PEOPLE FOR PROGRESS IN INDIA (PPI) (P.O. Box 51231, Seattle, WA, 98115-1231) ______________________________________________________________________________ 1997 ANNUAL REPORT December, 1997 Dear Friends: Greetings and our sincere thanks for all your support in 1997 which resulted in another banner year for PPI. This is also an important moment in PPI's life as we look forward to celebrating our 20th anniversary in 1998 (PPI was founded in 1978). To mark this occasion, I think it is appropriate to recap a bit of history. The seed of PPI was sown back in 1972, much before its formal incorporation, when some Seattleites from the Indian Subcontinent hosted a benefit dinner to raise money for the Bangladesh Refugee Fund. A few of the organizers of this event initiated the idea of starting a formal organization to do something worthwhile for the under-privileged people in India. The concept was to go beyond the conventional contribution to charity and promote self-help and encourage volunteering on the part of recipients. It took several years for this idea to mature and become a formal organization. In the mean time, several volunteer organizations were contacted in India for potential projects and the visit of Shri. Jai Prakash Narayan, a close disciple of Acharya Vinobha Bhave (of the Bhoodan Movement) to Seattle in 1976 for a medical treatment, gave an impetus to formalize the self-help idea. Finally, on October 3, 1978 PPI was incorporated as a non-profit organization in the State of Washington. Accordingly, from its very inception, PPI has been guided by the following goals:
In its 20 years, PPI has sponsored and
funded close to 50 projects all across India. The type of projects
cover a wide range: from education, health care and environment
preservation to vocational training, small scale industries and
co-ops. Typically, a project lasts 2-3 years with a funding level
of $1000-$3000 per year depending on the level of effort. Many
of the projects do become self sustaining after our initial help.
Almost a generation has passed since
the inception of PPI and we have succeeded in becoming a recognized
entity in the local community as well as in India. Financial support
and encouragement for PPI's activities has steadily grown. We
have matching grants from several corporations and qualify for
designation by United Way of King County.
Now it is time to increase the participation from the community with new ideas, new blood, and new commitment so that PPI can continue into the 21st century. We invite and urge you to attend our monthly meetings (which are held on the first Friday of every month) and get involved.
In the following pages, we share with
you the achievements of PPI in 1997.
CURRENT PROJECTS - 1997-98
1. Adult Literacy and Vocational Training for Slum Women, New Project
S.R. Patwardhan, Swa-Roopwardhinee,
Pune, Maharashtra
Reviving a project from 1991, Swa-Roopwardhinee is launching a literacy and vocational training program for needy women living in an urban slum area of Pune. The project seeks to empower 300 women to gain self-reliance, self-esteem by becoming contributors to the family income. The project consists of training courses in 1) Adult literacy, 2) Tailoring, advanced tailoring, and embroidery-machine knitting, and 3) Home nursing. The duration of the courses is six months each. The adult literacy classes establish goodwill and make beneficiaries more receptive to other training. Tailoring trainees are assisted to start their own home business. The home nursing trainees find immediate placement since the demand is high. The tailoring course is taught by successful graduates from past years. Our first year's commitment of this three-year project was $1600.
2. Small Holder's Livestocks Improvement New Project
Mamata Nayak, Champa Mahila Society
(CMS), Sibgang, District : 24-Parganas, West Bengal
Small holders of livestock, especially
women of the backward Sunderban area, will be trained to improve
the quality of livestock at a model farm established with two
cross breed cows on the Champa Mahila Society premises. The rural
folk, who have traditionally raised cattle and other livestock,
will be trained in scientific methods of animal husbandry, thereby
improving yield and income. In all, 500 people will benefit from
this scheme. The CMS has been working in the area of women's and
children's welfare since the 1980, and was referred to PPI by
ASHA group, which is funding a parallel project in basic education.
PPI's first-year commitment for this three year project is $
4000.
