August 13, 2009

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continuing support to our programs. I am writing to share with you a bit of news.

Seva Mandir has recently won a Development Marketplace Grant Competition, organized by the Word Bank. The competition was exclusively for grassroots initiatives in South Asia to address the problem of undernutrition.

The Seva Mandir's project on 'Addressing Iron Deficiency Anemia in Rural Rajasthan through Iron Fortification of Flour at Village Level' was one of the 21 projects that won the competition in Development Marketplace.

We are all very excited at this achievement. If you have any queries on this project then please do write to me.
We are very happy to share this news with you. Thank you for all your support and contributions. We really appreciate it.

With warm regards,


Deepti
deepti@sevamandir.org

May 19, 2009

Dear friends,

First of all, thank you for supporting us ever!

I have some quick news to share. In April end (22nd and 23rd) Margaret and John from Global Giving visited Seva Mandir Projects. We took them around and showed them our work in four villages. We exchanged a lot of ideas and learnt a lot about each other.

During their time here we visited our Pre School Center, Rural School, Immunization Camp, Dal Mill Project (Profit for poor), Village Library and Pastureland Development. They both found these programs very interesting but our meeting with one of the Fellows (Fellowship Project) – Jawan Singh in Barawa village was a special highlight for all of us.

We had lunch with Jawan Singh. It was a very hot day but we all were very happy to be able to wash our feet by a dug-well which still has lots of water. The water in this well is a result of our soil and water conservation work in this village. Margaret and John were very impressed to see our efforts and the strong leadership that has emerged over the years. Jawan Singh is a one such leaders. He is currently a Vikas Mitra Fellow (Fellowship Program). He took us around and showed all the activities that took place over the years. He also explained the caste struggle of his village to Margaret and John.

There were two more striking episodes occurred.

One is – when we visited the village library in Medi village – we met the teacher – Ram Lal who runs the library. He told us that he has 6 kids whose names are after countries like – America, Japan, India, and England etc. We were amused to note that ‘America is married now’.

Another incident – when we were interacting with children in our Rural School in Ushan village, the villagers came to meet the guests. The villagers asked several questions to John and Margaret including – what crops do they grow in America, if they also have a hilly terrain, if the rains are frequent and adequate in their country, what is the mean age of marriage in America etc.

Then, an old man asked if they knew – where the Sun goes in the night and that why sometimes the moon is full and sometimes not???

The people in villages were so happy to have guests. But they were so happy to be able to interact with them. Their innocent questions indicate that they have a desire to learn things and that, they are confident to ask questions.

John and Margaret answered to all these questions very patiently and they both appreciated the fact that they were able to interact with villagers other than development issues.

A very big thank you Margaret and John – it was very nice meeting you and learning all the innovating ways of raising funds, you are trying. We all are very happy meeting you and we appreciate all your support and help that you and your entire team provide us time to time.

I am also taking the opportunity to thank all our friends who have been supporting us through Global Giving. The appreciation we received from Margaret and John for our work is also a result of support from people like you. Thank you once again for all your support.

Do let us know if you like this feedback.

Thank you,

With warm regards,

Deepti

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you for your continuing support to our programs. I am writing to share with you some good news. On 27th March 2009 Seva Mandir was awarded the first prize ‘The CSO partner’s Outstanding Annual Report Award 2009’ for our Annual Report 07-08 in the category of Large Organizations. The criterion to win the prize was to have transparent accounts, its disclosures in the report and its ability to communicate well (i.e. readable and understandable for readers).

Such awards and appreciation of our work is the result of many people’s contribution towards our work and mission. Therefore, your support and guidance is one of main attributes of this appreciation. You can find more details about this our website www.sevamandir.org and to view our annual report please visit the following link - http://www.sevamandir.org/publications.htm

Many thanks once again for all your support and love. I will be soon in touch with updates on programs you are supporting.

With warm regards,


Deepti

January 27, 2009

Dear Friend,

New Year Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you very much for all your support to our programs. I am Deepti and I look after the Reporting and Communication Program in Seva Mandir. I will be staying in touch with you regularly to keep you updated about the program that you have been supporting.

This month, I would like to share with you some interesting developments in this project. Before I begin I would like to give you a brief background of the recent development.

The Yale School of Management Social Entrepreneurs Program chose 5 Non Profit Organizations (including Seva Mandir) across the world last year. The purpose was to provide their students with an opportunity to conduct a small research on the topics give by these 5 Organizations for their semester called Global Social Enterprise.

In the end of September 2008 Seva Madnir made a presentation of Village Development Fund Program (GVK) in Yale University, USA. A group of 4 students opeted for Seva Mandir and began their research on –“Effective Management and Utilization of Village Development Fund (GVK)”. Over a period of 3 months, the students conducted the research by gathering data from us through emails, phone and speaking to our colleagues online regularly. In late December 2008 – early January 2009 these students spent 7 days in villages of Seva Mandir to fine tune their understanding of the problem.

On January 5th 2009 the students made a presentation for representatives from 200 villages of Seva Mandir to share what according to them could be the best solution for “Effective Management and Utilization of Village Development Fund”. The presentation was followed by several queries and comments by villagers. The followings have been the major outcome of the interactive discussion –



1.   A Federation is recommended consisting of all Village Development Funds from 550 villages.
2.   The Federation will serve a financial platform to utilize the existing village funds to maximize the profit.
3.   Majority of villagers shown interest in investing into the Federation for a) asset management and b) local development within the village.
4.   All the representatives from the villages agreed upon discussing the idea with their village and think towards it more seriously.

