FRIENDS SOCIETY

AN APPEAL

Bhujodi� is a village with approximately 1200 persons engaged mainly in crafts, especially in weaving and embroidery. The earthquake on January 26, 2001 not only destroyed their homes but also their tools, taking away the means of their source of income.

About 125 looms @ Rs. 8000/- each is required to put the village back on its feet.

Friends Society (FS), intends, with your help to give them the required amount in the form of an interest-free loan. The recovered amount will subsequently go into forming the corpus of an Educational Trust which we will help set-up. This trust will, however, be run and managed by the village elders for the benefit of the youth of Bhujodi village.

We appeal to you to donate generously and quickly towards one or more looms�each day�s delay is 24 hours of painful frustration to the Bhujodis.

SOME RELEVANT POINTS:

Weaving by the Harijans; Embroidery by the Rabaris and the Ahirs. Both communities live in complete harmony. In fact, neither will take a decision without consulting the others.
Vishramjibhai Vankar, a weaver, is a recipient of the Presidents� National Award for Development in Design.
After above achievement, he organised the villagers to set up an Industrial Training Centre with the support of a government grant, run by the people. To teach their crafts.
Vishramjibhai�s son, Shyamjibhai, opened a retail centre for the village in his house. It may be noted that Shrujan�s office is situated in Bhujodi, but they are not involved with the village weavers.
The village constructed a primary school with a hostel to facilitate education of the Rabari children. Out of the 350 houses prior to the earthquake, only 7 stand today, and these too are seriously damaged. When Vishramjibhai and Ramjibhai (the latter, a Rabari elder), were approached with help for reconstruction, the former, speaking for the whole village declined saying, � Help us with means to earn, and we will ourselves set-up our village��

These are the people we want to help!

Cheques may be made in favour of �Friends Society� specifying that it is towards "Earthquake Relief" in the covering letter, and mailed to:

Friends Society,
Abbas Tyabji Road,
Fatehgunj,
Vadodara - 390 002,
Gujarat, INDIA.

Email 1: [email protected]
Email 2: [email protected]
Phone nos.: +91(265)791 629, +91(265)781 896

Our bank accounts are:

(a) FCRI
A/C No. 2556
Indian Bank
Fatehgunj,
Vadodara 390 002
India

(b) LOCAL
A/C No. 7809
Bank of India
Fatehgunj,
Vadodara 390 002
India

Incidentally, all remittances in India are exempt from Income Tax under Section 80 (G).

We have already taken the first step by sponsoring 20 looms with our limited resources. We hope you will support this endeavour.

Thank you!

Once A Friend , Always A Friend

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