Signing with the UNICEF

Puthumai A. Nazarene, the Director of Social Welfare Institute has signed a Project Cooperation Agreement with the UNICEF, West Bengal State Office for a project on Community Based Disaster Preparedness in Harishchandrapur - II Block of Malda District, 350 k.m. north of Kolkata. The Agreement was signed on 18 March 2008 at the UNICEF office in Kolkata. This project will aim at reducing the vulnerability of the community and building their capacity for promotion and strengthening of support systems that that ensure reduced damages to lives and livelihoods of the people. About 100,000 people will benefit from this project. The program is supported by the Ministry of Civil Defense, Government of West Bengal, and DIP-ECHO.

How Many Days Make A Week?

If you thought the answer is seven, well, think again... not all are sure! I was at our training centre today and personally chatting with the tribal girls who have come for a training program. That is when I met Sujala and Lily two girls in their teens (Lily is the elder among the two) from two different families from Goalpukhor II Block of North Dinajpur District. Since both their families had migrated to India from Bangladesh, and I had been told that they were recent arrivals, I asked them how long are they in India. Sujala being the smarter one, spoke most of the time. She said, it was quite some time back, and that they have land here. "How many months ago?" I asked, and she answered, "I do not know". "Well, how many years back?", I retorted, and she replied, " I do not know." Lily also nodded her head in approval. "How big were you when you came to India?" "We were big." The dialogue continued in the following manner :

Puthumai : "Do you know what day is today?"
The Girls : "Hmmmm... Friday...? No. Saturday"

Puthumai : "That's good. You are right. Do you know how many days make a week?"
The Girls : "No".
Puthumai : "How many days in a month?"
The Girls : "We don't know".
Puthumai : "Do you know if this is a day time or night time". (It was morning 8.00 a.m.)
The Girls : "It is morning".
Puthumai : "Excellent!".

Then I went on explaining to them how many months are there in an year, how many days make a week, and how our calendar is made of, and other things. This is just to give you the taste of the type of persons we are working with. Your support to the education of Lily, Sujala or many other such girls will make a lasting change in the life of the poor. You can make a difference. Make it now.

About Brick-bats!

The brick industry is a back-breaking industry. You can say this safely because, the men and women need to sit or bed to handle the mud, to knead it, shape it and then after drying carry it to the furnace. And all that you get are brick-bats : in the form of abuses, slangs, slurs, poor payment and layoffs as soon as the first rain falls (because, the bricks, before they are taken into the furnace, need to be kept under the sun for drying). Click on the pictures to download large images.

Bricks ready to go into the furnace


Our camera looks into the furnace 10 ft deep


People at the Brick-fields (At the background of the picture with the young girl helping her mother is a temporary house in which people live in crowds, exposing them to various dangers, and the dust from the brick-field affecting their lungs)

Brick by Brick....

Puthumai A. Nazarene traveled with Johannes Becker and Matthias Kunkel, the German Students currently at Social Welfare Institute, for a visit to a brick-making (field) factory close to Raiganj. This was part of sensitizing the German students to some of the realities of the extent of poverty in this part of India. The North Dinajpur district alone has over 100 brick-making fields. Since this is the best time of the year to visit brick fields, we could see the people in full activity. There were many migrant families living within the brick-making fields working over 16 hours a day to earn their living. They live in unhygienic conditions, with no sanitary facilities. The women and girls get easily exposed to sexual exploitation in many of these places. The children have no access to health and education as these fields lie outside the main villages and towns. We thought of sharing some pictures with you in this blog. Let this season of Lent be a time of repentance for all sins of humanity against human persons. And let your hearts open to help these poor, specially the children and young girls and boys at these places.

The Christmas at Sydney

Christmas is the best of all seasons! I have always tried to design new things with every Christmas--from a crib on a boat in water to a mountain of wheat plants to this year's Sydney Harbor. Social Welfare Institute had thousands of people flocking to see the Christmas crib designed in the shape of the Sydney Harbor by my humble self, and was made real by the efforts of Mr. Gurupado Sarkar, an artist friend. I thank all those who encouraged me with kind words. The crib was 26 feet high and 48 feet long covering a space of over 2000 square feet. Though I am uploading it too late, well, never it is too late! enjoy a masterpiece.

Projects on the Card

Social Welfare Institute is planning a new project on promotion and awareness building on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in collaboration with PRIA in the Blocks of Gazole and Bamangola of Malda District. The project is expected to benefit over 60,000 families. Puthumai A. Nazarene, the Director has also held discussions with the UNICEF in the past month, and SWI is expected to bag a project of supporting eight Gram Panchayats in Harishchandrapur II Block of Malda district towards promotion of Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) Program.

The German Students

Two German students - Mr. Matthias Kunkel and Mr. Johannes Becker-- from the University of Freiburg, Germany, are in Social Welfare Institute since 14 Feb 2007. They are on a study visit to understand some of our educational programs and also to interact with the students and teachers supported by us. They are scheduled to be in Raiganj till 08 March. They have also plans to visit many villages in order to understand the situation of the poor here. Welcome Matthias and Johannes !

Insuring the Poor - Another Milestone

We are proud to announce that we have helped 1409 persons to get insured for the year 2007 against the planned target of 1000 persons. Through this program we have been able to insure the lives of the poor and we also managed to get additional scholarships for 420 students (all of them children of the insured) under another scheme of the government. Each student will get Rupees 1,200 annually. For this year, we have already received over 100,000 rupees from the government for this purpose. Moreover, we also had a death claim cleared in our very first year, so that, the family could get 30,000 rupees in the case of normal death of the person. The list of the insured persons are available on the following links. List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5, List 6, and List 7. We thank the family of Mr. Rudolf Kuester, Mrs. Barbara Kuester and Ms. Julia Kuester of Arnsberg in Germany for supporting the salary of one of the staff who was involved in the program for the first year. Without their support we would not have got so many poor insured. We would be happy to get more generous persons to support more staff so that we can take this program forward!

Jobs! Jobs!! Empowering for Jobs!!!

The Government of India had passed an Act in 2005 to give at least 100 days of work to the people through the Act called the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. This is a demand-driven service of the government--i.e., if anyone wants job, they need to have a job card and then apply for work. But due to various problems in implementation, this project of the government has not been going well. Social Welfare Institute has been creating awareness among people to help them access this great resource of the government. Now, Social Welfare Institute, and PRIA are planning a strategic partnership in promoting NREGA in two blocks of Malda district. If everything goes well, 50,000 families will be benefited.

Beating the Chill

In August, during my visit to Germany, some friends, specially the people of Arnsberg and some relatives of Sebatian Pieper, gave some gift money for the children in India. Whereas I left a lot of it with Sebastian as the seed money for the foundation that we are planning to start, I had little left with me. Along with the support I received through the sponsors of assistachildproject.org, and the gifts of the German people, we gave 285 blankets to children under the age of 14 in Altapur and Bolaigaon. All the children were very happy to receive the blankets. 124 boys and 160 girl children were given good quality thick blankets in the last week of November to beat the chill of December and January in this part of India. Thank you very much to all the sponsors and the people of Seattle, USA, and the people of Arnsberg, specially Sebastian, Julia, Fr. Blottcher, family of Evelyn, Michael, and every other sweet face that I met there. Besides this are some of the photos of the distribution. Thank you dear friends for your generous support. (Please, accept my apologies for uploading these pictures too late.)