Our Family Associates
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Maharogi Seva Samiti, Anandwan
Maharogi Sewa Samiti, Warora (MSS), is a non-profit organization, founded in 1949 by the internationally renowned social worker and human rights activist, the late Baba Amte. MSS is the oldest and largest associate of Caring Friends. MSS has been relentlessly working towards the betterment of stigmatized and marginalized people with disabilities such as those afflicted with Leprosy, hearing and speech impaired, visually and orthopaedically challenged and socially backward tribal populace. MSS aspires to make each of its differently-abled inmates self-reliant by imparting value based training, thus enabling them to live their life with dignity. MSS has been running numerous human development activities in Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Yavatmal, the most backward districts of eastern Maharashtra. Through its integrated approach that combines medical treatment with sustained psycho-socio-economic rehabilitation, MSS has qualitatively enhanced the living standards of over 2.3 Million disadvantaged people till now. The work of MSS has been recognized and honoured on national and international platforms by distinguished institutions like Government of India, United Nations, Ramon Magsaysay Foundation and Templeton Foundation. BHAGINI NIVEDITA GRAMIN VIGYAN NIKETAN (BNGVN)
Jalgaon BNGVN is Founded in the year 2000 by Ms. Nileema Mishra who is its Founder President. She is well experienced in the area of community development and is the recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award for the year 2011. The citation of Magsaysay Award reads as under:- QUOTE : “Starting with a self-help group of only fourteen women, other self-help groups followed, engaging in microcredit and such income-generating activities as the production of food products and distinctive export quality quilts. BNGVN enabled these changes by training women in production, marketing, accounting, and computer literacy. Inspired by Nileema, the women went on to build a warehouse so they could procure supplies in bulk at better prices, and formed an association that now has outlets for its products in four districts of the state. Traditionally confined to the home, these village women have become productive, articulate, and confident in their ability to think for themselves. But the men in the villages, too, have their problems. Driven by extreme economic distress, a shocking wave of farmers' suicides struck Maharashtra. Nileema and her group responded by raising their work to the level of the village itself. BNGVN helped create a village revolving fund that provided loans for farm inputs and emergency needs; they addressed health problems by building over 300 private and communal toilets; and activated a village assembly to discuss and resolve local needs. The success of Bahadarpur inspired Nileema to expand her work. In less than ten years, BNGVN has formed 1,800 self help groups in 200 villages across Maharashtra. Its microcredit program has distributed the equivalent of US$5 million, with a hundred-percent loan recovery rate. But the most critical change has taken place in the villagers' sense of themselves, their new-found confidence that they need not despair, that, working together, they will find a way.” MAHAN TRUST Amravati
Founded by Dr.Ashish Satav, MD, (40 years) and his wife Dr.(Mrs) Kavita Satav, MS (Ophthalmology) in 1998. When even any MBBS doctor was not willing to settle down in Melghat tribal area, this highly qualified and dedicated couple, at the young age of 26, decided to stay in Dharni, Melghat to serve the tribals. They have already devoted 14 years of their life to this cause. MAHAN is the non- governmental organisation dedicated to providing medical facilities to to the tribal population of Melghat region (more than 2 lakhs). Located in a hilly forest area in the Satpuda mountain ranges, where medical facilities are grossly inadequate (Doctor Patient ratio is less than one doctor per 10,000 patients). The Area has very high mortality rate in under 5 children and in age group (16-60 years). MAHAN has already built a critical patient and eye hospital, saved hundreds of serious patients, provided vision to hundreds of poor people & changed lives of hundreds of disabled patients by plastic surgeries. Mahan needs more funds urgently to provide more facilities by expanding the same. Home based child care is being provided for treatment of childhood illnesses specially to children suffering from malnutrition. Nutrition education and training of village health workers is playing an important role in providing proper health facilities to rural and tribal families in Melghat. MAHAN could reduce under 5 children deaths & malnutrition by more than 54% and deaths in age group of 16-60 years by more than 40% in 17 villages of Melghat. Many of their successful programmes & recommendations have been adopted by the Government for all tribal areas of Maharashtra thus benefiting lakhs of tribal population. Successful de-addiction of hundreds of people changed families. MAHAN developed sustainable source of nutrition for poor tribals. Innovative counselor program has saved thousands of lives. Through public interest litigation in Mumbai high court, MAHAN saved thousands of lives. Dr. Ashish Satav has been honoured with many prestigious awards & international presentations for his research and services to the tribals. BORDERLESS WORLD FOUNDATION, (PUNE)
The project aims at providing rehabilitation services to girl victims of militancy and migration due to conflicts in border areas specially to those who have been orphaned or belonged to economically weaker sections. Their four centres at Kupwara, Anantnag, Budgam and Jammu provide shelter and education to about 150 girls. These centres are known as Basera-E-Tabassum (meaning abode of smiles). Mr. Nimesh Shah from Caring Friends has made a personal visit to their centres, it has met the Founder Chairperson, Shri Adhik Kadam and were quite impressed with his commitment and dedication. He was kidnapped by the militants more than a dozen times but after scrutinizing his work in detail, they released him. Today adding to his work and looking forward for the development of kids he has shifted some kids to Pune for their career. Soon they would be building home for 150 kids in Kupwara this will not only provide loading boarding facility but they also wish to start a vocational training center, library, computer training center, science lab, etc which will not only benefit kids but also add to the development of society. Caring Friends has been helping them on a regular basis for the last 3 years. THE ANT (ACTION NORTHEAST TRUST)
Chirang Assam Founded in October 2000 by Dr. Sunil Kaul and Ms. jennifer liang, in its 11 years, the ant has started 5 initiatives. Believing in the dictum that small can yet be strong and effective; the ant has been working for development of the northeast region. Apart from the parent ANT which carries out direct village development activities, another 3 initiatives are also registered institutions in their own right, working mainly to improve livelihoods of the poor. I The ANT - Village Development II. Aagor Daagra Afad – a weaving organization : III. IDeA (Institute of Development Action) IV. The Ant’s Craft Trust (TACT) in Bangalore V. Gramin Vikas Samiti (GVS) SRUTI (Society for Rural Urban and Tribal Initiative) (New Delhi)
