From editor’s desk:
“Chalo Jalayen Deep - Jahan Abhee bhee Andhera hai”
Deepavali is the time to reach out to the underpriviledged and helping them to enlighten their lives. Deepavali also brings in joy and gaity. However, the joy of sharing and giving is one that is cherished during this festival. The garlands of lights symbolises the sharing. Sharing with friends and family is just the beginning and we need to look beyond to the people who need caring, affection and love. Reaching out to them will be the real Deepavali.
On its part, Sewa International accepted the challenge of providing power to the power starved villagers of Karanshinghji Ki Khedi, trying to bring in light in their hearths and fields. A novel experiment has been successfully done and the villagers are now sharing the fruits of this project.
We would like to continue to reach you regularly through this and bring you more news, events, and achievements in the field of Sewa. Your wishes and coopertion matters a lot for us and we expect you to share your side with us.
Wishing you all a happy & prosperous Deepavali.
SECOND INTERNATIONAL SEWA MEET: 2nd International Sewa Meet of Sewa karyakartas from various countries will be held at Bangalore from 28th December 2007 to 1st January 2008, the first meeting was held in Ahmedabad in January 2003. Building a network of Sewa karyakartas and organizations is one of the principle goals of this meeting, apart from effective and efficient planning and coordination. The delegates are expected to reach Bangalore on 27th December afternoon. Deliberations would be held on first three days while the rest of the two days period would be used for visiting various Sewa projects in and around Bangalore.
Those who wish to join hands are expected to write to us.
Empowering Youth with the spirit of Sewa: Sewa is probably one virtue that attracts youth in good number. On the other hand most of the voluntary bodies experience paucity of human resources. There are two programs that we are looking at, one aiming to draw youth from abroad provide them with opportunity of serving while the other aiming at the local youth and encouraging them to serve the society. Yuwa for Sewa is drawing youth from abroad to Pune while Youth for Seva is working in Bangalore.
‘YOUTH FOR SEVA’ AT WORK: ‘Youth for Seva’ is started in 2007 by a few volunteers who felt the need for a platform for youth with strong desire to serve the underprivileged and the needy. The project is aimed at inspiring youth to volunteer and to connect them to the grassroots NGOs which are selected on the basis of their track-record and ability to efficiently utilize time and talent of the volunteers. ‘Youth for Seva’ is a project of the ‘Hindu Seva Pratisthan’, which has been in the forefront of social service for nearly three decades in the state of Karnataka. ‘Youth for Sewa’ conducts orientation programme for student volunteers before deputing them on various projects or to organizations. An orientation program was held on 12th September, 2007 which received overwhelming response. 84 girls registered for the programme which was organised in collaboration with the NSS chapter of a local college. On the 29th September, more than 50 students from another college registered for volunteering. ‘Youth for Seva’ is working hard to engage more NGOs and initiate more projects in the near future.
“Yuwa for Sewa” Exposes Youth to tangible Indian Life: 6 University students from USA and Europe have participated and completed their terms of 3 months of voluntary service in one or the other project in and around Pune city in Maharashtra till now. Two Amercian students are presently working in Pune. Here is a comment from Sarah Elswik that speaks for her program in India. She writes, “So much to say about this village visit. My focus of study in anthropology provided with the facts about the life of villagers of a tribal group. But this field visit provided the opportunity to see, smell, taste, hear and learn first hand what tribal life is about. I thought it was a chance of a life time, and the family was so generous. Of course, but I also experienced cultural shock, and missing home because it is so different. I know that tribal life is a different matter because they are so close to nature that I'm envious, and so kind to everyone. Life is so simple in my terms in the village, but they ask for nothing more because really they have what the basic human needs are , which are food, water and shelter. I have a much different perspective from this visit.”
Responding to Interactive session during the initial orientation program Katherine Pierson writes: “I liked these sessions because we got to actually leave the flat and go out to see where these people work and what they do. They were easily able to show us pictures, power point presentations, etc. because they had the resources right there in their office. These sessions were really good because they taught us specifically about what we would be doing on our individual projects, and allowed us to ask questions to better understand them.
FLOOD-HAVOC IN BIHAR: On the fateful day of July 29, 2007, flood water started spreading all over North Bihar. Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur, Saharsa, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Madhepura were the worst affected districts of the region. A huge loss of lives, properties, cattle and other belongings took place and the affected people were desperately waiting for relief for mere survival. Observing the intensity of the situation, the volunteers of Sewa Bharati took the initiative in providing immediate relief led by Deepak Kumar Sinha, Secretary and coordinator of Sewa Bharati.
