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. Wish you a very bright and successful New Year.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Dear Friends, Greetings from Seva Mandir! Hope you are well. Thank you for supporting the improving food security project. In a year with your support and all the other donors we have reached out to 5,000 farmers with a variety of agriculture related projects. Enclosed please find a copy of annual report for the progress we made last year in this program. Below is the snapshot of some of the achievements - 1. 648, farmers planted 10,169 fruit saplings. The planted saplings included fruit species like mango, aonla (goose berries), guava, lemon and sapota (cheeku). 2. 253 farmers in 18 villages built vermin composting beds and used the organic manure on their farms. 3. 1,019 farmers received quality seeds for growing a number of vegetables and grains. 4. In one of the blocks over 100 farmers made Rs. 35000/- (USD 750) through sale of vegetables. 5. 22 women produced 3,440 kg vegetables in one of the blocks. They sold 1,321 kg of vegetables and made Rs. 26,420 (USD 590). There more such examples in the report enclosed. 6. 60 seeds banks were established. The seeds banks have been very successful in terms of accessing quality seeds for all the farmers. The monsoon was wonderful this year. It rained a lot every where in Udaipur and the lakes filled up pretty quickly. As you know Udaipur is the most famous tourist attraction of Asia. Therefore, good rains assure a good tourist year. The program you are supporting enables many traditional farmers in Rajasthan to grow more food. The more food means - more income as well as access to better food. Thanks once again for your generous support. It goes a lone way here in Rajasthan. We very much hope that you will continue supporting this project and will consider to talk about it to your friends too. Shortly we will come to you for more stories and updates. In the meanwhile, please do contact us for any questions or clarifications. Once again, thank a lot for helping the farmers of Rajasthan. With warm regards, Deepti

Links:

• On Seva Mandir website - Agriculture and income generation

• Annual Report 2010-2011 (DOC)

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 individual/s. 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 effect 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 learnt 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,

Dear Friends,

I am so happy sharing this piece of report that my colleague Niranjan has put together for you. It is a great way to end my day here in India today. One it is so very kind of you to consider making a donation to this project. I thank all of you who have just made their contributions to this project in order for it to win the Top 10 Wins challenge on Global Giving UK. We are right now on the fourth position with 13 donors. We need another 12 people to help us out. I request you to please consider supporting this project and please help double our happiness on the festival of Holi (is on 19th & 20th March this year).

The other reason of ending my day with a great reason is to read the report Niranjan has just shared with me. I am just copying his report below my letter and would encourage you to see what great work these farmers have done to deal with their food security issues in their region. It is really surprizing that most of these farmers hold very small pieces of lands but with some support and trainings from Seva Mandir and freinds like you they have made really amazing progress.

Here I end my letter and let you read the report.

Once again for all your support. Please do consider making another donation and help this project win £500 with this Top 10 Wins challenge. We need another £200 only. Please help these farmers a bit more.

With best regards,

Deepti

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Community seed bank

The seed bank program of Seva Mandir aims at improving the “Seed/food security” of the farmers in villages of South Rajasthan. The main idea is that the farmers don’t have to pay for the seeds provided to them by Seva Mandir under this program however each farmer needs to return 1.5 or 1.25 times more seeds from what each of them had borrowed from the seed bank.

From these Seed Banks the farmers are able to receive improved and climate variation resilient crop seeds for all cropping seasons such as kharif, rabi and zaid.

The farmers can have access to maize, wheat, black gram, sesame, rice, mustard, wheat, bengal gram, green gram and vegetable crop seeds. The seed banks once set up are being managed by the village development committees. These committees are being set up by the villagers only.

Each farmer’s share of returned seeds is stored in the seed bank in large metal drums/boxes. To keep the seeds safe some treatment is also used.

Therefore, the villagers are trained to keep records for loaning out and collecting back the seeds, keeping and storing the seeds safely and distributing them at the time of sowing etc. After sometime each seed bank becomes a grain bank due to each farmer returning back their share (1.5 to 1.25 times more) and therefore it ultimately enhances the ‘food security’ in villages.