SRUTI – Society for Rural Urban and Tribal Initiative, established in 1983, is a not-for-profit organisation that works towards social change at the grass roots, across rural and urban India, through its Fellowship Programme.It was founded by Late Tara Ali Baig (S.O.S Villages), Bunker Roy (Barefoot College, SWRC, Tilonia, Rajasthan), , Ela Bhatt (SEWA, Ahmedabad), Poonam Muttreja (Founder, Dastakar), Samir Chaudhuri (CINI), among others. SRUTI is committed to empowering marginalized people to lead a dignified life with access to livelihood, resources, rights and justice. SRUTI raises resources and supports people-oriented initiatives for alleviation of poverty and discrimination among some of the most disadvantaged communities in India. The focus is on rights-based and organically driven community development that works towards ensuring socio-economic entitlements and opportunity to deprived groups. Additionally, it focuses on building capacity and local leadership within these communities – allowing the change to be rooted to the ground, rather than offering external support which could make vulnerable groups even more dependent. Since its inception, the organisation has supported the work of more than 122 fellows, at the grassroots level, in 18 states across India. The current outreach of the 24 SRUTI Fellows and 145 karyakartas is over 7000 villages and 230 urban clusters covering over 6 lakh families and 30 lakh people in 12 states (Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttarakhand). The SRUTI Fellowship Programme not only facilitates and supports social action financially, but also strengthens and sustains it through the intermediary processes of advocacy, engagement, association, capacity building and solidarity. Please visit the website for more details: http://www.sruti.org.in Funds for the core Fellowship support are raised by SRUTI through individual donations, institutional support and independent resource mobilization efforts e.g. scrap collection and other fund raising activities. The target budget outlay of SRUTI’s Fellowship Fund is currently (approx) Rs. 10,000,000/- (Rs. One crore). SNEHALAYA SOCIAL TRUST (SOLAPUR)Project Snehalaya is a Social Charitable Trust. The main work of Snehalaya is to provide proper education and to ensure overall rehabilitation of children from Red light areas. During 12 years of its existence, Snehalaya has proved itself as a home of love & affection for these children and has been making all out efforts to inculcate in them the moral values so that they grow up as responsible citizens of the society. The source of inspiration for this project was Late Ku.Rupali, the daughter of Snehalaya President – Shri. Pradeepkumar Shingavi. She was suffering from a critical illness of Thalessamia. Project Snehalaya was established on 1st January 1999 at Village Gursale near Pandharpur.
At present 312 students are taking advantage of snehalaya missionery work 312inmates Snehalaya & 480 Children from surrounding 15 villages. At the same time we have completed education from 1st To 7th Class creating by the School of Snehalaya Education Foundation Seth Rasiklal Jethmalji Shingavi Vidyalaya & also Secondary education facilities are provided to them to take education in nearby collages. Knowledge of English is the need of the time so Snehalaya has started the best well equipped Kumari Liya Ayesga Binoy Gardi English Medium School for this purpose construction of new building has all ready been started. Knowledge of English is the need of the time so Snehalaya has started the best well equipped Kumari Liya Ayesga Binoy Gardi English Medium School for this perpose construction of new building has all ready been started. Rehabilitation of Snehalaya Girls is the important achievement of Snehalaya, Snehalaya has given life partner’s to 45 Girls by performing their marriages, out of them 28 were from Snehalaya. UMMID … Snehalaya sanchlit ‘Ummid’ project at kurdiwadi District – Solapur which has started especially as rehabilitation center for HIV / AIDS positive children and women. Snehalaya provides food shelter to the victims of HIV along with medical treatment and other counseling services. At Present 56 Girls & Boys and 4 women who are suffering from HIV/AIDS are seeking the welfare in this Institution. Their health condition is good & we are trying overall development of these children... Today the waiting list of 166 children is with UMMID. UMMID has a decent building standing on 2 acre land. For it’s excellent efforts in the field of children’s rehabilitation and other social work, the Institute, and its Secretary, Brahmakumari Pramilaben, have been awarded a total number of 67 awards by the Central Govt., State Govt. of Maharashtra, various NGO’s, Foundations, Chamber of Commerce, etc. Snehalaya has also received ISO 9001-2000 certificate which is a remarkable achievement Award by Govt. of Germany. As far as we know, Snehalaya is the only social institution to have received such a certification. By the grace of God, by the Donation of Donors & the best wishes of the people Snehalaya is trying to reach the heights. PARIVAAR (Kolkata)
Parivaar is committed towards changing destinies of young destitute children (who otherwise would have been doomed to a life on the streets) by providing them a loving, caring environment and the most powerful tool – Education. Its objective is to educate and fully rehabilitate, the destitute children and to ensure their overall development so that they achieve their full potential and get integrated into the mainstream of society. Totally inspired by the life and teaching of Swami Vivekanand Vinayak Lohani, a B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and MBA from IIM, Kolkata in late 2003, with just 3 children. Now it is a home to more than 675 resident children and the number may increase to around 1000 in the next 2 years. Its eldest group is currently in Std 12, and it has its own very high quality School (upto 9 Std.) - Amar Bharat Vidyapeeth, with grades 10, 11, and 12 attending outside schools. However, to ensure high quality of higher education to our children, plans have been drawn to extend it upto XII Std. Construction is going on for the high school building up to Std 12 and will continue till December '12 with an outlay of Rs 2.2 Crores. Parivaar has a separate residential campusl exclusively for girls and accommodates 250 girls at present. The plan is to accommodate another 200 / 250 girls (i.e.total 450 to 500) in next 2 years. Parivaar also runs day-education programs for children in tribal areas in which 2500 children are enrolled. It runs many oher welfare measures like monthly food-stock scheme to old ailing uncared for women in select pockets of Kolkata city and in Bishnupur block of 24 Parganas (South) district in West Bengal. The most important distinguishing feature of Parivaar is the all around cheerfulness & the confidence & enthusiasm of the children in everything that they do. Any visitor immediately understands that Parivaar is not an orphanage but truly