It was special to visit our partners in Bangalore, India again after numerous lockdowns and all the uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the Association of People with Disability (APD), I visited their main campus and their large Horticulture Training Centre. They continue to run robust programmes with great impact in urban and rural areas. They are responding to almost every issue affecting the lives of people with disability (PWD) in Karnataka State – education, healthcare, treatment, employment, training and advocacy. APD’s commitment to advocacy work and building the capacity of smaller NGOs is commendable. We are now moving into the third and final year of the Disability Awareness for School Children Project, a pioneering advocacy project in Bangalore, and will also soon start to implement a project to strengthen the response to COVID amongst people with disability (PWD).  

I also met with our partner, Sumanahalli who provide an incredible level of support and care to people living with and affected by leprosy and HIV/AIDS. We reviewed our past projects and discussed new was of working together in the future. At Morning Star, it was great to meet again with the people who live there and receive support to manage their disabilities. 

All partners commented on the challenges they are facing in responding to severe price rises in basic commodities.  

I must say that the resilience and commitment of our partners is no short of inspirational. The monitoring visits were a wonderful opportunity to meet with staff, beneficiaries and see first-hand the impact of many years of SERVE support. 

Your advocacy, volunteerism and donations have a great impact on the work we can do with our partners.