Annual Report on Samhathi-India (January to 20 December 2009)
Report on Samhathi-India
(January to 20 December 2009)
I. Introduction
When we look back at Samhathi, we feel happy and deeply obliged to many persons and social entities of our global family. Started in 1994 in
Until last year Samhathi’s target area was only 260 square kilometers, while today it serves an area covering 1550 square kilometers, mostly the coastal population of traditional fisher folk communities. An area map is also sent along with this to give you a better idea about where exactly our activities are carried out. Total population served by Samhathi is more than 710000 while we are witnessing everyday increase in the number due to the reaching out process augmented by the community based palliative care project of Samhathi.
II. Micro Cooperatives (SHGs)
Micro Cooperatives form the basis of Samhathi’s activities in
Another important area the SHGs concentrate is development of their young ones in educational field. There are 11200 families in the educational programs of Samhathi.. The activities include promotion of school education through Education Fund (meaning the members putting their small money every week to support the education of their children and sufficient funds are made available to the members as and when required), promotion of professional education through Higher Education Fund (meaning saving small amounts every week/month for a growing child to meet educational needs after several years), providing education loans from People’s Bank of Samhathi and other banks collaborating with People’s Bank, setting up Children Clubs and provide them various opportunities for the children to develop their character as well as competence levels, running of Study Centres etc. A number of training are also organized for the children in this regard. During the report period a total amount of 1.4 million INR has been saved in the schemes while 118 training sessions were held for various categories. There are now 79 Children’s Clubs and five Study Centres and a career guidance centre to provide support to the educational activities of Samhathi.
Apart from these activities, the SHGs also are involved in a number of other activities like running of marriage fund (to support dowry to poor girls), death relief fund, mutual aid chits etc to support their families in their onward march towards self reliance and development. The SHGs also take up various social issues of their area like alcoholism, drug abuse, environment friendly activities like campaigns, open opposition towards destructive tendencies etc in support of the local communities and global concerns at large.
III. Health
Being one of the most vulnerable areas in health, the coastal villages of Alleppey are notorious for frequent occurrences of epidemics and miserably poor health conditions. Therefore, since 2005, well planned interventions have been made in the health sector of the area.
General health: Basic awareness on health is very much lacking in the target communities and that made them most vulnerable to diseases and poor living conditions. Therefore in the last four years more than 520 awareness building sessions were conducted with the support of Action Medeor (
1. Community Bsed Palliative Care project: The target area has an alarmingly high degree of terminally sick persons for reasons yet to be scientifically proved. This motivated Samhathi to take up the cause and launch a project called Community Based Palliative Care project (CBPC). Today it is the biggest project of its kind in the State, having more than 2100 terminally sick persons under its care. Eight medical doctors, 20 medical nurse, 445 health volunteers and 230 social work volunteers are working six days a week to support the sick. There are also nearly 20000 local sponsors (families, shops etc) who contribute through charity boxes and direct donations both in cash and kind. Samhathi is also an authorized training center of State Government in palliative care for the southern districts of
2. Children’ health: Samhathi gives high importance to children’s health care as the over all health condition of children is miserably low. In 2007 Samhathi had started a mobile clinic for children with the support of Samhathi
3. Filaria Clubs: Lymphatic Filariasis is a serious threat to local population. In 2006 Samhathi launched a pilot project in one village called Chettikad with the support of Johanniter International,
of the disease. The Johanniter Inter national,
IV. Educational development
The many years experience has convinced Samhathi that only through educational development lasting changes and development can be brought about in the area that will ultimately lead to self reliance and sustainable development of the target communities. Therefore ever since its inception Samhathi has given top priority to educational development of the area through manifold activties.
