Bihar: Locals Of Ganeshpur Village Of Purnia District Solve Commute Issues By Working Together

The Purnia district in Bihar lies in the flood-prone area in the state and often suffers from rising water levels in water bodies including canals, rivulets, etc. Women, children, and the elderly were finding it difficult to commute to the villages and towns around due to a broken bridge.

On visiting the village, Team Goonj mobilized and motivated people to address this local issue. The locals then decided to build a concrete structure... a new bridge over the village's canal to increase connectivity, reducing their travel time and cost.

Over the course of two days, 120 villagers built a 72-foot-long and 6-foot-wide bridge made from 150 bamboo contributed by the village while Goonj reached with 4 kilograms of rope for tying the bamboo. The bridge was finally built for easy access to the community.

All those involved in building the bamboo bridge were rewarded with Family kits under Goonj's 'Cloth for Work' (CFW) initiative. They were not only happy with the essential materials but were also pleased with themselves to have found solutions to their own common problems.

This success has motivated the community in a big way. They are now excited by the prospect of how they can get so much done by working together and using locally available resources. There are many such community-made bamboo bridges that communities all over India have made in the past years, which over time have been made concrete later by the local government.

Cloth for Work initiative is about people becoming the decision-makers of their own problems & solutions where Goonj is playing the role of catalyst in the process of self-strengthening. And when people come together to work for the entire community, the results are exceptional!

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