Progress Report : Integrated Development

The progress Report of the Integrated Community Development Project in South Dinajpur district Supported by Caritas India, presently coordinated by Fr. Herman Kindo and Mr. Jayanta Das is now available for your view. You may download it by clicking on : Progress Report ICD July-Sept 2007

Managing Disasters Together - Kumarganj

The Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) Program started at Kumarganj Block with support from Catholic Relief Services in 2005, under the name of "Village Resilience Project - Kumarganj" was completed in June 2007, with the merger of the Project with a new CBDP project. The VR - Kumarganj project as it was called, was coordinated by Ms. Barnali Roy and her team of Staff covering 75 Gram Sansads in 8 Panchayats, with some more development programs in another 38 Gram Sansads (Total 113). We congratulate Ms. Barnali and her team for the successful completion of the project. A detailed completion report is available now for your viewing. Click on the following link to download a copy of the Report : Completion Report : VR-Kumarganj (.pdf 704 kb)

Bolaigaon - A Feather on the Cap

The Community health program supported by Misereor at Bolaigaon has received a shot in its arms by a commitment from Misereor for assistance and continuation of the same project for a further period of two more years. This project will strengthen more community based organizations, self help groups and the poor in particular and help them acquire their rights and privileges. Sr. Anisha SDS, who has been on the forefront and her team of women who have done wonderfully well, are happy to know that their work has been recognized by Misereor in the form of continued support to the program.

Finance Management and Misereor

Misereor, the German Christian Organization that supports many good causes across the world organized a workshop on Finance Mangement and Control systems at Kolkata on 29-30 Oct 2007. Fr. Markus Mardi along with Mr. Gabriel Hembrom, the accountant, represented the Director. Misereor will be introducing more internal control systems for monitoring of the projects supported by Misereor.

Tracking Children with HIV

Social Welfare Institute gladly announces the starting of a new Project on tracking children who are living with HIV in the district of Malda. This is a pilot project in the area with an objective to identify the probable children who could be affected by HIV and still are not detected, and to help them brought within accessible medical help. The project will cover just five Panchayats in three months, although the program may be expanded to more areas at a later stage. This project is being supported by the Clinton Foundation. This project will be rolled out in the field from 16 Nov 2007 for a period of three months and will be coordinated by Ms. Barnali Roy.

Anti-Trafficking and Social Welfare Institute

Social Welfare Institute along with the Regional Forum ABCD will shortly launch a pilot program on anti-trafficking. Although until now we have limited ourselves to awareness building and occasional detection and rescue of women / girls in danger, this full fledged program will take care of both. Sr. John, FIHM at Bishrail will be the program coordinator. Since rural women are targeted mostly, we have concentrated on the Banshihari block of South Dinajpur district which sends a junk of girls and boys as cheap labourers to other parts of India. We wish Sr. John and her team all the best in controlling trafficking of humans.

Viable Vision

The Director R. Puthumai A. Nazarene, is attending a workshop with FVTRS arranged along with SES, and with Manfred Maurer as the facilitator. In the first group work, the team in which the Director of SWI was, presented a beautiful definition of a Viable Vision for an Entrepreneur. We state it here : " A viable vision is a Dream of the entrepreneur that is accepted by all as their common vision, and to the achievment of which all resources are pooled together over a period of time enabling the success of all--individually and collectively".