Development & Trusteeship: The Reflection Retreat: 19th - 20th February 2010:

Seva Mandir held a Reflection Retreat in February this year. The retreat focused on the theme “Development & Trusteeship.” Leaders from around the nation, academics, development professionals, donors, NGO professionals and journalists participated in two days of discussion around the idea of applying Ghandi's philosophy of 'Trusteeship' to development work.

Rooted in a protection of human dignity, 'Trusteeship' is a philosophy that aims to liberate modern economic philosophy from the crisis of materialism, bringing it to a higher spiritual plane. In Trusteeship, human actions are motivated by social objectives of the protection of human rights. In Ghandi's book, ‘Trusteeship,’ he explains that we must act as trustees of the wealth that we accrue, as it belongs to the community from whose contributions we are able to amass that wealth. He also suggested that in keeping more than our immediate needs, we are actually stealing from those who need it more.

With a concentrated focus on ‘constructive work,’ Seva Mandir has worked for 40 years to bring communities together to collectively initiate projects for the ‘common good.’ This work has created leadership roles within communities, empowering people to act as trustees of development within their community. In the same vain, through this highly interactive Reflection Retreat, Seva Mandir created a shared platform for development leaders to explore our common understanding of how this philosophy does and should apply to our work.

Participants spent two days discussing what Trusteeship means in the development context, as well as in our everyday lives. Together, we were able to reflect on our learnings thus far and determine ways of sharing these concepts within our field as well as in our wider society. There was an energy and enthusiasm to further define the concept of Trusteeship as it applies to development and a shared interest in carrying this conversation forward.

Read article from Rajni Bakshi and Rohini Nilekani (the attendees of the retreat)

See pictures of the retreat

Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee MIT USA and Seva Mandir:

On 7th January 2010 Seva Mandir organized a gathering in honor of Abhijit Banerjee (Economist of Massachuetts Institute of Technology, USA) winning the Infosys Prize 2009 in the social scientist category (January 4, 2010). The President Ajay S. Mehta of Seva Mandir congratulated Abhijit Banerjee for the award. Abhijit Banerjee has been associated with Seva Mandir for 13 years now. He is an eminent professor of economics in MIT, USA and has carried out a number of action researches in 2002 jointly with Vidya Bhawan and Seva Mandir in the field of education and health.
On this occasion Abhijit said that he appreciates the space for open dialogue and discussion for policy formation in Seva Mandir and the seriousness with which Seva Mandir implemented the study.
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Stop Violence against Women Campaign

25th November to 10th December a campaign to stop violence against women was organized in 30 villages of Kherwada Block. The campaign centered on the issues of adolescent girls and boys.
About 100 adolescents from each village participated to discuss the issues of domestic violence, sexual abuse or corporal punishments in schools, exploitation by contractors at migration sites, corruption etc. The youth organized rallies, meetings, slogan writing to speak up about their issues.

Trafficking in Person (TIP):

On 12th November at Kotra- training centre a stakeholder consultation meet was organized for the newly initiated project TIP.
The goal of the project is to enhance capacity of civil society in Rajasthan to prevent child trafficking and provide support to victims, the girls who are sexually exploited eventually are trafficked as commercial sex workers. Debt bondage is a significant problem also for the migrant children.

Children’s Fair: 10th September

A year saw the level of participation, rise and fall, it also witnessed the bonding grew within and all. The time spent in the serenity of the place, has strengthened their belief in themselves and the ownership towards the belongings has created the space which means more than for a stroll.
The caring and sharing with the books and games has made the place dearer; the food, the prayer and the brushing session have drawn them nearer. The energy stored and being built in them came out through the making of dolls and cars (scrap); their curious minds and gift of art boosted them to make frames and charts. They sat in their groups for almost a month now and prepared for their fair; with dances, skits and songs by them made it a merrier affair.
They made their teams and chose their leaders to complete their tasks efficiently. Fighting for their needles and nails; for their slippers and paint, they all became friendly. The spirit of responsibility was seen on the DAY when each child was there on his/her chair; showing their work with pride to everyone l they showed that they all CARE.
As the wind grew stronger on the day, singing the saga of the Fair; playing with the kids she made her presence throughout, bringing everyone there. The day was blessed and so do the children in the company of some great friends ( Seva Mandir, Shikshantar, Bal pratinidhi, Children from Shivaji Nagar and volunteers) and that’s how the celebration took place with food and fun in the end.

Youth Day Celebrations:

The Youth Day was celebrated at Youth Resource Center in village Malariya. The theme of the Youth Day was – ‘climate change’. A total of 50 youth and children participated in the celebration. Participants celebrated it by getting engaged in poster and essay writing competition. The various topics of interest under the said theme were ‘sources of pollution’, ‘How to preserve rain water in my village’ and the ‘Best out of waste’. The various activities helped the participants to understand the key issues of climate change and what role they can play in to overcome it. The Youth Day Celebration provided a significant platform to reach out to wider number of people and allowed everyone to understand the issue of climate change with getting engaged in fun-activities.

Development Marketplace 2009: World Bank Grant Competition Awards $840,000 to Grassroots Initiatives to Address Undernutrition in South Asia

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

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 emerged as winners.

