Birla Sun Life Insurance strengthens its relationship with Development Credit Bank
Excerpts:
"Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI) announced the renewal of its bancassurance partnership with Development Credit Bank (DCB), today. This strong partnership, which has been in existence for a period of 6 years will be extended for an additional duration of 3 years by both parties"
.....
"Development Credit Bank A new generation private sector bank, Development Credit Bank (DCB) is the preferred banking services provider across 80 state-of-the-art branches across 10 states and two union territories. The Bank has recently launched several value added initiatives and intends to become one of the country’s preferred and profitable private sector banks, providing a comprehensive suite of “best in class” products for customers in Retail, SME and Corporate Banking market segments in chosen geographies. DCB has deep roots in India since its inception in 1930. Its promoter the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) holds over 26% stake. AKFED is an international development agency dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and building economically sound enterprises in the developing world. It had co-promoted HDFC in India in the late seventies. AKFED operates as a network of affiliates comprising 90 separate project companies. Employing over 30,000 people, it reported annual revenues in excess of US$1.5 billion. The Fund is active in 16 countries in the developing world. "
For more details please visit www.dcbl.com & http://www.akdn.org/akfed
http://www.webnewswire.com/node/459795
INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITIES IN INDIA
Shree Shubham Logistics signs MoU with DCB
Tie-up to benefit hundreds of farmers in availing post-harvest credit facilities
EmailPrintDownload PDFAdd to GoogleRSStwitterMumbai, Maharashtra, IND, 2009-08-16 18:54:50 (IndiaPRwire.com)
Downloads
Press Release SSLL & DCB MoU release.doc
Shree Shubham Logistics limited, a subsidiary of Kalpataru power transmission limited, today announced the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Development Credit Bank, facilitating post harvest credit facilities for farmers against warehouse receipts.
SSLL, managing a complete commodity value chain at its own Agri Logistics Parks at 10 locations in Rajasthan and Gujarat and expanding its footprint by setting up 17 ALPs in next 1-2 years in the state of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, has ambitious plans to develop 41 ALPS across the country.
As per the arrangement, Shree Shubham Logistics Ltd, providing end-to-end solutions to all the commodity stake holders in the agricultural and non-agricultural segment with a pan-India presence, will provide collateral management to DCB for extending post-harvest credit facilities to farmers, Agri enterprises and processors.
“We are pleased to sign the agreement with Development Credit Bank. SSLL and DCB will jointly work to provide liquidity to farmers against their produce and thereby enable them to time their sale for optimal returns. We see warehouse receipt financing as a great opportunity and we will be an aggressive player in this business”, said Mr. Bafna
”Our services coupled with the bank’s good network will provide financial flexibility to farmers. It will reduce the seasonal price fluctuation and distress sales during the crop harvest season”, Mr. Bafna said.
Commenting on the business tie up Mr. Narendranath Mishra, Head - Agri, Micro Finance & Rural Banking DCB said, “This tie-up between DCB and SSLL will focus on the producers at the start of the supply chain. Farmers can secure post harvest credit facilities from DCB so that they do not have to resort to distress selling of their produce”.
Mr. Mishra said, “The tie-up will provide an opportunity to the bank to extend finance against warehouse receipts by utilizing collateral management services from SSLL”.
This is yet another endeavour of SSLL to help the agriculture sector by bridging the gap between producer and banks by providing collateral management services, thereby, assisting the banks, as well as the farmers and other key stake holders in the commodity sector.
- End -
About Shree Shubham Logistics Limited (SSLL):
Shree Shubham Logistics Limited (SSLL) is a subsidiary of Kalpataru Power Transmission Limited (one of world's leading companies in the design, testing, fabrication, erection, and construction of transmission lines and substation structures on a turnkey basis across India & overseas) SSLL is focused in developing Commodity Warehousing Logistics parks at strategic locations in the country.
The key objective is to develop multi-function facilities catering to ambient temperature warehousing, Cold Storage, processing units, auction yard, weigh bridges and other support amenities. The other key objectives of the company are to offer end-to-end logistics solutions with a pan-India presence, to all the commodity stake holders in the agricultural and non-agricultural segment including, but not limited to warehousing, cold storage services, and third party logistics, across the country.
SHREE SHUBHAM LOGISTICS LIMITED is developing its first set of warehouses in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
The knowledge, experience and financial strength behind Shree Shubham Logistics Limited, have been brought together to deliver service and infrastructure of the highest quality and efficiency, in the best locations, for our farmers’ needs.
Our mission is to support this neglected sector with respect to quality infrastructure which in turn will substantially reduce wastage and quality deterioration of agricultural produce and give a high return to the Indian farmers.
Our Agri Logistics Park will enable the farmer to create their local markets by using our Auction Yards which will bring together like products helping them in leveraging information, value and enhancing their understanding/knowledge of regional and national scenario. Our platforms will increase the transparency and bring about fair business practices in the agriculture sector giving true value to our farmers.
SSLL’s initiative to build over 41 Agri Logistics Parks in about 9 States of India calls for an investment of over Rs. 600 crores.
About DCB
A new generation private sector bank, Development Credit Bank (DCB) is the preferred banking services provider across 80 branches across 10 states and two union territories. The Bank has recently launched several value added initiatives and intends to become one of the country’s preferred and profitable private sector banks, providing a comprehensive suite of “best in class” products for customers in Retail, SME and Corporate Banking market segments in chosen geographies.
DCB has deep roots in India since its inception in 1930. Its promoter the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) holds over 26% stake. AKFED is an international development agency dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and building economically sound enterprises in the developing world. It had co-promoted HDFC in India in the late seventies. AKFED operates as a network of affiliates comprising 90 separate project companies. Employing over 30,000 people, it reported annual revenues in excess of US$1.5 billion. The Fund is active in 16 countries in the developing world.
To know more details please login at www.dcbl.com & www.akdn.org/akfed
http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease ... 531514.htm
Tie-up to benefit hundreds of farmers in availing post-harvest credit facilities
EmailPrintDownload PDFAdd to GoogleRSStwitterMumbai, Maharashtra, IND, 2009-08-16 18:54:50 (IndiaPRwire.com)
Downloads
Press Release SSLL & DCB MoU release.doc
Shree Shubham Logistics limited, a subsidiary of Kalpataru power transmission limited, today announced the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Development Credit Bank, facilitating post harvest credit facilities for farmers against warehouse receipts.
SSLL, managing a complete commodity value chain at its own Agri Logistics Parks at 10 locations in Rajasthan and Gujarat and expanding its footprint by setting up 17 ALPs in next 1-2 years in the state of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, has ambitious plans to develop 41 ALPS across the country.
As per the arrangement, Shree Shubham Logistics Ltd, providing end-to-end solutions to all the commodity stake holders in the agricultural and non-agricultural segment with a pan-India presence, will provide collateral management to DCB for extending post-harvest credit facilities to farmers, Agri enterprises and processors.
“We are pleased to sign the agreement with Development Credit Bank. SSLL and DCB will jointly work to provide liquidity to farmers against their produce and thereby enable them to time their sale for optimal returns. We see warehouse receipt financing as a great opportunity and we will be an aggressive player in this business”, said Mr. Bafna
”Our services coupled with the bank’s good network will provide financial flexibility to farmers. It will reduce the seasonal price fluctuation and distress sales during the crop harvest season”, Mr. Bafna said.
Commenting on the business tie up Mr. Narendranath Mishra, Head - Agri, Micro Finance & Rural Banking DCB said, “This tie-up between DCB and SSLL will focus on the producers at the start of the supply chain. Farmers can secure post harvest credit facilities from DCB so that they do not have to resort to distress selling of their produce”.
Mr. Mishra said, “The tie-up will provide an opportunity to the bank to extend finance against warehouse receipts by utilizing collateral management services from SSLL”.
This is yet another endeavour of SSLL to help the agriculture sector by bridging the gap between producer and banks by providing collateral management services, thereby, assisting the banks, as well as the farmers and other key stake holders in the commodity sector.
- End -
About Shree Shubham Logistics Limited (SSLL):
Shree Shubham Logistics Limited (SSLL) is a subsidiary of Kalpataru Power Transmission Limited (one of world's leading companies in the design, testing, fabrication, erection, and construction of transmission lines and substation structures on a turnkey basis across India & overseas) SSLL is focused in developing Commodity Warehousing Logistics parks at strategic locations in the country.
The key objective is to develop multi-function facilities catering to ambient temperature warehousing, Cold Storage, processing units, auction yard, weigh bridges and other support amenities. The other key objectives of the company are to offer end-to-end logistics solutions with a pan-India presence, to all the commodity stake holders in the agricultural and non-agricultural segment including, but not limited to warehousing, cold storage services, and third party logistics, across the country.
SHREE SHUBHAM LOGISTICS LIMITED is developing its first set of warehouses in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.
The knowledge, experience and financial strength behind Shree Shubham Logistics Limited, have been brought together to deliver service and infrastructure of the highest quality and efficiency, in the best locations, for our farmers’ needs.
Our mission is to support this neglected sector with respect to quality infrastructure which in turn will substantially reduce wastage and quality deterioration of agricultural produce and give a high return to the Indian farmers.
Our Agri Logistics Park will enable the farmer to create their local markets by using our Auction Yards which will bring together like products helping them in leveraging information, value and enhancing their understanding/knowledge of regional and national scenario. Our platforms will increase the transparency and bring about fair business practices in the agriculture sector giving true value to our farmers.
SSLL’s initiative to build over 41 Agri Logistics Parks in about 9 States of India calls for an investment of over Rs. 600 crores.
About DCB
A new generation private sector bank, Development Credit Bank (DCB) is the preferred banking services provider across 80 branches across 10 states and two union territories. The Bank has recently launched several value added initiatives and intends to become one of the country’s preferred and profitable private sector banks, providing a comprehensive suite of “best in class” products for customers in Retail, SME and Corporate Banking market segments in chosen geographies.
DCB has deep roots in India since its inception in 1930. Its promoter the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) holds over 26% stake. AKFED is an international development agency dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and building economically sound enterprises in the developing world. It had co-promoted HDFC in India in the late seventies. AKFED operates as a network of affiliates comprising 90 separate project companies. Employing over 30,000 people, it reported annual revenues in excess of US$1.5 billion. The Fund is active in 16 countries in the developing world.
To know more details please login at www.dcbl.com & www.akdn.org/akfed
http://www.indiaprwire.com/pressrelease ... 531514.htm
Microsoft initiative helps people seek info under RTI
Company has set up centres to provide IT training for the poor and help them obtain information through RTI
By Ahmedabad Mirror Bureau
Posted On Thursday, November 12, 2009
Software giant Microsoft has joined hands with three Gujarat-based welfare organisations to give IT training to people who don’t have access to technology, mainly computers.
The American company, through its division Microsoft Community Affairs, has tied up with Aga Khan Foundation, Mahila Sewa Trust and Saath Charitable Trust. One of the key objectives of the initiative, called ‘Project Jyoti’, is to teach people how to obtain information under the RTI Act.
“We have set up Community Technology Learning Centres (CTLCs) across the state to provide technological support to people living in rural areas,” Vikas Goswami, who leads Microsoft’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, said.
Goswami said that each centre had been set up keeping in mind the needs of its region. The IT coordinator of Aga Khan Foundation, Shiji Abraham, said that CTLCs had enabled people in rural areas to seek information under the RTI Act.
“There is little awareness on RTI in rural areas. However, Microsoft’s initiative is helping people obtain a lot of information under the act.” Abraham said.
Goswami said that the poor had been able to find out why their names were missing in government’s BPL list. “Some people even surfed the internet at (CTLC) and found out how to get their names included in the list,” she said.
Goswami said that at each CTLC, two care-takers helped people find relevant information and submit documents to avail benefits provided by the government.
To date, Microsoft has spent Rs 47 crore to extend this programme to 20 states and union terrotories across the country.
Among other things, the initiative also focuses on providing IT training to unemployed youth, marginalised women and other people.
Copyright 2008 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. . All rights reserved.
http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/printart ... 8&subsite=
Company has set up centres to provide IT training for the poor and help them obtain information through RTI
By Ahmedabad Mirror Bureau
Posted On Thursday, November 12, 2009
Software giant Microsoft has joined hands with three Gujarat-based welfare organisations to give IT training to people who don’t have access to technology, mainly computers.
The American company, through its division Microsoft Community Affairs, has tied up with Aga Khan Foundation, Mahila Sewa Trust and Saath Charitable Trust. One of the key objectives of the initiative, called ‘Project Jyoti’, is to teach people how to obtain information under the RTI Act.
“We have set up Community Technology Learning Centres (CTLCs) across the state to provide technological support to people living in rural areas,” Vikas Goswami, who leads Microsoft’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes, said.
Goswami said that each centre had been set up keeping in mind the needs of its region. The IT coordinator of Aga Khan Foundation, Shiji Abraham, said that CTLCs had enabled people in rural areas to seek information under the RTI Act.
“There is little awareness on RTI in rural areas. However, Microsoft’s initiative is helping people obtain a lot of information under the act.” Abraham said.
Goswami said that the poor had been able to find out why their names were missing in government’s BPL list. “Some people even surfed the internet at (CTLC) and found out how to get their names included in the list,” she said.
Goswami said that at each CTLC, two care-takers helped people find relevant information and submit documents to avail benefits provided by the government.
To date, Microsoft has spent Rs 47 crore to extend this programme to 20 states and union terrotories across the country.
Among other things, the initiative also focuses on providing IT training to unemployed youth, marginalised women and other people.
