News & Events

2nd August 2007


Episcopal Ordination of Rt. Rev. Lourdes Daniel – the new President of JVS After the transfer of Rt. Rev. Edwin Colaco, Bishop of Amravati and the President of JVS as the new Bishop of Aurangabad in October 2006, on 8th June 2007 Pope Benedict XVI appointed Msgr. Lourdes Daniel as the new Bishop of Amravati. The Episcopal Ordination of Msgr. Lourdes Daniel was held on 2nd August 2007 at Amravati at a meaningful and well-attended Religious Program. The JVS family welcomes the new Bishop of Amravati who is also the ex-officio President of Jeevan Vikas Sanstha and wishes him a very fruitful ministry at Amravati

3July 2007

JVS reaches out to the Flood victims of Amravati Distirct- The Civil District of Amravati (within the backward Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra) which comes under the Geographical area of our Organization received heavy monsoon rains after a gap of 4 years of continuous drought. Due to the continuous and very heavy torrential rains which began on 29th June 2007 the water level rose in a number of big and small rivers of the district. Heavy rains continued for 2 days till 1st July 2007. In less than 2 days time the district received 45% of the total monsoon rains of the year. In the meantime, by 30th June 2007 evening, most the low-lane areas in the district were under the floodwaters. And again, the villages situated in the riverbanks were very badly hit and very severely affected by the floodwaters. The floodwaters ran through about 50 of the worst affected villages for about 7 to 9 hours continuously, causing widespread destruction. There have been several human causalities, sweeping away of livestock in huge numbers and destroying of the agricultural fields. Thousands of mud-houses of the poor people of the affected villages have been completely washed away together with the household items such as utensils, stored grains, cloths, etc. In some villages the floodwaters ran through the mud houses of the people as high as 10 feet. As per the official report, in Amravati district 29 people had been washed away, livestock such as goats, cows, buffalos numbering over 2000 had been washed away, over 10,000 hectors of agricultural land had been totally destroyed, about 1,000 mud houses had been completely destroyed with all the house belongings such as cloths, utensils and grains and about 10,000 houses were badly damaged. Approximately about 2 lakh people were affected by the floods. JVS immediately swung into action and we organized ourselves to take up the relief programs. From 2nd July to 4th July 2007 our team visited some of the severely flood-affected villages and made a real need assessment of the kind of support the affected communities stood in need of. During the need-assessment field visits and interactions with the affected communities, it was found that the emerging needs of the victim families were kitchen and other daily-use utensils as they had already received some food grains from the Local Govt. administration. In the meantime, JVS was able to mobilize Rs. 500,000.00 from CASA and Rs. 400,000.00 from Caritas India to provide immediate relief to the flood victim families of Amravati district. From 4th July to 10th July 2007 JVS Relief Teams distributed Emergency Family kits containing essential food items, utensils and cloths items. As part of the Flood Relief Programs, JVS was able to provide family kits to 1154 flood victim families, provide medical assistance to 430 patients, to repair/renovate the mud houses of 38 flood victim families and to provide partial financial assistance for the repairs of Divya Jyoti Tribal Hostel at Chikaldara.

1st April 2007
JVS launches new projects- JVS launched 6 new Projects from 1st April 2007 to deal more effectively with the various developmental needs of the poor and the marginalized communities of the geographical area covered by JVS. These new projects are:

Sl. No Project Title Donor source Target area Project duration
1 Family Development Program Save A Family Plan India 258 BPL families in 6 tribal villages of Amravati District 1 year
2 Integrated Farmers Development Program Manos Undias, Spain 14 tribal villages in Zarijamni Taluka of Yavatmal district 3 years
3 Initiating Farmers Development Program Caritas India 15 rural villages in Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Washim and Yavatmal districts 8 months
4 Formation and strengthening of Self Help Groups NABARD, Pune 50 rural villages in Achalpur Taluka of Amravati District 3 years
5 Laity Empowerment Program Missio, Germany 20 villages in Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Washim and Yavatmal districts 3 years
6 Care & Support program for children living with HIV/AIDS CRS-Clinton Foundation 5 Talukas of Amravati District 5 years

With these newly launched projects JVS plans to cover about 100000 poor and marginalized population within the 5 Civil Districts of Amravati, Akola, Buldhana, Yavatmal and Washim of the backward Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra State

12th March 2007

Consultative meeting on the issue of Vidarbha Farmers suicides On 12th March 2007, a high level meeting of the Church Personnel involved with the development and humanitarian works of the 3 diocese of Vidarbha Region (Amravati, Chanda and Nagpur) was convened at Nagpur Archbishop’s house under the leadership of Archbishop Abraham of Nagpur. This meeting was also attended by the representatives of Caritas India, Action for Food Production – AFPRO and the Western Region Social Service Forum besides the diocesan director of social works of Amravati, Chanda & Nagpur. During this one-day meetings the pressing issue of the increasing number of suicides of the Vidarbha farmers was discussed at great length and various measures were planned to be taken up on an emergency basis to offer a meaningful response to this curb this issue. Planning of an emergency program to be taken up from 1st April 2007 to deal with the issue of Vidarbha Farmers is the outcome of this one-day meeting.