1. Study Centers: Started in 1994, the Study Centers have played significant rules in the educational development of the area. Today there are 4
2. Children’s Clubs: Since we are not able to provide study centre support to all villages, the idea of Children’s Club emerged. There are 79 children’s clubs now, covering 8250 children belonging to 96 villages. Each club has an annual program for each academic year and they meet every week to ensure effective implementation of the program. Each club also has one or two animators and a local committee to manage the affairs. Children’s Clubs are given special trainings to develop better character and competence levels. During the report period nine new clubs were formed and 220 sessions were held to provide special support to the children in personality development, language skills, emotional intelligence, memory tests and career guidance. During the last six months Each Club has a small library consisting necessary reference books, some language improvement books, general books etc. Most of the running expenses of the Clubs are met from locally raised resources through small collections and donations.
3. Children’s Home: A totally innovative project started in 2006 with the support of Austrian development Agency (ADA) under the sponsorship of Samhathi-Austria in association with Samhathi-Germany, the Children’s Home called Jnanpeet, has already proved to be a powerful platform for educational development of the area. The children selected through the community based people’s organizations of Samhathi are given quality education and training to move towards the leadership of their communities in the years ahead. Each child is given care and training to develop his/her inborn talents and caliber to the maximum levels to reach high levels in life to set model to other children of the backward communities they hail from so as to disprove their age-old fatalistic and caste based thinking that has hampered and enslaved them so long. Now there are 94 children at Jnanpeet supported by sponsors mainly from
4. Other Educational Developmental activities: There are various schemes promoted at SHG level to support educational development of the area. The education fund and higher education fund are aimed at providing financial support along with the support available though people’s bank and other sources of Samhathi. There are 6800 school level children and 143 students at higher education level getting the support during the report period.
V. People’s Bank (PB)
People’s Bank emerged when the commercial banks ignored the poor sections and served only the affluent class for profit motives. PB has entered a new phase of growth during the report period by deciding to make available still more financial resources to the target area through collaborative and tie up arrangements with other financial institutions of national presence. It has entered tie up arrangements with Federal Bank to provide long term financial support to students of professional education and avail bulk financial resources to the SHG network through PB. Also
collaborative arrangements are made with the same bank to support integrated organic farming. The total volume of transactions promoted reached 169.25 million INR during the report period while 23.98 million INR was transacted during report period alone towards various projects. The total volume of transactions reached 188.55 million INR (3.14 Million Euro) while the transactions in the last six months alone was 19.30 million INR. A new product of PB will be launched soon and it is called ‘Chitty’ which adds further support to the members of PB in getting big amounts at one time. It is expected that about 9000 members will get the benefit of the new product in 2010.
VI. Environment
The GTZ supported project promoted by Samhathi-Germany has come to a close with significant results achieved to its credit. It was a totally new beginning to the area, especially in the aftermath of Tsunami of 26 December 2004. Its manifold activities with stress on community based action plan led to high degree of awareness on environment and related issues, subsequently prompting the community to serious involvement in environmental issues. A total of 4700 mangroves, 32000 casuarinas, 9400 coconut sapling and 8000 herbal plants were distributed in 40 villages, 120 fresh water beds were made and 178 classes were held for awareness building. During the report period alone 24 half day classes, 2 one day classes and six panel discussion were conducted , 18 fresh water beds were made and 9500 saplings and herbal plants etc were distributed in 40 villages with the support of Social Forestry Department of Kerala State Government.
VII. Other programs/ Activities
1. Organic Farming: In the last two years, there has been serious problems due to the shortage of agricultural produce and that forced Samhathi to look at the matter seriously. Another factor that motivated Samhathi into this program was the widespread presence of serious diseases like cancer, stroke etc in the area also due to the consumption of food stuff produced using high degree of chemical manures, pesticides and hormones. Samhathi in collaborate with state agricultural ministry and its various departments promoted 71 small organic farming units in the last six months. There are altogether 168 such units in all the six zones of Samhathi. Now a major initiative is under way to set up a milk society by promoting 400 household units and coordinating them at central level. Since Samhathi believes in integrated farming, each such household will have a vegetable garden, cow rearing unit and biogas plant.
2. Skill training
a. Neufahrn carpentry training centre (NCTC): NCTC has so far helped 85 youngsters to undergo training in carpentry, apart from the 16 part time trainees. All those trained are well settled in their jobs either in
