Annual Report 2014

ANNUAL REPORT - 2014

CONTENTS PAGE NUMBER

Message from the Director 3

Main Activities and Achievements 4-5

Introduction 6

Areas of Intervention 7

Health An Overview of Medical Activities 8-10 Access to Primary Health Care: Shechen Medical Centre in

Bodhgaya, Bihar and Hata in Jharkhand11-13

Mobile Clinics in Bihar and Jharkhand 14-16

Health Education Program (HEP) with Special Focus on Women Hygiene & Sanitation

17-19

Education Early Childcare and Development 20-21 Support to Primary Education 21-23 Non-Formal Education (NFE) 24

Environment

Bodhgaya Clean Environment, Hygiene and Sanitation Program 25 Solar Electricity 26 Rainwater Harvesting 27

Sustainable Development small money BIG CHANGE 28

Vocational Training 29-30

Kitchen Garden 30-31

Other Important Activities and Events 32-34

Annex-Case Study 35-36

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Message from the Director

As Karuna-Shechen India completes 13 years of working towards improving lives of the under-served population, it is a good time to look back at our achievements and

also forward to a challenging, but exciting, future.

In 2014 we embarked on a number of initiatives - we have successfully extended our humanitarian assistance to the needy, backward communities in Bihar’s

neighbouring State, Jharkhand; a Third Mobile Clinic has been introduced in order to provide affordable primary healthcare to those in the districts of

Aurangabad, Jehanabad and Nawada; 4 women have been trained in e-Rickshaw driving making them Bihar’s first female rickshaw drivers. Our venture to enable

underprivileged women break into a male-dominated profession has earned us appreciation of the Bihar State Government and brought our efforts into the limelight.

Our new educational program, Role of Play in the Life of a Child, is helping in the all-round development of 400 young children through various indoor and outdoor

play activities. Besides, we have started our own informal school for children in Dema and Masuribar who are unable to get primary education.

Apart from these we witnessed several positive experiences and achievements across our areas of intervention. We have been successful in reaching 80,701 patients in

Bihar and Jharkhand through our OPD and Mobile Clinic services. Our OPD in Bihar is now open 7 days a week in an attempt to serve maximum possible people. Through our community-planned and community managed program we have

embarked on our mission to fight open defecation by constructing community toilets in 4 villages. Our Kitchen Garden program has touched 3818 households across all the villages that we support. This is a huge accomplishment in our fight against malnutrition and poverty. The program which had started in 2013 has gone a step

ahead this year with the introduction of nurseries in 11 villages. We continue with our efforts to generate environmental awareness by distributing 5530 jute bags among the locals and planting trees along the road. We have conducted training for our NFE

students in diverse vocations like mushroom cultivation, Rakhi and paper bag making. We have reached in Bihar and Jharkhand through our primary healthcare services.

Our efforts to empower underserved and marginalised communities through our program would not be successful without the support of our donors, partners and

volunteers. We are enormously grateful for your generosity, time and encouragement, without which it would have been impossible for us to achieve the successes outlined

in this report.

Message from the Director

As Karuna-Shechen India completes 13 years of working towards improving lives of the under-served population, it is a good time to look back at our achievements and

also forward to a challenging, but exciting, future.

In 2014 we embarked on a number of initiatives - we have successfully extended our humanitarian assistance to the needy, backward communities in Bihar’s

neighbouring State, Jharkhand; a Third Mobile Clinic has been introduced in order to provide affordable primary healthcare to those in the districts of

Aurangabad, Jehanabad and Nawada; 4 women have been trained in e-Rickshaw driving making them Bihar’s first female rickshaw drivers. Our venture to enable

underprivileged women break into a male-dominated profession has earned us appreciation of the Bihar State Government and brought our efforts into the limelight.

Our new educational program, Role of Play in the Life of a Child, is helping in the all-round development of 400 young children through various indoor and outdoor

play activities. Besides, we have started our own informal school for children in Dema and Masuribar who are unable to get primary education.

Apart from these we witnessed several positive experiences and achievements across our areas of intervention. We have been successful in reaching 80,701 patients in

Bihar and Jharkhand through our OPD and Mobile Clinic services. Our OPD in Bihar is now open 7 days a week in an attempt to serve maximum possible people. Through our community-planned and community managed program we have

embarked on our mission to fight open defecation by constructing community toilets in 4 villages. Our Kitchen Garden program has touched 3818 households across all the villages that we support. This is a huge accomplishment in our fight against malnutrition and poverty. The program which had started in 2013 has gone a step

ahead this year with the introduction of nurseries in 11 villages. We continue with our efforts to generate environmental awareness by distributing 5530 jute bags among the locals and planting trees along the road. We have conducted training for our NFE

students in diverse vocations like mushroom cultivation, Rakhi and paper bag making. We have reached in Bihar and Jharkhand through our primary healthcare services.

