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

April 17, 2009

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir, India!

Thank you very much for your continuing support.

The fellows are working very hard on the issues they had selected. The following progress made by one of the fellows will give you an idea as how these community leaders are torch bearers for development work.

Dinesh Kumar Meghwal a fellow in Kherwada block chose to work on issues related to a Government Scheme called ‘National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)’. Under this scheme every family in the village gets 100 days of employment for 1 year.

Dinesh chose to spread the full awareness on the scheme because due to lack of awareness and corruption the benefits are limited to powerful people in the society. The orientation held in October helped him learn fully about the scheme and other relevant social security schemes.

Currently he is involved in speaking to several people about this scheme to educate them about their rights, the facilities provided by the Government -such as arrangement of shade by the sites for women and their little children, first aid box, supply of drinking water at the site, the significance of a job card, the minimum wage people are entitled to etc.

He is gathering information from people working on various labour-sites in order to assess people’s awareness levels. Based on his experience he will be mobilizing people to demand for their rights from Panchayat (local village council). He reported that his own understanding on this scheme has increased and he is surprised that the Government’s good schemes for poor people do not reach due to lack of awareness, information and corruption.

We will keep you updated about the progress these fellows are making. If you have any questions or suggestions, please share with us.

Once again many thanks for supporting the fellowship program and your faith in our work.

With warm regards,


Deepti
deepti@sevamandir.org

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

Dear Friend,

New Year Greetings from Seva Mandir, India!

Thank you very much for your continued supported. 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.

As we had indicated in our last update that the Fellows have selected issues of social-change. In the last couple of months a one-day workshop was organized to orient the fellows about the issues that they have selected. Each fellow was required to prepare a plan of action for next six months. It has also been decided during the workshop that the mentors will have monthly meetings with the fellows to monitor their progress and addressing their problems if any.

All the fellows have been paid an installment of Rs.4000/- in December 2008. To begin with their work they are required to gather details of the issues they have selected in their respective region. On the basis of the information collected, the fellows will have to design the action-plan and awareness campaign in order to deal with the issues that are affecting their communities.

Once again, we would like to communicate our deep thanks to all of you. We will keep you updated about the progress in this program.

With warm regards,


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

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir, India!

We are grateful to all our donors for keeping their faith in our work and for standing by us.

I am going to give you a brief account of the progress we have made in Fellowship Program and would request all of you to please share your thoughts and comments on our feedback as well as the program.

In the last two we have completed the process of selecting the Fellows. A total of 17 Fellows have been selected so far. This was done by a selection committee that held several rounds of meetings and interviews before selecting the Fellows.

The selected Fellows would be working on various issues of social-change in their respective regions that are related to the social, political and environmental concerns and are affecting their communities considerably. The issues chosen by these Fellows include witch-hunting, desertion of women tracking, the performance of Government Schemes, forest rights issues etc.

We will be organizing an orientation workshop for these fellows very soon. Our next step is to identify mentors for these Fellows who will provide constant hand holding and advise.

The enthusiasm expressed by these Fellows for the programs is very encouraging. We would like to communicate our deep thanks to all our supporters, friends and well wishers for supporting our Fellowship Program. We hope to receive very encouraging results from this program. Please do write to me at sunita@sevamandir.org for any information or doubts.

With warm regards,

Sincerely,

Dr. Sunita Kumari
In Charge People’s Management Program

July 22, 2008

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

We thank all our donors and friends to support the Fellowship Program.

The last date of receiving nominations was 15th June 2008 but we received many applications after the last date. In total 54 Applications have been received.

A committee of Six People had four rounds of meetings to select 20 Applications for the Fellowship. The selection was delayed because a) everyone in Seva Mandir was busy in Annual Retreat during the last week of June 2008 and b) the applications were too many to select from.

The Committee has sent letters of Interview calls to all the selected applicants. The interviews will be held on the 31st July 2008 at the Head-Quarter of Seva Mandir.

At the moment the Committee is busy in getting ready to hold the interviews. Everyone is very excited about the program.

Sunita Jain who is one of the committee members says –“People are so excited about this new initiative. It is so overwhelming to see a number of people applying for this.” Sunita also adds, “During our meeting with all the committee members we all felt that the application format may needs some changes which we will be including in the next round.”

Seva Mandir would like to communicate its heartfelt thanks to all our donors for making it possible and we look forward to your support. Please keep up your support.

Thanks once again.

Dr. Sunita Kumari,
In Charge Peoples Management School
Seva Mandir, India

Currently the Seva Mandir team at the Head Quarters is expecting to receive all the nominations/applications by 15th June 2008. Then a committee will be scrutinizing the selection of applications and at least of 20 fellows will be selected by the end of June 2008 for this year’s target.

The Fellowship program is under process. The nominations for fellowship have been invited and soon the applicaitons will be scrutinized. However, we would like to share a story of a village leader to our partners just to give a sense of what a village leader is and what makes these leaders special? We will keep you updated about the prgress. Thank You

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