Copyright 2008 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. . All rights reserved.
http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/printart ... 8&subsite=
TOWARDS A HAPPIER STATE
- Many NGOs are helping Bihar bring in change
Commentarao - S.L. Rao
Non-governmental organizations are making a difference to the lives of poor and marginalized people in India. Most work in geographically limited areas. They are idealistic and want change, and hope to enter the lives of those they work with. Funding agencies and NGOs are enthused by any sign of change in the long-failed state of Bihar. A virulent and discriminatory caste system that deprives the lower castes even of government-funded entitlements is reinforced by a very corrupt bureaucracy, especially at the lower levels. Even the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, will admit that Bihar today is still far from being transformed. It is only beginning a long process of change.
The Aga Khan Foundation is an example of an NGO that, through its development network, is working on livelihood enhancement, health, sanitation and education. It has commenced a programme to approach these issues in a unified manner in Bihar.
A two-day intensive trip by road in Bihar to see a sample of its work took me to villages in and around Patna, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur. We met many Dalits, both Hindu and Muslim. They reported some improvement in law and order, and better roads. The bane of Bihar, as of the rest of India, but far worse, is the poor government delivery system. This is so with schools, health centres, immunization programmes, the mid-day meal and national rural employment guarantee schemes and a myriad others from the Central and state governments. Entitlements are denied mostly to those the schemes are most meant for, the lower-caste poor. This denial by low-level bureaucrats is combined with greater caste discrimination than anywhere else in today’s India. A corrupt and incompetent bureaucracy combines with upper-caste mukhiyas in panchayats to deny entitlements to the largely illiterate and browbeaten poor. So NGOs have a major role to play in educating them on their entitlements and helping them access these.
The difference that small interventions by NGOs can make in the limited geography they work in, is striking. The transformation in lives, especially of mothers and children, made by solar lamps sponsored by The Energy and Resources Institute in the “to light a billion homes” project was immediate and heart-warming. The Aga Khan Foundation is also piloting a savings programme. Unlike the many self-financing schemes now driven by banks and non-banking finance institutions which have become high profit-makers, the foundation concentrates on the poorest, and is entirely community-driven. If it can be replicated over the state it has the potential to make a real impact and at a low cost per contact. It is the replication of such pilot programmes which are high cost per contact into mass programmes reaching many that is the real challenge and will indicate the programme’s success. The other challenge is to sensitize lower socio-economic classes about their entitlements, and help get them.
The foundation’s approach is towards a holistic development programme which covers livelihoods, education, health and savings. Both state and Central governments have ambitious programmes covering these over the whole state. The foundation, like other NGOs, must aim at learning and then teaching the lessons for the government to use in its large programmes. It is also well-placed to try new solutions that can then be offered to the government to implement on a much larger scale.
The focus for all NGOs must always and everywhere be on replicability and maximum impact. The innovations being piloted by the foundation are simple but effective. In agriculture, for example, a proven technique for paddy cultivation elsewhere in India uses 40 per cent less water. A simple polythene covered tent helps small farmers produce high quality tomatoes and exotic vegetables that can add significantly to income. Rural communities must be taught to use the cell phones that have entered the state. If the farmers work together, they can explore best prices in different markets and also arrange for a truck to come to the village to carry the produce. Farmers must be helped to work together to such mutual advantage.
These poor farmers meet regularly to discuss how the paddy programme and the tents are working. They could, at the same time, learn about their entitlements under various government schemes. Job cards under the NREGS are not issued. Even when they are issued, work is not given; full wages are not paid. To ensure that they get the full benefits, NGOs could train the poor in tackling government officials. Foundation workers could also support them in their meetings with some of these officials.
The innovative community savings groups consist entirely of women and are intended to provide funds in case of emergencies at much lower cost than if they went to the mahajan — moneylender — as they have done so far. The entire operation of recording, collecting, safeguarding the money, recovering dues, and so on, are handled by different women in the group, which is also responsible for ensuring that the loans are returned on time. The intention is not to expand these groups into the financing of investments but keep them confined to emergency loans, a need that strikes every poor family occasionally and for which the only recourse hitherto was the extortionate moneylender.
These women’s groups can also be involved in other village activities. They could take responsibility for midday meals in schools and earn some money, handle the provisions of midday meals in schools, usually for their own children, and also be given training in local hygiene and sanitation programmes. Thus, the stealing by government officials can be reduced, food of improved quality be given to children, and teachers enabled to devote the time now devoted to cooking and serving to teaching.
The foundation has also set up learning centres, superior duplicates of the regular government schools. The children attend these after going to the government school. The Dalit and Muslim children in these centres were enthusiastic learners. The parents are unanimous that their children are at last learning. Better trained and dedicated teachers and novel techniques of teaching make these centres popular and effective. But a learning centre is a duplicate of the government school. Government schools must be made to improve on a mass scale. The learning centres can be the models for improving the quality of teaching and teachers in government schools. The focus must be to help improve the thousands of government schools and their teachers.
In a large madrasa at Pusa, the foundation has introduced computer training for girls. It gives them self-respect and introduces the new essential for success, computers. The girls are keen to earn using their new skills. But there are no jobs for them in the neighbourhood, they have little English, no bookkeeping or statistics, are taught only Word and Excel, and the whole state suffers frequent power outages. Nor can the girls afford their own computers. Perhaps locally marketable skills that can help the girls earn in their neighbourhood might have more value.
The outlook under the Nitish Kumar government is hopeful and optimistic. There is some improvement in law and order, transport and communications. But schooling, hygiene, health, including immunization services, remain far behind the rest of India. A very inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy at almost all levels of government must improve. The NGOs with access to the government at the higher levels can play a catalytic role in educating people on entitlements and assuring their delivery to the poor. Interventions in spheres where the government has the resources to cover the whole population must only be to improve government delivery and try out new ideas that can then be implemented more widely by government agencies. Hence NGOs must constantly consider impact and replicability. Only these can transform the wretched lives of the lowest socio-economic classes.
The author is former director- general, National Council for Applied Economic Research
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091130/j ... 778870.jsp
- Many NGOs are helping Bihar bring in change
Commentarao - S.L. Rao
Non-governmental organizations are making a difference to the lives of poor and marginalized people in India. Most work in geographically limited areas. They are idealistic and want change, and hope to enter the lives of those they work with. Funding agencies and NGOs are enthused by any sign of change in the long-failed state of Bihar. A virulent and discriminatory caste system that deprives the lower castes even of government-funded entitlements is reinforced by a very corrupt bureaucracy, especially at the lower levels. Even the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, will admit that Bihar today is still far from being transformed. It is only beginning a long process of change.
The Aga Khan Foundation is an example of an NGO that, through its development network, is working on livelihood enhancement, health, sanitation and education. It has commenced a programme to approach these issues in a unified manner in Bihar.
A two-day intensive trip by road in Bihar to see a sample of its work took me to villages in and around Patna, Muzaffarpur and Samastipur. We met many Dalits, both Hindu and Muslim. They reported some improvement in law and order, and better roads. The bane of Bihar, as of the rest of India, but far worse, is the poor government delivery system. This is so with schools, health centres, immunization programmes, the mid-day meal and national rural employment guarantee schemes and a myriad others from the Central and state governments. Entitlements are denied mostly to those the schemes are most meant for, the lower-caste poor. This denial by low-level bureaucrats is combined with greater caste discrimination than anywhere else in today’s India. A corrupt and incompetent bureaucracy combines with upper-caste mukhiyas in panchayats to deny entitlements to the largely illiterate and browbeaten poor. So NGOs have a major role to play in educating them on their entitlements and helping them access these.
The difference that small interventions by NGOs can make in the limited geography they work in, is striking. The transformation in lives, especially of mothers and children, made by solar lamps sponsored by The Energy and Resources Institute in the “to light a billion homes” project was immediate and heart-warming. The Aga Khan Foundation is also piloting a savings programme. Unlike the many self-financing schemes now driven by banks and non-banking finance institutions which have become high profit-makers, the foundation concentrates on the poorest, and is entirely community-driven. If it can be replicated over the state it has the potential to make a real impact and at a low cost per contact. It is the replication of such pilot programmes which are high cost per contact into mass programmes reaching many that is the real challenge and will indicate the programme’s success. The other challenge is to sensitize lower socio-economic classes about their entitlements, and help get them.
The foundation’s approach is towards a holistic development programme which covers livelihoods, education, health and savings. Both state and Central governments have ambitious programmes covering these over the whole state. The foundation, like other NGOs, must aim at learning and then teaching the lessons for the government to use in its large programmes. It is also well-placed to try new solutions that can then be offered to the government to implement on a much larger scale.
The focus for all NGOs must always and everywhere be on replicability and maximum impact. The innovations being piloted by the foundation are simple but effective. In agriculture, for example, a proven technique for paddy cultivation elsewhere in India uses 40 per cent less water. A simple polythene covered tent helps small farmers produce high quality tomatoes and exotic vegetables that can add significantly to income. Rural communities must be taught to use the cell phones that have entered the state. If the farmers work together, they can explore best prices in different markets and also arrange for a truck to come to the village to carry the produce. Farmers must be helped to work together to such mutual advantage.
These poor farmers meet regularly to discuss how the paddy programme and the tents are working. They could, at the same time, learn about their entitlements under various government schemes. Job cards under the NREGS are not issued. Even when they are issued, work is not given; full wages are not paid. To ensure that they get the full benefits, NGOs could train the poor in tackling government officials. Foundation workers could also support them in their meetings with some of these officials.
The innovative community savings groups consist entirely of women and are intended to provide funds in case of emergencies at much lower cost than if they went to the mahajan — moneylender — as they have done so far. The entire operation of recording, collecting, safeguarding the money, recovering dues, and so on, are handled by different women in the group, which is also responsible for ensuring that the loans are returned on time. The intention is not to expand these groups into the financing of investments but keep them confined to emergency loans, a need that strikes every poor family occasionally and for which the only recourse hitherto was the extortionate moneylender.
These women’s groups can also be involved in other village activities. They could take responsibility for midday meals in schools and earn some money, handle the provisions of midday meals in schools, usually for their own children, and also be given training in local hygiene and sanitation programmes. Thus, the stealing by government officials can be reduced, food of improved quality be given to children, and teachers enabled to devote the time now devoted to cooking and serving to teaching.
The foundation has also set up learning centres, superior duplicates of the regular government schools. The children attend these after going to the government school. The Dalit and Muslim children in these centres were enthusiastic learners. The parents are unanimous that their children are at last learning. Better trained and dedicated teachers and novel techniques of teaching make these centres popular and effective. But a learning centre is a duplicate of the government school. Government schools must be made to improve on a mass scale. The learning centres can be the models for improving the quality of teaching and teachers in government schools. The focus must be to help improve the thousands of government schools and their teachers.
In a large madrasa at Pusa, the foundation has introduced computer training for girls. It gives them self-respect and introduces the new essential for success, computers. The girls are keen to earn using their new skills. But there are no jobs for them in the neighbourhood, they have little English, no bookkeeping or statistics, are taught only Word and Excel, and the whole state suffers frequent power outages. Nor can the girls afford their own computers. Perhaps locally marketable skills that can help the girls earn in their neighbourhood might have more value.
The outlook under the Nitish Kumar government is hopeful and optimistic. There is some improvement in law and order, transport and communications. But schooling, hygiene, health, including immunization services, remain far behind the rest of India. A very inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy at almost all levels of government must improve. The NGOs with access to the government at the higher levels can play a catalytic role in educating people on entitlements and assuring their delivery to the poor. Interventions in spheres where the government has the resources to cover the whole population must only be to improve government delivery and try out new ideas that can then be implemented more widely by government agencies. Hence NGOs must constantly consider impact and replicability. Only these can transform the wretched lives of the lowest socio-economic classes.
The author is former director- general, National Council for Applied Economic Research
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091130/j ... 778870.jsp
The chairman of Agakhhan Health Services amongst winners of Qimpro Awards
Mumbai: Qimpro Foundation has announced the winners for Qimpro Awards 2009.
The Qimpro Platinum Standard -- National Statesman awards for excellence in business, healthcare and education practices have gone to AM Naik, chairman and managing director of Larsen & Toubro, Dr Sultan Pradhan, chairman of Aga Khan Health Services and Gian Parkash Chopra, president of DAV College Managing Committee, respectively.
The Qimpro Gold Standard -- Leader who has successfully implemented world-class quality practices in an organisation/ institution awards have gone to Bhaskar Bhat, managing director of Titan Industries, Dr S D Gupta, director of Indian Institute of Health Management Research and Prof Y K Bhushan, director and campus head of IBS Mumbai for business, healthcare and education, respectively.
The winners will be felicitated in early February 2010. There was an independent panel of 12 judges for each of the three categories -- business, healthcare and education. While the healthcare and education panels met on November 20, the business panel met on December 1.
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_am ... rs_1319789
Mumbai: Qimpro Foundation has announced the winners for Qimpro Awards 2009.
The Qimpro Platinum Standard -- National Statesman awards for excellence in business, healthcare and education practices have gone to AM Naik, chairman and managing director of Larsen & Toubro, Dr Sultan Pradhan, chairman of Aga Khan Health Services and Gian Parkash Chopra, president of DAV College Managing Committee, respectively.
The Qimpro Gold Standard -- Leader who has successfully implemented world-class quality practices in an organisation/ institution awards have gone to Bhaskar Bhat, managing director of Titan Industries, Dr S D Gupta, director of Indian Institute of Health Management Research and Prof Y K Bhushan, director and campus head of IBS Mumbai for business, healthcare and education, respectively.
The winners will be felicitated in early February 2010. There was an independent panel of 12 judges for each of the three categories -- business, healthcare and education. While the healthcare and education panels met on November 20, the business panel met on December 1.
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_am ... rs_1319789
Aga Khan Educational Services (AKES) – Wellesley in India (Mumbai) December 14, 2009
Posted by cwslibrary in India, Juniors, Mumbai, Summer 2009, Summer 2010, Wellesley in India, education, nonprofit, sophomores.