Our efforts to empower underserved and marginalised communities through our program would not be successful without the support of our donors, partners and

volunteers. We are enormously grateful for your generosity, time and encouragement, without which it would have been impossible for us to achieve the successes outlined

in this report.

MAIN ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

HEALTH

80,701 people benefitted from our OPD and Mobile Clinic services in Bihar and Jharkhand

78,355 patients visited the OPD and Mobile Clinics in Bihar; a 62.45% rise compared to 2013.

Our OPD in Bihar is now open 7 days a week A Third Mobile Clinic was launched to serve the poor in 3 new districts of Bihar;

Aurangabad, Nawada and Jehanabad. We extended our area of intervention to the State of Jharkhand 34,328 and 591 patients were registered at our OPD in Bihar and Jharkhand respectively 43,123 and 1755 patients have been registered with our Mobile Clinics in Bihar and

Jharkhand respectively 6912 medical tests were conducted at our pathology laboratory We have started conducting awareness sessions in schools and communities on

menstrual and reproductive health. We are now distributing INR 2 single piece sanitary napkins to better tap the needs of

the target populace. 10,421 sanitary napkin packets were sold in Bihar & 160 in Jharkhand. Again, 950 single

napkins (INR 2 each) were sold in Bihar and 1032 single pieces in Jharkhand. We are testing the quality of drinking water in the 18 villages in Bihar where we are

working.

EDUCATION

Babua schools (Informal schools), launched in Masuribar and Dema to provide holistic informal education to children who do not attend schools is benefitting 135 young children.

Our new program, Role of Play in the Life of a Child, is benefitting 400 children in the 10 villages where it is running.

508 rural children are benefitting from our Yoga and physical training sessions in the villages

NFE students from Banahi who had undertaken advanced training in candle-making produced beautiful candles from the wax provided by the organisation.

30 NFE students from Karhara ,Dema, Banahi and J.P.Nagar have made and sold candles with our financial, raw material and marketing support.

ENVIRONMENT

We have successfully installed Solar sets in 112 households across the 8 villages. Rainwater harvesting systems have been installed in 113 rural households across 9

villages; and also at schools in Dema, Lohjhara, Gopalkhera, Rampur and Kanchanpur. We have distributed 5530 Jute bags among locals.

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We have planted 176 trees along the roads of Bodhgaya We are conducting intra-school competition in schools to raise environmental

awareness among students

SOCIAL

We have started Electric Auto-rickshaw services from our clinic to the main road and have trained 4 poor women as e-rickshaw drivers. 3 of them have been driving our e-rickshaws for the past two months and have received much appreciation from all.

3818 households have been reached through the Kitchen Garden program. Besides, Nurseries have been established in 11 villages.

Community toilets have been constructed in the villages of Bhupnagar, Banahi, Kadal and Chando.

Pond has been dug in Dema and a canal made in Chando under the small money Big Change program, with the dedicated labour of the community members.

Vocational workshop on Mushroom cultivation in Jharkhand and Bihar with 22 and 45 participants, respectively.

40 women participated in vocational training on Rakhi-making prior to Rakhi ceremony (ceremony in which sisters tie bands around brother’s wrist to celebrate the bonding between them)

OTHER ACTIVITIES

13 final year post-graduate students of Rural Management and Development department, Magadh University conducted field work in our operational villages, taking as case study, one of our programs for their Masters Project work.

5 volunteers from France came in different parts of the year to help us with our various program activities.

We held a Program Orientation, like the previous year, for all our staff members.

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INTRODUCTION

The year 2014 has been pivotal in our journey to serve the poorest individuals and communities. Our new innovative programs like women empowerment through the training and supporting female e-rickshaw drivers have not only won the hearts and confidence of the beneficiaries but also brought our efforts to the limelight.

We began the year with the launch of a new program called ‘Role of Play in the Life of a Child’ in four villages; Banahi, Dema, Chando and Gopalkhera. It focuses on 3-6 years aged rural children who go to the Anganwadi centres. Under the program various indoor and outdoor games and other activities are conducted for the all-round development of the children. Looking at the great results and positive feedback for the program, we extended it to cover 6 new villages from November; Mastipur, Bakraur, Shekhwara, Lohjhara, Mansidih and Trilokapur.

But the program that has drawn attention of the Bihar government and media is our female e-rickshaw driver. Component of woman empowerment efforts, our initiative to give poor women a chance to challenge male-dominated profession, was recognised and much appreciated by important State government personnel like Gaya’s District Magistrate, District Transport Officer and ex-Chief Minister of Bihar.

