GlobalGiving.org: Rural women support their families and villages

You, Seva Mandir and Happy 2012

Deepti Ameta — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:50:55 GMT

Wish you a very Happy New Year 2012!

Dear Friend,

I very much hope that you are enjoying the holiday season. From all of us here at Seva Mandir, a very happy and prosperous New Year to you. May 2012 brings peace and success to you and to your family. We thank you for your kindness that you gift us always. With this letter, we love to share some key highlights of year 2011.

For Seva Mandir, the year 2011 has been a year of changes and success. Ms. Neelima Khetan stepped down after 12 years of her excellent leadership (total 25 years of association with Seva Mandir) in March. Ms. Priyanka Singh became our new Chief Executive in April 2011. Seva Mandir is ready to see many more years of its successful engagement with rural communities in Southern Rajasthan in her leadership.

In October, Seva Mandir became the implementing agency for the MNREGA projects for 32 sites in rural Udaipur. It is a significant achievement as well as an indicator of the faith of the 74 Panchayats in Seva Mandir’s work. These Panchayats have endorsed us to be their implementing agency for MNREGA. Of these 32 sites that were sanctioned, the work has begun on the 22 sites. Most of these sites of pastureland development and currently the building of boundary wall is going on.

In 2011, Seva Mandir has been included in two working (sub) groups – {i) Child Survival & Development and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and ii) Girl Child} constituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to review the existing priorities, policies, strategies, programs and their implementation for fulfilling the rights of children to survival, development (including early childhood care, early learning, elementary education). Also, to highlight emerging issues and recommendations, resources allocation and utilization for Twelfth Five Year Plan of Government of India.

Several of Seva Mandir's programs have seen a maturing in the last years. For example, in the villages where Seva Mandir organized regular immunization camps, the complete immunization of children is 60%, while in comparison villages it is only 35%.

Similarly, the work on Natural Resources is yielding a lot of benefits to the poor. Every year grass worth Rs. 52 lacs (5.2 million rupees) is being harvested from the common lands developed under this program.

In April 2011, Champa Devi from Vassela village was awarded the "Woman Exemplar Award 2011". It is another reason to look back and feel joyous to see that a community member of Seva Mandir was being recognized by rest of the society for her selfless services.

We are privileged to experience exciting stories of women like Champa Devi. A big credit goes to friends like you for this. Your support has always been the source of our emotional strength. It helps us keep going with our work. It is gratifying that with your support we have been able to create spaces where ordinary people can exercise truth force to bring about social and political transformation.

We hope you will continue to be with us in future too. Your faith and untiring support is very critical to us at the moment. Especially, when national and international scenario is changing rapidly for civil societies and the definitions of ‘development’ are being re-explored.

We believe that the full and deep impact of Seva Mandir's work lies not so much in the tangible development activities that it promotes, but more in bringing the poor and rich together and enabling them to work for the commons of building more just and oppression free communities.

We look forward to your continuing contribution in the year 2012 too. With this letter we also like to share with you our latest e-newsletter.

Wish you a very bright and successful New Year.

With warm regards,

Deepti

You helped 35 leaders for an MBA. Know more of it

Deepti Ameta — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:17:49 GMT

Training of SHG women

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Hope you are well. Earlier we told you about an MBA course that has been organized for SHG leaders. The program that you support offers a variety of oppurtunities to these leaders. The MBA course is one such opportunity. My colleagues have shared with me a blog that was written by one of the resource persons of this MBA program.

Also, a two day training on 8th and 9th September 2011 was conducted for 40 women leaders. The training focused on developing basic understanding on gender and included session on concept of sex and gender, patriarchy and socialization.

In addition, I also have some more news including a brief study carried out by one of our volunteers on the status of microcredit activities in our region. This time, my letter brings you a flavor of thoughts expressed by people who have been associated with the program you are supporting. Please find these snippets below my letter.

