The Belaku Trust

We work to improve the health, education and livelihoods of disadvantaged women and children in rura

We started out as a group of health professionals conducting research into women’s health and children’s health and nutrition in Karnakapura Taluk, a rural community outside of Bangalore. Our research gave us insights into the problems faced by poor and marginalised people in Kanakapura Taluk. We have seen and documented the terrible conditions faced by women and children and the poor quality of h

15/08/2018

Exciting news. The communication below should tell you all about it.
Do watch the film and congratulate Nirmal, Shiny and Kameshwari. And of course, the women!

My response to Shiny
Congratulations, Shiny, that is great news. And it is very special -- and well deserved -- that he has dedicated it to you. Tell Nirmal that all at Belaku and its friends are proud of him. This will also give Belaku as well as the women's groups some exposure.

From:"shini thomas"
To: "Belaku new"
Date:Mon, August 13, 2018 11:11 pm
Subject:Hosa Belaku Documentary

Dear Saras,
Happy to inform you that my son Nirmal Thomas as part of his internship prepared a short documentary on Hosa Belaku Artisans. The film is declared Winner for Liverpool Hope University Documentary Festival and has been Officially Selected for London Earls Court Film Festival 2018. He conveys his courtesy to you for laying a foundation to such a fruitful organization.

Please the link below to watch the film:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z6O-MzwZZBWY1rCf2rAArJ9nfU68rPbf/view?usp=sharing

Also I have pasted the mail as received by him.

ARTICULATING WOMEN

Dear Nirmal Thomas,

It is with great pleasure that I write to inform you that although the judges determined that only one film from the first competition warranted a prize, that film was "Hosa Belaku". In recognition of your success, you will receive 5000 rupees in Amazon vouchers and will be invited to a special event at Christ at which your film will be screened. You will be given the opportunity, should you wish to do so, to talk about your film at that event, which will take place at the end of February or the beginning of March 2019 at Christ University. One of the UK judges will be present at that event.

I also wanted to let you know that on the basis of the judges enthusiasm for your film, the Director of the London Earl's Court Short Film Festival was approached, with your film nominated for inclusion in their film festival in November 2018. Your film has been accepted, and will be screened at that prestigious London festival. You will receive laurels in recognition of that acceptance.

In order to give you wider exposure and recognition, it would be extremely useful if you could supply me with a few paragraphs about yourself, about your choice of subject, and about the making of your film. A good photograph of yourself that can be used in publicity materials and on the Project website would also be extremely useful.

Finally, I should say that the Advisory Committee felt that you should be informed that winning a prize in the first competition should in no way disqualify you should you wish to enter a new film for the second competition.

You have made a lovely film, and one that shows real talent as a filmmaker.

With warm congratulations,
And very best wishes,
Cindy Hamilton
Chair of the Project Advisory Committee

Hosa Belaku (New Dawn) 2018.mp4

Irish entrepreneur held in Switzerland on suspicion of embezzlement

11/03/2018

For any of our supporters and friends who have ever used Ammado to send us (or anyone else!) a donation. Bad news on that front -- the Ammado donations have apparently been misused. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/irish-entrepreneur-held-in-switzerland-on-suspicion-of-embezzlement-1.3376981.

The site seems to have been shut down and we cannot even ascertain how much was due to us from Ammado. Please let us know if you had sent any donation to Belaku via Ammado in the last six months.Also please get in touch with us if you had planned any future donations, so we can suggest the best way to do it.

Distressing, but I guess there are more good folks out there than the opposite. I hope!

Irish entrepreneur held in Switzerland on suspicion of embezzlement ammado founder Peter Conlon’s site is alleged to have withheld €3.8m from charities

03/12/2017

Reporting on a win and lose event!

Our excellent gelathi (community guide) Bharathi has been selected as the anganwadi (pre-school centre) helper in the Bommanhalli anganwadi. The anganwadis are an important part of the Government of India’s massive national Integrated Child Development Services programme, and Belaku has worked with several of them for many years now, training community women like Bharati to support and enrich the functioning of the programme.

With Bharathi now more closely involved in this anganwadi, we may not see as much of her, but we know it will strengthen our ties to Bommanhalli and we can move on to work with other anganwadis.

We wish Bharathi the very best in her new job.

16/10/2017

A letter from a young woman who has been able to join engineering college -- excerpted but otherwise undoctored.
Our best wishes to her for her future!

My parents are hard workers, they do agriculture work and they do sericulture. My parents are very supportive and they tried their best to give good education for all of us.
I am a volleyball player and I have played state levels in school days. After 10th std I joined diploma in computer science and last year I have completed my diploma course with distinction.
I had a dream of studying computer science engineering (B.E) . . . but my parents were in debt. So I decided to help the family and joined garments factory to work.
It's my luck that Belaku trust who is working in our village have heard about me … I was told by Belaku staff that if you are interested to continue the study then you should make some effort to reach the goal.
I started dreaming of becoming engineer again and I wrote CET exam. I got the ranking in CET. I quit the job. I had some money with me and Belaku trust supported me by giving [a scholarship]
I got the engineering seat in govt collage Bangalore.
After the completion of the degree I will join to work and I will support those children who are dreaming like me for getting higher education.

14/09/2017

Our annual report has recently gone out and we hope you have seen it. If you haven't, do let us know by mailing [email protected].

10/09/2017

We're back (on Facebook) and intend to stay active - apologies for all the messages we may have missed.
The products of the women's groups are still available. They are no longer sold with Belaku's help, but through another group. Any of you wishing to order can still mail Belaku, and we will forward your messages to them. Thank you all for your support!