Love in action

Jackie Macadam offers an update on the work of the charity Scottish Love in Action, which has its roots within the Church of Scotland.

“IT’S been a dream of ours for a long time and now it’s becoming a reality.” Gillie Davidson is talking about the creation of a new project by Scottish Love in Action (SLA) the charity founded over 20 years ago originally to help “Dalit” or “Untouchable” children in India.

In 1999 Gillie and Brian Barron took a group of young people from the youth group Q2 which they ran in Greenbank Parish Church, in Edinburgh, to a small rural town in Andhra Pradesh, India where they went to assist a local Non-Government Organisation (NGO) build a home for 120 homeless children, for which they had raised the money. On their return the experience inspired them to do more for them so they founded the charity. Since then SLA has enabled thousands of vulnerable children and young people in India to escape the poverty trap.

In 2006 SLA was given a major boost when it was selected by the Church of Scotland Guild as one its three-year partner projects. The money raised by the Guild helped feed, clothe, house, educate and give medical care, and to bring love, to the children. The Guild money also, with other donations, enabled them to enlarge the Home; create a separate building for the boys; build a school; create a small sewing centre and pay for the drilling, deep into the earth, to create a new well of drinkable water. It also allowed them to acquire a large generator for power and even create a small medical clinic.

“In time the number of children eventually rose to 500 so we were having to raise large sums of money to send out to India. Eventually a further education fund was established by generous donors so that once the children reached 16 they would be funded by SLA to go on to further education or to a diversity of vocations. As most of them had no parents and no relatives to support them Light of Love was their home. Our wonderful Indian partners worked so very hard and created such a loving, thriving family environment in which the children flourished. It was a truly remarkable place to which so many Scottish volunteers loved to go to work and experience life in rural India.

“For some it was a life changing involvement as it was so different from anything they had ever experienced and more than anything else they loved and were, so loved by the children.

“We love the work we and our partners are able to do with the young people and we began to realise that it would be wise to create something that would have more sustainability and be more selfsupporting?”

In 2012 the SLA board, decided it was time to begin the long road towards creating a social enterprise to assist in the effort of raising funds for the everincreasing work of SLA.

“A few months after this decision was made one of our donors, who had been to Tuni as a volunteer, suggested that it would be sensible to create a social enterprise in India to raise money which in time could reduce some of the huge fundraising pressure on SLA thus giving sustainability to the charity.

“This was another incredible moment for SLA as this generous donor promised a large sum of money to make such a project possible without using any of SLA’s general donations.

“One of the young people from the original 1999 venture agreed to take on the challenge of researching a possible enterprise in India.”

With the approval and backing of the SLA Board an enormous amount of research began which led to the creation of a sister charity, the Pipal Foundation.

Scottish Love in Action’s association with India has arisen from long-standing partnerships between them and their Indian NGO partners. After 19 years of full-time support the original project in Tuni, Andra Pradesh, chose to become independent but SLA continues to support other projects mainly connected to Rainbow Homes and Voice for Girls in Telangana, which have been supported for the last seven years. The people involved with both Rainbow Homes Program and VOICE 4 Girls are inspirational in their thoughtful and caring approach to finding solutions to the problems deprived and vulnerable children and young people face. They provide a care model for the most deprived and vulnerable children, including those without shelter or parents, runaways, and children from marginalised communities such as sex workers and manual scavengers.

“SLA has now been supporting NGOs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for the last 23 years. Funds totalling over £3.5 million have been disbursed in that time to grassroots Indian projects for children,” explains Gillie.

SLA has provided shelter, food, clothing medical care and educational opportunities for thousands of children from disadvantaged backgrounds in India.

Gillie explained that while SLA will remain active in supporting such NGOs, SLA’s sister charity, the Pipal Foundation (TPF) will provide seed funding to develop a more sustainable stream of funds for child welfare activities especially education.

“SLA’s innovative social enterprise stems from our aim to provide funding to NGOs engaged in children’s welfare, especially the poorest of the poor in India whilst also providing support and educational benefit to the community in which it is established.

“The main reason why a dairy farm was chosen is that it can fulfil these aims whilst also entering the market which can generate the returns required for creating profits to go towards charitable causes for children in India.”

The initiative has been undertaken in partnership with Edinburgh University’s Royal Dick Veterinary School (RDV). The school’s research spans all aspects of veterinary medicine, led by the Roslin Institute which is concerned with genetics for healthy animals, controlling infectious diseases and improving animal production and welfare.

“The farm will be built to accommodate around 200 milking cows and aims to be a centre of excellence in terms of cow comfort and welfare. We are working with leading international industry firms to provide good quality facilities for animals recognising that cow comfort is the key to a sustainable farm.”

“The People’s Community Dairy Farm (PCDF) is a private limited company incorporated in India. Funds are to be provided for the PCDF from the UK (Pipal Foundation) with the initiative operating on a commercial basis but donating profits to registered and recognised NGOs in India engaged in similar activities to those already supported by SLA.

“PCDF has purchased 27 acres of farm land in the state of Karnataka, South India and is currently finalising the exact plans for the farm before construction begins. We hope to welcome the first cows by the end of 2024.

“The dairy farm was chosen following intensive research into what type of activity might be suitable for profit generation and community involvement/sustainable livelihood activities.

“Many people in rural parts of India rely on income from animal husbandry having a few cows or buffaloes selling their milk to dairies.

“SLA’s initiative aims to support such cattle owners by helping to maximise milk yields through knowledge sharing and adopting best practices in terms of animal nutrition and disease prevention.”

There are possibilities for further development such as a co-operative model and extending the reach of the project into more communities across rural India.

“There have been many hurdles to cross in getting to this stage alone.”

Gillie says: “We have had to identify a suitable site, negotiate regulatory requirements for such foreign investment, analyse the best model for meeting the needs of the undertaking and finding suitable people to partner with us to steward the project both in India and back in the UK.

“We are fortunate to have very competent and enthusiastic Board members and most importantly we are enriched by the expertise of the Royal Dick Vet.

“However we are always keen to expand partnerships and find more people with skills for example website design, agricultural knowledge etc and of course enthusiasm to help drive the project forward and to optimise the potential benefits to all stakeholders.”

In January 2024 four members of the SLA Board and members of the TPF Board, Jim Young and Professor Neil Sergison from the RDV went out to inspect the site and talk with the people there.

Reporting on the trip, Jim Young explained: “It will create both full time and seasonal employment in both agricultural production and animal husbandry. It was encouraging to hear that there is a good water supply at the site required for crop production and the cows themselves.” “We will always be indebted to the wonderful members of the Guild all over Scotland for their loving, prayerful and enthusiastic support,” says Gillie. “It was a great privilege to meet so many of them as we visited them across the country, we will never forget them.” 

If you are interested in this project and would like further information, contact Gillie at gillie@sla-India.org