3. Women's Self Employment Generation New Project
M.Y. Swamy, Ashraya, Bommagondanakere,
Chitradurga District, Karnataka
This project, launched in 1997, trains
local poor women in sewing and tailoring and prepares them for
certificate examination. The project is to establish three centers:
two centers staffed with teachers for training women, and a third
center where the trained women can work and gain practical experience.
The certification will help them get employment in public and
private sectors or start their own business. A local women's organization
is actively participating in the project. First year's funding
of this three-year project was $2100.
4. Development of Tribal Artisans New Project
Mr. B. Sharanappa, PRAGATHI, Mysore,
Karnataka
As more and more forest areas are taken
over by a growing population, the tribals who used to live and
earn in these forests are being displaced. This is a new project
to train the displaced tribals from the Niligiri Hills who are
living in the villages just north of the hills. The training is
in the indigenous craft of basket making and leaf-plate making;
and to assist them in the acquisition of raw materials and the
marketing of their products. Also, the project includes two balwadis
(child care centers) for children of the trainees. While the mothers
are being trained, their children will receive basic learning
and mid-day meals. Shimoga Srinath, a PPI member, visited this
village in January 1997 with the PRAGAHTI volunteers and was impressed
with the need to help the tribals and their families. This is
a three-year project with a budget of $3100/yr.
5. Vegetable Gardens and Tree Plantations New Project
Mr. Nireekshana Rao, SNEHA, Mandavalli,
Andhra Pradesh
This new three-year project benefits the villagers of Mandaville, near Kolleru Lake, Andhra Pradesh, whose inhabitants are largely dependent on fish for food. The main objective of the project is to improve the villagers' nutrition and teach them to make better use of their land by developing kitchen gardens and cultivate community plantations of useful species of trees. The project seeks to address the dual aspects of efficient cultivation and good nutrition. The budget is $1670/yr.
6. Garment Design and Garment Making New Project
Dr. Samuel Issmer, Rural Welfare Association,
Bangalore, Karnataka
This new 3-year project is designed
to train girls/women from rural areas near Chittor, Andhra Pradesh
in the art of garment making. The potential trainees are expected
to be skilled in both tailoring and stich-craft prior to their
admission to this program. Six batches of 15 girls/women per batch
are to be trained over a period of next three years. This year's
funding was for $1650 with a three year total funding of $ 4950.
7. Solid Waste Management
Mr. Ram Prasad, PRAMUKH Services, Dehra
Dun, UP
This is the second year of the solid
waste management project initiated by Ram Prasad, a PPI member,
who returned to India three years ago. His organization PRAMUKH
is a private garbage collection service and the workers go door-to-door
in rickshaws and collect kitchen waste and paper, glass and plastics.
The wet food waste is used for composting, while the rest is sorted
and recycled. The money collected by recycling is given to the
workers as an added incentive. After an initial slow start, Ram
has made considerable progress in his effort to get various communities
involved in keeping their neighborhood clean. In his interim
report, he writes: "The membership has grown to 100 households
in Vasant Vihar. I met with the management committee of Vasant
Vihar complex and agreed to collect garbage daily and clean the
streets for Rs. 25/month. In Defense colony, 244 families have
joined at Rs.10/month. In Kewal Vihar, 70 families have signed
up for alternate day cleaning service for 15 Rs./month."
Ram has been successful in getting a private residential school,
Welham Boys School to pitch in $570.00 for the solid waste management
program which includes recycling and disposal with PRAMUKH's help.
We think Ram is on the right track and making great progress.
He is still not fully recovering all of his expenses. But more
communities seem to be coming forward. This year's funding was
$ 3350 with a total two-year commitment of $6750.