This year we have introduced a third Mobile Clinic in Bihar, extending our healthcare services beyond Gaya to Aurangabad, Nawada and Jehanabad districts. Another major achievement of 2014 has been the geographical expansion of our activities to Bihar’s neighbour and one of the most backward States in India, Jharkhand. While the groundwork for the programs was done in the first half of the year the main activities began from July. We now run regular Mobile Clinic services in some villages of Seraikela-Kharsawan and East Singhbhum districts. In November we launched our OPD at Hata in East Singhbhum, near Jamshedpur city. Apart from these we are also conducting women health awareness sessions at schools and at community levels and organise vocational training for the poor along with our local partners.

We have provided primary healthcare to an overwhelming 80, 701 patients (78,355 people in Bihar and 2346 in Jharkhand). Our Kitchen Garden program has reached 3818 rural households. Under our small money BIG CHANGE program we have constructed community toilets to combat open defecation, dug ponds and made canals to support irrigation facilities.

Five volunteers from France were with us to help with the various program activities. The first volunteer, Sebastien, helped us launch the Early Childcare and Development program running in 10 Anganwadi centres. Edith, a professional joker, was here to add an element of happiness among our patients and other beneficiaries. Jennifer came as a second volunteer for the program at Anganwadi centres in second half of the year. A third volunteer, Sacha is a WASH expert who is here to conduct chemical tests on drinking water of our operational villages in Bihar. Quentine is a professional photographer who is capturing our program activities through still and video photographs. He is also giving basic photography training to our staff.

2014 has been an extremely satisfying year for us at Karuna-Shechen India. We are happy about our accomplishments this year and we are continually committed to learning from, and improving, our humanitarian services. This report highlights some of our key achievements of 2014.

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OUR CURRENT AREAS OF INTERVENTION

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HEALTH

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AN OVERVIEW OF MEDICAL ACTIVITIES

In 2014 we registered 78,355 patients in Bihar (62.45% more than 2013) and 2346 patients in our newly started OPD and Mobile Clinic services at Jharkhand. Patients from nearly 400 villages come for medical check-up at our OPD and Mobile Clinics.

Table 1: Total Number of Patients at OPD and Mobile Clinics in Bihar

Month OPD Mobile Clinics Medical Camps

Total

January 2613 3240 0 5853February 2384 3075 513 5459

March 2668 3071 502 5739April 2474 2545 0 5019May 2573 2649 0 5222June 2966 4089 0 7055July 3507 4233 0 7740

August 2995 3646 0 6641September 3600 5010 0 8610

October 2745 3098 0 5843November 3004 3988 904 7896December 2799 4479 0 7278

Total 34328 43123 1919 78355

Table 2: Total Number of Patients at OPD and Mobile Clinics in Jharkhand

Month OPD Mobile Clinic Total

September 0 685 685

October 0 409 409

November 60 259 319

December 531 402 933

Total 591 1755 2346

We started our Mobile Clinic services in Jharkhand in September and inaugurated our OPD in the month of November.

Direct Observed Therapy (DOT)

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Out of 6912 medical tests conducted in our pathology laboratory 471 were Sputum tests (for Tuberculosis). Out of these the number of people who were diagnosed with TB was 15. While 58 patients have successfully completed their DOT course, 28 TB patients are currently undergoing treatment.

Table 3: Details of DOT Program

Indicators Total

Number of TB patients started medicine 39

Number of sputum tests conducted 471

Sputum Positive 15

Completed TB Medicine 58

Total Number of TB Patients currently undergoing treatment (OPD and Mobile)

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Types of Diseases observed among Patients in OPD and Mobile Clinics

The following table gives us information about the various types of diseases observed among the patients in our OPD and Mobile clinics.

Table 4: Types of Diseases

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The table show that the most common health problems observed among our patients in both the States were Bone and Joint Pain, Cough and Cold and various Skin diseases. In addition, hypertension and Amoebiasis were observed to be some other common diseases among those in Jharkhand.

ACCESS TO PRIMARY HEALTHCARE: SHECHEN MEDICAL

CENTRE IN BODHGAYA, BIHAR AND HATA, JHARKHAND

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Types of Diseases Patients in Bihar Patients in Jharkhand

Diarrohea/children 149 1Diarrhoea / dysentery adults 1222 6Amoebiasis 2302 114Typhoid 39 63Tuberculosis (TB) 564 2Gynecological patient 2874 78Bone & joints patients 19452 391Burn patient 203 2Worm manifestation 81 32Skin diseases of all kinds 8244 147Ophthalmologic infections 41 17Number of identified malnourished children 11 35Cardiac Infection 12 17Hypertension 3511 132Diabetes 680 18Asthma & Chronic Obstructions Pulmonary Disease 2034 8Cough & Cold 14478 108Epilepsy 208 0Ear Nose Throat (ENT) patient 2150 22Lymphadenopathy 44 0Incise & Drain Dressing 548 10Other Patients 18, 522 1143

Inauguration of our OPD in Jharkhand

Medical check-up of patients at the newly opened OPD

Our OPD in Bihar is now open 7 days a week in order to serve maximum number of needy patients as possible.

