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 fellowship project. Your support towards this project strengthens the efforts of a number of village leaders in Rajasthan. These fellows work very hard to address social, political and ethical issues in their villages. Since many of these issues are deeply rooted in people's lives and socio-political structure, continuous and dedicated efforts are required. These efforts take a long time to show actual results and may cause emotional fatigue. Therefore your regular support and encouragement to these fellows is much appreciated. It would have been not possible for many of these fellows to fight against issues if people like yourself, were not supporting them. These kinds of development projects, as you would also agree with me, do not often receive much attention and support of people. A lot of times, we all expect quicker results. It is difficult for us to appreciate the complex solutions for issues that are complex in nature themselves. Similarly, in the whole set up of this program, the core idea is to bring communities together for issues that affect them by allowing them an opportunity to understand the nature of the issue, its implications on their lives and resolving these by expecting a change within themselves. It is a complex idea and much more difficult to bring it to reality. The even more daunting task is to find passionate people who are willing to spend their time in undertaking this challenge. Having these fellows who are willing to invest their time, energy and emotions to carry out these uphill tasks is certainly a bliss for all of us. These fellows, mostly come from an impoverish backgrounds themselves. They also belong to the same society and culture, the issues they take up from. We can imagine the struggles must be tiring for them to rub against the very people these fellows live with everyday. There must exist power structures and dynamics. On top of it, the societal change take place at a very slow pace. So thank you again, for standing by these fellows in their journey of helping themselves. It is not easy for anyone to support a difficult idea such as the fellowship project. We really are grateful to you for your regular support and hope that you will consider telling about this project to your other friends too. With this letter, I am also sharing a brief update on different kinds of trainings and workshops these fellows have attended in 2011. At the same time, I also take immense pleasure in informing you that 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 assures a good tourist year. On the other hand, the rains may have not assured a good crop for "Maize (the corn)" because it rained a bit too much in some places. The corn is the major staple diet in this region. However, the positive side of the rains is that increased moisture of the ground will ensure good crops for winters. Though not most farmers are able to grow wheat and gram in winters, the overall availability of water has definitely increased due to good rains. Thanks once again for your generous support. We hope to hear from you on this feedback. With warm regards, Deepti

Links:

• Fellowship news

• Recent Update (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,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!!

I have three things to say before we talk about the project you are supporting.

One -we participated in a fund raising event on Global Giving UK last month. The challenge Top 10 wins challenge (1^st to 14^th March) required the participant projects to raise at least of £ 500 with minimum of 25 donors. Seva Mandir participated with its project “Improving Food Security for Tribal Farmers in India”. This project helps 5000 poor, marginalized farmers in rural Udaipur to have better crops and thus earn more money/food. This is done through a variety of programs including – seed bank program, using organic manure prepared with the help of earth worms (vermin-composting), growing cash crops like vegetables (preparing nurseries) for self sustenance and income generation. You would be very happy to note that this project raised £705 from 31 donors in the Top 10 Wins Challenge and therefore it won a bonus prize of £300. It is a perfect gift on this Holi for our farmers.

Secondly, on the 19^th and 20^th March we celebrated our festival Holi (festival of colors in India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi). The festival is also a symbol of celebrating the harvest of winter crop in our region. This festival signifies the end of our winters and beginning of summer. March is also our financial year end and therefore it is wonderful to end our year with lots of support from people like you and having a good harvest at this Holi. And

Finally, this year, at this point of time, Seva Mandir is going through some change. Our ex Chief Executive Ms. Neelima Khetan has stepped down on March 31st. She has spent 25 years with Seva Mandir and the last twelve years as the Chief Executive. The organization excelled during her time and with her leadership marked a number of achievements. Though she has left us due to our constitutional norms, we are very happy to have her as our Trustee on Seva Mandir Board. Her continuing association with Seva Mandir is very assuring for all of us. 

Ms. Priyanka Singh has taken over as Chief Executive of Seva Mandir from April 2011. She has spent over thirteen years with Seva Mandir heading Education and Health program and leading Badgaon Block (a geographical unit for our work). She has a post graduate degree in rural development from the same institute as Ms. Khetan did. She is very capable and a great person to work with. With her deep understanding of issues in rural development and support from all our friends like you, we are very much looking forward to seeing Seva Mandir keep doing its good work in the next years to come. At this point of time, we all look for your continuous support and faith for many more years of working together.