I really hope you will enjoy reading about a different perspective of this work you champion. In my next letter to you, in a month, you will get to know the facts and figures of this program; as I will share with you the half yearly report of the program "Rural Women Support their Family And Villages".

Once again, thank you very much for being with us and supporting thousands of women of Rajasthan. Please do write to me in case of any queries.

With warm regards,

Deepti

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1) The MBA program for women entrepreneur:

Ms. Zenobia Driver (a resource person for CREAM conducted for rural entrepreneurs) wrote a blog on Urja-Soy project of Seva Mandir. The blog gives details about problems in managing micro enterprises, market reach and its derived learnings.

She is currently working as Director at Escape Velocity (A business strategy and marketing consulting firm based in Mumbai). She also worked as a Senior Consultant with Momentum Strategy and as a Senior Product Manager with Johnsons and Johnsons.

She wrote: "In spite of having a lower-priced healthier product to offer, Urja initially struggled to grow. There were two main reasons for this – one, most people in Udaipur were not aware of the health benefits of soya paneer and were not sure how it would benefit them, and two – the taste of soya paneer is different from that of paneer from milk, which is what people are used to. There is also a third problem of a reduced shelf life (2-3 days for Soya Paneer vs. 2 weeks for milk paneer), but this is less of an issue. Thus the key challenges facing Urja were to raise consumer awareness of the health benefits of paneer and to make the health benefit relevant, also to overcome the barrier of taste". Read her full blog on the following link http://escape-velocity-blog.com/2011/06/30/%e2%80%98need-but-don%e2%80%99t-want%e2%80%99-%e2%80%93-solutions-from-a-microenterprise/

(CREAM stands for Course in Rural Entrepreneurship, Administration and Management. It’s a curriculum designed and taught by industry professionals, NGO Leaders and academicians. It’s a part time MBA program designed for rural businessmen and employees of NGO’s running various livelihood projects. 18 people including 10 staff associated with the savings and credit programme and 8 rural entrepreneurs are associated with this programme)

2) What a recent study on Microcredit says:

A study on ‘An investigation into the status, problems and effectiveness of microcredit” was carried out by two volunteers in Urban and Badgaon Blocks during February to May 2011. The purpose of the study was to investigate the nature of microfinance, evaluate the risks of a crisis similar to that of Andhra Pradesh occurring in this region and investigate the effectiveness of microfinance as a tool for increasing socio-economic wellbeing.

The study revealed that there are 6 MFIs - Basix, SKS, Janalakshmi, Sahayata and Equitas and Asmitha operating in Urban block and one MFI – Sahayata, also operational in Badgaon block. It also reflected that there is very little indication of any potential crisis due to MFIs in the near future, in this area. The interest rates are not unreasonably high, the number of loan per borrowers, at 1.8, is also within reasonable limits. Coercion by MFI employees is not something that was mentioned by borrowers and by far the majority intended to take future loans. However there existed the practice of taking commission by group leaders acting as middlemen between the MFIs and the borrowers as well as the issues of ‘fake lenders’ where deposits were taken without a loan being issued. For example - in one of the panchayats – Dhar, of Badgaon block in our area, a women claiming to be from an MFI took money from 35 people, Rs 1000 from each and promised to provide loan on that basis. The organization never visited the area again, and those who had given Rs.1000 did not receive a refund or their promised loan. No one knew this organization and our attempts of contacting them were not successful either. The organization has not been heard from, and attempts to contact them have been unsuccessful.

3) Visitors in the city - observing women's meeting

The Programme Officer CHF (Co-operative Housing Foundation) International – India, along with her 4 team members visited a women’s group associated with Sadhna (Women’s handicraft enterprise) and Pula SHG cluster (an association of 15 SHGs) of Urban block during 26 to 27 May 2011. The visiting team participated in Pula Kachi Basti’s cluster meeting. They appreciated the way the meeting was conducted and felt happy to see the functioning of cluster and active participation of women. They were also happy to see the well maintained records and the rules and regulations especially related to loan disbursement and repayment. The visitors also appreciated the fact that women also discussed social issues along with issues related to savings and credit.

