Greetings!
In the month of June, when we are in the middle of a calendar year and almost one quarter into the financial year, the above subject is absurd. We are certainly behind schedule, but trying to catch up with our counterparts in the social sector and the corporate world.
This year in Himachal is crucial for us. While moving to Shimla, I had made a promise to myself, that I will be giving 3 years to establish Voice of Himachal. If this does not happen then I will quietly pack my bags and move out. Well I will be completing 2 years of my work in HP. Last year we registered as a not for profit society and have continued to operate and run HimVani from our pockets. We did few campaigns for our associate NGO’s in the last 2 years, however this year we want to go whole hog in our Development agenda.
We have defined for ourselves 4 thematic areas to work on this year and they are:
1. Adapting to climate change
2. Livelihoods promotion
3. Youth and Entrepreneurship
4. Information and Communication Technologies for Development
The programs which we have outlined for this year are:
1. Farmer awareness camps on climate change
Theme: Adapting to climate change
Climate change is an inevitable phenomenon which is going to effect every individual and more so the farmers whose livelihoods are directly linked to climatic conditions. We are already seeing the apple belt shifting upwards towards Spiti due to rising temperatures. Rajgarh valley which once used to be apple belt is not devoid of any apple cultivation. This will certainly bring up livelihoods issues for farmers in the near future. In this context, VOH in partnership with Indian Society for Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP) plans to conduct Farmer Awareness Programs in the rural areas of the state to make the farmers aware of the climatic changes and how they can start adapting to such changes. We plan to cover 500 farmers this year through this program.
2. Pine needle handicrafts project
Theme: Livelihoods promotion
For creating a sustainable source of livelihoods in the rural areas it is necessary that multiple sources of income generation are explored. Other then the agriculture sector, VOH this year will aim to catalyse a social enterprise, in the non – farm sector. This enterprise will focus on producing handicraft out of Pine needles widely available in Himachal Pradesh. For this purpose VOH in partnership with Kangra Mahila Sabha (KMS) will setup a Women’s Cooperative in District Kangra and a marketing company to promote the goods produced by the cooperative. Training of 100 women in this new craft form has already begun in Kangra. In addition we will bring in advisors and technical support from organisations such as BASIX to help us accelerate the implementation of the project.
3. Reader & Donor sponsored Journalism
Theme: ICT4D
HimVani.com has completed more then 3 years of successful online journalism. This year we plan to hire 2 full time professional who share the same ethos and values as we do. We want individuals who are willing to travel deep into the corners of state, work with our partner NGOs and bring out stories which generate debate and opinions. In addition HimVani newsletter in PDF and print version will be publishing to be circulated amongst the people and institutions which matter. Through this work we hope to generate a body of work which can feed our intelligentsia and our decision makers.
4. Barcamp movement
Theme: Youth and Entrepreneurship
A Barcamp is an informal event where every participant has to come prepared with an Idea to Share. Such camps are being organised all across the world to bring people together around ideas. The first Barcamp in Himachal being organised on 28th June 2009, hopes to bring together 100 odd people in Shimla from Himachal as well as other innovation hubs in the country. The focus of this camp is Technology and Entrepreneurship.
We hope that Barcamp in Himachal will give a platform to first generation entrepreneurs in the state to talk about their stories and share them with an audience consisting of students, professionals and entrepreneurs. The idea behind this event is to create a networking forum where professionals can come together on an annual or a biannual basis and interact and get to know each other.
Who knows such interactions may lead to germination of new ideas, seeding of initiatives and building up of an ecosystem to support new enterprises in our hill state.
5. Blood Donation Camps
Theme: Youth
Targeted at youth, this project is aimed at involving the youth in voluntary blood donation movement in the state. WHO guidelines suggest that the total number of units collected in a year by a blood bank representing a particular area should be at least 1% of the of population being served by that blood bank. Also the health of a donor is very important in maintaining the quality of the blood being collected.. However the blood banks in the state fail to collect even half the requirement of blood annually. Therefore this project aims to target people between the age group of 18 to 30. Two components to be covered in this project are
6. Awareness camps about Voluntary Blood Donations
Theme: Blood donation camps
On an average such a camp in an urban area will cost Rs 7000/- and in rural areas such camps will cost approximately Rs 12,000/-. Also we would like to experiment with various models to keep the cost of acquiring a donor’s to as low as possible so as to effectively utilise the donations we receive generously.
7. Scholarship’s for higher education of meritorious students
Theme: Youth
VOH this year will impart scholarships to meritorious students with economically disadvantaged backgrounds so as to give them an opportunity to continue their higher education. For this initiative VOH is partnering with Youth Enlightening the Society (YES) an NGO registered by few students in Shimla. The scholarships will be given after due diligence checks to done by volunteers of YES. In addition VOH, will partner with Prerna a Bangalore based NGO which runs a similar program in Karnataka to learn from them and adapt their best practices for Himachal Pradesh.
Resource mobilisation
To implement all the above programs in an effective manner we require a funding support of Rs 15 Lakh for this year. We hope to raise this money through donations, small grants from the government, donor agencies and cross subsidies from our partner NGO’s. The project wise break-up is as follows:
Heads Cost (Rs)
Farmer awareness programs 250000
Pine needle handicrafts project 320000
Reader & Donor sponsored Journalism 260000
Barcamp movement 70000
Blood Donation Camps 360000
Scholarship’s for higher education of meritorious students 180000
Total 1500000
Appeal
All of the above mentioned work will not be possible without like minded individuals coming together to support this initiative. We hope to associate with individuals who not only support us with money but also volunteer to help us raise funds through their network of friends and family.
Carpe diem !
Varun