At present there are 52 seeds bank in all the 6 blocks of Seva Mandir. For example in Jhadol Block the village Kitavato ka vas has a community seed bank. Seva Mandir has provided the village with good quality seeds of Maize (48 Kg), Black Gram (28 Kg), Wheat (150 Kg) and Bangle grane (60Kg)

After harvesting of the both the seasons’ crop the farmers have returned their share of seeds in their seed bank (1.5 times more). The details of which is as under -

• Wheat (220 Kg)
• Black Gram (38 Kg.)
• Bangle Gram (90 Kg.)
• Maize (70 Kg.)

farmers with their share of seeds

Links:

• how can you help these farmers a bit more

• the community seed bank report (DOC)

Dear Friends,

Many thanks for supporting this project and ensuring food security for tribal farmers of our region.

As you know Seva Mandir is participating in Top 10 Wins challenge on Global Giving. We are promoting your favorite project –“Improving Food Security for Tribal Farmers in Udaipur, India”.

We are reaching out to 5000 farmers every year and with a variety of interventions attempting to increase their agriculture production; more specifically growing vegetables, promoting the use of organic manure (composting done with earth worms) and an access to a seed bank program.

This program is doing really well with your support. We encourage you to consider making another donation between 1st March to 14th March (the period of this challenge) to help your project win more money and attention.

I am enclosing a small report that my colleagues (who are directly involved in this program in the villages) have put together for you. Last year in the month of February, 13 farmers received green gram seeds. Green gram apart from being highly rich in nutrients is also beneficial for crop rotation as it enriches soil with Nitrogen (very good for soil productivity).

The farmers have recently harvested their crop using the seeds given to them last year. These farmers are now planning to sow wheat for the next crop both because it rained adequately last year and also they have better soil for the wheat crop now.

These 13 farmers were able to sell their harvest for over 1200 USD together. This is remarkable sale and this has all been possible because of your support.

This year has begun with a vibrant color of green. All the farmers in villages are now waiting for the festival HOLI (festival of colors). Along with this great harvest it is also the time for all of us to have late night celebration( Jagran ) in villages and looking forward to play with colors on the 19th and 20th March (Holi festival).

Please do consider to support your favorite project again and make it a winner in the Top 10 Wins Challenge (before 14th March). This is also the perfect timing for you to give away a gift to these farmers on HOLI.

Wishing you all a very Happy Holi from all of us here!!

With warm regards,

Deepti

Links:

• you can help more farmers before 14th march - here is a chance

• 13 farmers earned 1200 USD with your help (DOC)

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

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 the village farmers and families becoming food-secure in our region. The farmers we work with are mainly dependant on agriculture and animal husbandry. These tribal farmers own very small pieces of land i.e. less than 1 ha. Udaipur is a dry and drought prone area with an average annual rainfall of 625 mm.

However, with little encouragement and support, farmers can produce vegetables all round the year. Vegetables can be cultivated on small plots of land with very little inputs. Seva Mandir is encouraging farmers to grow vegetables on both small and medium scale.

In small scale initiative we promote vegetable nurseries. A number of farmers pick healthy vegetable saplings from the nurseries. For the medium scale production, the farmers are trained to grow vegetables on an intensive and professional way, called as sabji-wadi technique (Vegetable Field). The story given below – is of an explanation of the vegetable cultivation activity.

We are also very happy to share with you a detailed report on this program. Please find enclosed a midyear progress report on Vegetable cultivation program.

It is exciting for us to share the progress 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 once again from all of us here.

With warm regards,

Deepti

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Dalu Bai and her husband are residents of village Majera of block Kumbhalharh. They are very happy and proud farmers because they underwent training last year and subsequently cultivated coriander in their fields. Dalu Bai and her husband used to cultivate mainly the field crops for subsistence, such as Maize or Wheat if there was enough water. Dalu Bai in one of the meetings conducted by the CIG (Common Interest group) learnt more about the vegetable cultivation.