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Organization Description:
The Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) is one of six agencies of the AKDN supporting activities in the field of education. AKES is a network of educational institutions that combines the operation of over 300 schools with the management of quality preschool, primary, secondary and higher-secondary educational services in Asia and Africa impacting over 54,000 students. AKES is committed to achieving excellence by continuous improvement of its programmes, services and processes without regard to faith, origin or gender. Offering a superior education to students is perhaps the most important factor, in creating a successful future for generations that will have to cope with a rapidly changing environment.
The Aga Khan Education Service, India (AKES,I) is a part of the Aga Khan Education Services global. AKES,I is committed to enriching lives by enhancing and sustaining “Quality Education”. Its footprints can be traced back to the early 1900’s the first Aga Khan School started in 1905 in Mundra, Kutch, Gujarat. AKES,I currently operates 10 schools, 1 Hostel in Hyderabad, 21 Day Care Centres and 16 support centres in Maharashtra, Gujarat & Andhra Pradesh. AKES,I seeks to respond creatively to the educational needs of children in a way that will enable them to shape their future.
Until June 2007, the Schools Development Programme (SDP) was a critical component of AKES,I funded by the European Commission through Aga Khan Foundation, India, under the Programme for Enrichment of School Level Education (PESLE). As a part of PESLE, the SDP focused on disseminating its learning and affecting the education system at large. The emphasis was on school culture, enabling its progress into effective learning organizations. The SDP technology was based on four parameters – joint problem solving, reflective practices, creation of an enabling environment through informed leadership and sustainability through outreach.
The Aga Khan schools in Mumbai are located in the Byculla area of the city, and are some of the most advanced and challenged educational institutions. AKES Mumbai serves children from nursery (preschool) to tenth grades, teaching the national and the state curriculum in the co-ed and girls’ school respectively.
Internship Description:
Interns work as apprentice teachers, in classrooms that are equivalent U.S. grades 1-10. Interns will work in either the new co-educational school or the girl’s school, and should indicate on their application, which school they are interested in. Additionally, interns may spend part of each week working with faculty and staff on specific faculty/staff development and enrichment projects. Interns will also provide any administrative or activity support, as required by the school.
Ideal Internship Qualification:
Logistical:
Current Sophomores and Juniors
Interest in Education and Teaching in a nonprofit setting
Experience working with children
Demonstrated interest in South Asia
Personality:
Resourceful
Flexible
Open-minded
Mature
http://cwsinternships.wordpress.com/200 ... -mumbai-2/
Posted by cwslibrary in India, Juniors, Mumbai, Summer 2009, Summer 2010, Wellesley in India, education, nonprofit, sophomores.
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Organization Description:
The Aga Khan Education Services (AKES) is one of six agencies of the AKDN supporting activities in the field of education. AKES is a network of educational institutions that combines the operation of over 300 schools with the management of quality preschool, primary, secondary and higher-secondary educational services in Asia and Africa impacting over 54,000 students. AKES is committed to achieving excellence by continuous improvement of its programmes, services and processes without regard to faith, origin or gender. Offering a superior education to students is perhaps the most important factor, in creating a successful future for generations that will have to cope with a rapidly changing environment.
The Aga Khan Education Service, India (AKES,I) is a part of the Aga Khan Education Services global. AKES,I is committed to enriching lives by enhancing and sustaining “Quality Education”. Its footprints can be traced back to the early 1900’s the first Aga Khan School started in 1905 in Mundra, Kutch, Gujarat. AKES,I currently operates 10 schools, 1 Hostel in Hyderabad, 21 Day Care Centres and 16 support centres in Maharashtra, Gujarat & Andhra Pradesh. AKES,I seeks to respond creatively to the educational needs of children in a way that will enable them to shape their future.
Until June 2007, the Schools Development Programme (SDP) was a critical component of AKES,I funded by the European Commission through Aga Khan Foundation, India, under the Programme for Enrichment of School Level Education (PESLE). As a part of PESLE, the SDP focused on disseminating its learning and affecting the education system at large. The emphasis was on school culture, enabling its progress into effective learning organizations. The SDP technology was based on four parameters – joint problem solving, reflective practices, creation of an enabling environment through informed leadership and sustainability through outreach.
The Aga Khan schools in Mumbai are located in the Byculla area of the city, and are some of the most advanced and challenged educational institutions. AKES Mumbai serves children from nursery (preschool) to tenth grades, teaching the national and the state curriculum in the co-ed and girls’ school respectively.
Internship Description:
Interns work as apprentice teachers, in classrooms that are equivalent U.S. grades 1-10. Interns will work in either the new co-educational school or the girl’s school, and should indicate on their application, which school they are interested in. Additionally, interns may spend part of each week working with faculty and staff on specific faculty/staff development and enrichment projects. Interns will also provide any administrative or activity support, as required by the school.
Ideal Internship Qualification:
Logistical:
Current Sophomores and Juniors
Interest in Education and Teaching in a nonprofit setting
Experience working with children
Demonstrated interest in South Asia
Personality:
Resourceful
Flexible
Open-minded
Mature
http://cwsinternships.wordpress.com/200 ... -mumbai-2/
Delhi’s Poor: Revolution by Latrine?
Malise Ruthven
http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/505677973 ... by-latrine
Women gathering at the tomb of Shaikh Nizamuddin, Delhi (Ianthe Ruthven)Walking above the village of Mehrauli on Delhi’s southern perimeter, we pass a woman with a half-empty bottle of water—one of several we have already noticed since daybreak. Dressed immaculately in a brightly-colored sari, she emerges from behind a prickly bush on a tract of waste ground. If she were a man we might not have merited such discretion. India is about the only country in the world where you actually see human adults defecating. When traveling by road or rail you can be struck by the image of men squatting openly, impervious to the public gaze. The UN estimates that 600 million people—or 55 per cent of the Indian population—still defecate out of doors. The practice is clearly born of necessity in a crowded country where the development of public amenities has conspicuously failed to keep pace with economic and demographic growth.
Conspicuous defecation, however, is restricted to males. Female modesty—enjoined by Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism alongside age-old patriarchal codes—dictates that women may relieve themselves only after dark, or in the most secluded reaches of the forest, a practice that exposes them to violence or even snake bites. The consequences for women’s health can be devastating. Women of the poorest classes notoriously suffer from a range of urinary and bowel disorders born of taboos about pollution and other social constraints applied to the most basic and banal of bodily functions.
My companion and I are looking for the walls of Lal Kot—the oldest of Delhi’s seven cities, dating from the tenth century, before the first Muslim invasion. The three-kilometer walls enclose a space that has been largely abandoned to jungle. The cladding of irregular quartzite blocks has been cut so accurately that no mortar was needed to hold them together. Set high on a ridge overlooking the present-day city, Lal Kot is a magnificent outpost of a forgotten civilization—a worthy precursor to the great Delhi Sultanate that flourished during the centuries of Islamic rule, as well as to its grandiose successor, New Delhi, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker barely two decades before Britain was forced to abandon its empire.
Lal Kot is far from the tourist trail. To reach it you have to cross a large rubbish dump, and negotiate the odiferous detritus—what used to be known as night soil—left by Mehrauli’s less favoured human residents. They sleep rough, in old tombs or in flimsy home-made shacks erected near the open sewers that intersect the area’s magnificent architectural monuments. In the absence of municipal services, refuse disposal is performed by long-haired pigs, which eat up every kind of organic matter, not excluding human and canine waste. (As Moses and Muhammad taught their followers, ham and bacon are best avoided in southern latitudes.)
A pig foraging in Mehrauli (Ianthe Ruthven)The lack of sanitation is emblematic of India’s failure as an emerging economic giant to include most of its population in its achievements. India is now home to the fourth largest number of billionaires. According to Tim Sebastian, the former BBC journalist who chairs a forum in Doha, Qatar, for debate about social and political issues in the Middle East, some 60 million people in India—who make up the world’s most populous and most powerful middle class—now enjoy living standards higher than Britain and France. Yet the vast majority are excluded from India’s version of the American dream. As a former government minister Mani Shankar Ayar told Sebastian: “We have a tiny elite that is obsessed with itself. If democracy doesn’t deliver for the rest—we could be heading for violence. We’re seeing a failure to bring 900 million people inside the system of entitlements. Without entitlements, you pick up the gun.”
A third of the country’s districts are now facing rural insurgencies spearheaded by the Maoist Naxalites. Is it not just a matter of time before violence spreads to major conurbations such as Delhi, home to 20 million people, many of them living on less than a dollar a day?
A visit to one of Delhi’s poorest quarters provides a glimmer of hope. The Nizamuddin district takes its name from the shrine of a holy man— Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya (1238–1325)—renowned for his religious inclusiveness, his commitment to the poor, his disdain for rulers, and a love of music and dance that set him apart from his more austere Muslim contemporaries. The shrine attracts visitors from all over the Islamic world, as well as non-Muslim devotees. It typifies the spiritual syncretism one finds in India, where the tombs of holy persons attract followers from all religions. Until recently this run-down area was crammed with rural migrants and pilgrims hoping to benefit spiritually from the Shaikh’s baraka (blessedness), or materially by taking odd-jobs serving other pilgrims.
With no serviceable toilets available for pilgrims, the ground beneath the pillars of the overhead metro railway that is now under construction (causing a huge disruption to Delhi’s burgeoning traffic) has become an open latrine, a magnet for flies and disease. Now the Aga Khan Foundation, in partnership with other NGOs and agencies, is rehabilitating the area in a major initiative with the municipal corporation of Delhi. Measures include the organized collection of refuse, the provision of public toilets managed by the community, where users are charged a small fee for cleaning and supervision, and the re-housing of squatters who had constructed precarious additions to the fourteenth-century baoli or stepwell—the water is reached by descending flights of steps—now being dredged and reconstituted using the latest radar technology.
The local government school in Nizamuddin has received a comprehensive make-over funded by the Aga Khan Foundation in collaboration with one of India’s oldest charities, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust. In addition to bright new classrooms, well-designed for children, a vital outcome of the project, the headmaster suggests, is the renovated toilet block with separate cubicles for girls and boys. In Delhi—as in rural Gujarat, where similar conditions prevail—school drop-out rates have been highest among girls. Purely cultural factors—such as the demands of mothers for domestic help—are partly responsible. But teachers and aid workers see the lack of toilets as the primary reason girls have not been attending school, since there is no private place where they can relieve themselves. A program for building school toilets in Gujarat I looked at several years ago has yielded not just improvements in family health and hygiene, but a marked increase in female school attendance. Fifteen of the girls who took part in the program—whereby the children themselves cleaned the toilets—were going on to higher education.
Since the introduction of the new toilets in the Nizamuddin school, female drop-out rates have declined dramatically: the ratio of girls to boys attending the school is now 55–45 percent. Living in London one takes the humble loo for granted. A fortnight in Delhi reveals its potential for kick-starting a social revolution.
Malise Ruthven
http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/505677973 ... by-latrine
Women gathering at the tomb of Shaikh Nizamuddin, Delhi (Ianthe Ruthven)Walking above the village of Mehrauli on Delhi’s southern perimeter, we pass a woman with a half-empty bottle of water—one of several we have already noticed since daybreak. Dressed immaculately in a brightly-colored sari, she emerges from behind a prickly bush on a tract of waste ground. If she were a man we might not have merited such discretion. India is about the only country in the world where you actually see human adults defecating. When traveling by road or rail you can be struck by the image of men squatting openly, impervious to the public gaze. The UN estimates that 600 million people—or 55 per cent of the Indian population—still defecate out of doors. The practice is clearly born of necessity in a crowded country where the development of public amenities has conspicuously failed to keep pace with economic and demographic growth.
Conspicuous defecation, however, is restricted to males. Female modesty—enjoined by Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism alongside age-old patriarchal codes—dictates that women may relieve themselves only after dark, or in the most secluded reaches of the forest, a practice that exposes them to violence or even snake bites. The consequences for women’s health can be devastating. Women of the poorest classes notoriously suffer from a range of urinary and bowel disorders born of taboos about pollution and other social constraints applied to the most basic and banal of bodily functions.
My companion and I are looking for the walls of Lal Kot—the oldest of Delhi’s seven cities, dating from the tenth century, before the first Muslim invasion. The three-kilometer walls enclose a space that has been largely abandoned to jungle. The cladding of irregular quartzite blocks has been cut so accurately that no mortar was needed to hold them together. Set high on a ridge overlooking the present-day city, Lal Kot is a magnificent outpost of a forgotten civilization—a worthy precursor to the great Delhi Sultanate that flourished during the centuries of Islamic rule, as well as to its grandiose successor, New Delhi, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker barely two decades before Britain was forced to abandon its empire.
Lal Kot is far from the tourist trail. To reach it you have to cross a large rubbish dump, and negotiate the odiferous detritus—what used to be known as night soil—left by Mehrauli’s less favoured human residents. They sleep rough, in old tombs or in flimsy home-made shacks erected near the open sewers that intersect the area’s magnificent architectural monuments. In the absence of municipal services, refuse disposal is performed by long-haired pigs, which eat up every kind of organic matter, not excluding human and canine waste. (As Moses and Muhammad taught their followers, ham and bacon are best avoided in southern latitudes.)
A pig foraging in Mehrauli (Ianthe Ruthven)The lack of sanitation is emblematic of India’s failure as an emerging economic giant to include most of its population in its achievements. India is now home to the fourth largest number of billionaires. According to Tim Sebastian, the former BBC journalist who chairs a forum in Doha, Qatar, for debate about social and political issues in the Middle East, some 60 million people in India—who make up the world’s most populous and most powerful middle class—now enjoy living standards higher than Britain and France. Yet the vast majority are excluded from India’s version of the American dream. As a former government minister Mani Shankar Ayar told Sebastian: “We have a tiny elite that is obsessed with itself. If democracy doesn’t deliver for the rest—we could be heading for violence. We’re seeing a failure to bring 900 million people inside the system of entitlements. Without entitlements, you pick up the gun.”