We inaugurated our OPD at Hata in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand on 19 th November in the esteemed presence of heads of Panchayats of nearby villages, medical officer from Red Cross Society and other guests. In about one and half months the OPD has registered an impressive 591 patients. Currently the OPD functions thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In 2015 we will extend OPD services to 6 days a week.

The total number of people who came to the Medical centre in Bodhgaya for Consultations in 2014 was 34, 328, 67.17% more than that in 2013 (20,535 patients).

Table 5: Total Patients at OPD in Bihar and Jharkhand

Months Patients in Bihar

Patients in Jharkhand

January 2613 0

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February 2384 0March 2668 0April 2474 0May 2573 0June 2966 0July 3507 0August 2995 0September 3600 0October 2745 0November 3004 60December 2799 531Total 34,328 591

Table 6: Total Male, Female and Child Patients at OPD in Bihar and Jharkhand

Bihar JharkhandMen 9086 271Women 16369 269Children 8873 51Total Patients 34,328 591

Pathology Laboratory

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572 patients got medical tests done from our Pathology laboratory and total analysis done was 6912. The number of patients and tests are different because one patient may go for several tests.

Table 7: Types of Medical Tests conducted in our Laboratory

Types of Medical Tests Conducted Total Number of TestsTC/DC 1051ESR 893HB% 811Malaria 301Uric Acid 185Blood Sugar 870Serum Blirubin 142AFB (Sputum test) 471ECG 77Urine routine examination 298Urine culture sensitivity test 180Other Tests 1633Total 6912

MOBILE CLINIC

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Mobile Clinic in the villages of Jharkhand

Mobile Clinic in Bihar

This year we introduced a third Mobile Clinic to serve the impoverished and needy populations of three new districts in Bihar (Nawada, Aurangabad and Jehanabad). Besides, we launched our Mobile Clinic facilities in the backward districts of East Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan in the State of Jharkhand. Currently, our Mobile Clinics in Jharkhand function twice a week on Saturdays and Sundays. Next year we will extend its services to 6 days a week.

Table 8: Total Patients at Mobile Clinics in Bihar and Jharkhand

Months Patients in Bihar Patients in Jharkhand

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January 3240 -February 3075 -March 3071 -April 2545 -May 2649 -June 4089 -July 4233 -August 3646 -September 5010 685October 3098 409November 3988 259December 4479 402Total 43123 1755

Table 9: Total Male, Female and Child Patients at Mobile Clinics in Bihar and Jharkhand

  Bihar JharkhandTotal Patients 31558 1755Men 15405 398Women 22414 1019Children 15837 338

MEDICAL CAMPS

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Like each year in 2014 we organised free Medical Camps in Bodhgaya in the months of January, February and November where 1919 patients were registered.

Table 10: Number of Patients at Medical Camps

Months Medical CampsJanuary 0February 513March 502April 0May 0

June 0July 0August 0September 0October 0November 904December 0Total 1919

HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME (HEP)

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Our Health Education Program is running successfully in our operational villages and of Gaya district as can be seen from the following tables:

Table 11: Some Statistics on HEP

Indicators FiguresTotal Households reached 1285Total Families reached 1936Total Number of Health Groups 38Total Number of Members in Health Groups

228

Total Number of Home Visits by Village Coordinators

3883

Total Number of Home Visits by Motivators

9523

The number of home visits by our Village Coordinators and Motivators, number of families/households imparted with education on health-related matters, and number of Health Groups formed for the effective running of HEP vividly put across the sincere efforts of the organisation towards the program.

Table 12 : Reproductive and Child Health

Indicators

Total Number of Sanitary Napkins sold 10421 packets (Bihar) & 160 packets (Jharkhand)950 single piece (Bihar) and 1032 single piece(Jharkhand)

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Percentage of Pregnant Women Followed-up by Village Coordinators and Motivators

86.2

Percentage of Pregnant women immunized with TT1& TT2 75.5

Percentage of Pregnant Women having Institutional Delivery 73.61

Percentage of new-born children immunized with BCG and 1st DPT

74.66

Percentage of recorded Neo-natal deaths 0

Our Menstrual Health and Hygiene program which was started in 2013 by making sanitary napkins available at subsidised rates to poor women and girls, has gone a step further this year with the introduction of health awareness programs in village communities and high schools. This program has been started in Jharkhand along with primary healthcare services. We have conducted women health education sessions in 14 schools and an orphanage in Bihar and 6 schools in Jharkhand. Apart from the INR 6 pack of 6 napkins that we have been distributing since the beginning of the program, this year we have started selling INR 2 single piece sanitary napkins. We have sold 1032 and 950 single napkins in Jharkhand and Bihar respectively.

