For over three and a half decades, the Social Awareness And Development Organisation for Women (SAADOW) has been working alongside rural and hill communities in Tamil Nadu to create sustainable opportunities for people while protecting the natural ecosystems they depend upon. Founded in 1990, SAADOW is a women-governed grassroots organization established to address the interconnected challenges of poverty, gender inequality, environmental degradation, and limited livelihood options in some of the state's most underserved rural and hilly regions. “Healthy ecosystems and empowered communities are inseparable. Lasting development begins from within communities themselves.”