8. Slum Women Rehabilitation
Dr. Samuel Issmer, South Asia Council for Community & Children on Crisis (SAC-CCC), Bangalore, Karnataka
This project started in September 1995,
plans to train 90 poor women from Byappanahalli and Naganpalya
slums of Bangalore in tailoring and embroidery. About 60 women
from the two batches of students have graduated after 8 months
of training. The third set of 32 trainees started training in
July, 1997. Each trainee learns to stitch 25-30 styles of dresses
for women and children. Successful graduates are being aided by
project co-ordinators to obtain bank loans for sewing machines,
as well as to establish contacts with businesses to provide sewing
orders. This second year's funding was $900 with a three-year
commitment of $3800.
9. Afforestation and Environmental Protection
Dr. S. R. Hiremath, Samaj Parivarthana
Samudaya (SPS), Dharwar, Karnataka.
This three-year project in its final year deals with environmental improvements, with economic benefits to villagers, in and around several villages in Central Karnataka. The main accomplishments of the project during this year were:
1) Organization of village Forest Committees and Women's self-help groups. In the view of SPS, these organizing efforts are perhaps the most important part of the project, as they develop mechanisms for villagers to make more effective use of their land through interaction with government agencies and for village women to increase their economic power. The initial organizing effort is considerable, but the aim is for the villagers to manage things for themselves in the long run.
2) A nursery was established and it distributed 500 seedlings (papaya, guava, neem, etc..) to villagers.
3) A fish rearing program succeeded in its second year after a difficult start in its first year.
4) Four environmental camps were conducted in various places during this year.
These, according to Hiremath, are often
the first step in getting the villagers interested in better land
management. This final year's funding was $2670.
10. Vocational Training
Dr. Samuel Issmer, Rural Welfare Association (RWA), Bangalore, Karnataka
This project in it's final year, is
involved training of villagers near Chittor, Andhra Pradesh, in
tailoring, stitch-craft, embroidery and typewriting. To date,
90 young women in sewing, 60 women in stitch-craft, and 40 boys
and girls in typewriting classes were trained in the first three
years. Due to the tremendous success of the embroidery and stich-craft
training program and a continuing need for training many more
girls/women from rural areas, this part of the program was extended
to a fourth year. This final year's funding was $1100 with a total
funding of $ 9975 over four years.
11. Greeting Cards for Leprosy Victims Rehabilitation
Dr. Vikas Amte, Maharogi Sewa Samiti (MSS), Anandwan, Warora, Maharashtra
In the eight years since PPI's silk-screening
project in Anandwan was completed, MSS's silk-screen project for
cured leprosy patients has established itself as a successful
endeavor that supplies cards, decals, labels etc. to businesses
and private buyers. The MSS has been supplying us with colorful
greeting cards with beautiful Indian designs for sale. Cards are
with holiday greetings or blank, and are available at 50 cents
each. All the collected money is sent to the project. Please
contact Ilse Volinn, (206) 524-3442 or Pran Wahi at (206) 232-8619.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
We were very happy to welcome Dr. S.R. Hiremath of Samaj Parivarthana Samudaya (SPS), Karnataka, to Seattle in May this year. We have had several projects dealing with reforestation and environmental education for more than ten years with SPS. He gave us an illuminating report on the progress of our projects and current goals/activities of SPS. On a broader level, SPS is working to improve governmental policies with respect to forest management and to increase women's involvement in local decision making. They are expanding their efforts at the national level in cooperation with non governmental organizations in other areas in order to tackle problems caused by conflicts between industrial exploitation of land and its use by the common people.
This October, we had an opportunity to see the extraordinary film by Shyam Benegal as a special fund raiser for PPI's 20th anniversary year, and to hear the film maker speak in person after the showing. This film focuses on the 21 formative years that Mahatma Gandhi spent in South Africa as a young man, during which time he arrived at his convictions about non-violent resistance and the cooperative movement. The showing was a great success and we raised close to $4000 after expenses.
