A city-based NGO is facilitating the sale of fresh monsoon vegetables grown by the Warli community on their farm in Madh Island
Women of the Warli community work in their farm at Dharavali Village in Madh Island
After eight years of developing projects to empower the Warli communities of Aarey Colony, The Nazareth Foundation is now turning their attention to a small hamlet in Madh Island. Their latest venture aims to help the Warli community of Dharavali village sell their monsoon crops. “When we started out, very few people knew of the Warli communities settled in Aarey Colony. Usually, when one would think of Warli tribes, they would think of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. But now, people are more aware about the community’s presence across the city,” shares founder Cassandra Nazareth.
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Vegetables from a previous batch are ready to be dispatched
One such endeavour to empower the community led the foundation to the hamlet of Dharavali village in Madh Island. “During the pandemic, we were helping deliver food to these communities. Once the lockdown opened up, we visited this centuries-old village which would also receive food from us,” she recalls, adding the remote hamlet consists of 10 families. This sparked the idea for a project to provide entrepreneurial opportunities to members of the community. “Dharavali Village doesn’t receive water throughout the year; neither from underground resources, nor through pipelines. So, the residents farm vegetables only in the monsoon,” Nazareth explains. The foundation joined hands with the people of the hamlet to enable them to sell their vegetables across the mainland. “The women of the community would have to spend a full day in the local market in the hope of selling enough vegetables to sustain themselves. This project offers them an assured return on their harvest. We pre-book sales through our social media platforms,” Nazareth suggests.
Cassandra Nazareth
The next batch of greens will be available on Saturday. “The pre-bookings are open till Friday afternoon,” Nazareth shares. Vegetables available include pumpkins, bottle gourd, turiya or shiroli (ridge gourd), karela (bitter gourd) and ladyfingers. “The pumpkins are enormous, unlike what one would usually find in markets, and the shiroli comes in both big and small sizes,” Nazareth reveals. Buyers can pick up their orders for these vegetables at IC Colony in Borivali, or have them home delivered via delivery platforms.
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