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‘A Whole Village Going Organic'

Bhatel, a small v illage of 50 households, is located 5kms away from the block head quarter of M. Rampur in Kalahandi District of Odisha in India. The Madhyam Foundation has been nurturing a cooperative of women vegetable growers for enhancing their livelihood security with support of AWO International. In Bhatel the project is implemented by the Madhyam Foundation in collaboration with a local NGO partner called Mahashakti Foundation.

27 women vegetable growers of the village are members of the Basumata Vegetable Growers’ Cooperative promoted by the project. One of the main focuses of the project was to persuade the women growers to adopt organic ways of cultivation. Before the project intervention the whole village was using costly chemical manure and pesticides in its cultivation practices. Through a series of trainings and demonstrations on the preparation of organic manure and pesticides from cow dung, cow urine and leaves of specific plants, the women growers gradually adopted organic methods of cultivation. The previously substantial amount spent on chemical fertilizer and pesticides came down to almost zero, thereby increasing the growers’ profit margin. Incidences of plant disease became a thing of the past.

Farewell and Welcome, Friends of Sankhu!

AWO Internati onal’s long-term partnership with the Nepalese NGO ‘Friends of Sankhu’ (FOS) ended in December 2011. To bid farewell officially, a meeting was held recently at FOS’ central office in Sankhu where both organizations exchanged letters of appreciation. Together with AWO International FOS was implementing the project ‘Community Development through Social Mobilisation’ (CDSM) from April 2003 until December 2011 in the four Village Development Committees (VDC) of Fatakshila, Deupur, Bansbari and Bhimtar in Nepal’s Sindhupalchowk and Kavre Districts.

The project aimed to empower rural women in these VDCs, bringing them under the umbrella of first micro-credit groups and then effective cooperatives. More than 2.200 women have thus been brought together in four cooperatives.

Former AWO International partner Maharashtra Arogya Mandal receives prestigious award for its health work

AWO International’s long-term Indian partner Maharashtra Arogya Mandal (MAM) received the prestigious ‘Dr. Aanadibai Joshi’ award from the government of Maharashtra for its health work. MAM was founded in 1960 with the aim to provide better health services to poor and marginalised sections of Indian society. MAM started with a small ambulance but meanwhile maintains a 250-bed non-profit hospital in Pune, where it produces its own aryurvedic medicine, trains nurses and conducts research in the areas of preventive medicine and sickle cell anaemia. In the hilly Bhimashankar region of Maharashtra MAM works towards improving the livelihood of the local adivasi groups. MAM specialists provide trainings to villagers in this sparse and dry region for the construction of various kinds of water development structures, for strengthening village institutions, establishing new income opportunities etc. In Bhimashankar, MAM also raises awareness about health-related issues such as family planning, and informs about sickle cell anaemia, a genetic disease, which is common to the region.

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