It was resolved that for speedy and effective relief, volunteers from all the like minded organizations should work together. On 31st July, permanent relief centers started operating in six different localities of Darbhanga town. Displaced people in large number turned up at the relief centers and availed services like food, clothing, temporary shelter, medicines etc. Relief material was collected by the volunteers of Sewa Bharati through door to door collection from the society.
To review the ongoing rescue and relief work in the above mentioned flood affected areas, the important functionaries had a meeting on the 8th of August 2007 in the presence of Mr Chandra Mohan Roy, the Health Minister of Bihar. He appreciated the volunteers of Sewa Bharati for their exceptionally hard toil in serving the flood victims. He had a proposal for permanent rehabilitation in the area as the floods have been devastating the region almost annually. We are glad to inform that many NGOs joined the relief and rescue operations drawing motivation from the Sewa Bharati. Since more than 50,000 houses have been completely washed away by the flood water Sewa International with the help of other partner organizations are planning to build low cost houses on the highlands.
Sewa International In Quest of Alternative Energy: Energy crisis world over is a challenge, specially in the developing and underdeveloped countries. While energy sources are drying up on one hand, humanity is looking for alternative and eco-friendly methods of generating energy.
Searching for such alternative energy processes,
Sewa International decided to put in efforts for relatively unknown procedure of Biomass Gasifier. Active cooperation of Shri Naresh Sharma from USA and aided by Sewa USA & IDRF USA, the dream of generating power locally has come real.
Karansinghji Ki Khedi, a obscure remote village in Bhilwada district of Rajasthan with a population of less than thousand, became an ideal venue for the experiment. People of the village responded positively to the call with active motivator Shri Rameshwar. Dr. Robin Abraham of Sewa International did the home work well to convince the concerned. Officials of Ministry for New & Renewable Energy Sources could grasp the importance of the project instantaneously to come out with an offer of subsidy.
The first phase of a bio-mass gasifier project was inaugurated by the local MP Shri V P Singh at Karansinghji ki Khedi in Bhilwada district of Rajasthan on 16th October, 2007. The project has been setup by the Sewa International with the help of Madhav Gau Gigyan Kendra, Bhilwada, Rajasthan. The fuel source for this gasifier is in the form of wood stalks. This village has a population of about 500 and 90 hut-dwellings. But sufficient electrical power was not available for crop production and many families were forced to migrate to the cities in search of livelihood during the dry season.
Biomass Gasifier installed at Karansinghji Ki Khedi
Biomass gasifier has changed the situation. Migration to other places has come to a naught. They are now willing to engage themselves in agricultural activities in dry season also. The wild Babool, which grows extensively in the region, was apt fuel to run the gasifier with sizeable area of approximately 700 bigha of the village available.
The entire project is divided into two phases. The first phase stands completed with gasifier commissioned. In order to reduce further dependence on wood, phase-II of the project would include a bio-gas plant and a briquette making machine. Some of the crop residues which are burnt in the field can be mixed with the out put of bio-gas plant and briquetted for fuel into the gasifier. There was an overwhelm-ing response from the farming community. Involvement of the villagers and their satisfaction is an important indicator for this project. Other factors that encourage us are the number of queries from all around to know and understand the technology, and the offer by the concerned Ministry to extend subsidy to similar projects in more villages. wa International’s resolve for sustainable development is amply proved by the Biomass Gasifier that generates energy to run 4 motor/ pump-sets of 5HP in Karansinghji Ki Khedi
Empowering Youth with the spirit of Sewa: Sewa is probably one virtue that attracts youth in good number. On the other hand most of the voluntary bodies experience paucity of human resources. There are two programs that we are looking at, one aiming to draw youth from abroad provide them with opportunity of serving while the other aiming at the local youth and encouraging them to serve the society. Yuwa for Sewa is drawing youth from abroad to Pune while Youth for Seva is working in Bangalore.
‘YOUTH FOR SEVA’ AT WORK: ‘Youth for Seva’ is started in 2007 by a few volunteers who felt the need for a platform for youth with strong desire to serve the underprivileged and the needy. The project is aimed at inspiring youth to volunteer and to connect them to the grassroots NGOs which are selected on the basis of their track-record and ability to efficiently utilize time and talent of the volunteers. ‘Youth for Seva’ is a project of the ‘Hindu Seva Pratisthan’, which has been in the forefront of social service for nearly three decades in the state of Karnataka. ‘Youth for Sewa’ conducts orientation programme for student volunteers before deputing them on various projects or to organizations. An orientation program was held on 12th September, 2007 which received overwhelming response. 84 girls registered for the programme which was organised in collaboration with the NSS chapter of a local college. On the 29th September, more than 50 students from another college registered for volunteering. ‘Youth for Seva’ is working hard to engage more NGOs and initiate more projects in the near future.