Earlier, she and her family didn’t know that it could be possible in their region as well. A technical training on vegetable cultivation organized and supported by Seva Mandir helped them know more about the various aspects of vegetable cultivation. After the training Dalu was provided with one kg of coriander seeds. She and her husband sown the seeds on 0.1 hectare of their land. Dalu Bai was able to produce 400 kg of coriander leaves. She sold her produce in the vegetable market of Udaipur and Rajsamand for Rs. 55 per kg. In the end, she earned Rs.22,000/- (USD 489). She and her family is so very happy at this income.

Links:

• Seva Mandir Annual Report

• Half Yearly Report April-September 2010 (DOC)

Dear Friends,

We want you to know that we are truly grateful to you for your generous support to us every time. In this letter you will find out why we are so grateful to you.

One of my colleagues Niranjan has shared a beautiful story of two villages where the rural tribal farmers are producing the organic compost and you can see the ripple effect of it. Before I share the story I would like to share with you the good news of this year’s monsoon. The monsoon has been great so far. It rained almost every day this year which is unusual to this region. Usually we receive 20 rainy days in the monsoon. Just yesterday one of the most popular lakes in Udaipur city – Fatehsagar has got filled up fully with lots of rain water. Hundreds of people are gathering around the lake to enjoy the water spill over. In villages too some of the streams are flowing and everyone is very happy with the monsoon and greenery everywhere.

In village Gadunia and Babri we initiated the vermi-composting with some farmers. Last year, three farmers in these villages produced 110 kg of worms (earth worms to help de-compost the bio-degradable matter). These farmers had attended the trainings of Seva Mandir. After producing the compost and worms they sold one kg of worms for Rs. 100 to another 55 farmers who were interested in taking up this initiative too. The three farmers together earned Rs. 11,000 (USD 245). The 55 farmers produced between 1.5 to 5 quintals of vermin-compost early this year. One of these farmers Bhimaji was able to produce 155 kg of compost which he sold to other farmers at Rs. 9 per kilo. He earned a profit of Rs. 1395 (USD 31) which is three fold; for not only what he produced but also for all his labor and time that he invested in this entire activity.

The farmers make the earthen pits for vermin composting. The main biodegradable matter for decomposing is cow dung; agriculture waste, twigs/leaves and the earth worms decompose it into fertile dark earth. However, the earthen pits have their own limitations and termite problems. In view of this Seva Mandir supported these farmers to build cemented pits. Each farmer was given Rs. 1200 to build the cemented pits. Today these these farmers are producing even more compost and using it for their various crops – Maize, black gram and cotton. Needless to say, the production of their crops goes much higher with using the locally produced organic manure.

You have added to these farmers’ happiness. We are most grateful to your continuing support to this program. Not only these farmers are earning more money, but their crops are being grown with organic compost that they themselves produce. Many thanks from all of us here for being with us throughout.

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.

We will keep you posted on our progress. With warm regards,

Deepti

Links:

• what are other ways to increase the crop production

Dear Friends, First of all, many thanks for your continuing support to this program. I am writing to provide you with a brief description of what we have been doing all this while in this project you are supporting. I will attempt to give you a brief overview of the progress we have made in this covering letter however; a detailed report on the same is enclosed herewith for your reference.

We have been working with 5000 farmers for improving their food and income security. The farmers we work with are mainly dependant on agriculture and animal husbandry. These tribal farmers own very small pieces of land i.e. less than 1 ha. Udaipur is a dry and drought prone area with an average annual rainfall of 625 mm. There are many challenges with farming, as we all know. In view of the harsh geographical and climatic condition of our region compounded with low productivity of natural resources, our response has been mainly two fold. On one hand we focus on improving the overall productivity of the natural resources (land and water) and on the other hand we address the immediate needs of a farmer in terms of improving the agriculture productivity and training the farmers to make optimum use of available resources.

Therefore, the programs that focus on the long term gains are – water and soil conservation, planting trees and growing grasses, ground water and moisture retention activities as well as water harvesting programs. These programs together add up to improving the overall quality of the land and soil (in terms of nutrients and moisture) and also help recharge ground water tables.