Story of Kalu:

Links:

You enrolled 35 rural women entrepreneur for an MBA

Deepti Ameta — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 06:04:29 GMT

Woman in Dairy business

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Hope you are well. The monsoon has come to Rajasthan last week. Everyone is excited to have clouds in the sky and hoping to have a good monsoon year.

I am sharing the annual report of our Self Help Group (SHG) program that you are supporting. The report accounts detailed information on the total number of SHGs currently running as well as the total savings of these groups. In the last two years the efforts have been made in strengthening the smooth functioning of SHGs. A number of trainings and workshops that were organized during the reporting period which helped the participants learn skills of auditing of SHGs, profit distribution, qualitative monitoring, standardization of SHG norms and streamlining MIS (monitoring information system).

This year the SHGs took a step ahead and began to contribute towards the costs for auditing and book keeping. The groups are happy at their self-reliance they are achieving gradually.

The performance of SHGs is measured on the basis of six main indicators – regular meetings, regular savings, regular attendance, principal repayment, interest repayment, and safe portfolio.

After the audit in March 2010, for the first time, during April – June 10, profit distribution was done in all the SHGs. For this initially the criteria for profit distribution was discussed with the groups and it was decided that since it was being done for the first time, it should be based on total savings of members.

Seva Mandir has collaborated with a team of consultants for a short course (6 months) on Rural Entrepreneurship, Administration and Management. It’s a curriculum designed and taught by industry professionals, NGO Leaders and academicians. It’s a part time MBA program designed for rural businessmen and employees of NGO’s running various livelihood projects. For more details please see the report enclosed.

Following is a brief fact sheet for your quick reference –

1. By the end of March 2011, we had 528 SHGs with 7,981 women members.

2. The total savings of these SHGs is Rs. 19,055,983 (USD 423,466).

3. The SHGs in the urban settings are outperforming the ones set up in rural areas. Interest repayment rate is 95 to 100% for all blocks except for Jhadol. The portfolio at risk is very high for Kherwara and Badgaon Block. Please see the report enclosed for more details.

4. The members received a profit of Rs. 2,385,169 (USD 53,004) from their SHGs.

5. During this period 85 campaigns (one day each) were organized in all blocks, in which 2,556 women from 174 SHGs participated. These campaigns mainly focused on the concepts of SHGs, performance indicators and addressing the specific problems of the SHGs.

6. Six training programs were organized focusing on enhancing the skill for accountancy.

I very much hope that you will enjoy reading all the progress these women are making with your help. Many thanks to all of you for your continuing support to this program. Please do write to us if you have any queries. We will keep you updated about the progress of this program as well as about the monsoon.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Attachments:

SHG annual report 2010-2011 (DOC)

You - helping villagers in India with the business plan

Deepti Ameta — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:29:21 GMT

Business planning at community level

Dear friends,

Hope you are well. Thank you for your continuing support. We are very grateful to you donations and inputs.

Every time with our letter to you, we wish to acquaint you with Seva Mandir a bit more. In this letter, you will get to know about the process of our business planning.

Seva Mandir focuses on communities rather than on individuals. The belief is that in order to bring about the durable changes in the society, the constructive work involving all the community members is important because social problems are complex. It therefore takes longer but the outcomes are more sustainable and long lived. Therefore, Seva Mandir has a three pronged strategy –

1) To create and strengthen institutions for development (at the village, organization and society levels)

2) To enhance people’s capabilities for self-development (both at individual and community level); and

3) To create sustainable improvements in the livelihoods base.

Our bottom-up approach allows creating stakes for every section of society to participate in their own development. We very much hope that you will enjoy knowing about our business planning phase that we are going through right now.

It has been a very hot summer here in Rajasthan this year. We are now all prepared to welcome the monsoon which should be here in the next week and half. Gradually it is getting humid day by day and we are trying not to let the rising temperatures affect us and are currently in the midst of the exciting organization wide planning process to develop our 7^th Comprehensive Plan.