A third of the country’s districts are now facing rural insurgencies spearheaded by the Maoist Naxalites. Is it not just a matter of time before violence spreads to major conurbations such as Delhi, home to 20 million people, many of them living on less than a dollar a day?
A visit to one of Delhi’s poorest quarters provides a glimmer of hope. The Nizamuddin district takes its name from the shrine of a holy man— Shaikh Nizamuddin Auliya (1238–1325)—renowned for his religious inclusiveness, his commitment to the poor, his disdain for rulers, and a love of music and dance that set him apart from his more austere Muslim contemporaries. The shrine attracts visitors from all over the Islamic world, as well as non-Muslim devotees. It typifies the spiritual syncretism one finds in India, where the tombs of holy persons attract followers from all religions. Until recently this run-down area was crammed with rural migrants and pilgrims hoping to benefit spiritually from the Shaikh’s baraka (blessedness), or materially by taking odd-jobs serving other pilgrims.
With no serviceable toilets available for pilgrims, the ground beneath the pillars of the overhead metro railway that is now under construction (causing a huge disruption to Delhi’s burgeoning traffic) has become an open latrine, a magnet for flies and disease. Now the Aga Khan Foundation, in partnership with other NGOs and agencies, is rehabilitating the area in a major initiative with the municipal corporation of Delhi. Measures include the organized collection of refuse, the provision of public toilets managed by the community, where users are charged a small fee for cleaning and supervision, and the re-housing of squatters who had constructed precarious additions to the fourteenth-century baoli or stepwell—the water is reached by descending flights of steps—now being dredged and reconstituted using the latest radar technology.
The local government school in Nizamuddin has received a comprehensive make-over funded by the Aga Khan Foundation in collaboration with one of India’s oldest charities, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust. In addition to bright new classrooms, well-designed for children, a vital outcome of the project, the headmaster suggests, is the renovated toilet block with separate cubicles for girls and boys. In Delhi—as in rural Gujarat, where similar conditions prevail—school drop-out rates have been highest among girls. Purely cultural factors—such as the demands of mothers for domestic help—are partly responsible. But teachers and aid workers see the lack of toilets as the primary reason girls have not been attending school, since there is no private place where they can relieve themselves. A program for building school toilets in Gujarat I looked at several years ago has yielded not just improvements in family health and hygiene, but a marked increase in female school attendance. Fifteen of the girls who took part in the program—whereby the children themselves cleaned the toilets—were going on to higher education.
Since the introduction of the new toilets in the Nizamuddin school, female drop-out rates have declined dramatically: the ratio of girls to boys attending the school is now 55–45 percent. Living in London one takes the humble loo for granted. A fortnight in Delhi reveals its potential for kick-starting a social revolution.
New Delhi
Now a handbook on scholarships
Madhur Tankha
Aga Khan Foundation comes up with a directory on schemes
A volunteer at the Aga Khan Foundation teaching children at Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti in New Delhi.
NEW DELHI: To give socially and economically marginalised communities a chance to access information on government scholarships, the Aga Khan Foundation has published a directory on financial support schemes for school education in the country.
The directory, “Scholarships and Financial Assistance Schemes for School Education in India”, has been published in the interest of a large number of eligible and deserving children who are unable to take advantage of these schemes because they do not know about them.
“Even schools and education officials are not well informed on details about scholarships. The result has been under-utilisation of these scholarships and allocated budgets,” says AKF CEO Rowland Roome.
The directory basically is an attempt to fill this information gap. It publicises numerous scholarships, financial assistance schemes and incentives set up by the Union Government and seven State governments to help ease the burden of the financial costs of school level education (Class I to XII).
The directory has been produced with support from the Canadian International Development Agency.
While information on financial support schemes is publicly available, its communication is generally scattered through various channels such as websites, newspapers and circulars that are difficult for remote and under-developed schools and communities to access. For the first time, the directory pools information about these schemes under one cover.
To reach out to people living inaccessible areas of the country, AKF plans to share the directory with non-government organisations working in the field of education.
It seeks to fund organisations and key education department officials at district and sub-district levels to spur wider dissemination of scholarships and schemes for school education.
“We hope this directory will serve as a handbook to students, parents, schools, education department officials and all stakeholders in school education,” says Mr. Roome.
The publication of the directory is part of larger education programmes undertaken by the Foundation, the Aga Khan Education Services and other agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network.
For over two decades the AKF has supported school improvement programmes targeting early childhood development through elementary education.
The growing AKDN area development programmes include education activities relevant to the needs and opportunities of socially and economically marginalised children living in Nizamuddin Basti in Delhi.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/27/stories ... 950200.htm
Now a handbook on scholarships
Madhur Tankha
Aga Khan Foundation comes up with a directory on schemes
A volunteer at the Aga Khan Foundation teaching children at Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti in New Delhi.
NEW DELHI: To give socially and economically marginalised communities a chance to access information on government scholarships, the Aga Khan Foundation has published a directory on financial support schemes for school education in the country.
The directory, “Scholarships and Financial Assistance Schemes for School Education in India”, has been published in the interest of a large number of eligible and deserving children who are unable to take advantage of these schemes because they do not know about them.
“Even schools and education officials are not well informed on details about scholarships. The result has been under-utilisation of these scholarships and allocated budgets,” says AKF CEO Rowland Roome.
The directory basically is an attempt to fill this information gap. It publicises numerous scholarships, financial assistance schemes and incentives set up by the Union Government and seven State governments to help ease the burden of the financial costs of school level education (Class I to XII).
The directory has been produced with support from the Canadian International Development Agency.
While information on financial support schemes is publicly available, its communication is generally scattered through various channels such as websites, newspapers and circulars that are difficult for remote and under-developed schools and communities to access. For the first time, the directory pools information about these schemes under one cover.
To reach out to people living inaccessible areas of the country, AKF plans to share the directory with non-government organisations working in the field of education.
It seeks to fund organisations and key education department officials at district and sub-district levels to spur wider dissemination of scholarships and schemes for school education.
“We hope this directory will serve as a handbook to students, parents, schools, education department officials and all stakeholders in school education,” says Mr. Roome.
The publication of the directory is part of larger education programmes undertaken by the Foundation, the Aga Khan Education Services and other agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network.
For over two decades the AKF has supported school improvement programmes targeting early childhood development through elementary education.
The growing AKDN area development programmes include education activities relevant to the needs and opportunities of socially and economically marginalised children living in Nizamuddin Basti in Delhi.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/07/27/stories ... 950200.htm
AKRSP (Aga Khan Rural Support Programme) India wins eINDIA JURY AWARD 2010
http://www.digitallearning.in/articles/ ... EXCELLENCE
Computerji Jode Duniya se
IMPLEMENTING AGENCY
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India
OBJECTIVES
Impart training on computer skills at a very nominal rate
Introduce community to the use of computers for livelihood enhancement activities
Address all gaps in IT training and skill development
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) [(AKRSP (I) ] has partnered with Microsoft for an information technology project. "Computerji Jode Duniya se". This initiative of AKRSP (India) focuses on enhancing livelihoods in remote rural areas of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh & Bihar by using information technology as a tool. The AKRSP (I) is active in six districts of Gujarat and three districts of Madhya Pradesh. In 2007, AKRSP(I) initiated its work in Samastipur & Muzaffarpur districts of Bihar. The Computerji project was initiated to address all gaps in IT training and skill development. Computerji centres are located in areas with tribal and marginalized population.
Outcome
947 people have found IT based jobs and 35 people have obtained non-IT based jobs
About 19596 farmers have accessed information related to agriculture
*****
http://www.akdn.org/india_rural.asp
Rural Development Activities in India
Today, over 400,000 beneficiaries across 900 villages in four states (Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan) have organised themselves into more than 1400 village-level institutions.
AKDN's rural development efforts started in the early 1980s when the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme(AKRSP) was established in Gujarat. Rural development programmes seek to contribute to rural poverty reduction through community involvement and empowerment that leads to the efficient management and improved productivity of natural resources. Today, over 400,000 beneficiaries across 900 villages in four states (Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan) have organised themselves into more than 1400 village-level institutions.
http://www.digitallearning.in/articles/ ... EXCELLENCE
Computerji Jode Duniya se
IMPLEMENTING AGENCY
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme India
OBJECTIVES
Impart training on computer skills at a very nominal rate
Introduce community to the use of computers for livelihood enhancement activities
Address all gaps in IT training and skill development
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) [(AKRSP (I) ] has partnered with Microsoft for an information technology project. "Computerji Jode Duniya se". This initiative of AKRSP (India) focuses on enhancing livelihoods in remote rural areas of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh & Bihar by using information technology as a tool. The AKRSP (I) is active in six districts of Gujarat and three districts of Madhya Pradesh. In 2007, AKRSP(I) initiated its work in Samastipur & Muzaffarpur districts of Bihar. The Computerji project was initiated to address all gaps in IT training and skill development. Computerji centres are located in areas with tribal and marginalized population.
Outcome
947 people have found IT based jobs and 35 people have obtained non-IT based jobs
About 19596 farmers have accessed information related to agriculture
*****
http://www.akdn.org/india_rural.asp
Rural Development Activities in India
Today, over 400,000 beneficiaries across 900 villages in four states (Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan) have organised themselves into more than 1400 village-level institutions.
AKDN's rural development efforts started in the early 1980s when the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme(AKRSP) was established in Gujarat. Rural development programmes seek to contribute to rural poverty reduction through community involvement and empowerment that leads to the efficient management and improved productivity of natural resources. Today, over 400,000 beneficiaries across 900 villages in four states (Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan) have organised themselves into more than 1400 village-level institutions.
Empowering Rural Communities in a Changing India: Lessons from 25 years of rural development work
Lecture | September 23 | 5-7 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 10 (CSAS Conference Room)
Speaker: Apoorva Oza, Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Rural Support Program, India
Sponsor: South Asia Studies, Center for
Apoorva Oza, the Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), India, started his career as a Deputy Manager with Gujarat Dairy Development Corporation. In 1988, he joined AKRSP(India) as a Field Manager transitioning to the position of Senior Programme Executive in 1994. He was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2001, and, in this role, has expanded AKRSP(I)’s work to the poorest states in India, including Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Under his leadership, AKRSP(I) promotes the issues of coastal water salinity and land rights for rural women. It also has influenced state and national policies on rainfed agriculture, rural drinking water systems, participatory irrigation management, and NGO/government collaboration. Mr. Apoorva Oza is a mechanical engineer with a diploma in rural management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand.
Mr. Oza’s discussion will focus on increasing food security for marginalized farmers, particularly through rainfed agriculture.
The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) was founded as a part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in 1983. It began field operations in 1985 and has since become one of the larger grassroots NGOs in India, with more than 250 staff in 27 locations and an annual budget of $6 million. It has pioneered efforts in areas such as participatory irrigation management, joint forest management, rain water harvesting, watershed development, preventing salinity ingress, micro-enterprise development, and alternative energy to empower rural women and marginalised communities. The programme’s development approach differs by region. In Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, AKRSP(I) uses sequential interventions that begin by improving economic opportunity which allows for later investments in social development (health, early childhood and basic education, etc). In Bihar, AKRSP(I) and the Aga Khan Foundation (India) have collaborated to implement an area development approach. This approach uses simultaneous investment in economic and social development through community-based, community-led schemes. Since mid-2008, a range of interventions in economic development, community institution building, education, and health have been piloted by AKRSP(I) in Bihar. AKRSP(I) also partners with other NGOs and research agencies to influence policies and programmes of government and private sector actors to improve the quality of life of the rural poor.
Event Contact: [email protected], 510-642-3608
http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php?ev ... all_events
Lecture | September 23 | 5-7 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 10 (CSAS Conference Room)
Speaker: Apoorva Oza, Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Rural Support Program, India
Sponsor: South Asia Studies, Center for
Apoorva Oza, the Chief Executive Officer, Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), India, started his career as a Deputy Manager with Gujarat Dairy Development Corporation. In 1988, he joined AKRSP(India) as a Field Manager transitioning to the position of Senior Programme Executive in 1994. He was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2001, and, in this role, has expanded AKRSP(I)’s work to the poorest states in India, including Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Under his leadership, AKRSP(I) promotes the issues of coastal water salinity and land rights for rural women. It also has influenced state and national policies on rainfed agriculture, rural drinking water systems, participatory irrigation management, and NGO/government collaboration. Mr. Apoorva Oza is a mechanical engineer with a diploma in rural management from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand.
Mr. Oza’s discussion will focus on increasing food security for marginalized farmers, particularly through rainfed agriculture.
The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India) was founded as a part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in 1983. It began field operations in 1985 and has since become one of the larger grassroots NGOs in India, with more than 250 staff in 27 locations and an annual budget of $6 million. It has pioneered efforts in areas such as participatory irrigation management, joint forest management, rain water harvesting, watershed development, preventing salinity ingress, micro-enterprise development, and alternative energy to empower rural women and marginalised communities. The programme’s development approach differs by region. In Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, AKRSP(I) uses sequential interventions that begin by improving economic opportunity which allows for later investments in social development (health, early childhood and basic education, etc). In Bihar, AKRSP(I) and the Aga Khan Foundation (India) have collaborated to implement an area development approach. This approach uses simultaneous investment in economic and social development through community-based, community-led schemes. Since mid-2008, a range of interventions in economic development, community institution building, education, and health have been piloted by AKRSP(I) in Bihar. AKRSP(I) also partners with other NGOs and research agencies to influence policies and programmes of government and private sector actors to improve the quality of life of the rural poor.
