COODU has been recognised as an Organisation working for Women Development by the DRDA., Coimbatore and later by Tamil Nadu Corporation for Development of Women (TNCDW) Ltd, commonly called as “Mahalir Thittam” in Tamil. In association with it, COODU had conducted Orientation, EDP and Skill trainings and organised credit rating exercises. Details of our services are given below:-

Development And Empowerment Of Women

• More than 20,000 Urban, Rural and Tribal women have enrolled their names in 1272 Women Self Help Group (SHG).
• Promoting savings scheme among these women members and about 80 Crores Rupees have been saved and the same was given to those women as internal lending for their domestic purposes and to come out from the clutches of local money lenders
• More than 10,000 women have availed micro loans from Nationalized, Private Banks and Financial Institutions to promote them as local micro entrepreneur.
• Federated these SHGs in Panchayat Level (Panchayat Level Federation – PLF) Block Level (Cluster Level Federation)
• To promote them as entrepreneur, continuous and consequent Entrepreneurship Development Programs (EDP) trainings were organised for 7,000 women members.

SHG Formation

COODU has been one of the foremost NGOs in Tamil Nadu in fostering formation of women Self Help Groups. In the watersheds, COODU has been successful in forming SHGs with an accent on savings and thrift. The overall details of SHGs are as follows;

Name of District	COIMBATORE
No. of blocks adopted	7
Number of villages covered by COODU	59
Number of women covered under SHGs	10,523
Number of women SHGs promoted	1272
Total amount saved and revolved by women SHG members	87,57,86,325
Total number of Panchayat Level (women) Federation established	23

Entrepreneurship Development Programmes:

COODU provides Training in Entrepreneurship Development to all SHG members in different trades. They are provided with technical support and vocational skills training. They are also provided with guidance on project planning and implementation. The Resource Persons for the EDP are drawn from various government and non-government institutions including cooperatives, banks, academic institutions, practitioners and entrepreneurs. As a result of EDP training provided by COODU to SHG members, many women have got trained and are presently engaged in profitable entrepreneurial activities. They are in turn sharing such benefits to other women in their groups.

Training And Capacity Building:

COODU has been instrumental in providing Skill Training and Capacity Building to women in SHG groups and as a result several women have acquired skills in new ventures. Some of the trainings include rising of seedlings in nurseries, plantations and other agro-products, Vermi- composting, training in electronics and computers, financial management and book keeping. Some of the successful income generating activities engaged by women SHG through the support of COODU includes:

• Establishing Provision Shops
• Manufacture of Handmade Products
• Jute Products
• Running Canteen and Xerox Center in Coimbatore Collectorate and Educational Institutions
• PDS Outlets
• Garments
• Condiments
• Driving School
• Handicrafts
• Handloom
• Cell Phone Service
• Detergent

MICRO-Credit For Income Generation Activities

In order to develop the economical independency of women and to provide alternate employment opportunities to retain the women work force by preventing migration, COODU has guided the women SHGs to avail credits from financial institutions to establish their own employment units by utilizing the available local resources in order to ensure their economical sustainability such as, Financial assistance received to strengthen woman SHGs

S.No	Number of Assistance	Number of Groups	No of Villages	Total amount received
1.	NABARD	75	18	4,89,45,875.00
2.	SGSY assistance	102	23	8,11,23,355.00
3.	TAHDCO assistance	45	12	2,25,48,625.00
4.	Direct Linkage	541	78	12,89,04,500.00

Trade Related Entrepreneurship Assistance & Development For Women (TREAD)

The ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises has sanctioned the TREAD programme to empower the rural poor women through capacity building. The plans envisaged imparting managerial and technical skills to the poor women and also equip them through experiential learning to enable them to start micro-enterprises. Technologies have been chosen keeping in view the absorption capacity of the beneficiaries, its commercial viability and market demand for the products. Beneficiaries who are already into thrift activities and micro credit with experience in group management and accounting have been chosen. COODU, through its multi-dimensional teams imparted training to 190 women SHG members on the following activities:To start enterprises the Government had given a grant of Rs.8.31 Lakhs and COODU had beneficiaries in obtaining bank loan to the tune of Rs.18.84 Lakhs. As envisaged 190 poor families have attained sustainable livelihood.

Activities For Empowerment Of Women Through Irish Aid:

With the objective of empowering women, COODU organised a massive rally of women SHG members from VOC Park to Red Cross building in Coimbatore and conducted a meeting at VOC Park attended by more than 2500 women. Representatives of Voluntary Agencies from various states also attended the meeting. The advocacy was supported by Irish Aid.

Trees For Socially And Economically Disadvantaged Women:

With aid from ConAct e.V., of Germany, COODU identified 100 socially and economically disadvantaged women in Kallipalayam village and panchayat, trained them on planting and maintenance techniques, supplied them 50 tree crops and 50 fruit crops with tree guards and monitored their growth periodically.