28th February 2007
JVS launches new website With the view to share more adequate and fast information with its Partners and Associates, JVS launched its new website. The website id is: www.ngojvsindia.org

February 2007

a new Award for JVS During the National Assembly of Caritas India partners held at Mumbai in the middle of February 2007, the Annual Report 2005-2006 of JVS was given the best Annual Report’s Award for the Western Region consisting of Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat by Caritas India. The award consisted of Rs. 5,000.00 in cash and a memento. On behalf of the Organization, Fr. Jolly Puthenpura the Executive Director of Jeevan Vikas Sanstha received the Award at Mumbai.

30th January 2007
JVS organized a 1-day Training on Integrated Village Development Concept & Human Trafficking issues for 95 Sarpanches (village heads) of 3 Blocks of Achalpur, Chikadara and Dharni in Amravati District. Mr. Sanjay Patil - Superintendent of Police Amravati District, Mr. Gudewar - Project Officer Amravati District Rural Development Agency, Mr. A P Gavai - Block Development Officer Achalpur and Mr. Popatrau Pawar - Sarpanch of ideal village of Hirve Bazar of Ahemednagar District were the resource persons of this successfully conducted 1-day training.

10th December 2006:
Human Rights Day was celebrated at JVS Training Centre at Paratwada. Police Patils and college students numbering 120 people had a 1-day training on Human Rights Issues with a special focus on the Human Rights violation involved with human trafficking. Mr. Krushna Prakash, the Superintendent of Police of Amravati District was the chief guest of the program.

1st December 2006
World HIV/AIDS Day was celebrated by JVS with special HIV/AIDS Rallies at Amravati City and at Morshi Block headquarters. Over 1000 College Youth and Adults took part in the Rallies

1st October 2006
JVS launched its first Anti-human trafficking Project program in 50 villages of Achalpur Block in Amravati District. This program includes Awareness raising and conscientization among the village communities, high school and college students, Sensitizing the village Women Groups, Forming Village and Block Level Vigilance Committees, etc. This project is being financed by Catholic Relief Services, Mumbai Office.

August-September 2006
JVS undertook a major Relief and Rehabilitation Program for the victims affected by the monsoon floods of Yavatmal, Buldhana and Washim Districts. About 1500 families badly-hit by the floods were assisted with food materials, cloths, utensils, learning materials for the school going children, village cleaning and medical camps, livelihood restoration activities such as seed fairs, distribution of agricultural seeds etc. This program was funded by Caritas India and Catholic Relief Services.

August 2006
JVS' Family Sponsorship Program was further extended to include 150 new tribal beneficiary families of 4 tribal villages within the Dharni Block of Amravati District. This program includes: educational and medical support to the families, starting of various viable Income Generation Programs, improving the housing conditions, etc

April-August 2006
JVS undertook a major Relief and Rehabilitation Program for the victims of hailstorm - the vulnerable tribal communities within in 14 tribal villages of Chikaldara Block in Amravati District. The program included: providing housing materials - 10 to 12 each iron sheets - to 760 affected tribal families for re-building their houses, Livelihood Restoration programs - providing of one each female goats to 296 tribal families and providing of agricultural seeds to 350 affected tribal families. This program was funded by Manos Unidas, Caritas India and Church's Auxiliary for Social Action.

1st April 2006

JVS launched a Rural Community Development program in 20 rural villages in Washim District. The program includes: Awareness Creation & Capacity building of the target communities, Formation and Promotion of Community Based and Peoples' Organizations such as Village Women Self Help Groups, Farmers Groups, Youth Groups and linking these groups with the Banks for availing Govt. Schemes, Providing Vocational Trainings - Cutting and Tailoring - for school drop-out young girls, conducting various personality development trainings for school going children and youth, etc

8th November 2005
His Excellency Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana - the Apostolic Nuncio to India - visited JVS Office and blessed the newly constructed Administrative Block of JVS. To mark His Excellency's visit a memorable event for JVS on this day a new CD Documentation of JVS Programs was released by him. On this day, His Excellency also inaugurated an Income Generation Program at Chikaldara Tribal village for the benefit of 150 tribal women of 6 tribal villages within the Melghat Tribal Area.

1st  October 2005
JVS launched its first 3-year District level HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Program in Amravati District. The program includes: Awareness Creation and Conscientization on HIV/AIDS among the rural communities and among the high school and college students, conducting HIV/AIDS poster exhibitions, organizing HIV/AIDS Rallies, organizing voluntary testing camps for suspected HIV cases, offering counseling services to the HIV positive people and their families, etc.

1st October 2005
JVS started the implementation of the 2nd phase of the 3-year Tribal Community Development program in its Borala Local Social Centre. This program covers 25 tribal villages within the Melghat Tribal Region of Amravati District.