PROGRAMME VISION
Reach out to women and children in disadvantaged conditions.
PROGRAMME STRATEGY
Our approach to development has been through rights-based programmes, capacity building, technological, financial, social empowerment of women in disadvantaged communities. Our aim is to address all the issues revolving around a woman’s life including sanitation and environment.

We support children and communities affected by conflict and natural calamities and ensure rights of survival, protection, development and participation of various vulnerable groups of children in the development process.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

Initiative To Educate Rehabilitate and Assist Child victim of Terrorism (INTERACT I)

INTERACT I, a major programme of the Foundation, reaches assistance to children who lose one or both parents to terrorism. The effort is to minimize the dislocation in their lives and to see that their education upto higher secondary level and personal development is not disrupted in any way. The programme was launched in 1993 and currently a total of 766 children from 9 Stats are being supported under the project.

Statewise break up is as follows.

PROJECT - INTERACT – I
	States	Total
	Assam	39
	Andhra Pradesh	134
	Chhattisgarh	23
	J&K	261
	Manipur	161
	Maharashtra	5
	Nagaland	53
	Punjab	45
	Tripura	26
	Other States	19
	Total	766

INTERACT 1 children are provided support for higher education on merit cum need basic under project INTERACT II. So far, 74 children have been given assistance for advanced courses. 

In the current academic year of 2007 –2008, 19 children have been selected for support for the following courses.

PROJECT - INTERACT – I I
	Courses	Total
	B. Tech and other Engineering courses	7
	Computer Science	1
	Computer Teacher Training	1
	Elementary Teachers Training	2
	Company Secretary	1
	LLB	1
	B. Pharmacy	2
	Nursing and Midwifery	3
	Stenography	1

Assistance for riot-affected children in Gujarat

Assistance for earthquake-affected children in Latur

Twenty-eight [28] children orphaned by the earthquake in 1993 have been supported by the Foundation for their education and upbringing.

Assistance for tsunami-affected children

A total of 222 children who lost either or both their parents to the tsunami were identified for assitasnce for their education. They receive an allowance to meet their school fees, books, uniform together with a small amount for general maintenance.

currently a total of 163 children are being assisted from three states as follows:

ASSISTANCE FOR TSUNAMI - AFFECTED CHILDREN
	States & UTs	No. of children
	A&N Islands	120
	Andhra Pradesh	4
	Pondicherry	39
	Total	163

Programmes for the street child
Children cast off on the streets by circumstance are vulnerable in every respect. They are deprived of the basic opportunities that help in survival and growth. Believing that there is a need for surrogate institutions to restore children’s rights to survival, protection and development, the Foundation supported NGOs in the cities of Indore, Bhopal and Faridabad to provide safe shelter, security and basic necessities of food and clothes to such children.

Rehabilitation, Education & Assistance to Children on the Street (REACH)

Aarambh, since the year 2000 has provided security and safe shelter to street children in Indore together with a congenial environment to develop their potential and rehabilitate them into the community.

In 2006-07, 50 children were given shelter out of whom 45 are receiving formal education and the other 5 non-formal education and vocational training. In the last six years a total of 467 children [342 boys and 125 girls] have been benefited. The number of children repatriated to their families is 161.

The Foundation has supported Nitya Seva Society for the last five years from 2001 to 2006. The NGO gave shelter to more than 1040 children during this period. Many were repatriated to their families. A total of 146 children have been sent to formal schools and 374 children learnt the use of computers. The NGO organised vocational trainings in automobile repair, denting and painting work, carpentry and polishing work, repairing electrical items, tailoring and sewing. They set up a PCO booth and a tea stall in the campus of the Railway Hospital, which is serving as a training ground for the children who are not willing to go to school. The children are given regular health check-up and are provided medical care, whenever necessary.

Programmes for Child Labour

Projects for elimination and rehabilitation of Child Labour

RGF collaborated with CRY to work among the tribal community of Sonebhadra District in Eastern UP. The operational area consisted of 10 Panchayats in Dudhi block. RGF supported the initial intervention focussing on the three components of the right to development (education), right to protection (advocacy) and right to participation.

