Projects Funded in 2007
Jagriti / Jagriti Bal Vikas Samiti
Coordinator(s): Rajat Agrawal / Saraswathy Ramamoorthy
Category: Education
Location: Uttar Pradesh
Info: Focus on education activities for children with a full fledged school, several make-shift schools, mobile library, mobile laboratory, metric melas (teaching kids/villagers to measure), vocational training, health camps, etc. Please check Jagriti's website for more information on its activities. More info on AID's involvement with this project can be found here.
Bihar Slum Project / Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra
Coordinator(s): Priya Kapoor / Sameer Abhinkar
Category: Education
Location: Bihar
Info: Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra runs these centers in the slums and in the remotest areas of Jharkhand and Bihar so that the poor can avail the facility of quality education. These NFE centers act as a bridge for the poor drop outs to enter the government schools. Some of the NBJK schools hold regular computer classes, have well-equipped science labs and their libraries have the latest books and magazines to make their education at par with private schools in the cities and towns. To provide a channel for the student's creativity, extra curricular activities are also organized frequently in all the educational centers of NBJK. More info can be found here.
Snow Leopard Conservation Project / Kalpavriksh
Coordinator(s): Saraswathy Ramamoorthy
Category: Environment
Location: Jammu & Kashmir
Info: This project is a continuation of the Environmental Education (EE) Program started in 2006 in Hemis National Park, Ladakh. In partnership with Snow Leopard Conservancy-India Trust. Kalpavriksh developed educational material and an educators handbook comprised entirely of localized, interactive educational components. The Proposal in Phase-2 is intended to take the program to more regions, specifically to Zanskar Valley (Kargil district), Central Institute of Buddhist Studies (CIBS) and to a few more villages within Hemis. A hands-on project would be initiated in schools that were administered the EE program in 2006. More info can be found here.
Natural Resources Management / Samrakshan
Coordinator(s): Prasad Shenoy
Category: Environment + Community Development
Location: Meghalaya
Info: This project was implemented in 2006 in Rewak Aking, where it met with great success. By the end of the project phase, 12 SHGs were formed, have made great pogress and are functioning well. This years proposal aims at expanding the project to two more Akings - Balkal and Rongru Asim, and achieve similar results. More info can be found here.
Village Computer Kiosks / Mann Vikas Samajik Sanstha
Coordinator(s): Aparna Chidambaram
Category: Microcredit
Location: Maharashtra
Info: MVSS intends to establish three pilot kiosk centers in Western Maharastra so that farmers can strategically plan and manage farming activities and wisely market their products. The services offered at the kiosk centers include the provision of the government-announced prices of various agricultural products, fertilizer and pesticide compliances and crop diagnosis. More info can be found here.
Strengthening Democracy through Theater Art and Communication (Right To Information)
Coordinator(s): Vinodth Mohanam / Arun Raghunath
Category: Anti-corruption / Right To Information
Location: Rajasthan
Info: Reach out to the community and take both RTI and NREGA acts to the people by disseminating information in a manner more understandable to the people because this information is vital to their survival. This will be done through local cultural mediums. More info can be found here.
Bharosa - Hope for Disabled Senior Citizens / Padmashree Society
Coordinator(s): Ritwik Bhattacharya
Category: Old Age
Location: Orissa
Info: The project seeks to establish a "Meals On Wheels" type program for disabled senior citizens, whereby a van will be used to deliver two meals a day to about 25 homes. A helpline will also be established to provide emergency health care to senior citizens in villages without a health infrastructure. The helpline will be administered through SHGs the NGO already runs in these villages. More info can be found here.
Organic Farming In Rural Orissa / Agragamee
Coordinator(s): Arun Raghunath
Category: Organic Farming
Location: Orissa
Info: Agragamee a voluntary organisation registered under the Societies Act has been working with the tribal communities of Orissa for several years. In the course of its work, it has addressed issues of economic deprivation, as also the violation of the basic human rights of the tribal people in Orissa. Taking this work forward, the present project seeks to introduce methods for sustainable agriculture to tribal farmers. Taken up in three districts, (Kashipur Bock of Rayagada Dist., Dasmanthpur Block of Koraput Dist. and Tentulikhunti Block of Nabrangpur Dist), the project seeks to introduce environmentally sound agricultural practices to tribal farmers in some of the remotest, and poverty stricken (according to various HD Indicators) tribal pockets of the state. Tribal farmers cultivate without pesticides and fertilizers, but their cultivation on hill slopes is getting increasingly unsustainable, because of loss of soil cover, and the extensive nature of shifting cultivation. On the other hand, huge multi-national corporations are coming into the region for mining, and ore processing, which will lead to further destruction of this fragile eco-system, and livelihoods of the tribal people. This process has already displaced lakhs of tribal families in these and neighbouring districts of Southern Orissa, leading to impoverishment, insecurities ( food, livelihood, ecological),loss of agricultural land, and much distress and destitution. However, there is a perception that there is no alternate to this kind of development. The present project which seeks to combine training and demonstration, with direct interventions, as also provide market support, seeks to prove that viable people centred alternatives are the ecologically sound way of developing tribal regions rather than extractive industries and multi-purpose dams. More info can be found here.