The fellows you are supporting are creating milestones in engaging and creating awareness towards social norms existing within these rural communities.

Shankar Lal one of the fellows is always trying to get everyone involved in addressing any social issue in his village. He would consult every member of the community door to door for building a consensus and allowing people to share their thoughts on a particular issue. He is a natural leader and is loved by his people. The Witchcraft (Dakan) is a very common social problem in his village. A number of women have been tortured and accused of being witches in our region. Shankar Lal has been advocating for dismissal of this practice.

Recently he addressed this problem when Laxmi (wife of Kanti Lal) was severely abused and tortured by her brother-in-law. The brother-in-law has been accusing Laxmi for being a Dakan for the past five years now. He claims Laxmi’s presence has impacted negatively the family. These allegations began to affect Laxmi’s physical and mental health. Shankar Lal wanted to help Laxmi because he thought this is a social problem and it needs to be addressed properly. The various trainings he had attended at Seva Mandir encouraged him to take up this issue strategically.

Shankar Lal approached the village elders and leaders to advocate Laxmi’s case. He prepared a list of all the women who had been victimized as dakan in the past. He asked all the women who were victims of Witchcraft to attend this meeting and encouraged them to speak up. Each woman shared her story and demanded help.

The village elders asked the concerned families of these women to stop torturing them. In case of any further torture (physical or mental) the families would be penalized heavily. In a couple of cases (the serious ones) the village elders lodged complaints with the police. The decision by the village elders brought some relief to these women.

Shankar Lal mobilized others in the village about this issue and is currently advocating eradication of Dakan practice. He visits home to home and tries to educate everyone about the results of this issue on woman’s physical and mental health, impact on children and the overall family economic health. Shankar lal has been successful in resolving several issues and creating awareness in his village. For Shankar Lal the struggle doesn’t end with Laxmi’s case and he is constantly working on this issue. It is very inspiring to note Shankar’s enthusiasm and sensibility.

Thank you so much for supporting Shankar Lal. It is your support that is helping several village leaders to address social issues in their own regions. We hope you will continue to support this program. Please do also consider to encourage our new team and leadership.

Happy Holi to you and your family from all of us here.

With regards,

Deepti

deepti@sevamandir.org

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 fellowship program. As you know the Fellowship Program sponsors community members with drive for change and a desire to contribute to the community to take up leadership roles. Since they are from within the villages they are in a better position to identify development issues, aware of social norms and could facilitate a change. In this view the fellowship helps the selected fellows gain knowledge through workshops, study tours and trainings. They are paired with a mentor who provides necessary guidance, an opportunity to discuss concerns and brainstorm ideas.

The meetings with other fellows and their mentors offer a platform to learn from peers about the social problems of surrounding areas. They gain an insight into different approaches their peers are adopting to handle development issues.

Currently there are 16 fellows working and all of them addressed many social and development issues in their respective regions. You can find more details about the progress made by the fellows in the half yearly report enclosed herewith.

In one of the review meetings conducted with the fellows and their mentors, it was inevitable that the issues addressed by these fellows in their local communities have made some impact. A short story given at the end of my letter will explain how the fellows’ intervention has created more awareness among the local communities and they are taking ownership of their social and development concerns.

Thank you for supporting this program and being with us in this journey. It is exciting for us to share the progress of these fellows with you at the time of holiday season.

Many thanks once again. Happy Holiday Season to you once again from all of us here.