Widespread awareness on the value of education and a child’s right to it as part of a normal childhood has been created. The project reported 100 per cent school enrolment and retention at three villages (Harpura, Baikhard and Amora). One hundred children enrolled themselves in regular as well as non-formal schools. So far, CBOs – the local community-based monitors have been active in all the project villages. One primary school has been opened. There are 5 Non Formal Education centers where 246 children are receiving education. Altogether, as many as 528 working children have been linked with formal and non-formal education.

The long-term goal of this project was to address the root causes of child labour and make pragmatic interventions into issues of survival, protection, development and participation.

Programmes on Alternate Learning

Not every child gets the opportunity to go to school. Yet they have to learn to read and write and acquire life skills to negotiate with the challenges in life. Our aim is to provide alternate education and bring such children under the fold of mainstream education.

Attempts are made to provide midday meal to fill in the nutritional gap among these children. The Foundation decided to provide assistance for wholesome cooked hot food for the children.

Child Development Centre – Neemrana

RGF supports a Centre run by Humana – People to People for the children of the labour lines in the industrial belt of Neemrana. It provides organisation and discipline in the lives of the children, gives them childhood, a learning environment . Older children are coached for mainstream education. There are a total of 74 children who are assisted in learning by trained field workers cum teachers. The Centre also provides mid day meal, health check up at regular intervals and medical care.

Workshops for Children in Various States

RGF organizes workshops from time to time for its INTERACT children and children supported under all the other projects with the aim of providing them with opportunities of self expression through various activities stimulating both body and mind. It provides forum of interaction and learning through various creative and performing arts. There are series of sessions on music, dance, and theatre. There are art and craft sessions filled with interesting activities like drawing and painting, pottery, mask making and kite making. A group of children has together produced a beautiful collage. There is film appreciation session in which they review and produce a critique of the film specially screened for them. Apart from this the children are taught light exercises, basic yoga and meditation and a half day is devoted to sports. There are intellectual activities like debates, speeches, recitation and quiz competition. The Health and nutrition sessions focuses on adolescent health and nutrition requirements. The children are counseled on dealing with grief and anxieties. They are guided on career issues too. The children are encouraged to write graffiti and express themselves.

A three-day workshop was held for children in Manipur from 26th to 28th February 2007 for quality interaction and learning through sharing. Forty children in the age group of 13-18 participated in the workshop.

A similar workshop was organised for the children of Nagaland from 5th to 7th March 2007.

A workshop was organised for the children of Tripura from 1st to 3rd November 2007. They from very poor farming and artisan communities who have no exposure to alternate learning. They are generally buried. The workshop provided them a break from the monotorious routine in their text books, mugging up the same information and producing it in their examination papers.

A three-day workshop was held in Gujarat from 16th to 18th October 2006, in which 55 children participated

Similar workshops were organised for the tsunami-affected children of Andaman & Nicobar Islands in Kamorta and Campbell Bay.

Women's Empowerment Programmes

Poverty Alleviation Initiatives through Alternate Livelihood Options

A considerable proportion of the population still lives in conditions of extreme poverty - 26 per cent of people in India are below the poverty line. The majority of the poor in India are landless agricultural workers. The incidence of poverty is also linked to caste - members of socially disadvantaged groups like Dalits and Adivasis constitute a large proportion of people below the Poverty line.

Among them women and children are the most affected – they are poorer among the poorest. Poor women, who are already subordinated by social structures, carry the burden of meeting survival needs of food, water, fodder and fuel. With the overwork combined with lack of nutrition, lack of health care and education they are in more vulnerable condition. Extreme poverty also forces the children to be part of the labour-force.

RGF supported Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust in Rae Bareli, DWUS in Imphal, Jan Chetna Manch in Bokaro, Schumacher Centre for Development in Orissa, MSUS in Pithoragarh and Unnati in A&N Islands for community-based pro-poor programmes with main objective of providing alternate and sustainable livelihood options.

Apart from the economic interventions, our aim was to involve the people in a unified effort to change circumstances in their lives. People’s initiative and participation are the key elements in the process of development . RGF supported various initiatives in social mobilization and formation of local structures like microfinance groups to build a collective effort. A small capital, micro infrastructure and capacity building have been major components of these programmes.