In November, we were fortunate to meet these two remarkable men through of the good offices of Yogi Agrawal, for an evening dinner at the Golkonda Restaurant. Mr. Bhatt is founder of the famous Chipko (Hug a Tree) movement which was instrumental in preventing distruction of forests in the foothills of Central Himalayan mountains in mid-seventies. He showed impressive slides of the transition of forests from destruction to normalcy as a result of his work. He has won many international awards, and his successful work has been copied around the world and has benefited water and environmental conservation around the world. Dr. Chopra runs the People's Science Institute in New Delhi, India, which pioneers creative approaches of science & technology to benefit poor people. Since their work is very much in line with PPI's Philosophy, we encouraged both the visitors to send proposals for a project to PPI. It was also heartening to find out through Dr. Chopra, who is from Dehra Dun, that our Solid Waste Management Project (#7) is beginning to do well and people are coming forward to Ram Prasad to help their community included in the program.
PPI's annual benefit dinner on April 5, 1997 was well attended, and helped raise about $ 5770 after expenses. Ms. Kanchana Jhoti Bhaskar Sonti of Corvallis, Oregon gave a beautiful performance of Mohini Attam, an Indian classical dance style from the state of Kerala. Our heartfelt thanks to her. The PPI Annual Benefit Dinner in 1998 will be held on Saturday March 7, 1998. AN INVITATION TO SHARE Perhaps, you support some good cause in India in your own way. Perhaps, you have thought that if only there were more people to help, much more could be accomplished. PPI was founded on such sentiments. Twenty years ago, when the concept of supporting rural development projects in India was just a "brave idea," it took us a while to find our first project, "RUHSA," a health and nutrition project in Vellore, Andhra Pradesh. And, now that rural development movement has taken root in India, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) actively seek PPI's support for their projects. As we continue with our current projects, we are always looking for new ones. Please enrich our support/resource base by joining us. PPI NEEDS YOU. PPI projects are funded through pledges (typically $10-$30/month) and contributions by members and non-members. All donated amounts are passed on to the various projects. Membership dues ($25/family/year, $15/single/year) cover the cost of printing, mailing and occasional honoraria for guest speakers. Members participate in the selection and funding of the projects. Monthly meetings are held on the first Friday of each month. Everyone is welcome to attend. We need your continued support. Please fill the attached form and mail it to us. Sincerely, Original Signed by Pran Wahi Chairperson, PPI PPI 1997 Project Contacts Project Organization PPI Contact Phone 1. Adult Literacy & Voc. Training SWA-Roopwardhini Shantha Benegal (206) 522-4404 2. Small Holder's Livestocks Improvement Champa Mahila Society Shantha Benegal (206) 522-4404 3. Women's Self Employ. Generation ASHRAYA Pran Wahi (206) 232-8619 4. Development of Tribal Artisans PRAGATHI Gerald Folland (206) 524-8581 5. Vegetable Gardens and Tree Plantations SNEHA Gerald Folland (206) 524-8581 6. Garment Design & Garment Making RWA Arun Trikha (425) 641-3207 7. Solid Waste Management PRAMUKH Kumar Bhatia (206) 232-6451 8. Slum Women Rehabilitation SAC-CCC Arun Trikha (206) 641-3207 9. Afforestation and Environ. Protection SPS Gerald Folland (206) 524-8581 10 Vocational Training Project RWA Arun Trikha (425) 641-3207 11. Greeting Cards-Leprosy Rehabilitation MSS Pran Wahi (206) 232-8619 PPI Office Bearers: Pran Wahi, Chairperson; Shimoga Srinath, Co-Chairperson; Niranjan Benegal, Treasurer; Gerald Folland/Shantha Benegal, Joint Secretaries. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1998 MEMBERSHIP & PLEDGE/CONTRIBUTION FORM Name/Address:_________________________________________________________ ____________________________________ Phone: ________________________ E-Mail Address: _______________________________________________________ Membership: $ ________ ($25 Family, $15 Single/Year) Pledge: $ ________ /monthly for one year (1998), or Contribution of: $ ________ Enclosed is a check for: $ ________ (tax deductible) Please make Checks payable to and mail with this form to: People for Progress in India (PPI) P.O. Box 51231, Seattle, WA 98115-1231.