With warm regards,

Deepti

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Tracking services at the ICDS (Government run Preschools) centers

The fellow               : Ms. Radha Devi

Address                   : Village Madri, Jhadol, Udaipur

Name of Block          : Jhadol

Working Area           : Madri, Balvi, Mini Runwadia

Mentor                     : Mr. Ummed Singh

Problems in tracking services at the ICDS (Government run preschools) centers

A Survey was conducted in the Aanganwadi Centers at Madri I, Madri II and Balvi. It was discovered that the children of these villages were not getting a sufficiently nutritious diet from the Aanganwadi centres.  Also, the parents were not willing to send their children to Aanganwadi as they were providing them with smaller meals. Local watch committees were formed to inform the workers of the Aanganwadi centres about their responsibilities but they were not provided with any kind of details regarding the accounts and purchasing of nutrients. The workers only took signatures on the bills from committee members but never informed them about their work responsibilities. The workers of the centres used to work for only 10 days in a month and for the rest of the days provided lame excuses about being busy in some other work. Whenever they were questioned about their absence, they claimed that they could do whatever they want. The nutritional food packets were packed at Madri cluster and supplied to the centres via the worker’s home. The workers used to keep most of the packets for their own use.  On being asked about the reduced supply, they stated that there was no one to carry all the packets. If there would be shortages then they would bring more packets again. In Madri centre II, laddoos (sweets made of wheat flour with nutritional ingredients) were not provided before the meals to the children.

Raised issued and Steps taken by the fellows

The fellow of the respective block visited the Aanganwadi centres and instructed the workers to provide sufficient amount of food with adequate nutritional values, which are essential for the children. Fellows went to the families and discussed with them the importance of a balanced nutritional diet for the growth of children. The parents were provided with the information about various diseases, which are commonly found in children due to nutritional deficiency. The fellows told the parents to send their children regularly to the Aanganwadi centres which would provide their children with proper nutritional meals. The watch committee members were called to meet with the fellows where they were made to understand their work and responsibilities towards the Aanganwadi centres. The fellows told the parents about the actual timing of opening and closing of the centres.  The families now aware of the correct schedule warned the workers to be present at the centre at the actual time. They also made it clear that if further irregularities were found then it would be immediately reported to the office in charge of Aanganwadi centres. When it was found that the workers do not supply all the food packets to the centres properly, the fellows decided to establish a direct supply of the food packets to the centre and a rickshaw was fixed which directly supplied the packets to the centres. The helper maid who prepared the laddoos and meals was strictly told to provide these nutritional based laddoos before meals to the children

Impact of fellows work

With the help of the Samaj Shilpi fellows, the workers of Aanganwadi centers provided proper nutritional diet to the children regularly. The workers are regularly opening the centers at correct time schedule and have become more responsible. They provide meals timely to the children and the laddoos are also provided to the children before meals. The parents have realized the importance of a nutritional well balanced diet and have become more aware of their children’s health. Hence they are more interested to send their children to the Aanganwadi centres. The watch committee members are now regularly taking accounts of the billings, purchase of nutritional ingredients and various other issues. The cooking maid has also started to come to the centre regularly and again the centre is providing meals to the children.

The fellows have worked hard and with keen interest on the issue of Aanganwadis and nutritional diet, which has improved the health condition of children to a great extent.

Links:

• Seva Mandir Annual Report

• Fellowship Half Yearly Report April-September 2010 (DOC)

Dear Friends,

You must be happy to see all the fellows you are supporting are engaged in a variety of social issues. Before you could find out the recent progress these fellows are making, I would like you to know some news about our 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.

My colleague Heerendra has written a very comprehensive report to share with you about the Fellowship Program. He is also shared two stories which you would enjoy reading. You can find his report below my letter.

Some snapshots are given below for you to scan quickly – 1. There are 16 fellows. We started with 19, but 3 left the program. 2. The second review meeting was held on 30th June 2010. 3. The main themes Fellows have taken up include women empowerment, social issues, illegal encroachments, financial restitution for a death, corruption etc. 4. Two cases of witch accusation and financial restitution are presented below. These cases were being solved by the Fellows you are supporting.

With your support these fellows are keep going with the social struggles in their respective regions. Thank you so much for bringing about the change in rural Rajasthan. We are highly grateful to your continuing support. 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. It would help us improve in our communication with you. Thank you once again.

We will keep you posted on our progress.

