What We Do

These are the words of our Director, Ngulie Rentta.

"My tribe is the Liangmai and we live in Tening sub-division in Peren District of Nagaland, India. It has only about twenty thousand population in total, and about 95% of the Liangmais are Christians. Their main occupation is cultivation. Tening is the head-quarters of the Liangmai tribe which is about one hundred twenty kilometers away from the nearest airport, Dimapur.

About 80% households of Liangmais are farmers, practicing traditional system of shift cultivation. We depend our livelihood solely on our agriculture. This includes rice, corn, yam and some seasonal fruits and vegetables. However, because we live on the mountains, farming is not easy for we depend on rainwater. When the monsoon fails the crops production fails which leads the whole family to undergo shortage of food. People have to work hard for their survival. Everyday from morning till late evening most of the parents need to be in the farm, leaving behind their small children at home. Because of this many children could notreceive proper care and love from their parents, and many children cannot go to school or left the school as they have to look after the younger siblings. As a result there are many school drop outs and never enrolled children in my community. Even though the parents have to work from morning till evening for the whole year round, still their farm products are not always sufficient to support the family’s needs. Thus many families are living below poverty line. Unfortunately during this time Liangmai being the minority tribe living in the most remote and interior part of Nagaland was a hindrance for any facility as well as job opportunity.

The mortality rate in this reason is also very high on both children and adult. There could be many reasons, but to mention few, when a child is sick due to malnourish he or she cannot get medical aid at the right time as there are no medical facility in the village, which often made curable diseases become incurable and eventually led to death. The mortality rate among pregnant women are the highest especially in child birth, as many village do not connect with public transport system and the poor villager could not afford to hire vehicle or no vehicle to go to nearby towns where hospital facilities are available. This led to lost of many woman’s life leaving behind the husband widower. When this poor widower could not manage his family alone he will remarry another women, leaving the children orphan. Hence, there are many poor and needy children without proper care and love. Many, desperate for some semblance of family life, become domestic slaves, and exist day-to-day at the mercy of their owners. Unfortunately, until today no one, neither individual nor society has shown their concern toward this poorest of the poor children. There is no single orphanage nor children home in the whole Tening area, that will bring hope and provide shelter with love and care.

Living together and seeing with my own eyes this happening everyday in my community, I just cannot let go and ignore this way anymore longer. I really have a heart to do something for these poor and needy children to bring hope in their life and make them total human. Therefore, considering all these needs I come to conclusion that the only best way to help them is by starting a home for orphans which will provide all basic needs with parental love and care. And most importantly to help them in the field of education. However, to make this vision come into reality I will definitely need your prayers and support."

Our vision and mission

The vision of NARUDA is inspired by faith in the common dignity and good of all humankind. It is based on the principles of love, peace and justice in society. The society visualises a community which allows for participation of all human beings in all activities of life irrespective of tribe, clan, religion or divisions in religion or sex.

The mission of Naruda is to create awareness of higher values of life and to create situations where all communities live in peace, harmony, justice and love. The society's mission is also to create conditions for women, children, youth, the downtrodden, underprivileged, the elderly citizens, differently able and other to develop to their fullest potentials and love just life. To advocate and encourage nature care, ecological sensitivity, examine and uphold customs and traditions which are relevant and enhance life.

Working with partners, we undertake projects to help the people of Nagaland. The areas that we concentrate on include:

The care of neglected children. Due to the difficulties of life in Nagaland, children can be left at home to fend for themselves, whilst their parents work in the fields. Even worse, they can be sold into servitude to help pay the family's bills. We will work tirelessly to overcome this situation.
Most villages in Nagaland are on hilltops. This leads to problems with water. Whilst during the rainy season there is an ample sufficiency of water, by contrast, during the dry season, people need to trek long distances up and down hills to get supplies. It is our plan that everyone has access to clean water all year round.

Most people in Nagaland live on or below poverty level and are subsistence farmers. We will be helping them to increase their incomes by improving yield on existing crops and introducing beekeeping and possible livestock farming.
Single mothers have low incomes. With our partners, we hope to assist them to sell handicrafts to generate income.
There is a lack of education in the region. Whilst there are state and private schools, children cannot access them either due to geographic or financial constraints. We hope to overcome.
If there are medical issues in the remote areas, people have to trek to Tening Town for the first line of help. This can be arduous and sometimes fatal, especially in the wet season.
Power is provided sporadically and, in the future, we will be carrying out a needs survey for the region. Thereafter we hope we can facilitate the provision of reliable power in the region.