a family headed by Vinayak Lohani. Parivaar's work has been very widely appreciated. On Parivaar, many academic case-studies have been authored dealing with grassroots social entrepreneurship. These cases have been taught and discussed at various B-Schools in India. Best-selling author Rashmi Bansal's book 'I have a Dream' has an entire chapter on Vinayak Lohani and the initial phase of Parivaar. Parivaar's founder - Vinayak Lohani - has been honoured with many awards like the Sanskriti Award 2011 (India’s premier award for young achievers), IIM Calcutta’s firstever ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award’ during its Golden Jubilee Year, ‘Karmaveer Puraskar’ presented by the International Confederation of NGOs, the ‘Spirit of Mastek Award’ presented by IT company Mastek, and numerous felicitations by IIT and IIM alumni forums. In 2011, Government of India's Ministry of Women and Child Development invited him to the membership of the Ministry’s Task Force to review past Government schemes and formulate new ones, and he is one of the very few persons from the Non-Governmental / civil society sector from the entire country to be inducted into it. JEEVANTIRTH (Ahmadabad)
Raju and Deepti joined Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan’s Movement for Total Revolution as student activist’s way back in 1973-74. Raju is M.E. (Mechanical Eng.) and Deepti is B.Com., LLB., M.A. (Gandhi Darshan) with an initial career in Banking. They got married in 1985 and decided to leave their lucrative professional careers to take up full time social work. Jeevantirth has specialized in developing various methods of innovative learning. Jeevantirth is also running multipurpose “School on Wheels” for community education. At the request of Caring Friends, Jeevantirth, for the last three years is deeply involved with Gram Nirman Kelvani Mandal, Thava, Dist. Bharuch, Due to the efforts of Jeevantirth the quality of education has greatly improved and the SSC results shot up from the usual 11-12% to 49% in 2009-10 and then to 92% in 2010/11. Jeevantirth has also started a high quality “Vocational Training Centre. This centre is providing the poor urban, rural, Dalit,Tribal and OBCs youth intense and comprehensive vocational training of just 12-14 weeks. After the training, most of them are able to get a good job with much better pay packets and future prospects in the Corporate Sector. Under “Urban Initiative” Jeevantirth is actively working in the area known as Rama Pir No Tekdo, which is the largest slum of Ahmedabad and houses about 35,000 extremely poor families - especially “Rag Picker’s” families of the area. Jeevantirth is actively supporting “Aadi Aushadhi” group of Traditional Healers of Dediapada, Dist. Narmada for their all-round development. Jeevantirth has received many prestigious awards, honors and certificates from the State Government including Dharti Ratna Award, 2011 from Governor of Gujarat. It has also been honored by many associations and semi government organizations. Many NGOs in Gujarat take help of Jeevantirth to train their grass root activists. Jeevantirth is a value based organization and has developed a team of sincere dedicated and committed team of social activists following Gandhian path. They consider their work as “Karma Yoga – Sadhana” and they always try to spread JOY, LOVE and UNDERSTANDING. Vishvanidam (Rajkot)
After the communal riots in Godhara, Gujarat, in 2002, Rehana & Jitu felt that they should work to-gether for the development of the slum dewellers of Rajkot. While attending the seminar of Poet Makrand Dave, they got the idea of “Vishvanidam”. The institution was established in 2003 and they started providing pre-school education to the children of slum dwellers. Going forward, they started admitting the children to the private schools for preliminary and primary education. The work included persuading the schools not to charge any fees, providing to and fro transportation, other amenities like school uniforms, books and notebooks, other study material etc. When the children started getting good education, they also started dialogues with their families and encouraged them for family planning, health awareness etc. They also persuaded them to leave / reduce the bad habits of smoking, chewing tobacco etc. They successfully persuaded all the families to refrain from begging & most of them have undergone the family planning operations. Happy Home The effort that stated with around 25 children in 2002 now covers more than 1000 students in 2011-12. By this time many students were in higher classes and it was found that when they were in their homes due to extremely poor accommodation and surrounding, they were not able to do their homework. So, a hostel was started last year where around 50 students live full time. They are provided with either cycles or autorickshaw facility for going to school. They are also provided computer education and even extra coaching classes facility. Children Bank With the support of their bankers, Bank of India, they opened around 100 bank accounts in the name of the children. They were trained to at least save Rs 5 per day. Today the bank balance of these children ranges from Rs.1000/- to Rs 10,000/-. VIDYARTHI SAHAYYAK SAMITI (VSS) Anandwan
Established in 1971 by Prof. M.D.Uplenchwar with the basic objective of helping poor but meritorious students from backward rural and tribal areas to continue their college education by providing them hostel facilities at minimal charges. Its main hostel Dnyanda Hostal Campus was established in 1990 with 15 students. Since then VSS has been continuously adding new wings to cope up with the ever rising demand. Today the hostel provides accommodation to 150 students. No charges for about 10 of them, half charges of Rs. 800/- for about 100 of them and nominal charges of about R.1000/- pm (Rs.800 only till last year) for the remaining. Prof. M.D.U. spends most of his time including Sundays in the hostel inspiring students to work hard and to implant the right values and seeds of compassion in their heart from an early age. The hostel provides various facilities like Library, Laboratory for Science experiments, Computer training, yoga, and English classes, inculcate the reading habits of character building, book reading, Personality development, communication skill, Academic excellence classes are held (I.I.T. Foundation, Science Olympoid) since 8th class. These efforts have borne excellent fruits as many ex-students of this hostel have reached important positions – I.A.S./ I.R.S./ M.D./M.S /Ph.Ds./ I.I.Tians/ Engineers/ Doctors/ Central or state Govt officers etc is the peculiarity of this hostel and are now its regular donors and helping other poor students. Financial help is provided by VSS for admission of the hostel students to Govt. engg./medical/P.G./M.B.A./C.A. colleges anywhere in India. Gurushishya Parampara is the peculiarity of this Dnyanda Jivan Vikas Kendra (Hostel). All the trustees & office bearers are past hostel students. Every year there is a get together of past hostel students along with their families. The past students have also established hostels at 3 different places. The devoted successor is going to take the charge of V.S.S. after him by taking V.R.S. SAMPARC (Pune)
