Dear Friends,

Hope you are well and have enjoyed a great Easter this year. I am writing to share with you the half yearly progress report for the project you are supporting – Building Self Reliant Rural Communities in India.

 he project aims to foster democratic village institutions through the creation and management of a village development body, formed from people’s voluntary contributions. In order to do so, a common fund is placed at the disposal of the village institution. These funds are not only a valuable financial resource but they also provide a reason for communities to come together, deliberate and make decisions. This further improves the project management skills of those involved and cultivates financial literacy.

With your support to this project, we were able to make the village group self-reliant and build their capacities to plan and implement development programmes with democratic, participatory and egalitarian values. Please find enclosed a mid-year progress report for the year 2011-12. A brief summary of the activities done during the reporting period is also given below:-

• 669 village groups were formed and the total membership across the seven blocks had reached 55,076.
• There were 622 villages out of which 533 villages have bank account and in total they have occupied Rs. 38,493,144 (USD 819,003). 
• Rs. 150992 was used out of the corpus fund for 48 times by 41 Village Development Committees for different purposes of purchase and payment of various stuffs and bills which will ultimately help the village in various activities.
• 58 capacity building trainings and 92 Group strengthening meetings were organized in which total 3837 people participated actively.

Through these trainings and meetings we were able to increase the participation of women in village meetings and helped in solving various issues at individual and family level. Also, it helped in proper functioning and monitoring of Government programs running in the villages covered by Seva Mandir.

A very big thank you from all of us here. Your continuing support and faith in our work means a lot to us. Please do share your thoughts and feedback on the report.

With warm regards,

 Deepti

Women participating in Village meetings.

Links:

• Do you know what communities do in village meetings?

• Mid year update report 2011-12 (DOC)