Greetings from Father Maria Joseph Kumar Udagandla, Rudrasamudram Parish, Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh, South India. This is my Parish. I have eight missions at a distance of 15 to 25 Kms from the parish.

The Rudrasamudram Village has 640 families belonging to different castes and cultures. The topography is diverse and rustic with its hills, jungle forests and semiarid land. This is a very impoverished region that lacks adequate infrastructure. Travel to the missions and between villages is difficult since there are only dirt roads and no frequent public transportation.

My parishioners are from the Dalith community. They are very poor and backward classes with only 12% educated. They are very much discriminated against socially, economically and politically.

The people are landless. There is no industry or permanent jobs and the land is not suitable for agriculture, so they leave the elderly and the children and go in a seasonal migration to the other districts of the state in search of work. They eke out their livelihoods as migrant coolies in other districts. This migration brings poverty and illiteracy.

Due to the acute poverty the women are sent out as servant maids and the children as child laborers who graze the buffaloes and goats of the rich landlords.