CANACONA: There was a time when there were self-help groups at every nook and corner of Canacona taluka. Only few are still operational today and one of them is Omkar self-help group from Kindlebag.
Sandhya Dinesh Desai who is also the president of the group, founded this SHG with 20 other women from the village back in 2004 and the group has been active ever since for the past 18 years.
“The midday meal scheme for the school students back in 2004 and since then our group has been providing meals to various schools in Canacona. Omkar self-help group started to independently supply the meals on contract basis from 2009,” says Desai.
“To prepare the food and to deliver it to schools is a terribly difficult task but everyone at the Omkar self-help group considers this as a public service. Each month food ingredients worth more than 5 lakh are bought. A close watch has to be kept on the availability of gas cylinders, electricity as well as water. The work starts at 4 in the morning and many times there are some pre-cooking preparations such as cleaning vegetables and keeping other materials ready a day prior. It needs tremendous patience and planning,” she said
The group provides midday meals to 2900 students which are cooked by 10 of our women members. The food is then delivered to the schools by rickshaws and four-wheelers. This provides direct and indirect employment to 15 people
She also added that a dedicated kitchen to cook midday meals has been built and hygiene is given utmost priority while preparing as well as packing the food.
They say a way to a person’s heart is through the stomach. 2900 students in Canacona taluka thank Sandhya from the bottom of their hearts each school day.