In the meanwhile we focus on improving the agriculture production for food and income security. It is done through 3 main activities as-

1) producing and using organic manure to help increase the agriculture production; 2) planting fruit trees for income generation and self subsistence and 3) cultivating vegetables as cash-crops and self subsistence

These activities allow farmers to utilize their resources like land, water, labor and time to their full potential. In addition, the increased production is useful for their own subsistence, improving their nutritional inputs and earns them more cash. The population we work with is very poor and their nutritional levels are also very low. Therefore even a small increase in their income can help them go a long way. “According to a survey conducted by the Poverty Action Lab (of MIT) in 2007, the monthly per capita consumption (MPCC, the total value of all goods and services consumed by an individual in the course of a month) of the population in Seva Mandir's work area stands at Rs.578.2, (USD 13) equivalent to less than Rs.20 a day. On average 70% of MPCC is composed of food, fuel and lighting”. The report enclosed gives a full picture of these various programs and also explain how your support to this program is benefitting hundreds of farmers.

Following are some snapshots of this program from 2008 to 2010– • 10,507 fruit trees have been planted with 591 farmers • In the current year we will be planting 13,000 fruit trees. • 677 families have been supported with vegetable cultivation program, earning from USD 5 to 16 per week for a couple of months. This income was additional to what they usually earn. • 235 farmers have adopted vermin-composting practices

The following story is very inspiring –

“In village Kojo ka Guda we are working with 41 farmers, of which we supported 9 farmers with vegetable cultivation program who have access to marginal irrigation. These 9 farmers were given seeds of Okra, Eggplants and Bottle guard. They cultivated these seeds on a piece of land around 0.05 ha. These farmers were able to produce adequate vegetables. After their own consumption they sold the surplus in the local market earning Rs.200 (USD 5) per week for two months. Dholaram and Gangaram from the same village planted vegetables in 0.10 ha of area and earned Rs.750/- (USD 16) per week. The results have boosted confidence and all farmers are very positive about the vegetable cultivation program”.

This progress is a result of your continued support to this program. We would like to extend our gratitude to your support and faith in this program. We very much hope that the enclosed report will provide you with some more details, figures and stories. We are very excited to share with you these details because with your support we have made progress to this far. A very big thanks to you once again.

Please do share your thoughts on this We hope that you would be able to visit us someday. Thank you for all your significant support.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Links:

• know more about water and agriculture programs
• selling more crops and earning more money

• Detailed report for 2008-2010 (DOC)

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

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

August 13, 2009

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continuing support to our programs. I am writing to share with you a bit of news.

Seva Mandir has recently won a Development Marketplace Grant Competition, organized by the Word Bank. The competition was exclusively for grassroots initiatives in South Asia to address the problem of undernutrition.

The Seva Mandir's project on 'Addressing Iron Deficiency Anemia in Rural Rajasthan through Iron Fortification of Flour at Village Level' was one of the 21 projects that won the competition in Development Marketplace.

We are all very excited at this achievement. If you have any queries on this project then please do write to me.

We are very happy to share this news with you. Thank you for all your support and contributions. We really appreciate it.

With warm regards,

Deepti deepti@sevamandir.org

May 19, 2009

Dear friends,

First of all, thank you for supporting us ever!

I have some quick news to share. In April end (22nd and 23rd) Margaret and John from Global Giving visited Seva Mandir Projects. We took them around and showed them our work in four villages. We exchanged a lot of ideas and learnt a lot about each other.

During their time here we visited our Pre School Center, Rural School, Immunization Camp, Dal Mill Project (Profit for poor), Village Library and Pastureland Development. They both found these programs very interesting but our meeting with one of the Fellows (Fellowship Project) – Jawan Singh in Barawa village was a special highlight for all of us.

We had lunch with Jawan Singh. It was a very hot day but we all were very happy to be able to wash our feet by a dug-well which still has lots of water. The water in this well is a result of our soil and water conservation work in this village. Margaret and John were very impressed to see our efforts and the strong leadership that has emerged over the years. Jawan Singh is a one such leaders. He is currently a Vikas Mitra Fellow (Fellowship Program). He took us around and showed all the activities that took place over the years. He also explained the caste struggle of his village to Margaret and John.