The Comprehensive Plan outlines the strategic direction and action-plans for Seva Mandir over the next three-year plan period (2012-2015).

Seva Mandir has been preparing Comprehensive Plans since 1990 as a way to systematically review and evolve its near-term strategic priorities across all programmatic areas. The process of putting together the Comprehensive Plan also serves as an opportunity for Seva Mandir to reflect upon the work we have done, examine the environment we work in and evolve our strategies accordingly, within the context of past lessons learned and the overall long-term vision of the organization.

The process for creating the 7^th Comprehensive Plan began in late 2010 and includes all levels of Seva Mandir’s tiers viz. - from the villages where we work all the way up to the Chief Executive Officer. The Comprehensive Plan process is consistent with Seva Mandir’s bottom-up approach, with the kick-off meetings taking place at the village level with the Chief Executive present. After these initial meetings, the staff members at the zone and block offices had an opportunity to share their thoughts, observations and information. Using the information gathered from the field, the Programs devised their strategies for the upcoming years. These were presented to the organization as a whole, where debate, discussion, criticism and suggestions took place.

We are now headed into the final stages of this exciting process. Programs are incorporating the comments and suggestions into their reports, and putting the final touches in to the operating frameworks. This is an exciting time at Seva Mandir and we are really looking forward to the next few years when we can put these strategies into effect and watch the change they make.

The integrated approach allows all our partners, friends, donors and well wishers to contribute to the holistic development of our communities. Any project/program that you support for Seva Mandir is a part of this comprehensive plan. Thank you so much for regularly supporting our cause and making a difference.

We will soon be providing you with an annual report of our programs you are supporting on Global Giving. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Heerki made Rs. 4,500 with your support. Thank you

Deepti Ameta — Thu, 05 May 2011 07:03:06 GMT

Heerki, photo taken at her house

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!!

I have two pieces of news to share before we talk about Heerki whose life has been transformed because of your support and SHGs.

One -we had participated in a fund raising event on Global Giving UK. The challenge Top 10 wins challenge (1^st to 14^th March) required us to raise at least of £ 500 with minimum of 25 donors. Seva Mandir participated with its project “Improving Food Security for Tribal Farmers in India”. This project helps 5000 poor, marginalized farmers in rural Udaipur to have better crops and thus earn more money/food. This is done through a variety of programs including – seed bank program, using organic manure prepared with the help of earth worms (vermin-composting), growing cash crops like vegetables (preparing nurseries) for self sustenance and income generation. You would be very happy to note that this project raised £705 from 31 donors in the Top 10 Wins Challenge and therefore it won a bonus prize of £300. It is a perfect gift on the Holi (the color festival) for our farmers this year.

Two, this year, in March our ex Chief Executive Ms. Neelima Khetan was retired. She has spent 25 years with Seva Mandir and the last twelve years as the Chief Executive. The organization excelled during her time and with her leadership marked a number of achievements. Though she has left us due to our constitutional norms, we are very happy to have her as our Trustee on Seva Mandir Board. Her continuing association with Seva Mandir is very assuring for all of us.

Ms. Priyanka Singh has taken over as Chief Executive of Seva Mandir from 1^st April 2011. She has spent over thirteen years with Seva Mandir heading Education and Health program and leading Badgaon Block (a geographical unit for our work). She has a post graduate degree in rural development from the same institute as Ms. Khetan did. She is very capable and a great person to work with. With her deep understanding of issues in rural development and support from all our friends like you, we are very much looking forward to seeing Seva Mandir keep doing its good work in the next years to come. At this point of time, we all look for your continuous support and faith for many more years of working together.

Below my letter please find the story of Heerki. I very much hope you will enjoy learning about the impact small activity like saving and credit can do for women of our region. Thank you so much for supporting this program.

Please do consider to make another donation and also encourage your friends to support this project. We hope that you will be able to visit/write to encourage our new team and leadership.

