Member organisations of the network work with marginalized communities, enabling them to defend their rights and find a way out of poverty. Local coordinators visit the inhabitants, help them organise groups and assist them in their struggle. Meetings, guidance, training and legal support: together, they organise the mobilisation for rights, until these rights are achieved.

Fedina offers regular training for members of the network, not only on organisation and mobilisation, but also on the existing laws. Specialised lawyers offer legal support to local associations in situations where a conflict cannot be resolved locally. Fedina also runs many information and awareness campaigns aimed at the general population and public authorities.

Frères des Hommes, with the support of their donors, enables the setting-up of activities. This international support also gives Fedina the confidence to become involved in projects of a socially sensitive nature. The activities of Fedina and Frères des Hommes concern more than 114 000 members within 3 700 groups of 28 local associations, in 5 states of Southern India.

A word from Duarte Barreto, director of Fedina

“Within the network, local associations work together to confront the discriminations suffered by marginalised communities. What they do is extraordinary, as it touches the foundation of society. We fight forms of discrimination which have become structural, rooted in a social code from another time.
All of this is made possible thanks to the project with Frères des Hommes. Financially, we are free to work on socially sensitive issues such as workers’ rights or the question of castes. We have also grown stronger from a political point of view: we have more confidence and local associations feel encouraged in their activities.
We still have to fight fear of the State, the high castes and men. We must also remain vigilant: this year we discovered an electrified barrier built in a town to separate the untouchables (Dalits) from the rest of the population.”