Empowering Villages in Rural India

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Seva Mandir!

I would like to communicate our heartiest thanks to all our donors, friends and well wishers for supporting our Village Institution Program. Your support and faith in our work is very encouraging.

I have been working in this program for the past fifteen years. My work has allowed me to gain an insight into the development process. The communities we work with are slowly but impressively taking responsibilities of their own development, which has been a very gratifying experience for me. This month I would like to share with you an inspiring story – the story of village Jabla. The Village has recently dealt with the problem of education for their children and the village committee has played an instrumental role in solving the problem.

In Jabla the children were not able to continue their education beyond primary school since there was no Upper Primary School in their village itself. The children either had to walk 13 kms to attend Upper Primary School or discontinue with their education after finishing Primary School. The girl children were the most affected by this. The village committee discussed the issue in many of their village-meetings and finally they all decided to raise the issue in the Panchayat (the local village council) with support of Seva Mandir. The village-committee demanded for an Upper Primary School in their village but the Sarpanch (leader at local council) informed them that he does not have enough legislature power to grant it. He suggested writing to the District Education Officer for this. The committee decided to go ahead with his suggestion and they got him to forward their application to the concerned officer. It took them a number of months including writing several letters to the Education Department. Finally the Department agreed to upgrade the existing Primary School to an Upper Primary School. They also sanctioned another four rooms in the school to meet the demand of growing number of school children. Currently the village is waiting for an approval of a Primary Health Center and construction of a road in their village from the Government.

There are many villages like Jabla where communities have realized the significance of their agency We are grateful to all our donors and friends who are helping communities like Jabla. "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts" - Albert Einstein

Many thanks once again. Kindly contact me at yakub.khan@sevamandir.org in case of any queries and suggestions.

With regards,

Sincerely,

Mohd. Yakub Khan In Charge, Village Institution Program