However, they have been pilot initiatives in one or two districts with a target group of around 80 to 100 women. After almost a year’s intervention, what we gathered from the progress reports and the project partners is that the programmes have had the desired response in many respects. They were accepted by the target group, systematic trainings were conducted, and women formed their groups and federation to use their skills for enhancing their income

Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana, UP

This programme, in collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust, has been able to create women’s thrift and credit groups on a significant scale and conduct entrepreneurship development for them in Sultanpur and Rae Bareli districts of UP.

Since 2002, as many as 2734 groups have been created with 1867 groups in Sultanpur and 867 groups in Rae Bareli. The break down is as follows.

RAJIV GANDHI MAHILA VIKAS PARIYOJANA, UP
	Phase	Districts	No. of Blocks	No. of SHGs formed
	Phase 1	Sultanpur
	Phase 2	Sultanpur	9	450
		Rae Bareli	1	12
	Phase 3	Sultanpur	9	500
		Rae Bareli	4	112
	Phase 4	Sultanpur	12	758
		Rae Bareli	11	743
	Total			2734

Currently the focus is on business development activities like rearing of farm animals, poultry, fruit processing, vermiculture as well as candle and pickle making. A number of women have established small income generating activities. Alternate avenues of income have been opened and the women provided exposure to group dynamics and management through democratic processes. The position of savings collected by these groups, loans awarded by the women workers and the income generated through various activities taken up is as under:

ALOANS AWARDED BY WOMEN WORKERS
	Phase	Districts	Savings	Loan amount	Income from micro enterprises
	Phase 1	Sultanpur	2188978	3015730	645319
	Phase 2	Sultanpur	3907855	3670520	879507
		Rae Bareli	89530	40300	708130
	Phase 3	Sultanpur	3870211	3746650	1022832
		Rae Bareli	749137	303050	234500
	Phase 4	Sultanpur	3141236	2216654	1098800
		Rae Bareli	3112976	2811855	250622
	Total		17059923	15804759	4839710

Income-Generating Programme for Women in Bokaro, Jharkhand

The Foundation gave support to Jan Chetna Manch, Bokaro, an NGO in Jharkhand to train women from marginalised farming families in various skills such as health food processing, soap making and sewing.  A total of 30 women in the age group of 25 to 45 received training in small economic activities, entrepreneurship and marketing their products. It was also helped in production and developing marketing strategies. 

Marketing was done basically through cooperative stores, called Grihasti Dukan which have been set up in 18 villages.  In the food processing unit 7 out of 10 women who received training are doing successful business.  Similarly, 6 out of 10 in the soap making unit and 9 out of 12 from the sewing group have been able to use their skills to generate income. 

Livelihood Programme for Women through Vegetable Cultivation in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand

This is a programme to integrate women farmers and make their regular vegetable cultivation practices market-oriented and economically viable. Apart from obtaining a marketable quantity, the programme also provides attention to the quality of the produce by introducing a scientific package of practices and regular monitoring. It also has a provision to provide trade literacy to women and connect them directly to the market. 

RGF has supported training, seed distribution, land preparation and marketing efforts.  Till now, 12 groups have been formed and 3,00,000 plants developed and distributed among the members of the groups. Forty acres of land is being cultivated for vegetables. 500 quintals of vegetables were grown, including capsicum, cabbage, cauliflower, tomato and brinjals.   Out of this, 120 quintals was sold and the income of approximately Rs. 1,16,000 was generated for the federation of 160 women.

All the participants in the project have grown vegetables at least five times more than before.  A plant that gave 1 kg tomatoes now gives 5 kg. Each woman earned Rs. 500 to 600 per month on an average. SHGs have been formed in 12 villages and their total saving is approximately Rs. 53,000, which helps them to take loans for various other income-generating activities.

Looking at the response from the women and the outcome, new components like vermiculture, literacy and health has been included in the project.

