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.
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.