Table 13: Number of Sanitary Napkin Packets (INR 6/packet) distributed in Bihar

 Months OPD Mobile Clinics

Medical Camps

Total

January 177 695 0 872February 158 586 102 846March 108 613 135 856April 84 440 0 524May 125 685 0 810June 159 410 0 569July 133 540 0 673August 105 1180 0 1285September 146 900 0 1046October 151 640 0 640November 133 1054 0 1054December 107 1246 0 1246Total 1586 8989 237 10421

Table 14: Number of Sanitary Napkin Packets (INR 6/packet) distributed in Jharkhand

 Months OPD Mobile ClinicsJanuary 0 0February 0 0March 0 0

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April 0 0May 0 0June 0 0July 0 0August 0 0September 0 0October 0 0November 11 4December 55 90Total 66 94

WASH

We are conducting quality tests for drinking water in all 18 villages with the help of our volunteer. After we get to know about the water quality we will find cost-effective, local techniques to make it suitable for drinking.

EDUCATION

EARLY CHILDCARE & DEVELOPMENT

ROLE OF PLAY IN THE LIFE OF A CHILD

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The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child lays down the right to play and engage in recreational activities as an integral part of their growth process. India’s Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), a program for proper growth and development of pre-school children functioning through the Anganwadi system mentions playing games as an integral part. However, in most cases we have seen that this particular component of ICDS is often neglected and ineffectively implemented.

With an effort to complement the government’s efforts towards holistic development of pre-school (3-6 years of age) children we launched our new program, Role of Play in the Life of a Child in 10 villages in collaboration with our partner organisation from France, Inter’Lude.

Initially started in 4 villages (Gopalkhera, Chando, Banahi and Dema) of Gaya district the encouraging feedback and demand for similar program in other villages prompted us to scale-up the project to cover 6 new villages Mastipur, Bakraur, Shekhwara, Lohjhara, Mansidih and Trilokapur.

The groundwork for the program included the village selection process and extensive meetings with the District Magistrate and District Programme Officer regarding legal formalities. We have had two volunteers from Inter’Lude for 4 months each to help us with the program.

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Two trainings, one at the beginning of the program and the next during its scale-up, were organised for select staff members of our organisation, Child Development Project Officers (CDPOs) of the relevant blocks and Anganwadi Workers of the villages. Both trainings emphasised the active participation and role of the Anganwadi Workers as they form the backbone of the program and are imperative to its successful execution.

The program is divided into 2 types of activities:

Outdoor Games Indoor Activities including Drawing Session

These activities help in the acquisition and development of social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills. All the necessary games and other play materials required for the smooth functioning of the program have been supplied by us to the Anganwadi centres.

Before expanding the program to cover new villages our village coordinators and other staff members along with the second volunteer from Inter’Lude conducted a thorough evaluation of the project which was then running in 4 villages.

This project is running successfully under regular monitoring by the village coordinators. It has been observed that, in the four villages where the program was started in January, the children have shown a very visible change. At the beginning they did not know how to draw but now they can express themselves pictorially and also solve puzzle games. They are now much more active, energetic and the daily attendance in all the Anganwadis has remarkably improved since the program started.

SUPPORT TO PRIMARY EDUCATION

BABUA SCHOOL

Bihar’s primary education system is in a very sorry state plagued by lack of human resources, abysmally low teacher-student ratio and poor teaching standards. With the aim to address this problem we have started our own Informal schools called Babua schools (children are lovingly addressed as ‘Babua’ in the local language) at Masuribar and Dema to provide holistic elementary education to non school-going rural children.

We provide all-round development of young children through free primary education and co-curricular activities like Yoga training. Total number of students enrolled is 135 and average attendance is as high as 84%. Students’ satisfaction with our qualitative education is reflected in their steadily growing average attendance, from 70% in the first three months of the program to 84% at the end of the year.

Table 15: Enrollment and Average Attendance in our Bamboo Schools

Sl. No Village Number of Students Average Attendance

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Enrolled1 Dema 105 882 Masuribar 30 25

Total 135 113

SUPPORT TO RURAL SCHOOLS

We continue to give study and play materials in rural schools. Our support faculty in Dema and Gopalkhera are taking extra lessons for weak students, staying back after class to teach them and take regular tests to examine the students’ progress.

YOGA CLASSES Our Yoga training sessions are an integral component of our holistic child development activities. The classes are conducted in the villages for poor, underprivileged children on a regular basis. It is greatly satisfying to see 508 children learning Yoga with much sincerity and enthusiasm.

