Awareness programme Series on Covid-19 War Room activities has been started. The awareness programme is jointly organised by the Health Department of Kerala, Local Self Government Department War Room, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), and Kudumbashree. The awareness programme series was inaugurated by Smt. K. K. Shailaja, Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Government of Kerala, on 13 May 2021. The programme aims at spreading awareness on the spread of the second wave of covid-19 pandemic to each and every household as most of the people are getting affected from the same. The awareness classes are scheduled to be held on 15, 17,19, 21 and 23 May 2021 at 2.30 PM. Eminent doctors and the concerned officials would clear the doubts of the public. 

The elected representatives of the LSGIs, ward level committee members, war room nodal officers, volunteers, officials working in connection with covid-19 countering activities, Kudumbashree staff, office bearers of CDSs, ADSs and NHGs, training team members, KAASS members, Micro Enterprise Consultants, Jagratha Samithi members, community counsellors, office bearers of Balasabha, BUDS teachers, DDUGKY trainees etc have attended the awareness programme. The zoom meeting was streamed through the facebook and youtube channels of KILA. Dr. P.T Zacharia, State President, IMA, presided over the function. Shri. S. Harikishore IAS, Executive Director, Kudumbashree introduced the project.  Dr. Padmakumar, Professor of Medicine, Medical College, Alappuzha, led the class on taking care of covid-19 patients at households. Dr. R.C Sreekumar, Chairman, Research Cell & Digital IMA was the moderator of the programme. Dr. P. Gopikumar, State Secretary, IMA Kerala delivered the welcome speech. Dr. Joy Elamon. Director General (DG) Kerala Institute of Local Administration, also participated in the programme.

Kudumbashree joined hands with Supplyco for the home delivery of essential goods during the lockdown. This service is now available at 95 Supplyco outlets across the state. The customers may place their orders through phone or whatsapp and following that, the respective Kudumbashree members would deliver the essential goods at the door steps. One can apply for upto 20 kilogram in a single order. In the first phase, home delivery of essential goods would be available within 10 kms around the outlet.

The orders will be received till 1 PM and the goods will be delivered during the afternoon.  Rs 40 is charged for the delivery within 2 kms. Rs 60 is charged for the delivery within 5 kms. Rs 100 is the delivery charge for delivering the goods within 10 kms. The customer may pay the bill amount to the Kudumbashree member who delivers the goods at their doorsteps. This service is now available in all the major Supplyco Supermarkets. The details of the supermarkets, where home delivery is available and their contact numbers are listed in Supplyco's official website. As of now, 2 Kudumbashree members are entrusted in every outlet for the home delivery service. If the orders increase, more Kudumbashree members would be entrusted for the same. Kudumbashree considers this convergence as an opportunity to serve the public, overcome the crisis caused by covid-19 pandemic.

Kudumbashree is all set to implement new training programme in 4 states as part of the National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) of National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). NRETP is being implemented in many states under the leadership of the Ministry of Rural Development with the support of the World Bank. The aim of the project is to elevate the enterprise model to higher level (scalable enterprises). As a part of this project, NRLM had sought Kudumbashree's support to extend training to the Business Development Support Providers (BDSP), who would be appointed for increasing the business of the enterprises. Assam, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have already requested Kudumbashree's support for providing training to the BDSPs as part of NRETP. Kudumbashree had signed an MoU with National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), based on this requirement.

The aim was to develop a module for the training and thereby improve their skillsets. Kudumbashree had extended training to the Community Resource Persons (CRP-EP) of various states as part of Startup Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP). NRLM sought Kudumbashree's expertise to extend training to the BDSPs, as Kudumbashree has previous experience in extending training to the Community Resource Persons (CRP-EP), and the NRETP Project is in the model of the SVEP Project. The activities of the BDSPs of NRETP is more challenging than that of the Community Resource Persons of SVEP. Therefore, they require more training to impart the required skill set. So Kudumbashree is planning to make the training module for the Community Resource Persons as the Basic Module for the training for BDSPs.

Kudumbashree also plans to formulate a new training module, as a Growth Module (as an additional component) to help them improve their skill sets and extend the training. In short, as per the requirement of NRLM, Kudumbashree would prepare a training programme that would consist of the Basic Module and Growth Module for the BDSPs.The training would be done completely in online mode, in the background of Covid-19 pandemic. It is a great challenge for Kudumbashree to turn the training programme for moulding the best community cadres for supporting the enterprises, completely into online mode.

Kudumbashree have also decided to prepare a Learning Management System to extend the needed training and skill development in online mode to the trainees. Various study materials such as videos on different topics, case studies, special training modules etc are included in addition to the online classes. Kudumbashree aims at making this training the best by providing this study material along with the online classes. Kudumbashree aims at starting the training in the concerned states immediately on getting final approval for these training modules.

Kudumbashree Kannur District Mission has come up with 'Kalimuttam', an innovative programme for ensuring the mental health of children.'Kalimuttam' is the programme being implemented through Kudumbashree Balasabhas by the Kannur District Administration, in the realization that their mental health needs to be improved. The District Level Inauguration of the Programme was held at English Medium School, Anjarakandy, Kannur on 28 January 2021.

The lockdown which was notified in the state due to covid-19 and the other restrictions had affected children adversely. This Comprehensive Development Programme is being implemented by bringing together all the Departments working in connection with Child Development under one roof. The programme would be implemented through Kudumbashree Balasabhas in convergence with National Health Mission, Library Council, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services). The 'Kalimuttam' Programme aims at the physical, social and mental health development of children and is implemented in four levels such as NHG level (Balasabha level), ADS level, panchayath level and State level.

The locally selected Resource Persons would communicate with the children at Balasabhas, on various topics. They would identify those children who are suffering from mental stress and ensure them the needed help under the leadership of the District Mental Health experts. Curriculum related activities, co-curricular activities, personality development classes, activities to nurture social service attitude, art-sports and cultural activities, farming activities, gender sensitization classes etc will also be implemented through this coordination programme. The programme also aims at developing a referral system for the social-mental support of the children along with organising productive and creative activities for children with their peers. The important activities being implemented through 'Kalimuttam' Programme are as follows.

1.Curricular Activities- These are activities based on the online classes attended by the students. Seeking the local history (Social Studies), arranging vegetable gardens, gardening (Botany), discussion on books, recitation (linguistic studies), bird watching and environment observation (Zoology, Botany).
2.Co-curricular Activities- Related to art (books, poems, music, handicraft making, origami), sports- related to physical fitness (cycling groups,marathon, walking).
3. Personality Development Classes, Gender Sensitization Activities (Doctor Kid- for covid response and awareness, cookery programmes and household chores-without any gender differences, cleaning house and surroundings).
4. Activities to nurture Social Service attitude- Interviews of Palliative Care workers and activities with them, cleaning public spaces and paths with social workers.

By launching such a programme associating with Kudumbashree Kannur District Mission, the Kannur District Administration had taken the upper hand in the development of the upcoming generation and for improving their mental health. The Kudumbashree Kannur District team is actively making effective interventions for implementing such an activity, converging with other governmental departments. All these activities of this programme are being implemented following the covid-19 protocol.