Event Contact: [email protected], 510-642-3608
http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php?ev ... all_events
Empowering the youth…
"Bees plunder flowers here and there, but afterwards they make of them honey, which is all theirs. Even so with the pieces borrowed from others; one will transform and blend them to make a work that is all one’s own, that is, one’s judgment. Education, work, and study aim only at forming this.” – Michel de Montaigne
Education is no longer just the right of the rich. Every one dreams of getting quality education and empowering oneself. Organisations like the British Council and Aga Khan Foundation have taken a step forward to help the deserving, and make one’s dreams come true.
English Language Teacher Training project, a joint venture of the British Council and Aga Khan Foundation, aims at training and developing English language skills of the youth in the Nizamuddin Basti (slum) so that they are able to gain better educational and employment opportunities.
The project targeted people in the age group of 16 to 25 years. These youngsters are all from the lower income strata of the society and they reside in the slum. The income level of an average family in Nizamuddin Basti is around Rs 6,000 to 7,000 per month. They don’t have the monetary resources to take private tuition on English. This was an opportunity for the youth in the Basti to improve a skill that the formal education system has failed to develop.
The English Language Teacher Training project was launched in February, 2009. The project kick started with the British Council conducting a needs analysis in the Basti with the objective of gauging the current written and oral English language skills of the youth. The analysis suggested that a majority of participants needed career counseling and support for improving their English language skills. Most of the young people felt uncomfortable interacting in English therefore lacked the confidence to face an interview in the language.
The layout of the project was to create a team of Master Trainers, who in-turn would cascade the training to students. The unique part of the project was that both, Master Trainers and students, were selected from within the Basti through intense community mobilisation.
The Master Trainers were selected through interviews, diagnostic tests and focus groups. They were then trained for a month under the guidance of a British Council trainer. This was done through comprehension tests, self assessment and oral interviews.
The next stage was the preparation of course material for the Master Training course which included selecting material, getting handouts and printing courseware. The training of Master Trainers started with a two-day orientation and team building workshop. This was followed by an intensive training on how to teach vocational English. 16 of 17 Master Trainers successfully completed the course and were prepared to train the batch of 45 students.
“I have been a trainee and a trainer and now I will be a paid assistant teacher with the Access programme. Things cannot get any better. I knew I could be a teacher, and now, I am actually one,” boasts Azhar.
One of the Master Trainers, Abdul, is a priest in a mosque. He joined the course so that he can spread ‘Islam’s message of peace’ to the world in English. Master Trainers began training the students in August 2009. The students were given a two day orientation for English language training. The British Council trainer guided them in lesson planning and preparation of time scales and student registers.
The first term culminated in late-September and included regular tests/assessments to monitor student progress. This was followed by a review of materials by the Master Trainers under the guidance of the British Council trainer.
One of the project components was mapping the current English language skills of the participants in the context of sectors such as BPO, retail and hospitality. By the end of the course, many of the Master Trainers and students had already attained the English skills required for jobs in hospitality sector.
The young participants have gained a sense of direction and the confidence to become self-directed learners, who realise the value of short and long term goals. They feel empowered to bring a positive change within their community.
A milestone of this project was that it has fostered a need among the participants to be instruments of change in the Basti. Another highlight is that 60% of the participants are females.
Aqlima remarks confidently, “I know that my English is not very good but I can talk to just about anyone with greater confidence. I feel independent. The fact that I am earning my own money makes me feel that I can take-on the world, or at least my family. If anyone, including my father-in-law has problem in my stepping-out, I think I can fight them now. It is now my career aspiration to be a teacher.”
The project has produced immediate results in terms of employability for the trainers. The model used in this project offers great scope for replication, thus creating further employment opportunities. Many participants on the course have expressed a desire to become English teachers.
In addition to the better employment and educational opportunities, English has linked the youngsters to the outside world. Prior to the course, many of the participants remained within the confines of their slum and were not motivated to read newspapers. They are now so much confident to communicate, teach in a school or apply for jobs. Many of the Master Trainers have joined a local school as assistant teachers.
- Nupur Sachdeva
http://youthleader.in/2010/09/empowering-the-youth/
"Bees plunder flowers here and there, but afterwards they make of them honey, which is all theirs. Even so with the pieces borrowed from others; one will transform and blend them to make a work that is all one’s own, that is, one’s judgment. Education, work, and study aim only at forming this.” – Michel de Montaigne
Education is no longer just the right of the rich. Every one dreams of getting quality education and empowering oneself. Organisations like the British Council and Aga Khan Foundation have taken a step forward to help the deserving, and make one’s dreams come true.
English Language Teacher Training project, a joint venture of the British Council and Aga Khan Foundation, aims at training and developing English language skills of the youth in the Nizamuddin Basti (slum) so that they are able to gain better educational and employment opportunities.
The project targeted people in the age group of 16 to 25 years. These youngsters are all from the lower income strata of the society and they reside in the slum. The income level of an average family in Nizamuddin Basti is around Rs 6,000 to 7,000 per month. They don’t have the monetary resources to take private tuition on English. This was an opportunity for the youth in the Basti to improve a skill that the formal education system has failed to develop.
The English Language Teacher Training project was launched in February, 2009. The project kick started with the British Council conducting a needs analysis in the Basti with the objective of gauging the current written and oral English language skills of the youth. The analysis suggested that a majority of participants needed career counseling and support for improving their English language skills. Most of the young people felt uncomfortable interacting in English therefore lacked the confidence to face an interview in the language.
The layout of the project was to create a team of Master Trainers, who in-turn would cascade the training to students. The unique part of the project was that both, Master Trainers and students, were selected from within the Basti through intense community mobilisation.
The Master Trainers were selected through interviews, diagnostic tests and focus groups. They were then trained for a month under the guidance of a British Council trainer. This was done through comprehension tests, self assessment and oral interviews.
The next stage was the preparation of course material for the Master Training course which included selecting material, getting handouts and printing courseware. The training of Master Trainers started with a two-day orientation and team building workshop. This was followed by an intensive training on how to teach vocational English. 16 of 17 Master Trainers successfully completed the course and were prepared to train the batch of 45 students.
“I have been a trainee and a trainer and now I will be a paid assistant teacher with the Access programme. Things cannot get any better. I knew I could be a teacher, and now, I am actually one,” boasts Azhar.
One of the Master Trainers, Abdul, is a priest in a mosque. He joined the course so that he can spread ‘Islam’s message of peace’ to the world in English. Master Trainers began training the students in August 2009. The students were given a two day orientation for English language training. The British Council trainer guided them in lesson planning and preparation of time scales and student registers.
The first term culminated in late-September and included regular tests/assessments to monitor student progress. This was followed by a review of materials by the Master Trainers under the guidance of the British Council trainer.
One of the project components was mapping the current English language skills of the participants in the context of sectors such as BPO, retail and hospitality. By the end of the course, many of the Master Trainers and students had already attained the English skills required for jobs in hospitality sector.
The young participants have gained a sense of direction and the confidence to become self-directed learners, who realise the value of short and long term goals. They feel empowered to bring a positive change within their community.
A milestone of this project was that it has fostered a need among the participants to be instruments of change in the Basti. Another highlight is that 60% of the participants are females.
Aqlima remarks confidently, “I know that my English is not very good but I can talk to just about anyone with greater confidence. I feel independent. The fact that I am earning my own money makes me feel that I can take-on the world, or at least my family. If anyone, including my father-in-law has problem in my stepping-out, I think I can fight them now. It is now my career aspiration to be a teacher.”
The project has produced immediate results in terms of employability for the trainers. The model used in this project offers great scope for replication, thus creating further employment opportunities. Many participants on the course have expressed a desire to become English teachers.
In addition to the better employment and educational opportunities, English has linked the youngsters to the outside world. Prior to the course, many of the participants remained within the confines of their slum and were not motivated to read newspapers. They are now so much confident to communicate, teach in a school or apply for jobs. Many of the Master Trainers have joined a local school as assistant teachers.
- Nupur Sachdeva
http://youthleader.in/2010/09/empowering-the-youth/
INDIA GERMANY WESTERWELLE VISITS
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (C); chairman of the Indian Aga Khan foundation India, Abad Ahmad (L) and Projects Director of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture India, Ratish Nanda visit the Mughal Emperor Humayun's tomb in New Delhi, India, 17 October 2010. Westerwelle is on three-day visit to India during which he is expected to meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. EPA/SOEREN STACHE
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mod ... 0002815835
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle (C); chairman of the Indian Aga Khan foundation India, Abad Ahmad (L) and Projects Director of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture India, Ratish Nanda visit the Mughal Emperor Humayun's tomb in New Delhi, India, 17 October 2010. Westerwelle is on three-day visit to India during which he is expected to meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. EPA/SOEREN STACHE
http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mod ... 0002815835
Keen listeners keep storytelling alive
NEW DELHI: Get ready to be transported to a different era as the traditional art of storytelling dastangoi is being resurrected.The performance will be held this weekend in the backdrop of 17th-century Mughal monument Chausath Khamba in Nizamuddin basti. Organized by the Aga Khan foundation, the epic narration will be done by `Peepli Live' co-director Mahmood Farooqui and associate Danish Hussain. The public will get free entry.
This 16th-century tradition is considered a dying art today. The word `dastangoi' is made up of two Persian words `dastaan' and `goi'. It means to tell a dastaan an epic tale which is usually oral in nature and is read aloud or recited. The dastaan of Amir Hamza, supposedly an uncle of Prophet Mohammed, had fairies, djinns and prophecies. It was one of the earliest dastangois to originate in the 16th century and became immensely popular. According to experts, versions of the Hamza story had begun circulating in India during that period. Mentioned first in the Deccan courts, the story reached its artistic apogee in the court of Emperor Akbar. By then, specialized tellers of the story called `dastangos' had emerged. Akbar himself heard the narrative with great relish and used to recite it himself.
Today, dastangoi performances can include either traditional tales created by dastangos or contemporary stories. The performances this weekend will have both. Speaking to TOI, Farooqui said that his team had just completed a dastangoi performance in Mumbai that brought to the fore the collective efforts made by them in the last five-and-a-half years after they revived the art of dastangoi. Farooqui said they were looking forward to performing in Delhi as it was the first major show after nearly a year. "On day one, we will be performing the traditional dastangoi Dastaan e Hamza and on the second day we will be performing a dastangoi on the partition of India. The hamza dastaan is a traditional one with a lot of magical and fantastic elements in it. The dastangoi on the 1947 partition will be told depicting the trauma people faced then. People from Nizamuddin basti will be able to connect with it even more as locals took shelter in monuments like Humayun's Tomb and Purana Qila during the partition,'' he said.
The event is a part of an urban revival project to highlight the cultural flavour of Nizamuddin basti. "Through this, the project aims at providing Delhi's urban population an insight into the basti's rich heritage. The historic monuments will serve as venues for more such cultural events,'' said an Aga Khan official. Historians add that the art of dastangoi has been neglected for years and given that there has been no known dastango in the past seventy years, it is important to revive the practice before it is consigned to oblivion. "The Dastan-e Amir Hamza is a highly important chapter of our literary, performative and fictional history. For our Saturday performance, we will bring some youths who have been training in dastangoi,'' added Farooqui, who last held such a performance in January this year.
Read more: Keen listeners keep storytelling alive - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... z17pA94wqk
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... ?prtpage=1
NEW DELHI: Get ready to be transported to a different era as the traditional art of storytelling dastangoi is being resurrected.The performance will be held this weekend in the backdrop of 17th-century Mughal monument Chausath Khamba in Nizamuddin basti. Organized by the Aga Khan foundation, the epic narration will be done by `Peepli Live' co-director Mahmood Farooqui and associate Danish Hussain. The public will get free entry.
This 16th-century tradition is considered a dying art today. The word `dastangoi' is made up of two Persian words `dastaan' and `goi'. It means to tell a dastaan an epic tale which is usually oral in nature and is read aloud or recited. The dastaan of Amir Hamza, supposedly an uncle of Prophet Mohammed, had fairies, djinns and prophecies. It was one of the earliest dastangois to originate in the 16th century and became immensely popular. According to experts, versions of the Hamza story had begun circulating in India during that period. Mentioned first in the Deccan courts, the story reached its artistic apogee in the court of Emperor Akbar. By then, specialized tellers of the story called `dastangos' had emerged. Akbar himself heard the narrative with great relish and used to recite it himself.
Today, dastangoi performances can include either traditional tales created by dastangos or contemporary stories. The performances this weekend will have both. Speaking to TOI, Farooqui said that his team had just completed a dastangoi performance in Mumbai that brought to the fore the collective efforts made by them in the last five-and-a-half years after they revived the art of dastangoi. Farooqui said they were looking forward to performing in Delhi as it was the first major show after nearly a year. "On day one, we will be performing the traditional dastangoi Dastaan e Hamza and on the second day we will be performing a dastangoi on the partition of India. The hamza dastaan is a traditional one with a lot of magical and fantastic elements in it. The dastangoi on the 1947 partition will be told depicting the trauma people faced then. People from Nizamuddin basti will be able to connect with it even more as locals took shelter in monuments like Humayun's Tomb and Purana Qila during the partition,'' he said.
The event is a part of an urban revival project to highlight the cultural flavour of Nizamuddin basti. "Through this, the project aims at providing Delhi's urban population an insight into the basti's rich heritage. The historic monuments will serve as venues for more such cultural events,'' said an Aga Khan official. Historians add that the art of dastangoi has been neglected for years and given that there has been no known dastango in the past seventy years, it is important to revive the practice before it is consigned to oblivion. "The Dastan-e Amir Hamza is a highly important chapter of our literary, performative and fictional history. For our Saturday performance, we will bring some youths who have been training in dastangoi,'' added Farooqui, who last held such a performance in January this year.
