For the past decade, even before concentrating on the impact of climate change,
GUIDE has helped village women to protect local forests, land and waterbodies to
have employment in agriculture. PRA exercise was taught and it was done by women
groups in their villages to safeguard inlet canals in order to increase the water
resources for agriculture.
This led to the formation of about 1,400 village level Resource Protection
Committees in Thiruvannamalai, Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu districts by the local
women and were federated at district level to protect local resources and sustain
their traditional employment in their villages. These Committees have planted
thousands of saplings in common lands and are protecting them in hundreds of
villages. Climate change actions and its impacts were made understood to women
leaders and about their role to protect environment towards climate justice. As the
resource poor women are the most affected by the climate change our women
leaders have involved in climate justice campaigns by forming resource protection
forums in their villages to protect local resources through Gram panchyat. Through
gender justice we want women to have access and control over local resources. We
also work with women CBOS in other districts and interstate level to work
together for climate justice by training them to understand the connection between
gender and climate Justice as women are climate resilient.
Ability to enhance to livelihood:
We are involved in ensuring that women have their capacity built for new job
opportunities, right from improving the ability to local opportunities (right from
carpentry, masonry, sapling raising, organic pest controller making and up to
competitive to main opportunities such as computer-related jobs). Around 12,000
women and adolescent girls have benefitted from this programme.