Reducing Children’s Migration – Pilot project

After two years of effective intervention in rural Kotra, the pilot study funded by Monsoon Trust comes to a close May 27, 2009. What follows this project will be recommendations and action steps to move forward with the lessons learned from this intervention.

Kotra is a remote tribal block composed of 304 villages, 116 in which Seva Mandir is actively working. It is one of the most impoverished and illiterate areas in Rajasthan (with 9% illiteracy for females). The pilot gave incentives at the village, school and individual levels over the past 2 years. The goal was to motivate children to stay in school when local pressures to migrate due to economic reasons are high. The program aims to prevent child migratory labor practices to nearby Gujarat for Kotra's children.

This grass roots intervention organized village committees to become an intricate part of the intervention. As village communities began to value education for the children, they were rewarded and are therefore motivated to continue helping children gain an education. The value of education is therefore internalized and sustained within the villages.

Soon a report will be published analyzing the results of the intervention and recommending future action.

Seva Mandir Celebrated the Founder’s Day

Seva Mandir celebrated the 114th anniversary of Dr. Mohan Sinha Mehta –the founder of Vidya Bhawan and Seva Mandir. The Chief Guest of the function was Sir Mark Tully. Last year Seva Mandir completed its 40th year of existence. The organization spent 1 year of retrospection and hence on 20th April this year everyone had the opportunity to discus the challenges faced at the structural level and made suggestions for improving the overall organizational structure and its culture.

What only NGOs can achieve

The Mohan Sinha Mehta Memorial Lecture of this year was again a special occasion for the 3 host organizations viz Seva Mandir, Vidya Bhawan and Mohan Sinha Mehta Memorial Trust. On this occasion this year the 3 host organizations were honored to have Sir Mark Tully who spoke on the most interesting topic – What Only NGOs can achieve. He referred each NGO in India as a golden spot and that all NGOs need to unite to make a Golden India. He said in his opinion Charity is the correct word for NGOs. The NGOs put their heart and soul into their work and that they have a role. He said that the NGOs should work with other NGOs and with the Government to bring about the change in the society. His full speech will be available shortly.

Glimpse                                                       Click here for full speech & video

Laying of Foundation Stone for Dal Mill

On the 3rd January 2009 the foundation stone has been laid for constructing the building. Every member farmer is very excited about it. It is noteworthy that during October to December 2008 the member farmers were able to procure a piece of land for constructing the Mill-house.

So far, all parts of the Mill have been purchased except the Diesel Engine. The procurement of Tur Dal is currently going on and the target is to procure at least of 100 qtl. We expect that building of the Mill-House will be completed by March 2009 if we manage to raise another $ 3650 which is the deficit amount for constructing the building.

Effective Management and Utilization of Village Development Fund (GVK)

On January 5, 2009 the Yale students made a presentation on the aforementioned subject. There were representatives from 200 GVKs. The students were assigned this topic as part of their semester (Global Social Enterprise). The Yale School of Management Social Entrepreneurs Program chose 5 Non Profit Organizations (including Seva Mandir) across the world last year.

The students conducted the research in over 3 months with data obtained by Seva Mandir and through web-chat with our colleagues. The students recommended to have a Federation of GVKs for their effective use and management. The response was overwhelming. Currently we are looking at issues like Governance and structure of the Federation, membership criteria and norms etc. For more information on this please contact us.

Everybody Can Win Challenge

From November 15th to December 15th 2008, Seva Mandir participated in a challenge called “Everybody Can Win.” It was organized by Global Giving, USA and funded by Kellogg Foundation. Seva Mandir participated with our Immunization Program. We were able to raise about US $ 9000 including the bonus prize of $2500 with over 100 donors. Currently we are running over 60 immunization camps and we are planning to scale it up to cover more villages.

Warm relationship continues with St. Christopher School England The School brings a group of few students twice every year to Seva Mandir to orient them about rural development projects. In December 2008 the pupils actively participated in various activities like playing games, teaching English, Science, Games and Crafts to our children at the Residential Learning Camp. They also helped in plantation and in gardening at Short Stay Home. Two of the teachers who came along were medical professionals (a doctor and a nurse). They both organized a brief training on Sexual Health and Hygiene for the residents of Short Stay Home. The pupils also enjoyed visiting the street children program. They played lots of games with them and sang song for them. The children were all over whelmed by their visit. During our visit to village Sagwada & Jawas, the pupils got a chance to understand our rural development projects. They blew balloons for little children at our Rural School, which was very exciting for everyone. The interaction with the village youth at Jawas also proved very useful for St. Christopher pupils as they learnt the various problems the youth face like migration, education for girls, employment etc. Another highlight was making posters at CCC for raising awareness on HIV/AIDS issues. Everyone made colorful posters with meaningful messages on them. Overall their visit is a special event for us where we exchange lots of ideas and energy.

 

Citi, Udaipur Celebrated Global Community Day

12 employees from Citi Bank Udaipur celebrated Global Community Day on 8th November 2008 by volunteering with Seva Mandir. They organized an Education Tour for 140 rural children of the Residential Learning Camp. The children thoroughly enjoyed their time visiting the Science Education Garden near Badi Lake and the bus-ride.