SAMPARC is the brainchild of Shri Amitkumar Banerjee and Smt Lata Pande. Shri. Amitkumar Banerjee has been working with children village project for care of orphan children and he realized that not only orphan children but also other children like children of commercial sex workers, street children, other victim children or neglected children also need care. With this same view SAMPARC (Social Action for Manpower Creation) a non-profit making Public Charitable Trust in India was established in 1990 for the rehabilitation, care and educational development of orphan children, children of sex workers and all other needy, poor and disadvantaged children. SAMPARC was started with 7 orphans with the hope to make a model children village where orphan and needy children will find a suitable home, will get love, affection and confidence and can see a better future. The basic strength for developing orphan children is that giving common identity as children of SAMPARC and children of community.The success of SAMPARC was recognized by the Government of India and awarded “National Child Welfare Award” to SAMPARC in 1998. SAMPARC now has total 9 centres - 6 centres in Maharashtra and 1 centre each in Gujarat, West Bengal and Rajasthan – total number of inmates is about 650 children, both boys and girls. It runs a high school in Bhambarde with residential facilities for 150 children. This is the only high school amongst the surrounding 16 tribal villages. Through Community Education Support Program to the 700 Community children both boys and girls carried in the State of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal. Mostly the girls are the target beneficiaries of the remote areas. SAMPARC also runs a vocational training centre at Malvali near Lonavala for the last 17 years and trains its inmates as well as outsiders in jobs like electric wireman, welding, carpentry, data processors, tailoring, beautician course etc. However, during the current year Caring Friends has connected it with Unnati of Bangalore and it has started a high quality Vocational Training Programme which will provide the youth with excellent openings in hospitality industry, retail marketing, housekeeping, security guards, etc. The centre will provide free lodging and boarding facilities to the poor and needy children and expects to train about 300 children every year. Through SAMPARC Medical Centre program and Medical Mobile Van SAMPARC is providing medical support to 6000 families of 34 villages of Maval and Mulshi Taluka of District Pune. And in the same fashion SAMPARC is supporting 650 women of credit co-opearative families where 185 Self Help Groups are supported with various income generation activities, housing for 100 families, schooling through women co-operative society carried in Maval Taluka, District Pune. SAMPARC always believes to reach the poorest and helpless families and children and youth to make them empower and to help them to stand on their own feet. AMRAPALI UTKARSHA SANGH (Nagpur)
The Amrapali Utkarsh Sangh(AUS) was started by Shri Rambhau Ingole in 1992. The main purpose of the organization is to accept, assist, educate and rehabilitate the underprivileged and destitute children of the society. Since past two decades the AUS succeeded in great extent in achieving the goal by inculcating the human values and social responsibilities among these children. It is the consequence of budding up the Residential School at Panchgaon for the drop out and non going school children of the poor quarry workers. It is the initial efforts of the Vimlashram children to start the school under a tree 10 years ago. It is the tears of these children which forced us to provide food for the aspiring Jawans(soldiers) during recruitment camps in Chandrapur, Nagpur and Amravati(fed around 40000 aspiring jawans). It is the desire of the children to prevent farmers’ suicide by providing vocational skill among the poor youth to earn better livelihood. The AUS succeeded in rehabilitating 7 grown up children of the institute. 70 VTP youth started their earning to grow their family income. Activities 1.Vimlashram,a residential centre for the children of commercial sex workers in Nagpur (43 Nos.) for their integral development. 2.Navin Desai Residential School for the poor children of immigrant workers in stone quarries at Panchgaon (214 Nos.)for education. 3. Vocational Training Program for the poor youth of farmers.(80 Nos.)to learn skill for earn more. To prevent farmers suicide. 4. Fun School for Nursery children (40 Nos.)including health care and nutrition. 5. Maa Tuze Salaam Program to create awareness among youth to enter in nation service. Provide food and guidance during recruitment camp. Every year 30000 youth. 6. Village Library Program in 20 villages for village development through literacy to benefit around 5000 farmers. 7. Kamdhenu Samrakshan Prakalp(KSP) to promote soil conservation, organic farming and dairy development. ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS
(New Delhi) Established in 1999, ADR was set up by a group of Professors and Alumni of IIM Ahmedabad and Bangalore. Through a PIL they got a Supreme Court order for candidates to publicly declare their financial details and their criminal records if any. Since then ADR has worked with over 1200 NGOs in every part of the country to do citizen election watches. This is under the banner of National Election watch (NEW), a network of partner NGOs. Any non partisan organization that does not oppose or support any political party is welcome to join this network if they meet the standards of transparency and accountability set up within NEW. ADR’s main assets are the huge data base that currently has over 70,000 records of politicians, credibility with the media and with the Election Commission. Several well known and eminent non partisan members and leaders of civil society have worked closely with ADR over the years. ADR also works on more far reaching changes including electoral reforms, reforming the political party system (a draft bill has been prepared by a committee chaired by a former Chief Justice of India. See www.adrindia.org). ADR has also evolved a list of recommendations for electoral reforms based on its decade long work and consultations with partner NGOs (See www.adrindia.org). In keeping with the 21st century norms, ADR uses the Internet, mobile, hotlines and other technology to widely disseminate information to voters all over the country. This is in addition to the growing coverage it gets on the print and electronic media, in particular the vernacular media during the elections. Public awareness of candidates and political party finances is growing due to ADRs work, and a few minor recommendations (e.g., disclosure of Income Tax returns of candidates and political parties) have been accepted. Recently the Government took some initiative to ban people with serious criminal cases from contesting elections. ADR regularly brings out research reports based on its huge data base. This could potentially be useful for bringing about more far reaching changes in the system. However, a lot remains to be done and ADR is always seeking collaborations from well meaning and non partisan people and organizations. CENTRE FOR COLLECTIVE DEVELOPMENT (CCD) Secunderabad (Andhra Pradesh)