With warm regards,

Deepti ------------------------------------------------------- Vikas Mitra Fellowship:

As you know there are 16 Vikas Mitra Fellows (friends of development). They are working in the blocks of Kotra, Kherwara, Badgaon, Girwa and Jhadol. At the start of the program there were 19 members, though three dropped out or were asked to leave for a variety of different reasons. This year the fellows worked on a number of different issues pertaining to the local areas like: mautana (financial restitution for a death), daakan (witch accusation), forest protection, illegal holdings (encroachments), tree plantation, the responsibility of citizens, NREGA (the Government employment guarantee program), legal rights, women and youth participation in panchayats (local village councils), women empowerment, violation against women, Below Poverty Line (BPL) list and right to information.

Second Review Meeting

The Vikas Mitra Fellows have been working hard and have achieved successful results over their areas of working. The second fellowship performance review meeting of the Vikas Mitra fellows was conducted on 30 June 2010 and the fellows presented a presentation of the work done over the past one and a half years. The participants of the meeting were the chief executive, fellowship program advisory committee members, and all mentors of the fellows and some of the fellows from the Kherwara block. In this meeting, the mentors shared the work done in the various villages and whether they were successful or not. The committee members were very appreciative of the work done by the fellows and discussing the work of the fellows and asking about the upcoming problems as well as their expectations from Seva Mandir in these areas.

1. Story: Issue of Mautana solved by the Fellow Heera Lal Pargi:

Seli bai (name changed) was from the village of Sawan Kyra and was married to Rata of the Mahadi village, where she lived with their three children. Rata suffered from an unknown mental illness and had been seeing a bhopa (traditional healer) for treatment, One-day Rata’s mother went to the forest to collect wood and Rata went after her with a sword to try and kill her. When Seli came to know about this, she tried to protect her but instead Rata attacked and killed her with the sword. After this, Rta hung himself to death. Upon receiving the information about their daughter’s death, Seli’s parents and some people from her village came to Mahadi to assess the situation. They then later returned with more people and started fighting and arguing over the mautana amount. They demanded Rs.10 lakhs (USD 22,222) for mautana. Upon becoming aware of the situation the Vikas Mitra fellows along with police held many long discussions with Seli’s parents to try and negotiate a lower settlement of the mautana amount. Initially her parents were not ready for any kind of negotiations as they had just lost their daughter but the fellows made them realized that Rata also died making his parents equally helpless. Finally the fellow was successful in solving this problem and the mautana amount was reduced to Rs.4 lakhs (USD 8,888). At the time of the agreement Rs. 25,000 (USD 555) was paid, while the rest of the amount was to be paid back in installments. Even though the financial demand wasn’t brought down too significantly, the intervening of Heera Lal and the Police helped in making sure that the physical violence was avoided.

2. Story: Issue of daakan (witch) solved by the fellows Savita Devi:

Through their work, the Vikas Mitra Fellows are able to address local social issues, raise awareness about these issues and make the local people aware of their rights and responsibilities. One of the important issues the fellows work on is daakan pratha (being accused of being a witch). Hari Bhai (name changed) and his 55-year-old wife, Muni Devi, lived in the village of Kalasua Phala with their 9 children. Their neighbor Gatam, used to verbally abuse and harass Muni Devi and call her a daakan (witch). He would spread rumors about her to the village, trying to destroy her reputation. He even went as far as too enter her house at night and verbally harass her. Initially Muni Devi would just ignore his insults and the rumors but over time as the harassment continued she sought the help of the Vikas Mitra Fellows. The fellow went to the panchayat Sabha (local village council meetings) to present Muni Devi’s case and seek justice. Through the help of the fellow and their collaboration with the panchayat, it was agreed that Gatam would be fined Rs. 1000 for abusing Muni Devi and calling her a witch. Furthermore any other villager found participating in similar behavior would be fined and punished as per the panchayats laws.

Dear Friends,

Many thanks for your continuing support to this program. I am writing to provide you with a description of the progress we made in the Fellowship Program. A detailed report has also been enclosed herewith for your reference. However, in this letter, I would attempt to give you a short summary of the progress we have been making with your support in this program. Thank you so much for being with us in this journey.