Livelihood programme through Bamboo Products in Jajpur, Orissa

RGF supported the Schumacher Centre for Development to generate livelihood options for a hundred landless women in Jajpur district of Orissa through bamboo products.  The project was designed to introduce simple but appropriate technology to improve income from basket - making.

Improved tool kits were distributed to 8 SHGs, which make it easier to cut, slice and measure bamboo and increase the production rate. Systematic training was imparted to the beneficiaries on operating the tool kits. The women are gradually learning to operate them and this is helping them increase the number of clients and quality of production. Instead of two in a day, the women can now produce six baskets and it is expected to go up to ten per day.  They earn Rs. 15 from one basket now, but, with a growing market they will be able to earn between Rs. 90 and 150 per day.

The tool kits were selected from a wide range recommended by the National Mission on Bamboo Applications. IIT Mumbai has developed the one that has been distributed among the beneficiaries. Looking at the vast potential of the project, the National Mission on Bamboo Applications has identified the project for training interventions. It plans intensive training in other bamboo products including charcoal from waste bamboo.

Capacity Building through Training in Food Processing in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Food processing is a sustainable development initiative, which provides a viable livelihood option. RGF supported a skill-training programme in food processing in A&N islands to create livelihood opportunities for the young men and women. Our partner Unnati has collaborated with the Department of Industries and Agriculture to use their infrastructure at Diglipur to train 300 women in the in various skills. A hundred have been trained in fish and prawn processing, 20 in bakery and confectionery, 25 in rice-based products, 25 in spice making, and 25 in Jam-jelly and squash making. There are 25 others who have received training in various fruits and vegetable products. 
The post - training effort to begin production as a regular source of income is under way. Four SHGs in Diglipur have put their capital together and have begun production of processed fish and prawn products and have started supplying to the marketing outlet of the Industries Department. The SHG in Little Andamans has applied for loans to Khadi and Village Industries Commission and they will most likely be in a position to begin production soon. The Department of Tribal Welfare is processing papers for a loan to an SHG in Nancowry in the tribal group of islands for a bakery unit.  NICOBARIES PRODUCTS – a company floated in Port Blair has employed 25 women trained in food processing Unnati.

Project Swabalambini

RGF collaborated with Mahila Prabodhini Foundation in eastern Uttar Pradesh to provide Entrepreneur Development Programmes to 1250 women from the Self Help Groups in 5 districts in three years. 

Some entrepreneurial skills identified for the purpose are:

• Motor winding & repairing
• Mobile repairing
• Dress designing, stitching & embroidery
• Jute/quilted/fancy bags
• Computer Education & DTP
• Toys making
• Beautician course

This will open alternate options of livelihood to the aspiring new generation of women from the districts where the learning opportunities otherwise are far and few.

SHG Formation among Baiga Women

RGF initiated a group of formation project in collaboration with SAMERTH ---- The Baiga community is one of the 'Primitive Tribal Groups' in India. They live much below the poverty line and suffer from acute malnutrition and high illiteracy. In the target area most of them are landless and the others have small landholdings in hilly areas, which are not favourable for agricultural operations.

Samerth will facilitate formation of 100 SHGs covering 1500 tribal women from 46 villages in 14 Panchayats of Kota Block, district Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Skill development trainings will be conducted for them on bee keeping, cane work and processing and preservation of minor forest goods. The women will also be trained on business skills.

Samerth will ensure market linkages for the finished products. The SHGs will be linked with the banks for credit facilities. Information materials on various existing developmental schemes will be compiled and distributed among the tribal people.

The women will also be given additional inputs in the areas of health and literacy.

Psychosocial Support Programme

Jammu and Kashmir

Seventeen years of militancy in J&K has had a severe impact on the mental health of the people specially in the valley. The Foundation initiated an outreach programme to provide counselling to school children as well as at the community level. The programme aims to create a cadre of barefoot mental health counsellors and build their skills in identifying symptoms of trauma and to be able to offer basic counselling skills to help assuage them. Teachers, health workers and anganwadi workers have been identified for this purpose.