Warm Regards

Deepti

deepti@sevamandir.org

Here is the story of Heerki – (Story written by Anjali – an ex volunteer to Seva Mandir)

Heerki has not been educated. She has two sons and three daughters. In her home, she lives with her husband, one of her sons, his wife, and his child. Her routine consists of doing all family work including cattle, household, and field work. Her husband does NREGA in another village and field work, and her son is a factory threadmill worker.

From the SHG she has taken around Rs. 10,000 (USD 223) in loans for household items, marriage, and education fees. They were taken through family decisions.

Her husband suggested they purchase a water lifting machine through the bank linkage loan. The machine is a bore that fits to an electric pump. The machine has now made a huge change in their field work. Before, they could not grow wheat and now they’ve grown fifteen quintels of wheat. Though they haven’t yet sold anything, they could have potentially made Rs. 4,500 (USD 100) in the past four months. Each quintel will bring in Rs. 1,500. Now, they’re also cultivating vegetables, which they couldn’t do previously.

No training was needed for the machine as it simply needs to be plugged in. Their costs include electricity and nearly a quintel of seeds which were purchased to begin. One quintel is approximately one kg of seeds, which costs Rs. 18. They needed to purchase the seeds initially, but can now save their own seeds and won’t need to purchase any next time.

The whole family works in the field for two to three hours a day. They haven’t sold anything yet, but will sell to other villagers. They are already satisfied.

The only problem for the family is that there is not always electricity for the motor to spread water in the field. In addition, Heerki expresses that it is very hard work, but feels content as it is a job.

Prior to this loan, they made about Rs. 3,000 (USD 67) a month. Now, they don’t have to purchase as much food because they have more of their own food. The money saved is going to their installments. The family plans to begin selling in one to two months.

succesor to ex Chief Executive Seva Mandir

Happy 2011 from Durga Kumari and all of us here

Deepti Ameta — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 06:05:25 GMT

Durga Kumari sends you her greetings

Wishing you a very happy, prosperous and wonderful 2011. Thank you friends for extending peace, love and support to all of us in 2010. We look forward to another great year with you. Year by year, our association is getting stronger. Thank you very much for adding happiness to our lives.

A small drawing made by Durga Kumari is presented as a token of our wishes to you.

Have an awesome year ahead.

Warm regards,

Deepti

Links:

December Newsletter 2010

You have helped Denu earn $ 60 per month

Deepti Ameta — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:58:45 GMT

A member of SHG program

Dear Friends,

Happy Holiday Season!

Hope you are enjoying the holiday season. This year the winter started a little later here but it is pleasantly cold right now. We hope it is also nice weather where you are.

Thank you for supporting women of our region. Currently there are 493 Self Help Groups (SHGs) with a membership of 7516. The net-owned fund of 493 SHGs till September 2010 is Rs. 17,308,217 (USD 384,627). A number of women and their families are engaged in various income generation programs such as goatery, dairy, fisheries, pottery; tofu making etc. Many women members borrow money from their SHGs (usually linked up with Banks) and start small businesses. These activities help their families in having an additional income and confidence. In a number of cases, with the help of SHGs the village youth have also taken up some enterprises. The Soy project is one such example. You can find more details about this program in the report enclosed.

The story given below will give you an idea of how women members are being supported by these SHGs in earning more income as well as more respect in their societies.

It is exciting for us to share the progress of these programs with you at the time of holiday season. Thank you for being an incredible partner to us. Please consider donating again to this program at this festivity and also tell about it to your friends.

Many thanks once again. Happy Holiday Season to you from all of us here.

With warm regards,

Deepti

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Denu (changed name) is a member of Self Help Group in Kojawada village. There was no wheat flour Mill in the area she lives. As a result women had to walk nearly 3 km to get their wheat grounded. The women were not happy with the quality of work done at this Mill. Denu and her family decided to obtain a loan to start their own Mill. Denu's Self Help Group applied for a bank loan as the other women members also wanted to start their own businesses of some kind.