“Yuwa for Sewa” Exposes Youth to tangible Indian Life: 6 University students from USA and Europe have participated and completed their terms of 3 months of voluntary service in one or the other project in and around Pune city in Maharashtra till now. Two Amercian students are presently working in Pune. Here is a comment from Sarah Elswik that speaks for her program in India. She writes, “So much to say about this village visit. My focus of study in anthropology provided with the facts about the life of villagers of a tribal group. But this field visit provided the opportunity to see, smell, taste, hear and learn first hand what tribal life is about. I thought it was a chance of a life time, and the family was so generous. Of course, but I also experienced cultural shock, and missing home because it is so different. I know that tribal life is a different matter because they are so close to nature that I'm envious, and so kind to everyone. Life is so simple in my terms in the village, but they ask for nothing more because really they have what the basic human needs are , which are food, water and shelter. I have a much different perspective from this visit.” Responding to Interactive session during the initial orientation program Katherine Pierson writes: “I liked these sessions because we got to actually leave the flat and go out to see where these people work and what they do. They were easily able to show us pictures, power point presentations, etc. because they had the resources right there in their office. These sessions were really good because they taught us specifically about what we would be doing on our individual projects, and allowed us to ask questions to better understand them.
FLOOD-HAVOC IN BIHAR: On the fateful day of July 29, 2007, flood water started spreading all over North Bihar. Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur, Saharsa, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Madhepura were the worst affected districts of the region. A huge loss of lives, properties, cattle and other belongings took place and the affected people were desperately waiting for relief for mere survival. Observing the intensity of the situation, the volunteers of Sewa Bharati took the initiative in providing immediate relief led by Deepak Kumar Sinha, Secretary and coordinator of Sewa Bharati.
It was resolved that for speedy and effective relief, volunteers from all the like minded organizations should work together. On 31st July, permanent relief centers started operating in six different localities of Darbhanga town. Displaced people in large number turned up at the relief centers and availed services like food, clothing, temporary shelter, medicines etc. Relief material was collected by the volunteers of Sewa Bharati through door to door collection from the society.
To review the ongoing rescue and relief work in the above mentioned flood affected areas, the important functionaries had a meeting on the 8th of August 2007 in the presence of Mr Chandra Mohan Roy, the Health Minister of Bihar. He appreciated the volunteers of Sewa Bharati for their exceptionally hard toil in serving the flood victims. He had a proposal for permanent rehabilitation in the area as the floods have been devastating the region almost annually. We are glad to inform that many NGOs joined the relief and rescue operations drawing motivation from the Sewa Bharati. Since more than 50,000 houses have been completely washed away by the flood water Sewa International with the help of other partner organizations are planning to build low cost houses on the highlands.
ORISSA FLOODS APPEAL, 2007: The flood situation in India this year has been the worst in the living memory, as stated by the United Nations. Sewa International is planning to take up the challenging task of rehabilitating flood victims of Orissa. Millions have been affected due to these severe floods and thousands have been rendered homeless. The most urgent needs include shelter and access to fresh water, food, emergency medical supplies and basic household items. Utkal Bipanna Sahayata Samiti (UBSS), a partner organization of SI is already engaged in providing succor to the flood affected by collecting the funds and material locally.
The two districts, which have been devastated due to the recent floods, are Balasore and Mayurbhanj, where over 600,000 people are affected. These two districts were hit by floods five times successively, first being on the 27th of July and the last on the 2nd of October 2007 in destroying over 5500 houses completely and damaging over 25000 houses.
Sewa International, in the first phase proposes to build low cost houses (As per Govt Norms) for at least 500 families depending upon the financial support that it receives from organizations as well as benevolent individuals. Each house will cost Rs 50,000/= (Fifty thousand). The total cost of constructing 500 houses with concrete roof, that is essential being a cyclone prone area, will cost Rs Twenty Five million.
Sewa International, Delhi has launched an appeal to help these hapless victims. SI will help the flood victims to bring back life to normal with the help of its partner organization in Orissa, the UBSS. Generous are requested to join hands in rehabilitating the flood affected through Sewa International.
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