Read more: Keen listeners keep storytelling alive - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... z17pA94wqk
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... ?prtpage=1
Ann Alexander’s Blog
The road to civilization leads through the sewer
I was reading recently about toilets. More specifically, about how Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates and co-Chair of their foundation, has been pushing hard to provide toilets to impoverished people in various regions of Africa and India. Having observed that poor sanitation contributes to the death of a million and a half children every year, the Gates Foundation has helped position toilets as a modern, trendy convenience – so successfully that “women are refusing to marry men without toilets. ‘No loo, no “I do.”’”
Which reminded me that I had earlier been reading about toilets in India. In New Delhi and many rural areas without proper sanitation, school dropout rates have been highest among girls in substantial part due to restrictions on where they can pee. While boys may relieve themselves where and when they like, girls are constrained by ancient religious and cultural strictures that require that they hold it until they can find someplace suitably secluded. To address this problem, the Aga Khan Foundation and others have installed new toilet blocks at a rural school – and now fifteen of the girls there are going on to higher education.
Which called to mind something I’d seen earlier about how the ancient civilization in the Indus Valley, founded in about 3300 BC, had sophisticated urban sanitation infrastructure, with sewerage and drainage systems more sophisticated than those in many parts of India and Pakistan today.
No, really, it’s not that I’m obsessed with toilets. It’s that all the articles popping up lately reflect that sewage sanitation (for which toilets are, of course, a linchpin) is increasingly being recognized as a fundamental prerequisite to civilized life. This is something that the ancient Indus Valley people evidently understood, but we’ve sometimes forgotten in modern times.
Which brings us to Chicago, that most modern of cities. Most of you reading this, I’m going to go out on a limb and surmise, are fortunate enough to have toilets. Beyond that, however, we Chicagoans still lack complete modern sewage sanitation in our city. And that lack is making our collective life substantially less civilized than it ought to be. I am referring specifically to the failure of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, despite repeated calls from many quarters, to disinfect the sewage that it dumps into the Chicago River. And to the endless delays by the District in completing the tunnel and reservoir plan designed to end raw sewage discharges to the River during rainstorms. And the whole primitive-bordering-on-insane practice of using valuable fresh water from Lake Michigan to dilute our sewage rather than cleaning it up properly.
Clearly, the comparison is limited. We are privileged to have the basic life-saving sanitation that many developing nations do not. The point is not that our sewage treatment failures are equivalent to a lack of toilets, but that in both cases the lack is a constraint on more civilized ways of living.
Recreational opportunities for ourselves and our children, and the ability to enjoy our natural surroundings in safety, are important measures of urban livability. The germ-laden sewage being dumped in our Rivers, which threatens canoers and kayakers and anglers with risk of water-borne diseases, stands in the way of the recreational opportunities that dwellers in a modern river-based city should be able to expect. It is holding us back from the sort of full urban waterfront renaissance happening in other modern cities in our nation – Baltimore, San Antonio, Monterrey, and many others.
So, it seems, we have something to learn from the women who refused a walk down the aisle to marry a man without porcelain; and the college-bound girls from the toilet-equipped school. We must demand, in our city, that our sanitation system be upgraded to meet modern standards, so that we can enjoy our beautiful River waterfront without fear and revulsion. Now that would be civilized.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aalex ... leads.html
The road to civilization leads through the sewer
I was reading recently about toilets. More specifically, about how Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates and co-Chair of their foundation, has been pushing hard to provide toilets to impoverished people in various regions of Africa and India. Having observed that poor sanitation contributes to the death of a million and a half children every year, the Gates Foundation has helped position toilets as a modern, trendy convenience – so successfully that “women are refusing to marry men without toilets. ‘No loo, no “I do.”’”
Which reminded me that I had earlier been reading about toilets in India. In New Delhi and many rural areas without proper sanitation, school dropout rates have been highest among girls in substantial part due to restrictions on where they can pee. While boys may relieve themselves where and when they like, girls are constrained by ancient religious and cultural strictures that require that they hold it until they can find someplace suitably secluded. To address this problem, the Aga Khan Foundation and others have installed new toilet blocks at a rural school – and now fifteen of the girls there are going on to higher education.
Which called to mind something I’d seen earlier about how the ancient civilization in the Indus Valley, founded in about 3300 BC, had sophisticated urban sanitation infrastructure, with sewerage and drainage systems more sophisticated than those in many parts of India and Pakistan today.
No, really, it’s not that I’m obsessed with toilets. It’s that all the articles popping up lately reflect that sewage sanitation (for which toilets are, of course, a linchpin) is increasingly being recognized as a fundamental prerequisite to civilized life. This is something that the ancient Indus Valley people evidently understood, but we’ve sometimes forgotten in modern times.
Which brings us to Chicago, that most modern of cities. Most of you reading this, I’m going to go out on a limb and surmise, are fortunate enough to have toilets. Beyond that, however, we Chicagoans still lack complete modern sewage sanitation in our city. And that lack is making our collective life substantially less civilized than it ought to be. I am referring specifically to the failure of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, despite repeated calls from many quarters, to disinfect the sewage that it dumps into the Chicago River. And to the endless delays by the District in completing the tunnel and reservoir plan designed to end raw sewage discharges to the River during rainstorms. And the whole primitive-bordering-on-insane practice of using valuable fresh water from Lake Michigan to dilute our sewage rather than cleaning it up properly.
Clearly, the comparison is limited. We are privileged to have the basic life-saving sanitation that many developing nations do not. The point is not that our sewage treatment failures are equivalent to a lack of toilets, but that in both cases the lack is a constraint on more civilized ways of living.
Recreational opportunities for ourselves and our children, and the ability to enjoy our natural surroundings in safety, are important measures of urban livability. The germ-laden sewage being dumped in our Rivers, which threatens canoers and kayakers and anglers with risk of water-borne diseases, stands in the way of the recreational opportunities that dwellers in a modern river-based city should be able to expect. It is holding us back from the sort of full urban waterfront renaissance happening in other modern cities in our nation – Baltimore, San Antonio, Monterrey, and many others.
So, it seems, we have something to learn from the women who refused a walk down the aisle to marry a man without porcelain; and the college-bound girls from the toilet-equipped school. We must demand, in our city, that our sanitation system be upgraded to meet modern standards, so that we can enjoy our beautiful River waterfront without fear and revulsion. Now that would be civilized.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aalex ... leads.html
The provision of sanitation facilities in household
The following case studies depict the positive impact of the work of the Aga Khan Development Network, on the lives of rural women, as a result of the provision of sanitation facilities within their households. The case studies are written as conversations with or personal stories of a woman, whose life has been impacted by AKDN's work.
A case study from Nagalpur village, Kutch district
This case study describes the suffering of 15-year old girl Farida Ben with six sisters in Nagalpur Village absence of household’s toilet facilities. Convenience and privacy are two very important issues affecting the younger generation, and Farida emphatically reinforces that sentiment when she says that for girls like her, having access to a toilet at home is essential especially when menstruating as well as risks women face due to lack of access to sanitation facilities. Because she enjoys access to a toilet at home, incidents like these do not alarm her and her sisters much, but when she lived at her uncle’s farm, she avoided going to the fields alone and usually did so in a group or with her sisters. The Farida and her sisters avoided going to the toilet as much as possible or did so only when they had to. The discomfort was often acute and eventually led to complications like constipation and stomach cramps.
Looking back, Farida and her sisters think that allowing a toilet to be built was the best gift their father could have given them.
A case study from Shergadh village, Junagadh district
The Gujarat Environmental Health Improvement Programme seeks to improve the health and well being of rural beneficiaries living in specific areas of Gujarat. It enables communities to support water and sanitation infrastructure that ensures adequate village coverage; and practice water management and hygiene behavior that contributes to improved health and well-being, especially of women and children under the age of five.
This case study describes the suffering of women’s, both socially and economically in the absence of household toilet, through Ms Kamiben Rabari, Shergadh village. In fact, she has radically changed the way she eats. For years, she has deprived herself of food items like pulses, potatoes, rice and green leafy vegetables. “The more one eats, the more one has to go to relieve oneself,” she says. Kamiben convinced her family to have a household toilet, and started building it as part of the Aga Khan Development Network’s, “Gujarat Environmental Health Improvement Programme”.
It starts with a general background of the sanitation issues being faced, describes the sufferings of in rainy season to find place to relive and also difficulty in taking bath in the absence of bathroom. One can understand the importance of having private toilet, which is not only safe for adolescent girls, but also helps women’s to dedicate more time for household works. The impact of the programme is visible. The note ends with positively stating that things are slowly changing in rural Gujarat and the simple pleasures of life are no longer out of bounds for women like Kamiben. They are now embracing a new future, one where there is equity, privacy and dignity.
A case study from Bhalot village, Kutch district
The Multi-sector Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Programme (MSRRP), is working to assist rural communities affected by the earthquake that struck Gujarat in 2001. Interventions have included the provision of disaster resistant housing, education centres and sanitation infrastructure (drinking water supply systems, toilets and bathrooms). Water harvesting structures have been introduced and primary health care services are operational. Savings and credit schemes are helping the poor regain their livelihoods. Disaster preparedness and management training is also provided..
This case study depicts the sanitation and water issues in rural Gujarat through the biography of 75 year old Karmaben Rakhya Ahir, Bhalot village. Karmaben never fell ill in the last 40 years because of her hygienic practices like boiling water, keeping her house and surrounding clean, thereby setting an example for her neighbors to follow. Karmaben used to defecate in mud pot filled with sand and dispose it with great degree of embracement. But her sufferings came to an end with the construction of toilet under the MSRR programme, which was funded by European Commission.
Karmaben desire to have toilet after using one in bus stand if meet through this programme, with low household income the family could manage to have a thatched house and toilet is a luxury. Now things have changed she is seeing the toilet as gods gift and her entire family maintains it religiously. For Karmaben and other women like her, the health benefits of having a toilet are incidental. Far more important is the access, privacy, and above all dignity that having one provides.
A case study from Varshila village, Patan district
The Gujarat Environmental Health Improvement Programme seeks to improve the health and well being of rural beneficiaries living in specific areas of Gujarat. It enables communities to support water and sanitation infrastructure that ensures adequate village coverage; and practice water management and hygiene behavior that contributes to improved health and well-being, especially of women and children under the age of five.
This case study depicts the suffering of women’s in the absence of toilet through the voice of Ms Kokilaben Parmar. In her village people are using community toilet which is actually a pit locally called as wada. Kokilaben narrates the sufferings she has to face while defecating in the pit, during her eight months of pregnancy. Apart from the one kilometer walk, she also had to carry and manage her two year old child. The case of her mother in law is much worse. Her mother law a sick lady used to defecate in her cloth in house itself and Kokilaben has clean up, which adds her household work load.
For Kokilaben, her mother-in-law and other women in similar situations, having a toilet in the house would not only ensure comfort, but also save them from embarrassment of being spied upon, afford them much needed privacy for their daily ablutions and, most importantly, restore their sense of dignity as self respecting human beings.
A case study from Bhalot village, Kutch district
The Multi-sector Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Programme (MSRRP), is working to assist rural communities affected by the earthquake that struck Gujarat in 2001. Interventions have included the provision of disaster resistant housing, education centres and sanitation infrastructure (drinking water supply systems, toilets and bathrooms). Water harvesting structures have been introduced and primary health care services are operational. Savings and credit schemes are helping the poor regain their livelihoods. Disaster preparedness and management training is also provided.
This case study of Ms Romatben families suffering in the absence of household toilet is different from rest of families in Bhalot village. Because Romatben and her two daughters are visually impaired, adding to the misery her husband is physically challenged. The family cannot offer to have toilet since her husband, Latif a carpenter earnings meets day to day expenses. The absence of a bathroom at home meant that bathing was a huge problem. So putting all thoughts of personal hygiene aside, Romatben and her two daughters would bathe only once or twice a week, and to avoid unwanted exposure, did so at dawn.
But when Latif came to know that sanitation infrastructure was being constructed in his village by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), as part of the European Commission funded “Multi Sector Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Programme.”, he grabbed the opportunity in both hands and constructed both toilet & bath room and restored the dignity in his family.
http://www.indiasanitationportal.org/16
The following case studies depict the positive impact of the work of the Aga Khan Development Network, on the lives of rural women, as a result of the provision of sanitation facilities within their households. The case studies are written as conversations with or personal stories of a woman, whose life has been impacted by AKDN's work.
A case study from Nagalpur village, Kutch district
This case study describes the suffering of 15-year old girl Farida Ben with six sisters in Nagalpur Village absence of household’s toilet facilities. Convenience and privacy are two very important issues affecting the younger generation, and Farida emphatically reinforces that sentiment when she says that for girls like her, having access to a toilet at home is essential especially when menstruating as well as risks women face due to lack of access to sanitation facilities. Because she enjoys access to a toilet at home, incidents like these do not alarm her and her sisters much, but when she lived at her uncle’s farm, she avoided going to the fields alone and usually did so in a group or with her sisters. The Farida and her sisters avoided going to the toilet as much as possible or did so only when they had to. The discomfort was often acute and eventually led to complications like constipation and stomach cramps.
Looking back, Farida and her sisters think that allowing a toilet to be built was the best gift their father could have given them.
A case study from Shergadh village, Junagadh district
The Gujarat Environmental Health Improvement Programme seeks to improve the health and well being of rural beneficiaries living in specific areas of Gujarat. It enables communities to support water and sanitation infrastructure that ensures adequate village coverage; and practice water management and hygiene behavior that contributes to improved health and well-being, especially of women and children under the age of five.