The group was sanctioned a loan of Rs 200,000 under a government scheme “Swarn Jayanti Swarojgar Yojana (Golden Jubilee Self Employment Scheme), considering their group's good performance in the past.

Denu started the Mill with her portion of the loan money (Rs. 20,000 or USD 445) and ever since she is milling 80-100 kg of wheat every day. She is able to earn around Rs 3000 (USD 67) per month. She is happy for getting a regular income and being able to support her family. She is also a part of Seva Mandir Iron fortification project (for improving the Hemoglobin levels of village community), wherein she gets an additional income of Rs 600-700 every month for fortifying the wheat flour with iron for her fellow villagers.

Links:

Seva Mandir Annual Report

Attachments:

Half Yearly Report April-September 2010 (DOC)

Colorful fishes makes money for rural women, India

Deepti Ameta — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 10:35:59 GMT

ornamental fishes in cemented fish tanks

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for your continuing support to the rural women of our region. With this letter, I would like to share with you a story of the ornamental fishery that women in Kaya village are doing.

However, before the story, we want you to know something about our monsoon. You will be very happy to note that the monsoon has turned out very good in Rajasthan this year. It has rained almost every day this monsoon which is unusual to our region. Usually we receive 20 rainy days in the monsoon. One of the most popular lakes in Udaipur city – Fatehsagar has filled up fully with lots of rain water and is currently over flowing. In villages too some of the streams are flowing and everyone is very happy. Hopefully we will have a good harvest of crops this year. The maize is the major crop and is currently growing in all the fields.

The women in Kaya wanted to help their families by supplementing extra income. The self help group (SHG) thought of starting a small business and therefore they started rearing ornamental fishes. The ornamental fished are in high demand in Udaipur. About Rs. 8 lakh (USD 16,667) worth fishes are sold in Udaipur every year. The Department of Fisheries of Mohanlal Sukhadia University in Udaipur was willing to provide the necessary support under their “Mega Seed Project”, supported by Indian Council for Agriculture Research.

Of the 6 SHGs, thirteen women decided to take up the project in 2006. They participated in a ten day training organized by the Department of Fisheries to learn about fish rearing, construction and maintenance of fish tanks, netting, etc. On completion of the training each of them were given 200 fish seeds. A buy-back arrangement had been agreed upon with the department who in turn sell them to dealers in Udaipur. Young boys from the village, who are children of the SHG members, have also been trained on aquarium fabrication, management and handling of ornamental fishes, and they provide the necessary support to women in rearing and in selling fish directly in the open market.

In the beginning women would dig up a pit in the ground in their field and would rear the fishes but eventually they realized that a kaccha pit (un-cemented) in the ground was a big challenge to manage. It also had a negative impact on the desired results because the seepage was high and the plastic sheet in the bottom of these pits got torn by the stones below and the rats & crabs ate up the sheets. These un-cemented tanks also got silted very soon and some tanks even collapsed. At regular intervals, the tanks need to be refilled with water. As you know water is scarce in the drought prone areas. As a result, the poor middle-aged women had to invest a lot of resources to keep their fishes alive.

It is then, when women decided to put up the cemented tanks. With help of funds raised from donors like you and Charities Aid Foundation India (CAF) the cemented tanks were built. Women also contributed 20% of the total cost (USD 521 for one tank) towards the construction of the tanks. Today thirteen women are rearing red, brown, gappi, silver and black molly fishlings in their tanks. According to an estimate last year women are able to earn between Rs. 500-1200 (USD 10-25) per member. Earlier, women were selling their fishes for Rs. 4 to 8/- but recently when I visited their village the women told me that they are selling the fished for more prices – like the golden orange fish is sold for Rs. 15 each. They are increasing their market base day-by-day and are quite happy with the progress they have made so far. Currently they are in communication with the Fishery Department to explore whether a shade over their tanks is useful and would help them yield better results.