Founded in June 2003, CCD began work in August 2004 after it received the first round of small funding. It was inspired by Operation Flood that turned India from a milk deficit nation to the world’s largest milk producer and a net exporter. They used cooperatives to achieve this. It also lifted a crore or more families out of poverty. CCD currently focuses on agriculture coops in rain fed, drought prone regions and on crops of the poor like oil seeds, pulses, cotton and later we hope to get into minor millets as well. CCD believes that like Operation Flood and AMUL, a market led strategy can catalyze the formation of coops, and later lead to sustainable agricultural practices as well. Recently CCD has taken up some work on sustainable agricultural as well. |
Snehalaya Ahmadnagar
Established in 1989, Snehalaya is an outstanding example of how youth in the country can make a difference in the lives of people. The inspiration of Snehalaya is Swami Vivekanda who said, "They alone live, who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive" Snehalaya focuses on women and children who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation. It works towards improving the condition of commercial sex workers, stopping trafficking of minor girls, rescuing them from brothels when it becomes aware of such cases (rehabilitated more than 60 victims from the flesh trade. Snehalaya has created history by securing a conviction of 20 influential persons of that area who sexually exploited a minor girl of 14 years. All 20 of them were sentenced to Double Life Imprisonment). Provides the children of such women with a secure future by giving them health and education facilities for their overall development. Also provides medical facilities and rehabilitation for HIV+ women and children. Snehalaya runs Balbhavans in 5 major slums of Nagar and provides after school coaching to nearly 1600 students. These Balbhavans have become the centers for overall development of these slums. Snehalaya has rehabilitated more than 150 abandoned and relinquished infants till the date and also rehabilitated unwed-mothers, raped victims, widow mothers etc. by providing vocational training and marriage option. Upcoming Himmatgram project has become the ray of hope for the HIV Positive families and sex workers as they are going to be rehabilitated by providing vocational skills and employment. There is no barrier of cast-creed-religion-place-language. Snehalaya’s strong and dedicated team of volunteers devoted their lives for the betterment of the society. Thanks to their efforts, there is no minor girl in the flesh trade in Ahmednagar. SAMAJ PRAGATI SAHAYOG (SPS)
Dewas ,M.P. Founded in 1992, SPS takes inspiration from the life and work of Baba Amte who rejected charity and successfully empowered even the most challenged. SPS is headquartered in a drought-prone, tribal area in the Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, which typifies the most difficult problems facing the country. SPS direct interventions are concentrated in about 300 villages and towns of this area. This work is not so much a model as a living laboratory of learning for others to adapt to their own areas. To facilitate this mutual learning SPS has set up the Baba Amte Centre for People’s Empowerment in tribal village Neemkheda, which has emerged as national centre for learning on the issues related to SPS work. SPS believes that location-specific watershed development combined with low-cost, low-risk agriculture, other nature-based livelihoods and women-led, institution-centred micro-finance, can result in sustained higher incomes and empowered communities. This approach arrests distress migration towards the metros and liberates the rural poor from the clutches of usurious moneylender-traders. In June 2009, the Prime Minister, in his capacity as Chairman of India’s Planning Commission, invited SPS Secretary (1993-2008) Dr. Mihir Shah to become a Member of this august body, which is the highest policy-making institution of the Government of India. In recognition of his work of the past 20 years at SPS, Dr. Shah was given charge of the extremely important portfolios of Water Resources, Rural Development and Decentralised Planning, with an annual budget of Rs. 1 billion. Over the last two years, Dr. Shah has initiated the process of introducing path-breaking changes in these sectors, based on the insights gained from his work with SPS over the past two decades. DILASA SANSTHA Yavatmal (Maharashtra)
Dilasa" is a Non- Governmental Voluntary Organization established in 1994. Dilasa works in close cooperation with 15 other smaller NGOs in Vidarbha region. It runs a farmer’s support centre, spreads information on various Government schemes meant for the benefit of the farmers and rural population. Presently Dilasa is working in 1060 villages of Maharashtra & MP. SGBS TRUST (UNNATI) Bangalore
The program was started in 2003 and so far over 1900 youth have been trained and placed in corporate jobs. The training includes Spoken English, Basic computer skills, life skills and values, in addition to the chosen vocation. Unnati offers training, transportation, food, stay, and vitamin supplements to the youth free of cost to the youth. Unnati program is funded through donations and donations are 100% exempt u/s 35AC. It costs Rs 12,000 to train a youth. Encouraged by the success of the Unnati Program, Vision 2020 was conceptualised - to ‘train and employ 1 million youth by year 2020’. To drive Vision 2020 a Section 25 company, SGBS Unnati Foundation (SUF) has been incorporated. SUF would collaborate with different NGOs, individuals and organisations across India to set up Unnati centres and train the youth. 8 centres are already functional under this model and few centres are slated to start in the next few months. Delhi and Chennai centres would be functional by April 2012, and Kolkata and Pune would follow. ANKURAM (Secunderabad)
ANKURAM Woman& Child development Society was founded by Ms. M.Sumitra, who was actively participated invarious social movements in Home state Andhra Pradesh during her student days. Challenging all forms of discrimination that she faced to complete her higher education, After completing education in Law and Political science, she determined to dedicate herself for the cause of girl child and women. Thus initiated ANKURAM (literal meaning ‘sprout’ which denotes “beginning”) in the year 1994 in Hyderabad, A.P. ANKURAM envisions a world in which girls and women are able to fulfill their dreams free from the constraints of discrimination, inequality and poverty ; and in which their full worth is realized and valued. Ankuram works towards a world fit for girls and women and an economic system based on social and economic justice, solidarity and respect rather than competition and exploitation. Ankuram creates space for children, women and marginalized communities, networking them for strengthening their knowledge base, capacitating and building their skills in a holistic manner to assert their right to Life, Dignity and Livelihoods. Young girls must be prepared to navigate the challenges they will face that include sexual exploitation and coercion, gender-based violence and limited educational opportunity. Hence Ankuram emphasize on girl child protection and promotion of rights like access to formal schooling, reproductive health education and rehabilitative shelter care services and vocational skills leading to income generating activities. Safe Shelter for girls - Ankuram Daughters’ Home’ Day care centres for migrant children Rural Resource centre for children and youth ATMASHAKTI TRUST, (New Delhi)