As you know the Fellowship Program sponsors community members with drive for change and a desire to contribute to the community to take up leadership roles. Since they are from within the villages they are in a better position to identify development issues, aware of social norms and could facilitate a change. In this view the fellowship helps the selected fellows gain knowledge through workshops, study tours and trainings. They are paired with a mentor who provides necessary guidance, an opportunity to discuss concerns and brainstorm ideas. The meetings with other fellows and their mentors offer a platform to learn from peers about the social problems of surrounding areas. They gain an insight into different approaches their peers are adopting to handle development issues.

Each fellow receives a sum of Rs. 25,000 (USD 625) for two years in installments, upon completion and submission of progress reports to his/her mentor. The funds serve as compensation for the wages a fellow loses by giving his/her time towards leading their community, and covers basic needs, including local travel expenses

There were 64 applications received from the applicants. The 19 fellows were chosen after having been interviewed by a selection committee, consisting of five Seva Mandir staff. Mentors are assigned to each fellow to guide, support and engage in dialogue and discussion with fellows as challenges arise, as well as provide direction and training.

The interview process enabled Seva Mandir to learn from the aspiring community leaders themselves what development challenges they faced. It emerged that each block (administrative unit for the area) had specific issues to tackle. In Kherwara, accusations of witchcraft (Daakan) were limiting women’s empowerment, and candidates were keen to learn more about govt schemes relevant to them, whilst in Badgaon, affiliation to the traditional caste-led village level institutions (Jati Panchayat) were an issue. Applicants from Girwa expressed concern over forestry and protection of common land, whilst in Jhadol, the government-run pre-school centres and nutrition emerged as priorities to address.

Ms. Preeti Shaktawat, a staff member who worked closely with the Fellows shares her views as follows - “The objective of the Vikas Mitra Fellowship Programme is to encourage conscientious people to assume leadership roles concerning the integrated development of their village and nearby surrounding areas. In addition, it is also intended that such leadership from the fellows will be instrumental in disseminating the values of community work within the surrounding society.

During my 19 months overseeing the fellowship programme, I was truly inspired by the thorough and determined efforts of the fellows. They proved to be strong leaders within their communities and diligently focused on pertinent issues that had emerged in their areas. To alleviate longstanding, deeply rooted issues at a grassroots level proved difficult and challenging because there is often resistance to change. Yet, with perseverance the fellows continue to bring reform to Anganwari Centres (Govt early chidcare centres), challenge local mautana (described below) issues, fight against NREGA corruption (Govt Employment Scheme), conserve the local environment and forest, and combat harmful village traditions.

With the generous support of donors like you, I have seen the Fellowship Programme empower and assist these community leaders in building the confidence, skills, and knowledge needed to successfully overcome local issues. With continued support, I truly feel the fellows can alleviate the issues of their villages and significantly change and impact their communities”.

What fellow does –

'In order to understand the following story, we need to understand a tradition of tribal community. In tribal villages, if a woman dies (un/natural death) in her husband’s village then her parents (including people from her birth village) demand for a compensation from their son-in-law and his family. Usually it becomes a matter between the two villages the bride and groom belong to. The tradition is to protect any physical violence on daughters when they get married but over the years the tradition has become an opportunity to ask for big compensations. Now-a-days, sometimes the compensation is also asked for other kinds of physical harms. The compensation is called ‘mautana’ in local language while the act in which the entire village comes in a mob to ask for the compensation is called ‘chadotra’. Chadotra often includes the mob breaking the houses to pieces, setting fire and cause physical harm to the members of the opposite party'.

“Somi (changed name) was born in an ordinary family in one of the villages in Kotda block. She was one of the five children. She never went to school but looked after the house and farms. After her marriage with Ladu she was happily living until her husband became an alcoholic. She persuaded her husband to give up on alcohol but to no avail. Gradually, their arguments became quarrels and her husband started accusing her of having extra-marital affairs. Somi left her husband twice to live with her parents but every time Ladu would bring her back convincing her of improving his behavior from now on. In late 2009, one day Ladu was drunk when he came home. Somi has a fight with him and he killed her. Ladu took her dead body to a nearby jungle and hung her to a tree. He sent a word about her death to her parents.