This has all been possible because of the support received from people like yourself. We will keep you posted on these women’s progress. Your donations are significant at this stage when their investments are shaping up.

It would be very encouraging if you could provide us with your comments on our feedback reports that we post on Global Giving in addition to your continuing support. It would help us improve in our communication with you. Thank you once again.

We will keep you posted on our progress.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Nimi is contributing to family income now

Deepti Ameta — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 05:36:06 GMT

Nimi at her shop

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you for your continuing support to rural women gaining financial autonomy and being able to help their families. Ms. Anjali Fleury from USA has been volunteering with Seva Mandir and is working on our SHG program. She has been meeting women in the rural areas who are associated with SHG program. Here is a small story Anjali has written about a woman she met in Shisvi village.

We hope you will enjoy reading the story. Please do let us know if you have any questions.

Many thanks once again for your support, faith and empathy.

With warm regards,

Deepti

------------------ (SHISHVI VILLAGE) Story of Nimi (changed name)’ – BY ANJALI FLEURY

Of the many projects run by Seva Mandir, the organization has made a significant impact by starting and assisting over 600 women’s self-help groups (SHGs). SHGs are women’s groups that use members’ savings to provide loans to one another based on need. As a volunteer, I’ve had the privilege to meet with many women in these groups to discuss their lives, struggles, and aspirations. In doing so, I met Nimi. Defined by the government as “below poverty level”, Nirmala’s family income was significantly low before meeting Seva Mandir. Through Sadhana, a Seva Mandir stitching project designed to help women gain income, Nimi began doing stitching orders and gaining a reliable salary. Nimi also joined an SHG starting in her village. With the SHG, she no longer needed to rely on money lenders with high interest rates, and was able to acquire several loans. With these loans, she started a general store and has continued to expand her shop inventory and business. Not only have these loans allowed Nimi to increase her business and income, but they have also helped her meet household needs. Today, Nimi is still doing patchwork with Sadhana, taking stitching and clothes orders from her local community, and running her general store. She’s also conducted a stitching class for local girls in her village, and has even hired her previous students to help with large orders. Overall, Nimi now makes around the same monthly income as her husband. To her, the SHG has changed her life. She feels she has become financially independent and can provide for her family. Previously, Nimi’s husband would discourage her from beginning her business by saying she could never repay her loans. Now, Nimi says they both make family financial decisions and her husband’s attitude has drastically changed. Indeed, her own attitude has changed, and she now feels successful and confident in her abilities. She proudly shares that she will never leave her SHG and hopes to remain a member for her entire life. Niimi’s poignant and inspiring story made clear that Seva Mandir’s continual guidance and assistance through community-based efforts has not only given new opportunities to these women, but has also resulted in women’s empowerment as they transform their own lives through their own groups. Witnessing firsthand the life-changing effects of SHGs has brought new meaning to my volunteer experience, and I feel privileged to have worked with an organization so dedicated to these communities.

Links:

Seva Mandir women program

Wishing you Happy New Year and Thank you for supporting women

Ms. Deepti Ameta — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:50:53 GMT

Dear Friends,

New Year Greetings from Seva Mandir!

We hope the New Year brings joy, happiness, peace and success to everyone’s life. We also hope that together we will be able to reduce the sufferings of our planet.

Thank you very much for your overwhelming response during the recent challenge. We are indeed very grateful for your support and would like to communicate our heartfelt thanks to you.

With this letter, we are happy sharing the progress we are making in our women’s program. Our 48 women’s groups have a membership of 14,000 women. The women’s groups are serving platforms of mutual support and encouragement for women. With various trainings (including legal issues, reproductive health, Government Schemes), meetings and exposure visits we have been able to get rural women a platform of gaining confidence and social support.

Apart from our focus on promoting their social support structure, through Self Help Groups (SHGs) we are attempting to empower women economically. Recently, an external review of our SHG program helped Seva Mandir marked the strengths and weaknesses of SHG program. Currently we have 573 SHGs with a membership of 8415 women and with a total of $ 289,348.

