Kudumbashree join hands with Save the Children for a Capacity Building Initiative on 'Resilient & Climate Smart Children in Kerala'. The main objective of the initiative is to strengthen resilience of children through awareness and knowledge sharing and preparedness and training. The awareness and knowledge sharing section includes modules on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) basics, Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) basics, Child Protection concepts, Child Rights concepts and play method module with session plans and instructions for facilitator.It also has colouring books on disaster themes. The six disaster themes include cyclone, flood, fire, tsunami, earthquake and drought and each disaster has six preparedness key messages with posters to colour.

The preparedness and training section include child and their family’s own safety planning tool, Hazard Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (HVCA)- School safety and Hazard Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (HVCA)- School safety. The child and their family’s own safety planning tool is a child friendly tool whereby child can make a safety plan for themselves and their family. The Hazard Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (HVCA)- School safety is a child friendly and participatory method of risk analysis and preparing safety plan. First Aid training for children includes training on life saving skills (basic, age appropriate). It is planned to complete the co-creation of modules in workshop mode, training of Trainers (ToT) for resource persons, complete the translation and printing of module and the district / block level training by resource persons by December 2019 and the first aid training and the further trainings by resource persons at district/ block with Balasabha by March 2020.

'Save the Children', a global non-profit organisation founded in the year 1919 is India's leading independent child rights NGO, which run programmes in the remotest corners of India and urban areas to provide quality education and healthcare, protection from harm and abuse and life-saving aid during emergencies to children.

Financial assistance was provided to the flood affected Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) and the entrepreneurs who attended the Saras Fair held at Chengannur and were affected by the devastating Kerala floods during August 2018. Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister, Local Self Government Department, Government of Kerala inaugurated the state level programme of providing financial assistance at the function held at Government Engineering College, Chengannur, Alappuzha on 8 November 2019. Shri. Saji Cherian, MLA presided over the function. Shri. S. Harikishore, Executive Director, Kudumbashree explained the project in detail to the public.

   A total of 13 crores was granted by the Government of Kerala for the flood affected entrepreneurs and women farming groups. More than 500 rural entrepreneurs from 29 states and 7 union territories had came for attending the Saras Fair which was planned to be held at Chenganur from 14-23 August 2018. And when the floods hit Chenganoor, the entrepreneurs were rescued and were moved to safer places. It is as part of rehabilitating and rebuilding their lives that the Government had issued Rs 13 crores for them. Loss of Rs 6 crores were estimated for the 25 entrepreneurs who took part in the Saras fair and 25,000 hectres of land were submerged during the floods and a loss of Rs 7 crores were estimated.

Kudumbashree received the Digital Transformation Award from Governance Now, the premier publication on public policy and governance during their 3rd Digital Transformation Summit & Awards held at The Lalit, New Delhi on 6 November 2019. Kudumbashree received the Digital Transformation Awards 2019 in Poverty Alleviation and Skills Development for Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY), Destitute Free Kerala Project and Mobile Application and Website for Monitoring Micro Enterprises. Shri Vinit Goenka, Member, Governing Council of CRIS; Member- IT Task Force, Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways and Shipping, Government of India and Shri. S.N Tripathi, Director, Indian Institute of Public Administration presented the awards to Smt. Suchithra.S, State Programme Manager, Micro Enterprises, Shri. Jomon.K.J, State Assistant Programme Manager,Social Development and Shri. Leo Pole.T, State Programme Manager, DDUGKY. The award is conferred under end-to-end digital service in e-Governance for the most innovative and effective projects which have demonstrated excellent usage of technology for creating maximum impact with respect to demonstrating e-governance.

Kudumbashree have developed a mobile application and website for monitoring the development of our 21,696 micro enterprises, which was started on Aug 2018. Netroxe IT solutions Pvt. Ltd, a start-up agency, helped Kudumbashree to develop this mobile app. The main aim of the application was to ensure the sustainability of the micro enterprises. Micro Enterprise Consultants (field level staff) has done a onetime survey to enter the basic details of all enterprises by using the mobile app. They had visited each and every enterprises to collect the data and done the geo-tagging of the enterprises. Block level/ District level officials verified the data and approved the same in timely manner. Every month, the monthly turnover, marketing updation, programme participation, convergence details etc are updated.