The programme was begun in district Budgam in 2000. It was extended to two other districts, Baramulla and Kupwara, in 2005-2006. Being close to the Line of Control, both the districts are severely affected by militancy and this is the region that was struck by the massive earthquake on 8th October 2005 causing considerable damage to life and property and post-disaster trauma.

The district administration gave full support in arranging the training programmes, which were held in March 2006. A total of 40 anganwadi workers, 48 multipurpose health workers and 60 teachers were trained from both the districts.

In the year 2007 a two-day refresher training was organised in both the districts from 19 to 23 March 2007. Inspite of difficult weather a total of 34 anganwadi workers, 48 multipurpose health workers and 54 teachers participated.

The training included understanding and identification of emotional and psychological problems such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other long-term impact of trauma. It covered aspects of normal stress response, reactions and coping mechanisms and the need for intervention in detail. It dealt extensively on counseling skills through group activities and special interventions in individual cases.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

In an effort to reach the tsunami-scarred community in the Andamans, especially children, the Foundation initiated a two-year psychosocial support programme to fill the gap of professional psychiatric help at the grassroots level.

A well-designed psychosocial outreach programme with components of training and counselling was initiated with the cooperation of the local administration and a team of 253 grassroots counsellors was created.

 To increase the effectiveness of the programme, refresher training was organised in August 2006 for the entire team of site leaders and lead specialists. The Foundation acknowledges with gratitude the dedicated assistance of Ms. Shefali Tsabary in conceptualising the project and imparting training in 2005 and again in 2006 to all the personnel involved. 

In the second phase of the programme, which began in September 2006 there were 190 site leaders spread over all the islands.  The children have opened up to their counsellors and consult them on various matters. In addition to trauma, there were other adolescent problems,  to be addressed to, varying from examination stress, career worries, differences with the parents or drugs and alcoholism.

Scholarships to women pilot trainees from IGRUA

The Foundation provides scholarships to meritorious women undergoing training for Commercial Pilot License at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi.  This is an effort to see women in non traditional challenging professions. So far, scholarships have been awarded to 31 women cadets. Most of the previous scholars are working as commercial pilots in various airlines. 

This year three awards of Rs. 2,00,000 each were given to Ms. Shruti Sharma, Ms. Ramya Kirti Gupta and Ms. Merum Rashmi.

Women and Sanitation

A two-day South Asia Regional Workshop on Women and Sanitation was held at the Foundation in March 2006 attended by activists, professionals and policy makers from across the region. Issues and constraints in the South Asian sanitation sector were discussed. It provided a perspective on the Indian sanitation reality along with national recommendations for India as well as the whole South Asian region.

The recommendations were presented in an Aide-Memoire to the Planning Commission for consideration in the 11th Five Year Plan.

The full Conference report with recommendations was made available to the South Asian Conference on Sanitation [SACOSAN-2] held in September 2006 in Islamabad. It will feature prominently again in SACOSAN-3 to be held in New Delhi in 2008