Atmashakti Trust works since 2009 in the poorest districts of Orissa with the mission of organizing and mobilizing poor tribal, dalit and other disadvantaged families to demand their rights and entitlements from the state. The immediate objective is of obtaining work for these families under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to augment their income and lift them out of grinding poverty. There are two broad components of Atmashakti’s intervention---at the policy level and at the grass root level. Atmashakti believes that social change can be brought through a process of developing collective leadership which can be used to bring tangible benefits to the rural disadvantaged and also empower them in this process. Atmashakti is trying to achieve its mission by creating peoples organizations (jan sangathans) striving to get them their rights, be it work, rations, land pattas etc. This work is anchored by village based activists known as jansathis who belong to and come from the areas where they are working. The jansathi is the cutting edge of our work---responsible for awareness generation, mobilizing the community’s collective strength and monitoring outcomes. GOONJ (New Delhi)
Goonj was started in 1998 by Anshu Gupta, an Ashoka Fellow, concentrates on fulfilling the second most important requirement of human beings after food, viz. clothes. GOONJ’s mission is to make clothing a matter of concern for all; a basic but ignored need that plays a multifaceted role in village India. GOONJ is a unique resource mobilization initiative providing clothes and other basic amenities to millions in the far-flung villages by channelising the underutilized material in urban households as a powerful development resource. Repositioning old cloth as a powerful development resource instead of charity GOONJ is facilitating an economic bridge between urban, wealthy India and impoverished, rural India by simply sharing the surplus of wealth. GOONJ has introduced systems in the entire process; right from collection to distribution of clothes and other material lying unused in urban homes. Unlike other similar efforts on a small scale meant for a limited target audience, this is a nationwide intervention. It stresses more on replicating and spreading as an idea rather than as an organization. Today it provides more than 50000 kgs. of material every month in 21 States of India and has become a national movement. Main initiatives: 1. Vastrasamman 2. Cloth for Work 3. School to School: (winner of Changemakers Innovation Award) 4. RAHAT; disaster relief initiative, (Winner of Changemakers Innovation Award). 5. Not Just a Piece of Cloth: (winner of World’s Development Marketplace Award) HELPERS OF THE HANDICAPPED, (KOLHAPUR)
Established in 1984 in Kolhapur. Founder - President Ms.Naseema Hurzuk, (Didi) herself a paraplegic from the age of 16 years, and Ms.Rajani Karkare-Deshpande, a polio victim. Basic objective, empowerment of persons with disabilities of all religions, caste or communities with a special thrust on women, children, poor and rural people. During the last 27 years, HOH has provided 18,538 units of rehabilitation assistance to more than 7,315 disabled persons by spending Rs. 7.75 crores and created following infrastructure costing more than Rs.7.85 crores to ensure effective and ongoing services. 1. Barrier free ‘Gharonda’ Hostel cum Rehabilitation Centre where (70) school and college going students, and (30) vocational trainees, and staff (total 100) live. They are provided medical aid (including surgeries), aids and appliances (wheel chairs, calipers, crutches, etc.) lodging, full boarding, transport in our bus, sports, and cultural activities. 2. Samarth Vidya Mandir barrier free integrated co-ed school, where (509) physically challenged and able bodied students are studying from Class I to Class X and kindergarten. It has a Science Lab, Computer Lab and auditorium with audio visual facilities. Special toilets have been provided for the wheelchair bound students. 3. Vocational Training Centre where we manufacture tricycles, calipers, crutches, portable commodes and supply imported wheel chairs procured from New Delhi. This unit also manufactures school and office furniture. All furniture in our school has been manufactured in this unit. All the employees in this unit are themselves physically challenged. 4. Swapna Nagari (Dreamland) Project at Sindhudurg- Here we have a barrier free hostel for physically challenged vocational trainees and staff, farming, and a Cashew Processing Training Unit which employs nearly 60 persons. of which 80% (nearly 50) are disabled. We also provide married staff quarters to married couples. HoH does not get any government grant for hostels, vocational training centers, or school. HoH needs help for sponsorship of physically challenged students (70 students x Rs. 30,000 per student per academic year = Total Rs. 21 Lakhs). For the current academic year (2011-2012) we have received sponsorship for (20) students from individual donors. We still need sponsorship for the remaining (50) students. SAMARITAN HELP MISSION (Kolkata)
Samaritan Help Mission (SHM) is a humanitarian educational institution based in the slums of Tikiapara, Howrah, a predominantly Muslim neighborhood with approximately 80% of the population being Muslims. SHM was started by a 32-year-old youth Mamoon Akhtar, with 5 of his friends who live in the same slum in 1999. The motto of the Mission is “HELP PEOPLE BASED ON NEED, NOT ON CREED”. It was started in a small thatched room without even an electric light in the year 1999. The basic objective was to save the children of this slum from falling prey to the drug mafia and getting involved into nefarious activities like bootlegging, drug peddling, smuggling, prostitution etc. Since 1999, SHM has started with ILLITERACY ELIMINATION PROGRAM and Now A formal school SAMARITAN MISSION SCHOOL, a quality English Medium school providing education from Pre-Nursery to Class VI accommodating 880 boy& Girls with addition of one class each year. The come from a very impoverished Background, Children of Rickshaw puller, drug addict and also children whose fathers are in jail getting education in our school VOCATIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM FOR GIRLS AND WIDOWS providing training and creating employment opportunity directly and indirectly to 4500 poor families since 2005 COMPUTER LITERACY PROGRAM Since 2008 almost 3500 poor student of the Tikiapara slum are made computer literate through this program and many in queue SAMARITAN MICRO CREDIT PROGRAM:- Helping the poor women to start their own work saving them from Loan sharks Kabuliwalas who charge high rate of interest, Formed since 2008. 652 women were provided loan 1021 women opened Saving account 34 SHG formed and linked to IDBI Bank. Proud to write there have not a single case of bad loan only waived if a beneficiaries expire SAMARITAN HEALTH CENTER:- Providing Health care to the needy slum dweller. Since 2009 874 Poor elderly were Cataract Operated and annually 62400 patients provided better health Care GRAM NIRMAN KELVANI MANDAL (Bharuch)
