Visits to South Dinajpur

On Monday. 16 Feb, Puthumai, Ms. Chelsea of Seattle University, Ms. Rekha Soren, Mr. John Hembrom and few other staff of Social Welfare Institute went to Kumarganj in South Dinajpur district 100 kms east of Raiganj to attend what is called a "GPDMC", which is actually a Rural Local Government body's Disaster Management Committee, that are being strengthened through the efforts of Social Welfare Institute with support from Catholic Relief Services. There were about 70 men and women being trained in the role of the Disaster Management Committees at the local level and how they can coordinate Community Based Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation measures in the villages. Ms. Chelsea also got an opportunity to interact with few women in the villages who have practically nothing in their families other than couple of livestock--goats or pigs--that have been given by SWI as part of economic development.  On 17 Feb, Mr. Sanjay Rozario, the Zonal Manager of Caritas India visited two villages near Kumarganj along with Fr. Herman Kindo and Puthumai A. Nazarene to review the Micro-Finance Program supported by Caritas India. He also took time to interact with the Staff overseeing the program and with the village women.