This case study describes the suffering of women’s, both socially and economically in the absence of household toilet, through Ms Kamiben Rabari, Shergadh village. In fact, she has radically changed the way she eats. For years, she has deprived herself of food items like pulses, potatoes, rice and green leafy vegetables. “The more one eats, the more one has to go to relieve oneself,” she says. Kamiben convinced her family to have a household toilet, and started building it as part of the Aga Khan Development Network’s, “Gujarat Environmental Health Improvement Programme”.
It starts with a general background of the sanitation issues being faced, describes the sufferings of in rainy season to find place to relive and also difficulty in taking bath in the absence of bathroom. One can understand the importance of having private toilet, which is not only safe for adolescent girls, but also helps women’s to dedicate more time for household works. The impact of the programme is visible. The note ends with positively stating that things are slowly changing in rural Gujarat and the simple pleasures of life are no longer out of bounds for women like Kamiben. They are now embracing a new future, one where there is equity, privacy and dignity.
A case study from Bhalot village, Kutch district
The Multi-sector Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Programme (MSRRP), is working to assist rural communities affected by the earthquake that struck Gujarat in 2001. Interventions have included the provision of disaster resistant housing, education centres and sanitation infrastructure (drinking water supply systems, toilets and bathrooms). Water harvesting structures have been introduced and primary health care services are operational. Savings and credit schemes are helping the poor regain their livelihoods. Disaster preparedness and management training is also provided..
This case study depicts the sanitation and water issues in rural Gujarat through the biography of 75 year old Karmaben Rakhya Ahir, Bhalot village. Karmaben never fell ill in the last 40 years because of her hygienic practices like boiling water, keeping her house and surrounding clean, thereby setting an example for her neighbors to follow. Karmaben used to defecate in mud pot filled with sand and dispose it with great degree of embracement. But her sufferings came to an end with the construction of toilet under the MSRR programme, which was funded by European Commission.
Karmaben desire to have toilet after using one in bus stand if meet through this programme, with low household income the family could manage to have a thatched house and toilet is a luxury. Now things have changed she is seeing the toilet as gods gift and her entire family maintains it religiously. For Karmaben and other women like her, the health benefits of having a toilet are incidental. Far more important is the access, privacy, and above all dignity that having one provides.
A case study from Varshila village, Patan district
The Gujarat Environmental Health Improvement Programme seeks to improve the health and well being of rural beneficiaries living in specific areas of Gujarat. It enables communities to support water and sanitation infrastructure that ensures adequate village coverage; and practice water management and hygiene behavior that contributes to improved health and well-being, especially of women and children under the age of five.
This case study depicts the suffering of women’s in the absence of toilet through the voice of Ms Kokilaben Parmar. In her village people are using community toilet which is actually a pit locally called as wada. Kokilaben narrates the sufferings she has to face while defecating in the pit, during her eight months of pregnancy. Apart from the one kilometer walk, she also had to carry and manage her two year old child. The case of her mother in law is much worse. Her mother law a sick lady used to defecate in her cloth in house itself and Kokilaben has clean up, which adds her household work load.
For Kokilaben, her mother-in-law and other women in similar situations, having a toilet in the house would not only ensure comfort, but also save them from embarrassment of being spied upon, afford them much needed privacy for their daily ablutions and, most importantly, restore their sense of dignity as self respecting human beings.
A case study from Bhalot village, Kutch district
The Multi-sector Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Programme (MSRRP), is working to assist rural communities affected by the earthquake that struck Gujarat in 2001. Interventions have included the provision of disaster resistant housing, education centres and sanitation infrastructure (drinking water supply systems, toilets and bathrooms). Water harvesting structures have been introduced and primary health care services are operational. Savings and credit schemes are helping the poor regain their livelihoods. Disaster preparedness and management training is also provided.
This case study of Ms Romatben families suffering in the absence of household toilet is different from rest of families in Bhalot village. Because Romatben and her two daughters are visually impaired, adding to the misery her husband is physically challenged. The family cannot offer to have toilet since her husband, Latif a carpenter earnings meets day to day expenses. The absence of a bathroom at home meant that bathing was a huge problem. So putting all thoughts of personal hygiene aside, Romatben and her two daughters would bathe only once or twice a week, and to avoid unwanted exposure, did so at dawn.
But when Latif came to know that sanitation infrastructure was being constructed in his village by the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), as part of the European Commission funded “Multi Sector Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Programme.”, he grabbed the opportunity in both hands and constructed both toilet & bath room and restored the dignity in his family.
http://www.indiasanitationportal.org/16
10th December, 2011 New Delhi
HUDCO & Aga Khan Foundation (India) Initiative to provide skill training to disadvantaged people
Housing & Urban Development Corporation Ltd. (HUDCO) and Aga Khan Foundation are jointly taking initiative to undertake skill training of 200 disadvantaged people in Nizamuddin Basti, Delhi, through a comprehensive and need based programme focused on vocational training which will contribute to improving the quality of life of these people. In order to help in achieving this objective, HUDCO and Aga Khan Foundation of India have decided to work together by utilizing their respective strengths. To this effect, an MoU was signed in the presence of Kumari Selja, Hon’ble Minister for Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Minister of Culture, today. The salient features of the MoU are as follows:
Objective
a) To ensure time bound skill training and capacity building of the under-privileged in which the preferences will be given to participants from below the poverty line.
b) To impart skills which will facilitate regular employment and entrepreneurship.
c) To ensure employment placement for the trained participants and
d) To impart skills for the participants to move from unorganized sector to the organized
sector. HUDCO and Aga Khan Foundation will have definite Roles and Responsibilities to achieve the objectives of this collaboration.
HUDCO’s specific role will be to support and finance skill training activities based on demand which will cover complete skill process by providing venue, training equipments, training materials etc. not exceeding Rs. 10,000/- per participant.
The Aga Khan Foundation, India will identify the participants with requisite aptitude for the training being organized. The training and the curriculum for it, will be designed by the Aga Khan Foundation, the training and course content will be in local language for better absorption by the participants of the training programme.
http://hudco.org/writereaddata/News/HUD ... people.pdf
HUDCO & Aga Khan Foundation (India) Initiative to provide skill training to disadvantaged people
Housing & Urban Development Corporation Ltd. (HUDCO) and Aga Khan Foundation are jointly taking initiative to undertake skill training of 200 disadvantaged people in Nizamuddin Basti, Delhi, through a comprehensive and need based programme focused on vocational training which will contribute to improving the quality of life of these people. In order to help in achieving this objective, HUDCO and Aga Khan Foundation of India have decided to work together by utilizing their respective strengths. To this effect, an MoU was signed in the presence of Kumari Selja, Hon’ble Minister for Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation and Minister of Culture, today. The salient features of the MoU are as follows:
Objective
a) To ensure time bound skill training and capacity building of the under-privileged in which the preferences will be given to participants from below the poverty line.
b) To impart skills which will facilitate regular employment and entrepreneurship.
c) To ensure employment placement for the trained participants and
d) To impart skills for the participants to move from unorganized sector to the organized
sector. HUDCO and Aga Khan Foundation will have definite Roles and Responsibilities to achieve the objectives of this collaboration.
HUDCO’s specific role will be to support and finance skill training activities based on demand which will cover complete skill process by providing venue, training equipments, training materials etc. not exceeding Rs. 10,000/- per participant.
The Aga Khan Foundation, India will identify the participants with requisite aptitude for the training being organized. The training and the curriculum for it, will be designed by the Aga Khan Foundation, the training and course content will be in local language for better absorption by the participants of the training programme.
http://hudco.org/writereaddata/News/HUD ... people.pdf
AKF India partner in international development.
Minister Oda Announces Canadian Partnerships in International Development
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 23, 2011) - Today, the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, announced the government's support to further progress to reduce poverty and help the world's vulnerable peoples effectively. Through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), 53 Canadian organizations will embark in a series of new development projects.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release ... 601844.htm
Today's announcement totals up to $111.7 million in projects from the "Over $2 million" category and up to $30.7 million in projects from the "Under $2 million" category. For more information on the calls for proposals process, please visit the CIDA website
Aga Khan Foundation Canada
Country: India
The project's objective is to transform disadvantaged and marginalized children's lives and learning by improving both access to, and quality of, education opportunities. The proposed investment builds upon significant gains working in poor neighbourhoods of 4 sub-districts of Bihar, where a network of neighbourhood-level Learning Support Centres, launched by the Aga Khan Rural Support Program in 2009, is providing afterschool support to 5,000 pre-school and primary school children. (Up to $1,890,879 over 2 years and 3 months)
Minister Oda Announces Canadian Partnerships in International Development
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Dec. 23, 2011) - Today, the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, announced the government's support to further progress to reduce poverty and help the world's vulnerable peoples effectively. Through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), 53 Canadian organizations will embark in a series of new development projects.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release ... 601844.htm
Today's announcement totals up to $111.7 million in projects from the "Over $2 million" category and up to $30.7 million in projects from the "Under $2 million" category. For more information on the calls for proposals process, please visit the CIDA website
Aga Khan Foundation Canada
Country: India
The project's objective is to transform disadvantaged and marginalized children's lives and learning by improving both access to, and quality of, education opportunities. The proposed investment builds upon significant gains working in poor neighbourhoods of 4 sub-districts of Bihar, where a network of neighbourhood-level Learning Support Centres, launched by the Aga Khan Rural Support Program in 2009, is providing afterschool support to 5,000 pre-school and primary school children. (Up to $1,890,879 over 2 years and 3 months)
Publication: Aga Khan Development Network in India – 2011
Founded and guided by His Highness the Aga Khan, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and its precursors have been working in India since 1905. Its programmes now span the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These programmes work to address a broad spectrum of development issues ranging from cultural restoration to education quality, health care to rural development, civil society strengthening to economic development.
The AKDN works in 30 countries around the world. It employs over 80,000 people, many of them in the project companies of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED). The AKDN’s annual budget for social and cultural development activities in 2010 was US$ 625 million. All AKDN agencies are non-profit except AKFED, which seeks to generate profits as part of its formula for sustainability, but reinvests any profits in further development activities.
AKDN agencies are nondenominational, conducting their programmes without regard to faith, origin or gender. While each agency pursues its own mandate, all of them work together within the over-arching framework of the Network so that their different pursuits interact and reinforce one another.
http://wwww.reliefweb.int/sites/reliefw ... _india.pdf
Founded and guided by His Highness the Aga Khan, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and its precursors have been working in India since 1905. Its programmes now span the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These programmes work to address a broad spectrum of development issues ranging from cultural restoration to education quality, health care to rural development, civil society strengthening to economic development.
The AKDN works in 30 countries around the world. It employs over 80,000 people, many of them in the project companies of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED). The AKDN’s annual budget for social and cultural development activities in 2010 was US$ 625 million. All AKDN agencies are non-profit except AKFED, which seeks to generate profits as part of its formula for sustainability, but reinvests any profits in further development activities.
AKDN agencies are nondenominational, conducting their programmes without regard to faith, origin or gender. While each agency pursues its own mandate, all of them work together within the over-arching framework of the Network so that their different pursuits interact and reinforce one another.
http://wwww.reliefweb.int/sites/reliefw ... _india.pdf
Aga Khan Planning and Building Services to install innovative smokeless stoves in Chitravad, Gujarat
http://web.mit.edu/adnane/www/adnan/por ... stove.html
Excerpt:
CURRENT PROGRESS
Our device is currently in use in two different households, undergoing realistic duty cycle testing. We regularly interface with our community partners to integrate feedback into our final design, which is expected to be deployed in 2010 by the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services in an initial set of earthquake-struck rebuilt homes.
http://web.mit.edu/adnane/www/adnan/por ... stove.html
Excerpt:
CURRENT PROGRESS
Our device is currently in use in two different households, undergoing realistic duty cycle testing. We regularly interface with our community partners to integrate feedback into our final design, which is expected to be deployed in 2010 by the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services in an initial set of earthquake-struck rebuilt homes.
A pilot project by AKF to tackle backwardness
DIFFERENT DARKNESS
- Backward districts and their development
Commentarao: S.L. Rao
In 1964, V.S. Naipaul wrote about India as an area of darkness. Visiting Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh recently, I found a part of India which remains an area of darkness amidst the growing illumination over most of India. The Aga Khan Foundation has piloted a limited programme to tackle it.
More.....
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120514/j ... 8t2Wcrh5Gt
DIFFERENT DARKNESS
- Backward districts and their development
Commentarao: S.L. Rao
In 1964, V.S. Naipaul wrote about India as an area of darkness. Visiting Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh recently, I found a part of India which remains an area of darkness amidst the growing illumination over most of India. The Aga Khan Foundation has piloted a limited programme to tackle it.
More.....
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120514/j ... 8t2Wcrh5Gt
Agakhan Foundation collaborates with Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), the largest of the Tata trusts
Excerpt:
"In 2006, the state administration set up a polyclinic here. A year later, the Foundation started working with the community and roped in a gynaecologist and a paediatrician for the clinic, which also got a pathology laboratory. While the infrastructure was set, it was important to increase awareness among the families and convince them to use the facilities. That got a fillip when Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), the largest of the Tata trusts, joined hands with the Aga Khan Foundation in February this year."
http://forbesindia.com/blog/business-st ... act-lives/
Excerpt:
"In 2006, the state administration set up a polyclinic here. A year later, the Foundation started working with the community and roped in a gynaecologist and a paediatrician for the clinic, which also got a pathology laboratory. While the infrastructure was set, it was important to increase awareness among the families and convince them to use the facilities. That got a fillip when Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), the largest of the Tata trusts, joined hands with the Aga Khan Foundation in February this year."
http://forbesindia.com/blog/business-st ... act-lives/
Agakhan Foundation supports waste management programme
http://www.nerve.in/news:253500471583
Excerpt:
A waste management programme, Clean Basti, will ensure cleanliness of the sprawl adjoining the archaeological complex in Nizamuddin at Rs.35 lakh for about two years, the ministry said. The project will be supported by the Aga Khan Foundation.