Established in 1966 at Thava, Taluka: Valia, Dist: Bharuch, Gujarat. Inspired by Gandhian philosophy that India lives in her villages and education is the foundation for social development, Shri Mansinhbhai Mangrola, a graduate(Samaj vidya visard) from Gujarat vidhyapith, Ahamdabad took up the challenge of spreading education in rural and tribal area. He firmly believed that unless the children are shown the right path and their energy is rightfully channelized, they could continue to be victim of wasting their time, fall into poor habits and could be subject of exploitation by vested interest. He also strongly believed that education is the only factor which could bridge the gap between haves and have-nots and reduce migration to cities. In the area where education was taboo, education initiative started with barely 4 children in kachha room under a tree. Later on with the help of Swiss Aid, school shifted to its present campus. A hostel was also started both to reduce the problem of absenteeism and to provide lodging as well as boarding facility so that children are under complete care to get not only education but also the life building skills. The focus was to provide education relevant to rural life. Starting with primary school, currently it has Secondary as well as Higher Secondary School as well as graduation program relevant to rural life called Bachelor of Rural Studies (B.R.S.). In light of large number of small villages spread over vast area, a single school can make little difference and hence a program was started to prepare teachers first for Primary School called P.T.C. and later for Secondary and Higher Secondary School called B.Ed. It also started school and hostel in forest area of Mal Samot on the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Even today, it is totally isolated area and hardly any transport or communication facility is available. Currently GNKM (both locations viz. Thava and Mal Samot put together) has 2143 students, out of which 1291 students live on the campus. It has Cow shed to teach children animal husbandry and farm to teach agriculture. Apart from academic education, it also encourages children to participate in extracurricular activities to help children building their overall personality. In keeping with its basic focus on providing education to all aspirants and as the villagers became more alive to the benefits of education, the flow of students increased and was far more than its physical infrastructure can cope-up with. GNKM accepted all the aspirant children at the cost of severe financial strain but never turned down anyone. It always worked on the principle of providing education to weak of the weakest students as against selecting the top rung students to keep success rate high. Thus, it pioneered Sarva Shikshan Abhiyan (Education for All) much ahead of the time. Till today, it faces lot of challenges of remote area – power supply, ability to attract top class teaching talent, poverty and inability to pay even for basic tools like note books, pen/pencils etc., lack of medical facilities and crumbling infrastructure. However, what it has – perseverance, commitment and dedication – help them in taking these challenges in their stride and move on. ADHYAYAN (Mumbai)
Adhyayan believes in very organic way of learning. Every child has some minimum capacities to learn. Everybody learns from his/her interaction with the surrounding and also everybody has minimum capacity to interpolate and extrapolate. This is achieved by giving a lot of exposure in primary standards as well as in middle school level. This experience is then utilized in higher standards. For example- A child experiences sinking and floating in early standards. Then he/she compares sinking and floating with respect to mass and volume. He/she goes in the phase of concepts with computations. In the secondary standards he/she is challenged to apply the same in different situations. To do this Adhyayan has developed more than thousand hands-on experiments to teach the difficult principles of science & mathematics in a very easy & interesting way. Various procedures are developed to inquire, investigate and learn. Teacher training is an integral part of all Adhyayan activities. Teachers are trained to catalyze children to learn and investigate. Regular teacher training programs are conducted for various schools who are genuinely interested in developing the learning skills of their students. Quality audit is important part of teacher training. Rajiv & his team has been running OEEDP program in a few individual schools for the last ten years. Caring Friends has invested almost Rs.1.75 crores during these years. Now Rajiv & his team feel that the program has developed very well & needs to be spread to all the schools all over the state. Now at the end of the current academic year i.e. June 2011 to May 2012. Discover program is functional in 250 primary schools and 154 middle and secondary schools in Mumbai, Vikramgad, Vasai-Virar, Pune & Goa.The cost per school including the cost of the projector & about 1000 transparencies & some experiments comes to about Rs.50000/- per school. We conduct regular internal audit to assess the impact of the program & results are very positive. It’s a wonderful program which needs to be personally experienced. It can really upgrade the quality of teaching, learning at minimum expense & with the existing teachers (only they need to be given the initial training). Along with Discover, Budding Einstein, Teacher training and the OEEDP at Bandra we have one chapter in the city of Dombivali. This chapter is well known as Explore. Explorer basically caters services to schools in conducting workshops of children and teachers. Adhyayan conducts activities in the urban part of south east part of Thane district. Adhyayan has a team of 16 staff well trained staff members and explorer has a team of 6 members. In the ensuing academic year i.e. June 2012 – May 2013, the number of partner schools will go beyond 500. Through different training programs we are expected to reach to 5000 teachers systematically. We will also cater services to 10000 students directly. More than two thousand students will be given special attention to excel. We also will have 10 different publications this year and 2 centers in slums which will be operated on weekly basis. Research & Development Association of India, (Nagpur)
Established in 1999 in Nagpur and founded by Dr. D. B. Bankar, who is the head of department of chemistry in a local college. An extremely dedicated person committed to the welfare of the under privileged. Does not take any remuneration from the institution. Recently constructed a beautiful center on a 1 acre plot in the industrial area of Nagpur (known as Butibori Industrial Estate) The trustees do not take any remuneration on account of international, domestic travel or local conveyance. The trustees work for charity with purity, sincerity and honesty .