When her parents saw signs of physical violence on Somi’s dead body they refused to cremate the dead body. Their entire village came to his village (chadotra) in anger and asked for Rs 5 lac (USD 11,000). The Fellow Heera Lal along with other village leaders in Sada village brought Police to intervene. They tried to encourage the daughter’s parents to bring down their ‘demand’ and requested not to cause physical harm to anyone. Heera Lal successfully persuaded Somi’s parents. The compensation (mautana) was finally fixed at Rs. 1.75 lacks (USD 3889). On the spot Ladu’s family gave them Rs. 5000 and Somi’s dead body was cremated peacefully.

Heera Lal has been educating people in his region about the pros and cons of this tradition. He chose this issue for this Fellowship because he considers this is a big social problem of his region. He has done very good work in solving such cases and spreading awareness about such issues and involving the Police to resolve these issues”.

There are a number of cases like above whereby the Fellows have identified the social problems on their own and have attempted to bring a change in the society. In this process they themselves have learnt a lot about these issues and their enthusiasm encouraged us too. As we look at the future, we are exploring the possibility of extending application to the Fellowship Program to everyone and anyone in the region, not just those working directly with Seva Mandir. With your help, we want to keep supporting enthusiastic and driven individuals give their communities the leadership and help they deserve.

This progress would have not been possible if you were not with us all this time. We would like to extend our gratitude to your support and faith in this program. Please have a look at the report enclosed herewith; it will give you an idea of the overall program and future plans of this program. We hope you will enjoy reading this update.

Thank you once again for all your significant support. We truly are grateful to you for all your investments and support to us.

With warm regards,

Deepti

Links:

• Know more about Seva Mandir

• Fellowship Progress Report 2008-2010 (DOC)

January 1, 2010

Dear friends,

New Year Greetings from Seva Mandir!

We hope this year brings you all the happiness, peace and prosperity to you. We also hope that we together help reduce the sufferings of our planet this year.

We would like to thank you for all your support that you extended at various points of time to each of our programs. The progress we have been able to make would have not been possible without your support.

A quick update about our fellowship program –

There were 19 fellows selected but 2 of them withdrew from the program because of personal reasons. Now we have about 17 fellows. In May this year a group of 6 students from Nourish International, USA made a documentary on ‘Jati Panchayat’ (caste council) issues in Badgaon Block, which is one of the themes a couple of fellows are working on. A review meeting was held in October along with regular monthly meetings where fellows share their work with mentors and other staff members.

In November on 26th and 27th a two day training on ‘Report and Case Study Writing’ for the fellows was organized. A total of 15 fellows and 8 mentors attended the same.

Since the fellows lack good writing skills; this training was very useful for them. The sessions focused on best practices of report and case study writing. The session was followed by a group exercise. The fellows also received instructions for punctuations, forming new sentences, paragraphs etc. The trainers explained to the fellows to keep a record of their work on a regular basis so as their report and stories cover the significant points of the work done. All the participants enjoyed participating in the training and found it very useful.

We will keep you updated about the progress of this program as often as we can. Do let us know if you any feedback to share on this update. Thank you once again for supporting us.

With warm regards,

Deepti deepti@sevamandir.org

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

April 17, 2009

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir, India!

Thank you very much for your continuing support.

The fellows are working very hard on the issues they had selected. The following progress made by one of the fellows will give you an idea as how these community leaders are torch bearers for development work.

Dinesh Kumar Meghwal a fellow in Kherwada block chose to work on issues related to a Government Scheme called ‘National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)’. Under this scheme every family in the village gets 100 days of employment for 1 year.

Dinesh chose to spread the full awareness on the scheme because due to lack of awareness and corruption the benefits are limited to powerful people in the society. The orientation held in October helped him learn fully about the scheme and other relevant social security schemes.

Currently he is involved in speaking to several people about this scheme to educate them about their rights, the facilities provided by the Government -such as arrangement of shade by the sites for women and their little children, first aid box, supply of drinking water at the site, the significance of a job card, the minimum wage people are entitled to etc.

He is gathering information from people working on various labour-sites in order to assess people’s awareness levels. Based on his experience he will be mobilizing people to demand for their rights from Panchayat (local village council). He reported that his own understanding on this scheme has increased and he is surprised that the Government’s good schemes for poor people do not reach due to lack of awareness, information and corruption.