Table 16: Children learning Yoga

Sl. No Village Number of Children Learning Yoga

1 Simariya 502 Lohjhara 1133 Gopalkhera 1004 Dema 95

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5 JP Nagar 256 Mansidih 907 Trilokapur 208 Kadal 15

  Total 508

NON-FORMAL EDUCATION (NFE)

This year we have added an important element to our NFE classes; newspaper reading. These participatory sessions not only enable the students to grasp reading and learning skills better but also inform them about important events and news. The old newspapers are regularly used by the students to make paper packets for which they have been provided proper training.

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Besides, throughout this year NFE students have had the opportunity to learn some interesting and useful vocations like Mushroom cultivation and Rakhi-making.

30 NFE students from Karhara, Dema, Banahi and J.P.Nagar have made and sold candles with our financial, raw material and marketing support.

Table 17: NFE students involved in candle-making

Sl. No Village Number of women in a group

1 Karhara 52 Dema 153 Banahi 64 J.P.Nagar 4

Total 30

ENVIRONMENT

BODHGAYA CLEAN ENVIRONMENT, HYGIENE AND SANITATION PROGRAM

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We continued with our school competitions on environmental hygiene and sanitation awareness this year, conducting drawing and speech competitions among young and enthusiastic students.

We have been giving shape to our aim of beautifying the town through environment-friendly means by planting 176 trees along the entire stretch of road in front of our office cum OPD. Again, we have continued with our efforts to discourage the indiscriminate use of plastics through the distribution of bio-degradable alternatives, Jute Bags. We have successfully distributed 5530 Jute bags amongst our patients, students, and other beneficiaries in Bodhgaya and in the villages. Our initiative has been much appreciated by locals and tourists alike.

SOLAR ELECTRICITY

We successfully scaled-up our program to cover 8 remote villages-Bhupnagar, Dema, Mansidih, Lohjhara, Banahi, Simariya and Karhara. In 2013 we had sent 4 rural women to undertake 6 months training in Solar Engineering at Barefoot College, Rajasthan. After 2 months one of them, Sarita Devi had to leave her training mid-way and return home for personal reasons. The other three, Phoolmanti Devi, Lakshmi Devi and Pooja Devi, went on to successfully complete the course. Unfortunately, Phoolmanti Devi’s husband was imprisoned on criminal charges around

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this time and she, for security reasons, had to leave Bihar. Thereafter, she joined Barefoot college as an instructor and is continuing there.

In order to look for cost-effective solar sets so as to reach out to maximum number of needy population we installed solar sets which cost INR 5072 ($ 82). We provided the sets to interested households highly subsidised rate, INR 2000 ($ 32). This is a one-time payment and the beneficiaries will not be charged monthly maintenance amount. Our plan to install 220 solar sets purchased from Barefoot College, in villages of Kadal, Barsuddi and Chando, was delayed due to the numerous governmental agencies and procedures involved in the inter-State transportation of the Solar sets. We are expected to receive them by the first week of January, 2015 and install them, along with 50 pieces of the cost-effective solar sets, in January and February. These will be installed by our new Solar Engineers Lakshmi Devi and Pooja Devi.

Table 18: Number of households where solar sets were installed

Sl. No Village Number of Households where

Solar sets were installed

1 Simariya 52 Dema 453 Lohjhara 54 Mansidih 225 Karhara 16 Bhupnagar 337 Banahi 1

  Total 112

RAINWATER HARVESTING

Our water management and replenishment program, Rainwater Harvesting is also continuing from previous year. 113 rural households (250% increase from 2013 figures (32 households)) across 9 villages are now availing Rainwater Harvesting facilities. Besides, schools at Dema, Lohjhara, Gopalkhera, Rampur and Kanchanpur have also installed the system.

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Table 19: Number of Households that have installed Rainwater harvesting system

Sl. NoVillages Number of

Households

1 Dema 53

2 Chando 113 Karhara 84 Banahi 55 Lohjhara 186 Karhara 67 Trilokapur 18 Gopalkhera 69 J.P. Nagar 5

   Total 113

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

SMALL MONEY BIG CHANGE

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Under our community-planned, community-managed program several rural development projects were undertaken successfully. In Bhupnagar, the villagers demanded that we make a community toilet for them. However, due to bad road conditions our truck laden with construction materials could not enter the remote village and our plans had to be stalled. With the active participation of the community, we first repaired the road in order to resolve the problem of inaccessibility. Thereafter, the construction of the community toilet was started and is now on its road to completion.

Apart from Bhupnagar community toilets are under construction at Banahi, Kadal and Chando. These toilets are a result of our efforts to reduce the practice of open defecation as also an attempt towards the protection of women’s privacy and safety, which are often at risk due to the unavailability of proper toilets in the villages.

In Dema we have dug a pond which is being used by the villagers for multiple purposes like washing, cleaning, watering kitchen gardens and irrigating agricultural lands, etc.

