A cow, a sewing machine and school fees for a daughter

Sunita Kumara Swamy's family lives at Kurubarahalli Doddi near Kabbalu, and earns its living by keeping cows and selling milk to the dairy. Like many small farming households, they were going through a difficult stretch, and paying the school fees for their daughter had become hard to manage.

Bhoomi Seva gave their daughter a scholarship and helped with the fee payment, so that her education could continue. Scholarship support of this kind is meant to continue every year until the student finishes their education.

The family also received a desi cow. A cow is not only a source of milk income: for a household moving toward natural farming, cow dung and cow urine are the farm-made inputs that natural-farming preparations are built on. This is why Bhoomi Seva donates desi cows to marginal farmers who do not have one.

Alongside the cow, the family received a sewing machine, so that the household would have a second source of income and not depend on milk sales alone.

The family later wrote a letter in Kannada about what the support meant to them. It is reproduced in full below, and it is probably a truer account of this work than anything we could write ourselves.