We will keep you updated about the progress these fellows are making. If you have any questions or suggestions, please share with us.

Once again many thanks for supporting the fellowship program and your faith in our work.

With warm regards,

Deepti deepti@sevamandir.org

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, India!

Thank you very much for your continued supported. I am Deepti and I look after the Reporting and Communication Program in Seva Mandir. I will be staying in touch with you regularly to keep you updated about the program that you have been supporting.

As we had indicated in our last update that the Fellows have selected issues of social-change. In the last couple of months a one-day workshop was organized to orient the fellows about the issues that they have selected. Each fellow was required to prepare a plan of action for next six months. It has also been decided during the workshop that the mentors will have monthly meetings with the fellows to monitor their progress and addressing their problems if any.

All the fellows have been paid an installment of Rs.4000/- in December 2008. To begin with their work they are required to gather details of the issues they have selected in their respective region. On the basis of the information collected, the fellows will have to design the action-plan and awareness campaign in order to deal with the issues that are affecting their communities.

Once again, we would like to communicate our deep thanks to all of you. We will keep you updated about the progress in this program.

With warm regards,

Deepti Ameta, In Charge Reporting and Communications deepti@sevamandir.org

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir, India!

We are grateful to all our donors for keeping their faith in our work and for standing by us.

I am going to give you a brief account of the progress we have made in Fellowship Program and would request all of you to please share your thoughts and comments on our feedback as well as the program.

In the last two we have completed the process of selecting the Fellows. A total of 17 Fellows have been selected so far. This was done by a selection committee that held several rounds of meetings and interviews before selecting the Fellows.

The selected Fellows would be working on various issues of social-change in their respective regions that are related to the social, political and environmental concerns and are affecting their communities considerably. The issues chosen by these Fellows include witch-hunting, desertion of women tracking, the performance of Government Schemes, forest rights issues etc.

We will be organizing an orientation workshop for these fellows very soon. Our next step is to identify mentors for these Fellows who will provide constant hand holding and advise. The enthusiasm expressed by these Fellows for the programs is very encouraging. We would like to communicate our deep thanks to all our supporters, friends and well wishers for supporting our Fellowship Program. We hope to receive very encouraging results from this program. Please do write to me at sunita@sevamandir.org for any information or doubts.

With warm regards,

Sincerely,

Dr. Sunita Kumari In Charge People’s Management Program

July 22, 2008

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

We thank all our donors and friends to support the Fellowship Program.

The last date of receiving nominations was 15th June 2008 but we received many applications after the last date. In total 54 Applications have been received.

A committee of Six People had four rounds of meetings to select 20 Applications for the Fellowship. The selection was delayed because a) everyone in Seva Mandir was busy in Annual Retreat during the last week of June 2008 and b) the applications were too many to select from.

The Committee has sent letters of Interview calls to all the selected applicants. The interviews will be held on the 31st July 2008 at the Head-Quarter of Seva Mandir.

At the moment the Committee is busy in getting ready to hold the interviews. Everyone is very excited about the program.

Sunita Jain who is one of the committee members says –“People are so excited about this new initiative. It is so overwhelming to see a number of people applying for this.” Sunita also adds, “During our meeting with all the committee members we all felt that the application format may needs some changes which we will be including in the next round.”

Seva Mandir would like to communicate its heartfelt thanks to all our donors for making it possible and we look forward to your support. Please keep up your support.

Thanks once again.

Dr. Sunita Kumari, In Charge Peoples Management School Seva Mandir, India

Currently the Seva Mandir team at the Head Quarters is expecting to receive all the nominations/applications by 15th June 2008. Then a committee will be scrutinizing the selection of applications and at least of 20 fellows will be selected by the end of June 2008 for this year’s target.

The Fellowship program is under process. The nominations for fellowship have been invited and soon the applicaitons will be scrutinized. However, we would like to share a story of a village leader to our partners just to give a sense of what a village leader is and what makes these leaders special? We will keep you updated about the prgress. Thank You

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