A canal has been constructed in Chando for irrigation purposes. The farmers, who had to previously depend on the vagaries of nature for cultivating their crops, now, have a certain water supply system.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING

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Computer classes Rakhi training

Female e-rickshaw drivers Women making candles

Mushroom cultivation training Paper packets made by NFE students

Vocational Training program intends to enable the poor and vulnerable, especially underprivileged women and youth, to acquire vocational skills that would provide them with a sustainable livelihood opportunities. This year we have successfully conducted several training and workshops in diverse, interesting and useful vocations; Mushroom Cultivation, Rakhi and Paper-packet making. These vocations were chosen according to their economic viability and market demand.

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Vocational training on Mushroom cultivation was organised for our beneficiaries in Bihar and Jharkhand and attended by 45 and 22 enthusiastic participants, respectively. Candle-making workshop was organised in Jharkhand with partner organisation, Udaan exclusively for disabled people.

40 women including NFE students and motivators, participated in the workshop on Rakhi-making organised in Bodhgaya prior to the Rakhi ceremony (ceremony in which sisters tie bands around brother’s wrist to celebrate the bonding between them). A woman from Chando and another from Karhara were followed-up and encouraged to make Rakhis and sell them in the market. The cost of raw materials and marketing was borne by our organisation.

Two batches of underprivileged youth have successfully completed our free computer course, and a third batch with 50 students is currently undergoing the training. The feedback of our pass-out students has been very encouraging and gratifying.

19 youths were rigorously trained in Yoga and physical fitness at a week-long workshop in July with the objective to teach our rural children and also provide employment opportunities to these young dynamic participants.

While all the vocations taught to our beneficiaries have been received well, the one deemed to be ground-breaking is our initiative to train women in e-Rickshaw driving. With the objective to empower poor women with sustainable livelihood skills we impart the necessary training to enterprising targeted beneficiaries and hire them as drivers of our organisation’s three e-Rickshaws. In less than 6 months we have empowered 4 women through our unique initiative. This has caught the attention of the media and has been much appreciated by Gaya’s District Magistrate and Bihar’s ex-Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar.

KITCHEN GARDEN

Our efforts to combat malnutrition and improve the socio-economic status of the rural poor have successfully continued from previous year. 3818 rural households have grown kitchen gardens in their backyards with the seasonal seeds and plants that we have been distributing throughout the year. Apart from reaching out to village households this year this program has gone a step further and launched Nurseries in 11 villages (Dema, Lohjhara, Banahi, Gopalkhera, Kadal, Bhupnagar, Simariya, Trilokapur, Karhara, JP Nagar, Masuribar and Chando).

Table 20: Number of Households benefitting from our Kitchen Garden program

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Sl. No Village Number of Households growing Kitchen Gardens

1 Banahi 2102 Dema 4823 Gopalkhera 2094 Lohjhara 2635 Bandha 1156 Nawatari 1257 Kadal 918 Barsuddi 619 Bhupnagar 13010 Trilokapur 8111 Karhara 32212 Simariya 17913 Chando 31314 Sripur 9015 Masuribar 25416 J.P. Nagar 14017 Kharati 9718 Mansidih 24419 Rampur 3620 Patients at OPD 376

Total 3818

OTHER IMPORTANT ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

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FIELD WORK AND PROJECT STUDY BY MAGADH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

We selected 13 bright final year post-graduate students of Rural Management and Development program, Magadh university to conduct field work for their projects at our operational villages, taking as case study one of our ongoing programs. As part of their project work they conducted socio-economic survey in all 18 operational villages under the guidance and supervision of our able staff members. The students have been issued certificates by our organisation for their participation.

STAFF ORIENTATION

As Karuna-Shechen, India stepped into the 13th year of its incessant humanitarian services in Gaya district of Bihar the organisation conducted a one-day Workshop on Expectation Management and Program Activities-2014 for its entire staff. The basic objective of the workshop was to update the existing staff and inform the newly recruited ones about the organisation and its current activities and future endeavours. A second intention was to conduct a detailed discussion on expectation of the staff and make them rational.

VOLUNTEERS

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We had 2 volunteers from France, Sebastien and Jennifer, to help us with our new program, Role of Play in the Life of a Child. Edith had come to spread laughter and happiness among our patients through her mime and acting skills. We have another volunteer, Sacha, who is using his Water Management expertise to test the quality of drinking water in our operational villages in Bihar. He is expected to provide feasible solution to improve the water quality. Quentine, the fifth volunteer is capturing our program activities with the help of his photography skills and teaching the basics of photography to our staff members.