The struggle for women in this region is sometimes beyond family and individual. The following story is a perfect example of how women’s groups and their Self Help Group Funds help them fight back all kinds of odds in their lives.

Two SHGs from village Dadmia and Baansadiya got fishing rights in Ogna dam from Panchayat (local village council) on 28 August 09. These groups were struggling for the fishing rights in this dam for the past 3 years. Initially they fought with the local contractor who was illegally fishing in this dam for long. The women together fought for their right and made him leave the dam in June 2008.

The women now applied to Panchayat for taking the dam on lease. As being the resident of the village they have the right on their dam. But on 1 June 2009 the Panchayat through a tender process gave it to another contractor. The women had also participated in the tender process but because they offered a small amount to the Panchayat they ended up losing the contract.

But, this was not enough to discourage the women. They wrote an application to the District Collector and requested him to cancel the tender to the other contractor. Since it was a D category dam and some women members of these two SHGs had lost their land because of the construction of this dam, so, the tender was cancelled and the Gram Panchayat (the bigger level village council) was asked to do the leasing process through Gram Sabha. Finally on 28 August, the group got the dam on lease for five years for Rs. 41,000 ($ 820). The group has deposited the amount in the Panchayat.

On 19 September 09, a meeting of these two groups was organized to explore possibilities of association with Rajas Sangh (Government Department) for financial and technical support. An official from Rajash Sangh participated in this meeting. After a lot of discussion Rajas Sangh agreed to provide support to the group for 10 years under their Integrated Fisheries Development Scheme. Thereafter department released 32,200 fish seed in this dam and have assured for 70,000 more seed. Looking at the initiative of groups in Baansadiya and Dadmiya, they also provided 50,000 fish seed for three other ponds in villages Umariya, Madri and Mohammed Phalasia.

The groups are now ready to fish in their dam and are very happy at their success which was the result of their continuous efforts and mutual support.

We would like to say a big ‘Thank you’ to you for supporting these rural women. Your support will go a long way. Supporting to our SHG program has brought you to a close relation to these women which we hope will stay firm for ever.

Thank you once again.

Deepti deepti@sevamandir.org

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Ms. Deepti Ameta — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:53:53 GMT

December 7, 2009

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Many thanks to all of you for responding to our call of support during ‘Give More and Get More’ Challenge. We did quite well in the challenge and you would be happy to note that we stood third with receiving over $35,000 across various projects.

The funds are always helpful in continuing our work but that we can write to this community of supporters and rally support is very morale boosting. Thank you for your trust in us. We are truly grateful.

With best regards for the Holiday Season,

Sincerely,

Deepti

Matching grant opportunity – Please support Seva Mandir

Poonam — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:33:41 GMT

It’s the season for Thanks and Giving…and we hope very much that you will continue your support to Seva Mandir.

We wanted to let you know about an exciting opportunity that we are participating in through our partners, Global Giving. A donation made to any of our projects, on Global Giving between November 10 and December 1, will be matched.

Total donations up to $2,500 will be matched at 30%. Donations in the range $2,501 - $7,500 will be matched at 40%. Donations above $7501 will be matched at 50%. However, please note that only donation amounts below $500 will be eligible for matching – any donation above $ 500 will come to us, and make us more eligible for bonus awards but without the matching amount. SO GIVE MORE – GET MORE!

And if we raise the most money or get the most donations, we are eligible for bonus awards. First place for both categories will each receive $5,000, second place in each will receive $3,000 and third place in both categories will each receive $1,000.

Seva Mandir’s page at Global Giving lists 7 projects. Please see http://www.globalgiving.com/dy/v2/content/search.html?q=seva+mandir

Matching funds are limited, so we request you to act as quickly as possible. You can give and also persuade friends and family to give. Minimum donation is $10 and donations are tax-deductible!

Would you consider giving and also sharing this email with others?

Thank you for anything that you are able to do to support Seva Mandir.

With Greetings for the season, Seva Mandir