VASUNDHARA PUBLIC CHARITABLE TRUST (Sindhudurg)
Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal (Nanded)
Moved by the plight of ignorant, rural poor and inspired by the work of Maharshi Karve and Karmveer Bhaurao Patil, Shri. K.N. alias Babasaheb Deshmukh started Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal, a village based voluntary organization in 1959 at Sagroli Dist. Nanded with a view to educate and empower the deprived rural people. SSM is working for rural development through activities in Education, Health, Women & Child Welfare, Low Cost Housing, Natural Resource Development and Watershed Development in Marathwada region of Maharashtra state. SSM imparts school education to about 4000 rural boys and girls. We run one of the largest rural residential schools in India. Agriculture is the only source of livelihood of the community in the area. SSM works in watershed development in Nanded and Beed districts covering an area of 10000 hectors involving 15000 people focusing family as a nucleus for sustainable rural development. The project has holistic approach of development. SSM has supported 450 rural families to construct or repair their houses using low cost technology and also for construction of the toilets low cost houses in the area under the Habitat and total sanitation program. SSM has a well equipped training center empowering the village committees, SHGs, farmers and social workers. No area of rural development is left untouched by SSM. Babasaheb inspired of the thoughts of Dr. Hermann Gmeiner, the founder of SOS International that provides shelter, love and care to orphan children. SSM took strong initiatives to set-up “Anand Balgram” with 12 homes bringing up 108 orphan children. Every care is taken to ensure the homely atmosphere and education for better prospectus of each child. Every child is brought-up with Cultural and social values. SSM has taken equal efforts in inculcating moral values of court committed Children. Apart from providing an opportunity of education, SSM takes care of their placement and rehabilitation. SSM runs a remand home accommodating 200 boys and 50 girls. They are made to overcome their guilty consciousness and allowed to mix-up with other innocent children to grow up together. SSM is implementing educational quality improvement program in its five school units. We have received enthusiastic response from all stakeholders like teachers, parents and children. Sagroli Talent Search is the next step of the program for students of Std. 5th and 8th to provide them essential facilities & training up to Std.12th shaping their future. SSM, which has been working in the area of rural development for 50 years now, has an adequate infrastructure on its large campus. Its good track record of working for rural community in education, health and natural resource development has earned for it a aspect and recognition by the community in the area. SSM is the member of Credibility Alliance, following the norms insisting on good governance. SSM has successfully completed project SATHI providing health care to adolescent girls. Though the project is over, SSM proposes to facilitate training of government employees to spread and sustain the project throughout the state. Recently, SSM has established village knowledge centre with internet access to empower the rural people with power of ICT. Being in most backward area in the state, we have coordinated with various agencies and constructed 500 low cost houses. The low cost technology has encouraged many shelter-less people to build their own houses.50 years ago, there was a problem of illiteracy. Now we experience that, literacy is a big problem. It is a fact that the present educational systems based on Macaulay’s systems for education to Indians has completely failed to utilize youth power for building prosperity in rural India. A society which neglects the value of skilled manpower created a huge force of people capable of paperwork has nothing to depend on for prosperity. The present education system which is outdated fails to provide skill based education and training to the youth in rural area. As such a large number of colleges turnout products which can not work as skilled work force nor as an intellectual in today’s knowledge based society. So SSM has decided to impart vocational training to its students with formal education under Utkarsha Training Program. The aim is to motivate the school going children towards job oriented courses and to equip the rural unemployed youth with technical skills enabling them to get jobs.Mr Shital Joshi, coordinator of SSM’s Kanad Village Knowledge Center estd in 2005 and technically supported by the NASSCOM, at the behest of Microsoft has been nominated to represent India in the regional Asia Pacific Innovate4Good Summit (a part of Microsoft’s support for Youth and Opportunity) to be held at Singapore. Recognizing SSMs contribution to soil and water conservation, the Government of India has selected SSM for JALBHOOMI Award - 2011". The award will be given by the Prime Minister during the Water Week- 10 - 14 April. SSM’s new project, “The Science Park”, which has been set up with the creative efforts of SSM school teachers and students. |