Ambuja Foundation promotes kitchen gardening as a way to improve nutrition, particularly for women, and to provide a supplementary income source for families, especially during times like the COVID-19 lockdown. Essentials like training, seeds, and support to individuals and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to establish and maintain kitchen gardens, encouraging the consumption of fresh vegetables and the sale of surplus produce in local markets.

Open Gyms in Chughe Kalan and Mehma Sarkari, Bathinda were setup by Ambuja Foundation and the Youth Club encouraging community members to try the installed outdoor equipment and get fit. Physical fitness was encouraged amongst community members to improve lifestyle habits and be more fit.

Ambuja Foundation’s team carried out Tobacco-Free campaigns in schools in the region, creating awareness amongst students, parents and school management committees on the ill-effects of tobacco consumptions.

Daily walks are considered to be a good remedy for maintaining blood sugar levels, hypertension, improve heart health, weight management and overall well-being. This was encouraged in the community and at nutrition centres by Ambuja Foundation’s health volunteers.

Flour millers like Balveer Singh were educated by the Ambuja Foundation team on the dietary benefits of mixed flour and encouraged to not only promote it but also sell it at their mill.

Due to the high prevalence of drug abuse in the region, youth are commonly found falling prey to such abuse and being unproductive. Young people spent time loitering aimlessly or spent time indoors in Sivan.

The women in Mehma Sawai village were having a lot of issues with their health, and also with Primary Health Centre located 4 kms away, lack of transportation, they were bound to neglect health. Diabetes, hypertension, heart diseases and the Punjabi diet was slowly wreaking a havoc.

A frail young woman, barely 20, walks into a public health clinic and faints. She had gone there from her village in Farakka, West Bengal, for a prenatal check-up. In Chandrapur, Maharashtra, a teenager is weeping as she talks to the Ambuja Foundation Sakhi. She is distressed that her mother is accusing her of doing something wrong with a boy because her menstruation stopped a few months ago. In a tribal area nearby, 55 people test positive for sickle cell disease. Somewhere in rural India, the women of the house sit down to their meal after all the men have been served, there's no fish left for them. They'll make do with the bones.

Picture the sun rising over the fields, casting a golden hue as groups of villagers gather for their daily exercise routines. This scene, traditionally uncommon in rural India, is becoming a symbol of change to combat the rising incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Among these groups in Chandrapur, Maharashtra are Sunita Thamke and her husband Vinod Thamke.

Executing a number of community welfare activities and creating awareness around nutrition, Ambuja Foundation zealously celebrated Poshan Maah 2024 in the month of September. The Foundation, known for its pan-India social development work to transform rural communities, conducted a month-long nutrition campaign focusing on awareness, health camps, community engagement programs and rallies in collaboration with ICDS and Health Department of the districts. Many events such as ‘god bharai’, ‘Annprashan’, counselling on breastfeeding and family planning were organised, focusing on maternal nutrition and balanced diet in association with ICDS and Health Department at AWCs and Block level. Even at the skill training centres and amongst women and adolescent groups health camps and check-up sessions.

Ajija Bibi (35) was just 12 years old when she rolled her first bidi (cigarette). She grew up, and today lives in Murshidabad, West Bengal, which has emerged as a prominent centre for the bidi industry in India. Women in every household spend their days rolling bidis and have become so proficient at the task, that they can roll up to 3000 bidis a day!

To those who once knew it, Mohi Kalan is almost unrecognisable! Once a ‘dumping ground’ for household rubbish, today village streets are squeaky clean and ponds are a thriving oasis for birds and other local animals – a transformation that has earned them not one, but 3 awards for being the ‘Cleanest Village’.