Support for divorced and widowed women in rural India.

The aid organization Jnana Pradodhini was set up in the aftermath of the 1993 earthquake with the aim of providing rapid and effective aid to victims in the rural district of Harali. Buildings were swiftly reconstructed, two new schools were built and an agricultural school was founded. An agricultural business has also been established, with 30 fruit plantations and processing facilities for the mangoes, guavas and custard apples that are cultivated there.

Some 20 widowed or divorced - and therefore socially marginalized - women work in the fruit plantations or help process the fruit. As they have no husbands they are without homes and they and their children are accommodated at the workplace. With the help of aid organization Jnana Pradodhini a three-storey house is being built by Knorr-Bremse Global Care for these women with five apartments per floor, each equipped with a kitchen, living room and bathroom.

Suryakan Khambekar (center), project initiator and long-serving Knorr-Bremse employee in Munich, at the laying of the foundation stone in April 2009.

Local young people during the foundation-laying celebrations.