There were two more striking episodes occurred.

One is – when we visited the village library in Medi village – we met the teacher – Ram Lal who runs the library. He told us that he has 6 kids whose names are after countries like – America, Japan, India, and England etc. We were amused to note that ‘America is married now’.

Another incident – when we were interacting with children in our Rural School in Ushan village, the villagers came to meet the guests. The villagers asked several questions to John and Margaret including – what crops do they grow in America, if they also have a hilly terrain, if the rains are frequent and adequate in their country, what is the mean age of marriage in America etc.

Then, an old man asked if they knew – where the Sun goes in the night and that why sometimes the moon is full and sometimes not???

The people in villages were so happy to have guests. But they were so happy to be able to interact with them. Their innocent questions indicate that they have a desire to learn things and that, they are confident to ask questions.

John and Margaret answered to all these questions very patiently and they both appreciated the fact that they were able to interact with villagers other than development issues.

A very big thank you Margaret and John – it was very nice meeting you and learning all the innovating ways of raising funds, you are trying. We all are very happy meeting you and we appreciate all your support and help that you and your entire team provide us time to time.

I am also taking the opportunity to thank all our friends who have been supporting us through Global Giving. The appreciation we received from Margaret and John for our work is also a result of support from people like you. Thank you once again for all your support.

Do let us know if you like this feedback.

Thank you,

With warm regards,

Deepti

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

Thank you for your continuing support to our programs. I am writing to share with you some good news. On 27th March 2009 Seva Mandir was awarded the first prize ‘The CSO partner’s Outstanding Annual Report Award 2009’ for our Annual Report 07-08 in the category of Large Organizations. The criterion to win the prize was to have transparent accounts, its disclosures in the report and its ability to communicate well (i.e. readable and understandable for readers).

Such awards and appreciation of our work is the result of many people’s contribution towards our work and mission. Therefore, your support and guidance is one of main attributes of this appreciation. You can find more details about this our website www.sevamandir.org and to view our annual report please visit the following link - http://www.sevamandir.org/publications.htm

Many thanks once again for all your support and love. I will be soon in touch with updates on programs you are supporting.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Dear Friend,

New Year Greetings from Seva Mandir!

First of all, a very big Thank You to all of you for supporting our projects.

I am Deepti and I look after the reporting and communication program in Seva Mandir. I will be in touch with you regularly on reporting the projects by Seva Mandir that you have been supporting on Global Giving.

In order to ensure the food security for tribal people we have a range of programs like soil and water conservation to installing lift irrigation pumps in farms, from agricultural trainings to Seed Bank Programs. I will do my best to explain some exciting progress that we have been able to make in these programs.

The Background: Due to lack of water and inadequate facilities of irrigation farmers in our region have poor agriculture production. In areas where irrigation is possible farmers do not have access to good quality seeds and enough knowledge of improved agriculture practices. This results into small harvest. The farmers keep using the seeds from their harvest hence the yield never improves in terms of quality and quantity.

The progress: Under our Seed Bank program for the poor farmers, we had distributed seeds for Maize/corn, Pulse, Sesame and some other regional crop seeds (of improved quality) to around 900 farmers in 30 villages before monsoon in 2008. The farmers were also provided with a training of improved agricultural practices. The results have been enormously encouraging for the Maize Crop in particular. Maize is also the main crop for farmers in our region. Currently farmers are replenishing the Seed Bank with their share of Maize Seeds.

Similarly the farmers were distributed the good quality seeds for Wheat (the winter crop) the year before last year. Again the results have been very positive. As a consequence the farmers in 5 villages had been able to replenish a total of 1900 kilograms of Wheat Seeds into the Seed Bank, which has been distributed to a number of farmers for this season. Since the harvest of Wheat takes place in March, therefore, we will be able to know the result of the yield and the quantity of the seeds that will be replenished by these farmers.

The replenishment: Each farmer has to give back 1.5% of the total seeds he/she has received from the Seed Bank after the harvest. The replenishment of the Seek Bank has two folds benefit. First, all the farmers have access to good quality seeds for all kinds of crops and secondly, it builds the sense of giving and brotherhood among them.