SANITATION IN INDIA

Highlights from Aide-Memoire to the Planning Commission
1	The most fundamental recommendation is recognition of sanitation as an essential pre- requisite to safe water supply and therefore to human development and poverty reduction.
2	Any change in the appalling statistics of access to sanitation in India, particularly by the poor, will also depend on bringing women and civil society into the centre of planning and decision-making.
3	Ensuring that women are heard and are able to lead a sanitation movement will require institutionalizing women's role and authority. There is experience on the ground (such as the Self-Help Groups and safai samitis now operating in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat and important examples in Bangladesh and elsewhere in South Asia) that offer experience that can be taken to scale, provided the capacity-building supports are made available to women leaders.
4	Prioritizing women's needs will also mean changing the prescriptive, top-down models that have been the hallmarks of official latrine construction programmes. The need instead is for a range of models that can respond to a variety of demands, requirements and financial capacities. Dignity, privacy and the importance of spaces for bathing and , washing are all demand elements that need to be utilized.
5	Sanitation and water supply are inextricably linked, even as they often require separate skills and specialization. Convergence between departments, sectors and networks is thus an urgent priority because water cannot be safe without sanitation, and sanitation action requires water supply, Convergence with the National Health Mission and the National Urban Renewal Mission (see below) should be a priority. Synergy between the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) and Swajaldhara is often missing at state and local levels, while Swajaldhara and the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) share an uncomfortable relationship. Reviewing these programmes in the context of the 11th Plan is essential, with the active participation of all stakeholders,
6	Urban sanitation represents a challenge in its own right, demanding new partnerships, policies and spaces for cooperation The NURM can be the umbrella for such inter-disciplinary/inter-departmental/government-civil society cooperation. Using the NURM opportunity, the 11th Plan can create scaleable solutions based on pilot schemes in selected locations The NURM could also provide the space within which civil society is given a legitimate role in meeting the urban challenge. There are important issues of equity waiting to be addressed. The scale of subsidy which urban citizens now receive is in contrast with the self-help and resource mobilization responsibilities expected of rural communities.
7	Building up a reliable data base for the sanitation sector is essential to facilitate dialogue and decision-making as well as to monitor progress and disseminate information.
8	Financial supports that can help NGOs scale up their activities toward both sanitation and water supply are needed well beyond current levels While there is acknowledgment that civil society must be the engine for sustainable change,
9	School sanitation should be a major element in 11 th Plan proposals Schools can be a catalyst for the kind of awareness and behavior change that the sector so urgently requires. This demands hygiene education, which is reduced to farce if schools lack toilets and facilities for hand-washing.
10	Hygiene education is the essential precursor to sanitation awareness and action. Yet this activity receives little serious attention. Capacity-building and financial opportunities are largely missing. Hygiene education is usually relegated to the clumsy label of 'IEC', which today can mean almost anything except a strategic approach to behavior change. The 11th Plan should see greater rigour apply to 'IEC' and to the understanding of communication as a strategic management resource. Hygiene education may then find an understanding of its wants/needs. An approach for hygiene education on a national scale should be an 11th Plan priority.
11	The shame of manual scavenging continues unabated, even as it is denied. Thousands of women, children and men are condemned to this inhuman and hidden practice A strong database is essential, as is the bringing together of scavenging communities with civil society and authorities that can serve them. Without acknowledgement to replace denial, support systems based on data, and a human rights perspective, the scandal of manual scavenging will not end. The 11th Plan opportunity should not be missed, so many decades after Gandhiji's efforts to erase this scandal.
In these ways, the 11th Five Year Plan could give sanitation the political will and the priority it has been denied for all these years. The Plan could also provide for sanitation a national momentum of the kind, which the 10th Plan gave to solid waste management
Community- managed Water Supply and Sanitation in Rural Areas of Orissa
Sanitation is a much-needed area of intervention to reduce the enormous disease burden in the country. Even today, almost 700 million people have no access to toilets, which is a major cause for many of our distressing health indicators. The Foundation has been partnering with Gram Vikas in Orissa in its Rural Health and Environment Programme. It has supported building toilets cum bathing units in 1000 households in 9 villages of Ganjam, Gajapati and Nayagarh districts, which are isolated and extremely impoverished areas of Orissa inhabited by marginalised tribal groups and scheduled castes. Among the households covered, 57 % belong to the BPL category. Furthep18 %Care dalits and 14 % are adivasis. The project recognises and focuses on a major concern in the everyday life of a woman. Apart from hygiene, it addresses her needs of privacy, security, dignity and health. It also recognises her potential role in creating a sanitation movement in the community. Gram Vikas follows an intensive social process of hygrene education, 100 per cent community coverage, arid a high level of community participation with a pivotal role of women. Gram Vikas also rejects the low-quality solution and believes that the cheapest solution is not necessarily the most effective one. It has shown that once people understand, they are willing to contribute to good quality units with running water connections, which saves women from fetching water from a distance. The systems of community-based financial and institutional management have made a major contribution to sustainability and improving the quality of life in general. People value this project initiative and the assets that are created through it, primarily because Ii they themselves make significant contributions towards the costs involved. This sense of ownership ensures regular use and proper maintenance of the units and water supply infrastructure. The first phase of the project concluded in March 2007 with successful coverage of 1000 households. The second phase, beginning in May 2007 will cover a further 1500 households in the district of Nayagarh.