Revathy Saathiship
Coordinator(s): Haripriya
Category: Organic Farming + Saathi
Location: Tamil Nadu
Info: Revathy, a dynamic leader in the organic farming movement in Tamil Nadu is AIDs recent Saathi (August 2004). While working on a science project with her 8th Std. students in 2002, Revathy, a school teacher and environmentalist discovered acute discontent, frustration and indebtedness among farmers. Further investigation revealed that Indias green revolution and heavy reliance on chemical inputs and hybrid seeds had rendered the farming community resource-poor and debt-ridden. Furthermore, pesticide residues persisting in the environment have been responsible for serious health problems in farmers and consumers, and have even been linked to foetal deformities. Revathy also noticed that these harmful chemicals have wreaked ecological havoc, destroying birds and wildlife.
On the other hand, organic farmers in Tamil Nadu have had enormous success in crop yields and consequently in combating farm debt. Surveying organic farms and growing techniques she understood that in order to change the face of Indian agriculture, the need of the hour is training opportunities for farmers in these methods. Revathy has recently quit her job as a school science teacher to respond to appeals from farmers across the state for help and training in organic farming methods. Revathy works with the "TN Organic Farmers Association" or "Vazhviyal Multiversity" which is part of the Multiworld Network (www.multiworld.org) and her plan is to train 1000 trainers in the next one year. More info can be found here.
Preventing Child Labour / Samaj Unnayan Kendra
Coordinator(s): Saket Sattha
Category: Education
Location: Bihar
Info: Due to acute poverty, most children in the villages of Mathurapur, South 24 Parganas (West Bengal) are forced to work in hazardous situations leading to maltreatment and exploitation. As a result they are severely malnourished and denied any education.
Samaj Unnayan Kendra, an NGO based in West Bengal, is aspiring to eliminate this condition with the help of a holistic, multi-pronged approach that involves the children, their parents and the overall community.
It has proposed a pilot project in two villages of this area (Dhanbhandarir Chak and Tikadarpara) where, over a period of 1 year, 100 children will be provided with basic education, mid-day meals and health care, their parents will be provided with vocational training and the overall community will be made more aware of the importance of childrens rights. Once the children complete the 1 year education provided by trained workers of SUK, SUK will help the children to transition into government schools so that they become a part of the mainstream education system. More info can be found here.
Chetana Vikas / Chetana Vikas
Coordinator(s): Karthika Kothapally
Category: Agriculture
Location: Maharashtra
Info: The goal of this project is to establish a self-sustaining agricultural model for farmers to come out of the agrarian crisis. It aims to develop and demonstrate alternate agricultural practices incorporating water and soil conservation, innovative cropping and eco-friendly pest management techniques at their resource center and on the farms of 50 families. It aims to integrate these approaches within the local farming system providing food and nutrition security to the farmer families and to directly link the small farmers to the markets. This will be achieved by involving local self help groups (SHG) comprising 4,000 women in 100 villages (20 women per SHG, 200 SHG) and providing training for certification for marketing of organic produce.
The NGO, Chetana Vikas was started in mid 1977 as a small, informal, non-political activist group of concerned individuals including professionally trained people working in an area of 5 villages in Maharastra. From this small beginning they have expanded their presence with motivated and trained village level human resources in 150 villages in Wardha District of Vidarbha region. They have been involved in grass root level micro-intensive field programs coupled with macro-level linkages in forums, for more than 20 years in the field of sustainable and holistic rural development. They lay an emphasis on involving and empowering the deprived sections, especially women.
The overall budget for this project is $44,000 of which AID will provide $24,000. This amount was raised by partnering with AID chapters in Maryland, Philadelphia, Portland, Berkeley, Bay Area and San Diego. More info can be found here.