A bus shelter at Shettyhalli constructed through the collaborative efforts of Myrada and the Taluka Panchayath. The integrated rural development project at Myrada.

Namma Dhwani – the voice of the local people, is an experiment in broadcasting using local talent and efforts. This weekly sandy organized right in front of the Namma Dhwani Office is a regular recipient of their messages.

 
PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE PERIOD April 2002 to March 2003

Background

EZE, now called EED, has been a partner on this project from 1983. The present phase which ends in December 2003 is the final phase in partnership with EZE. During this period the project has been concentrating on completing ongoing activities, moving into a self-sustaining supportive mode through establishing Community Resource Centres, and expanding its presence in the district through partnering in a larger World Bank funded watershed project (SUJALA) where it is the district level Lead NGO.

Funding Partners

In the current year they include

• EED Germany.

• SUJALA (World Bank-Government of Karnataka) Watershed Programme.

• UNESCO (for Namma Dhwani, a community radio project) .

• SOSVA for (Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy, ISM&H).

Staffing

From a total of 41 staff at the beginning of the phase in 1998, the Project has reduced its staff strength to 17, supported by EZE, as on March 2003. In addition, 7 staff have been employed under SUJALA, to carry out the functions expected of the Lead NGO. Therefore there are 24 fulltime staff on the project.

Major Activities

Local Level Institutions

The Project is working with 227 SAGs, 62 Watershed Associations, and 3 watershed federations. During the year, the focus continued on linking the CBOs (Community Based Organisations) to banks for financial assistance as well as on completing the EZE-funded activities with the involvement of the CBOs. 89 SAGs were given working capital of Rs.2,851,500 and 25 WDAs were assisted with working capital of Rs.974,960 from the Project to complete the EZE-funded activities. 59 SAGs were linked to banks for financial assistance to the tune of Rs.2,579,000. Basic financial details of SAGs at at March 2003 are as follows :

In the current year, the Project also established 4 Community Resource Centres, which is recent strategy in the step towards greater sustainability, where sustainability is defined as “not to keep going but to keep growing”. Each Resource Centre (RC) has an Advisory Committee, an office located in a central place, is equipped with computer, telephone, e-mail, etc. Each RC has an RC Manager and the support of trained CRPs (Community Resource Persons). The centres are developing a range of functions and services. Presently they are providing training, counselling, information, and secretarial support to their member CBOs. Each CBO contributes a fixed fee, in addition to which service charges are paid for services received.

Watershed Development and Management

During the year, treatment activities were taken up in 60 micro-catchments. Common land works were financed as grants, with people’s contributions for some part of the works. For activities on private lands, the Watershed Associations were given working capital that could be revolved to help farmers to complete the work in a phased manner. During the year around 3,800 acres were treated. In addition to the treatment structures, components like vermi-composting, silt application, horticulture and bund plantations were adopted in the watersheds.

On account of its experience in participatory watershed development and capacity building, Myrada has been selected as Partner NGO at State level under the GoK-World Bank SUJALA Project. In Kolar District, the Project has been selected as Lead NGO, which entails supervisory and capacity building responsibilities towards the Field NGOs who will be implementing the programmes.

Vocational Training and Income Generation

Through the SAGs, over 1,000 loans have been advanced for village industries and petty business enterprises. Besides this, skills training programmes for mat weaving (in Dinnahalli) and cloth weaving (in Doddakalavanchi and Bodagurki) were taken up with support from NABARD.

Cloth Weaving Centre

The two earlier established handloom weaving centres continued to function well. In February 2003, a 3rd batch of training was completed for 10 women. 6 women got membership with KHDC Kolar, for raw material supply and buy back of finished goods. They are working together as a production centre.

Mat Weaving Centre

A mat weaving centre was started through Nethra Mahila Okkuta (one of the SHG federations). There are 10 looms in use. Raw materials and marketing arrangements are being taken up by KHDC, Kolar and a private agency in Tamil Nadu.


Infrastructure Development

During the year, 39 new houses were constructed and 9 houses were repaired by SAG members on loans from their SAGs. 60 bathroom-cum-toilets, 5 community halls and 2 bus shelters were completed.

Health Activities

Towards creating a cleaner and healthier kitchen environment the Project is promoting the use of smokeless stoves and cooking gas. In the current year, 59 smokeless stoves and 27 LPG connections were taken up.

Sponsored by SOSVA (Society for Support to Voluntary Agencies), a programme on Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy (ISM&H) is ongoing. The focus is on awareness about medicinal plants, development of herbal gardens, and yoga classes for school children.

Training Activities

305 training programmes were conducted during the year for CBOs, book writers and community resource persons. In addition, trainings for Stree Shakthi SAGs in the project area were also conducted on request from the Women and Child Development Department. The Project’s Training Centre is establishing itself as a CIDOR (Centre for Institutional Development and Organisational Reform) and is regularly engaged in conducting training programmes for other (non-Myrada) institutions.

Namma Dhwani Information Centre

As part of improving information communication in rural areas, the Project is engaged in a pilot initiative in collaboration with VOICES (and UNESCO). Under this programme the 9 SAGs of Boodikote village have formed Namma Dhwani (ND) a group that manages and runs a narrow casting and cable casting programme. The programme has a well equipped recording station, computers, printer, cameras, photocopier, etc. It now has cable connection in the village and school and is able to narrow cast its programme daily for 2 hours. ND has 3 trained staff (local people) to run the centre and several volunteers to help in the production of the programmes. So far they have recorded 408 programmes of which 204 have been narrowcast and several have been taken and aired by All India Radio. Children, youth and interested people come to the centre regularly to learn to surf the net and browse.

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