Kudumbashree, with its advanced social experimentation, ascertained that ultimate poverty is multi pronged and hence the approach had to be changed while addressing their needs. This led to the chalking-out of a new scheme called ASRAYA - Destitute Identification Rehabilitation and Monitoring programme, where the beneficiaries are identified through a nine point indicator directly by Kudumbashree neighborhood groups and their criteria are then rechecked by the Local Self Government Institutions who then prepares tailor made projects suiting each beneficiaries' need. This scheme was revamped in 2017 as Destitute Free Kerala Campaign (DFK).The beneficiary identification for Asraya was done through paper survey, which consumed lot of time and money and had given way for intrusion of ineligible beneficiaries to the scheme as well. With the prime motive to check such illegal infiltration and to make the beneficiary identification process more transparent, development of a mobile platform was devised. The digital application was officially launched on 19 October 2017. With the launch of a digital platform, Kudumbashree was able to create a digital data base of the poorest of the poor or destitute is available with the Local Self Government Institutions (LSGI) and Government, got a facility to upload the photograph of the beneficiary showing their current living status, became able to geo-tag the location of each beneficiary, easy retrieval of the components/ services required for each beneficiary was made possible and the compilation of projects at LSGI giving priority to DFK beneficiaries became easy. This helped in developing working projects that are pro-poor and also the progress in meeting the requirements was also easily monitored.

Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), the skill training and placement program of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and Kerala State (Kudumbashree) occupies a unique position amongst other skill training programmes, due to its focus on the rural poor youth and its emphasis on sustainable employment through the prominence and incentives given to post-placement tracking, retention and career progression. Kudumbashree has devised an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software which follows a three-tier concurrent monitoring system involving Project Implementing Agencies (PIA), State and Central Government, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), System complies for SOP and Monitoring daily activities. Trained v/s target, assessment and certification, placement achievement v/s target, mobilization, due diligence, on-time Inspections, training centre utilization, default actions against the PIA based on the issues, SMS alert system, financial data, standard forms, geo-tagged training centers, candidate tracking, dynamic reports and static reports were the marketing parameters and the Program Implementing Agencies (PIA’s), Kudumbashree, Central Technical Supporting Agencies (CTSA), Ministry of Rural Development, students, district officials, block officials, Community Development Socities (CDS) and various Government Departments of Kerala are the key beneficiaries.

The 3rd Digital Transformation Summit & Awards Conference of Governance Now was supported by Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India, Smart Cities Mission, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India.

Kudumbashree's Art Festival 'Arangu' showcased the inherent talents of Kudumbashree Women. Kasaragod District bagged the award for the best performance at Arangu Art Festival with 128 points. Kannur and Kozhikode district came in the second and third place with 93 and 65 points respectively. Arangu 2019 was kickstarted when Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister, Local Self Government Department, Government of Kerala inaugurated the festival at Palakkad on 1 November 2019. The three day Arts Festival took place at the 6 venues named Karuthamma (Govt. Victoria College, Palakkad), Indulekha (Govt. Moyans LP School, Palakkad), Suhara (Fine Arts Society, Palakkad), Nanimistress (Govt. Victoria College Auditorium, Palakkad), Sumithra (Govt. Victoria College Auditorium, Palakkad), Chemmarathi (Govt. Victoria College Ground, Palakkad). The Mime and Drama Competitions were held at Chembai Memorial Government Music College, Palakkad.

1904 women from 14 districts across the state took part in 34 competition items. The competitions were arranged in Junior and Senior sections. Those within the age limit 18-35 came under the junior section and those above 35 years were considered in the Senior section. Light Music, Fancy Dress, Mappila Pattu, Mono Act, Folk Dance, Mimicry, Elocution, Recitation, Drawing (Pencil), Poetry Writing, Drawing (Water Colour), Story Writing, Cartoon, Collage, Kathaprasangam, Group Song, Group Dance, Folk Song, Drama, Oppana, Margamkali, Thiruvathira, Skit, Mime and Shinkarimelam were the 34 competition items in which the women competed with each other.

More than 2500 Kudumbashree women took part in the procession organised prior to the inaugural function. Kudumbashree members from Palakkad district handed over the cheque of Rs.18,51,000 to Shri. A.C Moideen, Minister for Local Self Governments, Government of Kerala towards Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) during the inaugural function. The Art Festival became an opportunity for the women to present their artistic talents before the society. Arangu 2019, the three day Arts festival of Kudumbashree Mission had indeed stolen the hearts of the art lovers of Palakkad

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.