There are some pictures that we have uploaded recently for your reference.

I very much hope that you find this feedback useful. I would be happy to entertain queries from you if any. I am reachable at deepti@sevamandir.org

Thank you once again for having your faith in us and for your encouragement.

With warm regards,

Deepti Ameta, In Charge – Reporting and Communication

Plantation: With rains approaching our area, it is time to plant new trees and grass on the lands in which afforestation is being undertaken. Last year (April 07 to March 08), various physical works such as site survey, land demarcation, boundary wall construction, soil- water conservation and pit digging were completed on 258 ha common and private lands. After first rains, around 1.29 lacs new plants will be planted in June and July months on these lands. Hoping to receive good rainfall this year, in 4 months, these areas will have a nice green cover.

Agriculture After experiencing the scorching heat on summer months, people have moving towards their fields and started preparing for monsoon crops. This year, we received a number of proposals from the farmers to obtain improved quality seeds. In response, we have provided 4,021 kg seeds of maize, 1,002 kg seeds of pulses (tuvar and udad dal) and 59 kg oilseeds to these farmers. Receiving sufficient rainfall and proper care, we expect the farmers to get higher yields of good quality grains in comparison to the local seeds used by the farmers since long time.

Fruit Plantation Along with, we have also received proposals from farmers to plant fruit plants during this monsoon. A total 64 farmers from 24 villages will be given around 3,800 plants of mango, 1,500 plants of amla, 1,400 plants of lemon and 1,400 plants of guava. These plants will be planted around and within the farms, as well some farmers intend to develop mini orchards on their lands which is not being used for agriculture.

Income Generation through Vermicompost: The use of organic manure endorse the nutrition value of the soil and helps prevent the termites to grow in the farm, hence, Seva Mandir is trying to engage farmers to adopt the method of its production and using it in their farms. Each farmer is provided with two kg of Worms and a training on how to prepare the Compost on their own. This is also followed by hand-holding support from Seva Mandir and a timely follow up with them.

In the past when the vermicomposting was taught to the villagers of Babri and Gadunia Village it was not a complete success. The program was reviwed and an improved program was designed. Therefore, in 2006, the Vermicompost operation began again with a total of 19 farmers. They built the Pucca (Cemented) Beds under a shady area near a water-source. The Watershed Program that was taken up in 2003 in Babri and Gadunia Villages has resulted into an increased ground water-table and therefore watering adequately and timely to these Vermicompost Beds was not an issue any more.

The farmers had been able to produce a total of 500 Kg Compost in the last year and had used it in their farms for Maize and Cotton Crops. They were also being able to stock the surplus for their consumption for the next year’s crop. The prduction was also higher and the farmers could see the difference in production and quality of the grains.

During the end of the year 2007 another group of 50 farmers also shown their interst in producing the compost. Since some of these 19 farmers had Worms in access from their previous Beds they agreed to sell off some of their Worms to the new Group. As a result a few farmers from the older group sold 40 Kg, 30 Kg, 64 Kg and 28 Kg at Rs. 100/- per Kilogram to the New Group.

One of these farmers namely – Bhikha said –“ We will grow more compost and Worms. We will make two Beds this year instead of one. I used the compost prepared in my own farms and I could see the differnce. The corns in my farm were greener and bigger.”

This whole excersie of Vermicomposting has earned the farmers in this region a lot of confidence and they are now on an lookout to earn more money by selling off their Worms and Manure in the neighboring areas.

The watershed of Umaria is on its journey to change the lives of 600 persons. Programs such as watersheds not only help save the environment but also bring big happiness in people's lives. The amount spent in such programs is enormous but the big smile on people's faces is what is the biggest achievement one can get...

• Lets bring about the meaningful change... (DOC)

The village Umaria is currently engaged in working on a watershed (in simple words soil and water conservation) program. There are several tangible and intangible benefits of this program. For more information please visit www.sevamandir.org or write to deepti@sevamandir.org

Soil erosion would be checked...

Building the dam for our cattle and irrigation...