The students from Yale were very enthusiastic of the discussions held on 5th January 2009 after their presentation. One of the students Jessica said - “talking on such a vibrant issue with the people at such a larger level and showing their interest on creating a federation on a larger scale like this is really incredible. I feel people in my country will hardly believe the fact that people from the diverse part of the world are so energetic hopeful on the issue of creating democratic and participatory platform. The gathering of these large numbers of people too, is almost unbelievable.”

Since everyone was positive about creating a Federation currently we are looking at issues like Governance and structure of the Federation, membership criteria, norms etc.

We will keep you updated about the developments in this program. Also, it would be wonderful if you could provide us with your inputs on this. For queries and information, kindly contact me at deepti@sevamandir.org.

I hope you find this feedback useful. A very big Thank you once again to all of you for keeping your faith in us and providing us the opportunity to share with you our great stories. Looking forward to hearing from you on this.

With warm regards,

Deepti Ameta
In Charge Reporting and Communications
deepti@sevamandir.org

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

I would like to communicate our heartiest thanks to all our donors, friends and well wishers for supporting our Village Institution Program. Your support and faith in our work is very encouraging.

I have been working in this program for the past fifteen years. My work has allowed me to gain an insight into the development process. The communities we work with are slowly but impressively taking responsibilities of their own development, which has been a very gratifying experience for me. This month I would like to share with you an inspiring story – the story of village Jabla. The Village has recently dealt with the problem of education for their children and the village committee has played an instrumental role in solving the problem.

In Jabla the children were not able to continue their education beyond primary school since there was no Upper Primary School in their village itself. The children either had to walk 13 kms to attend Upper Primary School or discontinue with their education after finishing Primary School. The girl children were the most affected by this. The village committee discussed the issue in many of their village-meetings and finally they all decided to raise the issue in the Panchayat (the local village council) with support of Seva Mandir. The village-committee demanded for an Upper Primary School in their village but the Sarpanch (leader at local council) informed them that he does not have enough legislature power to grant it. He suggested writing to the District Education Officer for this. The committee decided to go ahead with his suggestion and they got him to forward their application to the concerned officer. It took them a number of months including writing several letters to the Education Department. Finally the Department agreed to upgrade the existing Primary School to an Upper Primary School. They also sanctioned another four rooms in the school to meet the demand of growing number of school children. Currently the village is waiting for an approval of a Primary Health Center and construction of a road in their village from the Government.

There are many villages like Jabla where communities have realized the significance of their agency
We are grateful to all our donors and friends who are helping communities like Jabla. "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts" - Albert Einstein

Many thanks once again. Kindly contact me at yakub.khan@sevamandir.org in case of any queries and suggestions.

With regards,

Sincerely,

Mohd. Yakub Khan
In Charge, Village Institution Program

Bhuri is an active member of Gram Vikas Committee (Village Development Committee) of village Dholi Ghati. Close to her village the highway road was being under construction. The contractor of the road-construction project needed water for it and he requested the village. In a Village Meeting it was decided that the contractor could use the water from their wells and that he would have to make payments for the water and the money will go into the Village Development Fund. The contractor agreed on this.

The contractor started using the water from their wells. However, he did not pay any money for using the water. And so, Bhuri went and asked the contractor to pay for the water. He simply denied and said he will keep using the water but would not pay for any costs.

Bhuri spoke to the In Charge that had appointed the contractor for the road-construction of that area. Other people from the village also joined Bhuri and requested him to look into the matter. The In Charge asked the contractor to pay for the water he has used for construction. As a result, the contractor deposited Rs. 4500 into the Village Development Fund as the payment towards the water he had used forms their wells.

The village was very happy and they all appreciated Bhuri’s courageous efforts and her concern for the welfare for her community.

“There are a total of 552 Village Development Funds (GVK) with a total of Rs. 27260386/- ($681509.65).

The Gram Vikas Committees (GVC) or the village development committee of village Ushan has now been able to resolve local conflicts on its own. They even deposited the benefits earned from the fodder of the common pasture land into their GVK...

There was a small piece of common pastureland in village Ushan, which was lying barren and was being used for open grazing. Years ago the Panchayat (the Government local council of village) had built a fence around the land.

Later, a few influential people of the village broke the fence for their cattle’s grazing. Eventually the entire fence was broken all over. The village wanted to put the common pastureland for good use for everyone. People had
to buy fodder from outside at expensive prices and so they wanted to restore their pastureland. In several village meetings the issue was discussed. The Gram Vikas Committee (GVC) decided to restore their pastureland with the support from Seva Mandir.

The task of restoration included building the fence (to check the open grazing), planting trees, growing grass but most importantly ‘dealing with the encroachments’. The GVC had several meeting with the influential families of the village. Most of these meetings proved futile and the village could not move ahead. However, the GVC did not give up and explained to these families the common benefit behind their initiative.

Finally when the village got success in removing the encroachments the work began with building the fence. Some local trees were planted and grass seeds were sown. The village has been able to harvest grass worth Rs. 700/- this year.

Suni who is the member of GVC, Ushan says- “It was very difficult to ask the encroachers to withdraw from the land. It took months to our GVC to persuade them to cooperate with us. Since the pastureland is so new the production of fodder has been limited this year. And so we have sold the grass and the money has been deposited to our Gram Vikas Kosh (Village Development Fund). The people are happy in the village. The influential families don’t bother us”.

Attachments:

• Suni says - we earned Rs. 700 this year (PDF)