******
Aga Khan Foundation to Organize a Workshop on Replicating Innovations in Rural Livelihoods on 6 November in New Delhi
http://www.indiacsr.in/en/?p=8120
http://www.nerve.in/news:253500471583
Excerpt:
A waste management programme, Clean Basti, will ensure cleanliness of the sprawl adjoining the archaeological complex in Nizamuddin at Rs.35 lakh for about two years, the ministry said. The project will be supported by the Aga Khan Foundation.
******
Aga Khan Foundation to Organize a Workshop on Replicating Innovations in Rural Livelihoods on 6 November in New Delhi
http://www.indiacsr.in/en/?p=8120
Aga Khan Foundation India Organizes Workshop on Sustainable Community-based Approaches to Livelihood Enhancement
NEW DELHI: The Aga Khan SCALE (Sustainable Community-based Approaches to Livelihood Enhancement) program concluded with a workshop at Shangri La’s Hotel in Delhi on 1st November 2012. The program was inaugurated by Rowland Roome, CEO of Agha Khan Foundation who emphasized on Social Return on Investment (SROI) and spoke widely about Water Management initiatives and accomplishments of Development Support Center (DSC).
Abad Ahmad Chairman of Agha Khan Foundation continued with listing the wide range of activities undertaken by the foundation such as Sustainable and empowered community investment, livestock development, income generating opportunity.
http://www.indiacsr.in/en/?p=8385&print=1
NEW DELHI: The Aga Khan SCALE (Sustainable Community-based Approaches to Livelihood Enhancement) program concluded with a workshop at Shangri La’s Hotel in Delhi on 1st November 2012. The program was inaugurated by Rowland Roome, CEO of Agha Khan Foundation who emphasized on Social Return on Investment (SROI) and spoke widely about Water Management initiatives and accomplishments of Development Support Center (DSC).
Abad Ahmad Chairman of Agha Khan Foundation continued with listing the wide range of activities undertaken by the foundation such as Sustainable and empowered community investment, livestock development, income generating opportunity.
http://www.indiacsr.in/en/?p=8385&print=1
Building India’s tomorrow: Aga Khan Planning and Building Services
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2012/1 ... ilimail%29
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2012/1 ... ilimail%29
Aga Khan Foundation India: Youth Leadership Program in association with Toastmasters International
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... ilimail%29
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... ilimail%29
The provision of sanitation facilities in household
The following case studies depict the positive impact of the work of the Aga Khan Development Network, on the lives of rural women, as a result of the provision of sanitation facilities within their households. The case studies are written as conversations with or personal stories of a woman, whose life has been impacted by AKDN's work.
http://indiasanitationportal.org/16
The following case studies depict the positive impact of the work of the Aga Khan Development Network, on the lives of rural women, as a result of the provision of sanitation facilities within their households. The case studies are written as conversations with or personal stories of a woman, whose life has been impacted by AKDN's work.
http://indiasanitationportal.org/16
India, Planning and Building Services, Video
Building India’s tomorrow – Aga Khan Planning & Building Services, India
December 20, 2015 ismailimail#featured
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... ces-india/
*******
Tomb of Khan-i-Khanan being restored by Aga Khan Trust for Culture, India
The tomb of Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khana, one of Akbar's nine jewels and better known as Rahim, the bhakti poet, is being conserved and part restored by the Agakhan Foundation. Including some very interesting water pools and fountains. It was a neglected monument in the vicinity of Nizamuddin, hope it will become a thriving cultural site due to such an important place that Rahim occupies in medieval Indian poetry.
With Mustansir Dalvi
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... ure-india/
Building India’s tomorrow – Aga Khan Planning & Building Services, India
December 20, 2015 ismailimail#featured
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... ces-india/
*******
Tomb of Khan-i-Khanan being restored by Aga Khan Trust for Culture, India
The tomb of Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khana, one of Akbar's nine jewels and better known as Rahim, the bhakti poet, is being conserved and part restored by the Agakhan Foundation. Including some very interesting water pools and fountains. It was a neglected monument in the vicinity of Nizamuddin, hope it will become a thriving cultural site due to such an important place that Rahim occupies in medieval Indian poetry.
With Mustansir Dalvi
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... ure-india/
Celebrating Words, Ideas And Dialogue At The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival
I am in Rajasthan this week for the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), on an annual pilgrimage I have made ever since arriving in India. I first came three years ago, not long after I had become the CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in Delhi. Right away, I knew AKF had a place here: excited throngs of people, mostly Indian, many in their teens and twenties, joining together for five days to celebrate words, ideas, and dialogue. What better emblem of India's tremendous diversity, pluralism, and intellectual energy?
The Aga Khan Foundation began working in India in 1978, building on a century of development activities by other Aga Khan institutions. Our mandate is to empower and transform marginalised communities and improve quality of life. Since establishment, we have forged long-term partnerships with over 2,500 villages and urban settlements in six states. Annually, we work with some three million people to build community institutions; support women's empowerment through savings and self-help groups; improve agriculture, land and water conservation; and promote health, hygiene, and sanitation.
“ [W]hen I attended JLF for the first time, I felt compelled to join together with this national symbol of India's literacy and learning.
Overarching everything we do is education. At the core of our work is reading - the fundamental building block of self-discovery, access to opportunity, and cultural understanding. In the past decade alone, AKF and its partners have helped over 1.2 million children learn to read and have improved learning levels in more than 3,300 government schools. In the next five years, we have plans to more than double that number, educating over 1.5 million new readers in 750 preschools and 4,000 schools. So when I attended JLF for the first time, I felt compelled to join together with this national symbol of India's literacy and learning.
Last year, we helped JLF bring authors and musicians to Jaipur from around the world, underscoring our common commitment to India's cosmopolitanism: Azerbaijan's Alim Qasimov Ensemble, representing the Aga Khan Music Initiative; sessions on the Bamiyan buddhas and cultural heritage; and a conversation with children's authors Saker Mistri and Mamta Mangaldas, who draw on illustrated manuscripts of ancient Hindu and Indo-Persian stories. The highlight was a session we supported with former President Dr APJ Kalam, who electrified a standing-room-only crowd of Indian youth with his stirring call for education and self-improvement.
This year, we have helped JLF feature one of the world's most important economists, Thomas Piketty. His provocative work on inequality has concentrated minds on one of the fundamental challenges of our era: how to ensure that the poorest among us benefit from the extraordinary growth of global wealth and capital in the last 50 years. The topic is of vital concern to AKF and the communities we serve. In 20 countries, the Aga Khan Foundation is addressing the needs of those who have been left behind and are still striving to feed their families, educate their children, and improve their lives.
“ AKF is supporting a session with the country's Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian. He will talk about what economists can learn from literature...
Nowhere is this topic of more urgency than Asia, where incomes and living standards have been transformed for hundreds of millions of people in less than two generations. More people have been lifted out of poverty than at any other time in history. Yet worldwide, 2.1 billion people still live on just over $3 a day. Of the almost 900 million living in extreme poverty, 78% are in South Asia. That is why India's efforts to promote growth and development are so critical - and why private organisations like ours partner with government at all levels to advance these priorities. So this week, AKF is supporting a session with the country's Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian. He will talk about what economists can learn from literature and how it can help all of us understand and address the human dimensions of macro-industrial change.
“ Events like this remind us of how intellectually vibrant contemporary India is - and how that diversity contributes to India's development and its future.
Three other sessions align with AKF's dedication to pluralism, the value of cultural heritage, and the urgency of social inclusion. Peter Frankopan will talk about his new book on the Silk Road, reminding us that at its apex, India, through its links to near and far neighborswas open, confident, and cosmopolitan. Sunil Khilnani will discuss his masterful work, The Idea of India, and a range of the country's most important figures. While the Indian writers Nandana Dev Sen, Jerry Pinto and Paro Anand will discuss children's literature and the themes that interest India's new generation.
As I arrive in Jaipur for the third time, I am struck again by what this festival symbolises and why AKF supports it. Along with thousands of others, we come to Rajasthan this weekendfor a celebration of reading and ideas that exemplifies the best virtues of pluralist societies accepting difference and pursuing dialogue. The Jaipur Literature Festival participates in a rich Indian tradition of diversity, inquiry, and spirited debate. Events like this remind us of how intellectually vibrant contemporary India is - and how that diversity contributes to India's development and its future.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/matt-t-ree ... _ref=india
I am in Rajasthan this week for the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), on an annual pilgrimage I have made ever since arriving in India. I first came three years ago, not long after I had become the CEO of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) in Delhi. Right away, I knew AKF had a place here: excited throngs of people, mostly Indian, many in their teens and twenties, joining together for five days to celebrate words, ideas, and dialogue. What better emblem of India's tremendous diversity, pluralism, and intellectual energy?
The Aga Khan Foundation began working in India in 1978, building on a century of development activities by other Aga Khan institutions. Our mandate is to empower and transform marginalised communities and improve quality of life. Since establishment, we have forged long-term partnerships with over 2,500 villages and urban settlements in six states. Annually, we work with some three million people to build community institutions; support women's empowerment through savings and self-help groups; improve agriculture, land and water conservation; and promote health, hygiene, and sanitation.
“ [W]hen I attended JLF for the first time, I felt compelled to join together with this national symbol of India's literacy and learning.
Overarching everything we do is education. At the core of our work is reading - the fundamental building block of self-discovery, access to opportunity, and cultural understanding. In the past decade alone, AKF and its partners have helped over 1.2 million children learn to read and have improved learning levels in more than 3,300 government schools. In the next five years, we have plans to more than double that number, educating over 1.5 million new readers in 750 preschools and 4,000 schools. So when I attended JLF for the first time, I felt compelled to join together with this national symbol of India's literacy and learning.
Last year, we helped JLF bring authors and musicians to Jaipur from around the world, underscoring our common commitment to India's cosmopolitanism: Azerbaijan's Alim Qasimov Ensemble, representing the Aga Khan Music Initiative; sessions on the Bamiyan buddhas and cultural heritage; and a conversation with children's authors Saker Mistri and Mamta Mangaldas, who draw on illustrated manuscripts of ancient Hindu and Indo-Persian stories. The highlight was a session we supported with former President Dr APJ Kalam, who electrified a standing-room-only crowd of Indian youth with his stirring call for education and self-improvement.
This year, we have helped JLF feature one of the world's most important economists, Thomas Piketty. His provocative work on inequality has concentrated minds on one of the fundamental challenges of our era: how to ensure that the poorest among us benefit from the extraordinary growth of global wealth and capital in the last 50 years. The topic is of vital concern to AKF and the communities we serve. In 20 countries, the Aga Khan Foundation is addressing the needs of those who have been left behind and are still striving to feed their families, educate their children, and improve their lives.
“ AKF is supporting a session with the country's Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian. He will talk about what economists can learn from literature...
Nowhere is this topic of more urgency than Asia, where incomes and living standards have been transformed for hundreds of millions of people in less than two generations. More people have been lifted out of poverty than at any other time in history. Yet worldwide, 2.1 billion people still live on just over $3 a day. Of the almost 900 million living in extreme poverty, 78% are in South Asia. That is why India's efforts to promote growth and development are so critical - and why private organisations like ours partner with government at all levels to advance these priorities. So this week, AKF is supporting a session with the country's Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian. He will talk about what economists can learn from literature and how it can help all of us understand and address the human dimensions of macro-industrial change.
“ Events like this remind us of how intellectually vibrant contemporary India is - and how that diversity contributes to India's development and its future.
Three other sessions align with AKF's dedication to pluralism, the value of cultural heritage, and the urgency of social inclusion. Peter Frankopan will talk about his new book on the Silk Road, reminding us that at its apex, India, through its links to near and far neighborswas open, confident, and cosmopolitan. Sunil Khilnani will discuss his masterful work, The Idea of India, and a range of the country's most important figures. While the Indian writers Nandana Dev Sen, Jerry Pinto and Paro Anand will discuss children's literature and the themes that interest India's new generation.
As I arrive in Jaipur for the third time, I am struck again by what this festival symbolises and why AKF supports it. Along with thousands of others, we come to Rajasthan this weekendfor a celebration of reading and ideas that exemplifies the best virtues of pluralist societies accepting difference and pursuing dialogue. The Jaipur Literature Festival participates in a rich Indian tradition of diversity, inquiry, and spirited debate. Events like this remind us of how intellectually vibrant contemporary India is - and how that diversity contributes to India's development and its future.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/matt-t-ree ... _ref=india
Fidai Baug Ismaili Flats, Andheri West, Mumbai
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2016/ ... st-mumbai/
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2016/ ... st-mumbai/
Aga Khan Foundation’s Organic Cotton Work in Madhya Pradesh, India
Alexandra Cousteau, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, filmmaker and globally recognized advocate on water issues, travels the world to present a picture of the cotton industry, with a focus on its history and the modern-day challenges and innovations.
Cousteau ventures to the cotton fields in the Madhya Pradesh, India to experience cotton production in action and meet with the local farmers whose lives have improved considerably after changing from conventional to sustainable methods of production.
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2016/ ... esh-india/
Alexandra Cousteau, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, filmmaker and globally recognized advocate on water issues, travels the world to present a picture of the cotton industry, with a focus on its history and the modern-day challenges and innovations.
Cousteau ventures to the cotton fields in the Madhya Pradesh, India to experience cotton production in action and meet with the local farmers whose lives have improved considerably after changing from conventional to sustainable methods of production.
https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2016/ ... esh-india/