One USAID-funded Building Healthy Cities (BHC) project initiative in Indore, India is to increase community and nongovernmental organization participation in the planning, implementation, and monitoring of public programs related to the social determinants of health (e.g., environment, urban planning, water and sanitation, education). The goal of the activity is to strengthen civic involvement of urban poor and marginalized people, including women and children, in Indore. BHC partnered with the Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence (CURE) for this work.
With the rise in COVID-19 cases in 2020, Indore was placed under lockdown. While necessary to prevent infection, the lockdown resulted in large losses of jobs in all sectors and the absence of market activity, which directly and adversely impacted the vulnerable communities that BHC and CURE were working with. Under these circumstances, some BHC project funds were shifted towards addressing new community concerns due to COVID-19. Part of these funds were set aside for livelihoods training workshops to equip women and girls with creative skills which could be used to generate income from the sale of the product created and services rendered. Support for this work embodies BHC’s three core values, as it used data collected by citizens to define an empowerment activity that works across sectors to improve the health and wellbeing of women and their families in Indore.
This report details a series of eight livelihoods training workshops conducted by CURE, in partnership with BHC, between January and March 2021.
We strive to build lasting relationships to produce better health outcomes for all.
