Though almost all the children in the area attend school in accordance with the statutory requirements, the quality of the education in the area is visible from the fact that less than 5% of the students from the area qualify on merit basis for professional courses. This indicates the big gap that exists between the students of the target area and the students attending private schools of high standard. This gap has to be filled in through strategically planned professional trainings, personality development sessions and professional guidance in career selection and higher education. It is with this vision Samhathi has identified education as one of three major components of Samhathi-Vision 2025 Project (SV9).

PROBLEM IN FOCUS: Lack of quality education failing the children and youth of the area in reaching rewarding careers since several generations.

AIM: Enable 48000 school-going students, 27000 university students and 15000 youth in the next ten years to reach global standards and explore opportunities at global level through strategically planned professional trainings and support systems.

MEASURES

1. Setting up of exclusive HRD Department consisting three Units – 1. Soft Skills & Talent Grooming Unit, 2. Career and Higher Education Unit and 3. Placement and Overseas Education Unit managed by HR Professionals.
2. Three-tier training system – Village, Zonal and Central – with three phased out training modules, each lasting three years.
3. Collaborate arrangements with Human Resource training companies / institutions, overseas education & placement agencies and financial & technical institutions are part of the efforts to help the target groups reach their goals.
4. Well equipped training facilities in various parts of the target area, with Zonal level coordination teams in each area.

Though the people in the area are basically hard working, they never reached anywhere close to self-reliance as the never-ending debt-cycle designed and promoted by money lenders and middlemen remains strongly enslaving. Therefore, the need to develop both human and financial resources of the target area is vital for its long term development. A people-controlled financial resource management system is in the making in all the 80 villages through the extensive SHG networking promoted by Samhathi in the area since 2000. A ‘People’s Banking’ system has emerged over the years and SV9 Project has identified this as a key area of activity to move it on to the next orbit of professional banking with microfinance as the basis.

PROBLEMS IN FOCUS:

1. Though resources of various nature and potential were always at hand, the target area failed miserably in making use and develop them to overcome the socio-economic and educational backwardness they lived with for several generations.
2. Human resource in the area still remains largely unrefined and underutilized.
3. The financial resources of the area have been controlled by crooked money lenders and middlemen who charged 36 to 120% interest on loans they issue.

AIMS:

1. Refine and enhance the quality of the human resources in the area through various measures to optimum productive utilization.
2. Promote a people-centered and controlled new system of financial resources management to pave way for financial liberation and future development.

MEASURES:

1. Restructure the already existing SHG network based informal banking activities into formal banking system with microfinance as its basis of operation.
2. Centralize the four tier operational levels – the SHG, the Sangham, the Zonal and the Central levels - and introduce various saving schemes, eight type borrowing schemes, including home equipping and house repair loans, chit funds, various deposit schemes and special schemes for school-level and higher education to cater to the financial needs of the target population.
3. Tie up and collaborative arrangements with private as well as public financial institutions, governmental departments/institutions, IT Companies, fair trade organizations etc for resource mobilization and management.
4. Set in motion the internal management system under professionals supported by core banking and data management system, in par with any standard banking systems in operation.
5. Setting up of HRD Department at Central level with Zonal and Sangham level units to refine and utilize the human resources in the area to reach optimum levels of performance for their productive development.

Prevention is always better than expensive treatment-based cure. Along with the already existing health care programs like Community Based Palliative Care Project, Psychiatric Care Unit, Lypmhatic Filariasis Clubs and Children’s Health Care, massive awareness generating activities are part of the SV9 Project to enable people to embrace more preventive health measures. Naturopathy as well as Ayurveda are identified as appropriate vehicles to reach this destination. Though high quality medical treatment is available in the nearby cities, very few in the area can afford the same and so in collaboration with a health insurance company, each of the 70000 families are given health insurance coverage of Rs. 2.00,000 to enable them to make use the quality treatment available in private hospitals in the nearby cities. All the health care activities of SV9 Project are planned and executed based on the 15-year long experience Samhathi has had in the health scenario of the area since 2000.

PROBLEMS IN FOCUS:

1. 20 to 30% of the income of the target families are spent for medicines and medical treatments.
2. The high incidence of cancer and other serious health problems in the area poses threat to its overall development.
3. Preventive measures and less expensive yet equally effective naturopathy and ayurveda system of health care are not made use to address the serious health problems in the area.
4. Lack of access to modern health care system cripples the general health of the target population.

AIMS:

1. Reduce the alarmingly high incidence of deadly diseases in the area to 30 to 40% in the next three years.
2. Provide better health care to 2000 terminally sick, 800 psychiatric patients and 540 Filariasis patients by improving the quality of health care given to them since 2008.
3. Introduce a health insurance that would enable the target population of 70000 families to access advanced health care available in private hospitals.

ACTION PLAN:

1. Popularize naturopathy and ayurveda system of health care in all the 80 villages both to cut down the average expenditure on health care as well as to introduce health care system with less after effects.
2. Equip the already existing mobile health care units with advanced health care equipments as well as introduce more such units into service and reach out to the entire area on a more frequent basis.
3. Massive health awareness building activities to empower the target population to overcome the lack of awareness about basics of health care.
4. Introduce a health insurance that would give adequate coverage to the people to seek treatment at advanced health care facilities.