LOCAL PARTNERS IN JHARKHAND

In Jharkhand we are partnering with three local organisations- Udaan, Dhad Disham Vikas Sangh and Cause for Change. Udaan is an NGO working exclusively for the empowerment of the disabled. Dhad Disham Vikas Sangh, a CBO and our local partner working for better livelihood opportunities of tribal communities. Cause for Change, an NGO which collects unused medicines from households and redistributes them among the needy populations through medical camps is our third local partner. We are supporting these dedicated organisations financially and otherwise and collaborating with them to reach maximum possible target beneficiaries.

TEAM BUILDING EXERCISE

We dedicate the last Sunday of a year to team building exercise by organising picnic for all the staff members, motivators and their families.

FINANCE

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Expenses incurred in the year 2014 are shown below:

Table 21: Annual Expenses

Sector Annual Expenses 2014 (in USD)

Health 184,033Education 40,005Environment 22,522Social Programs 54,889Program Support 23,393Administrative and Functioning Expenses

63,495

Equipment 58,259Contingencies 8,661Total India 2014 455,258

UPCOMING ACTIVITES

To provide our OPD and Mobile Clinic services in Jharkhand six days a week Introducing Play Van in Jharkhand Adding West Singhbhum as a new area of operation in Jharkhand Kitchen Garden to be extended to 6000 households in Bihar and Jharkhand Solar Lights to be installed in 270 households in Bihar.

ANNEX- CASE STUDY

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WOMEN EMPOWERMENT- THE STORY OF OUR 3 FEMALE E-RICKSHAW DRIVERS

Karuna-Shechen India has taken a unique and bold initiative towards women empowerment by training poor women as e-Rickshaw drivers and providing them with the environment-friendly vehicles. As our three e-rickshaw drivers take to the streets with confidence we ask them how Karuna-Shechen has changed their lives.

Baby Devi, Sugiya Devi and Shobha Devi belong to disadvantaged communities from the backward village of Parhanda, near Bodhgaya.

Sugiya Devi was a landless farmer who toiled day and night in order to earn two square meals for 3 children, ailing husband and other family members. She was leading a life of hardship trying to provide education to her children and medical treatment to her husband. Mr Uday Prasad, her husband was working as a wall painter in Delhi until he met with an accident and was confined to bed. When she heard from a villager about our program to train and employ women as e-rickshaw drivers she immediately knew it was her calling. For the next one and half months she had to undertake rigorous driving classes arranged and financed by Karuna-Shechen. Thereafter she started driving on the roads of Bodhgaya. Sugiya Devi says that initially she would feel a bit nervous and would have to face taunt and ridicule from male rickshaw drivers. But now she can not only drive confidently but also feel proud to be able to challenge a traditionally male-profession. When asked about her experience in dealing with the foreign tourists she quips, “Initially, I would be a bit nervous but now it is fine. If I am unable to understand what a foreign passenger wants to convey I seek the help of the locals. Besides, by now I have managed to pick up some English words.”Her foreign passengers appreciate her courageous efforts and many take pictures of her.

Along with Sugiya Devi two other women, Baby Devi and Shobha Devi, have been imparted the same vocational training by Karuna-Shechen.

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Baby Devi, a 29 year old and mother of three is a class 8 passout. She was previously based in Surat, Gujrat where her husband works. After tolerating 8 years of domestic violence at the hands of her drunkard husband Baby Devi returned to her own village in Bihar with her children and started searching for work in order to support them. As soon as she heard of Karuna-Shechen’s new program she jumped at the opportunity. Having trained for 2 months in June-July along with Sugiya Devi and Shobha Devi, Baby Devi is now an expert and confident e-rickshaw driver. Her steady income has enabled her to not only fulfil the basic needs of her impoverished family but also to get a Life Insurance for herself. Unlike previous years Baby Devi can now afford to buy a INR 300 warm shawl to combat the winters this time. She says that Karuna-Shechen has given her more than she could ask for. Sharing her most memorable experience, she narrates the incident when Bihar’s ex-Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar and Gaya’s District Magistrate, Mr Sanjay Agarwal rode her e-rickshaw in appreciation of Karuna-Shechen’s unique initiative.

Shobha Devi is a 29 year old woman with 2 sons. Her husband used to work as labourer but after he broke his leg in an accident four years back he is unable to work and the onus of supporting their family has been on Shobha Devi ever since. She says that Karuna-Shechen has gifted her and her family new lease of life. With the money she has earned as an e-rickshaw driver Shobha Devi has bought INR 2000 worth of woollens for her family, something which was beyond her means before.

The three female e-rickshaw drivers earn around INR 300-500 daily. All three express heartfelt gratefulness to Karuna-Shechen for giving them a new lease of life, restoring their self-esteem and boosting confidence levels. Shobha Devi says that the organisation has helped her gain a daring entry into a male bastion.

Straight out from the confines of their homes these women, the first female e-rickshaw drivers of Bihar, are inspiring many more to join the tribe.

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