GMRVF works with 5 poor communities in Rajam, including Medaras or basket weavers; dhobhis; cleaners, etc. The approach to these programmes is to analyse what is holding back the community, and then to work with it in overcoming these barriers. For instance, in the case of Medaras, it was found that on the one hand there were serious problems of alcoholism which was leading to a lot of ‘leakage’ of income, besides other social and familial problems. On the other hand, the weavers were not able to access reasonable loans for purchase of raw materials and so were going to money-lenders for high interest loans. Interventions included counseling for de-addiction; formation of SHGs; provision of interest-free loans, etc.