDS members. The registration was also started simultaneously with the announcement of the programme. As per this initial process about 70 students registered for learning disability assessment. The Child Guidance Clinic was conducted by arranging separate counters in the hall. In order to recognize and understand the learning problem areas, special assessment sessions were conducted by the experts in the field of remedial education. The screening was lead by Smt. Nisha T.S and Smt. Bini Paul, who are working as Community Counsellors in Thrissur district. On progress, the learning disability assessment counselling section was conducted by Smt. Priya Antony, Counsellor, Snehitha, Gender Help Desk and Smt. Jomi Jinson, Community counsellor, Vellangallur Gender Resource Centre. From the assessment of the participated children , it was found that the eight children has learning disability and 30 children in need of remedial education.

Kudumbashree Mission in association with Kerala State Coir Corporation is conducting a coir mat production training for women in the Alappuzha District of Kerala as part of PK Kalan Project. The training is provided to the women between 18 and 50 years of age. 60 women in 3 batches have been working in the cluster of south panchayaths in Mararikulam Village of Alappuzha. The first batch training was started on 8 January 2018 as Dr.Thomas Isaac, Minister for Finance and Coir, Government of Kerala inaugurated the programme.

The second batch was started on 8 March 2018 and the third batch was started on 1 October 2018. The training period is of 4 months tenure. The first two batches are already completed. The beneficiaries are paid Rs 225 and food during training. After the completion of training, Rs 300 per day will be deposited in bank account as monthly basis and the proportionate amount would be deposited to those who work more based on the quantity of the coir mats they produce. The working hours are from 9 AM to 5 PM. Kudumbashree Mission provide skill training as well as social skill training for the trainers. During February 2018, a one day trip was arranged for the trainers to Ernakulam. In the month of April, the trainers' family get together and the medical camp was also held.

PK Kalan Family benefit Scheme was launched for the development scattered tribal families in Kerala. Project formulation for each settlement shall be based on a micro plan through participatory rural appraisal tools conducted by Oorukoottams. Extensive consultations with the line departments is also necessary in participatory rural appraisal and resource mapping and also in finalizing the implementable action plan. Each micro plan has to be duly prepared and approved by the concerned District Collector .

The Cake Fest organised at Perinthalmanna of Malappuram district of Kerala under the leadership of Kudumbashree Malappuram District Mission attracted masses.The cake fest was organised at Rits Hall, Perinthalmanna, Malappuram on 8 December 2018.  A sale of Rs 4.12 lakh was recorded at the cake fest. More than 1400 people visited the cake fest.The exhibition and sales of different types of cakes including instant cake, lava cake, black forest cake, white forest cake, gold cake, vancho cake, strawberry cake etc were arranged at the cake fest.

Along with this, the sale of  wine, pudding, lollipop, french snacks were also arranged. The exhibition and sales of the handicrafts made by Kudumbashree members in Malappuram District arranged at the Cake fest added more color to the programme. 26 Micro Enterprises from various places across the district became part of the cake fest. 11 Micro Enterprises making handicrafts also participated in the programme. The cake fest was wholeheartedly welcomed by the public