FRIENDS SOCIETY

1. Friends society has been engaged in providing immediate relief in Kutch post- January 26th. Our initial efforts have been in the fields of medical and social rehabilitation etc. We are aware, that despite the efforts of hundreds of agencies like ourselves, private institutional and governmental ones, the reach has not really been enough.
   
2. It has been generally seen that some of the relief operators have got tired and are pulling out and others too are in the process of doing so for various reasons.
   
3. At such a stage our stepping in with renewed efforts to do whatever we can within the scope of our capacity will mitigate to a great extent the sad & unfortunate situation that the people of Kutch are going to have to face in the near future.

OBJECTIVES This proposal seeks to justify the need for FS to step in, in what so ever small a way, to help an identified group re-establish itself economically.

AIMS To achieve the above objectives it is proposed to:-

1. Identify a group that is within the scope of FS to help.
   
2. Study their short term and long term needs.
   
3. Arrange finances for the same.
   
4. Arrange expertise to manage finances and economic rehabilitation work.
   
5. Assist the target group to plan their own rehabilitation package to suit their community and other local environmental needs.
   
6. Set in place a monitoring apparatus for short-term faithful utilisation of funds, and for effective recycling of the funds for long-term educational / developmental needs.
   
7. Facilitate FS to hand over and withdraw in a phased manner.
   

1. To provide tools to a group of craftsmen.
   
2. To provide sheep / goats to families.

However, the breakout of foot and mouth disease in Rajasthan cancelled out option (b) and so it was decided to concentrate on providing tools to the people of a crafts village who had all their tools destroyed.

Representatives of various organisations that have worked in Kutch were approached to help identify a small group of people who could be helped. The only organisation to respond with a suggestion was Gujarat Nature Conservation Society (GNCS), which suggested Bhujodi.

BHUJODI :- A village of approximate 1200 persons whose main occupation is weaving and embroidery apart from other sundry and related crafts.

Weaving is done by Harijans and embroidery by Rabaris.

Though a strained relationship was found between communities in other villages, it is interesting to note that here a beautifully symbiotic relationship exists with neither community making a decision without first consulting the other.

AIM I :-

BHUJODI WAS IDENTIFIED ON THE FOLLOWING BASIS :-

The village has extremely strong leadership in both the Wanker / Harijan and Rabari communties. Both leaders and groups live in complete harmony. A ready core group exists in the village with / through whom FS can implement its scheme.

Some years ago Vishramjibhai Wanker, a weaver, won the national award for development of design, after which the Wanker family set up an industrial training centre supported by a Rs 5 lac grant from the Government but managed and run by the family- named handloom design centre to encourage and train the people in their crafts. A retail centre for the village crafts is also run by them.

The communities are also aware of the importance of education for progress for which they started a school with a hostel so as to facilitate education of the nomadic rabari children .

Bhujodi has not received / taken funds / assistance from anyone so far.

As one knows the Kutchis are a self- reliant proud people to whom taking dole is unacceptable.

To overcome this, whatever scheme is proposed has to be extremely sensitive to their nature.(Hence the nature of the proposed scheme is not a dole but a loan).

Another important factor in the choice of Bhujodi is GNCS�s (the Baroda based NGO which has worked in that area) readiness and willingness to assist FS in establishing positive communications with these communities.

All the above make Bhujodi an ideal target group for FS to reach out to.

AIM II :-

SHORT TERM -  The village lives on agriculture, dairy and textile crafts. Looms have been destroyed and approximately 125 looms are needed to completely rehabilitate the community. The Wankers are engaged in spinning the yarn and weaving the textile, the Rabaris do the embroidery work. In order to keep this harmonious group usefully, symbiotically and healthily engaged in their work, re-establishing the looms without further delay should be seen as priority No 1. It stands to reason that there would have been other work tools and equipment that were also damaged/destroyed. It also stands to reason that at such a time liquid funds would be hard to come by for individual weavers. A calamity of such a scale usually ensures that.

Upon checking with the village leaders it has been established that on an average, Rs 8000/- per loom would be sufficient to re-establish a family taking care of the loom, other tools and parts like bobbins, shuttles etc, and initial funds to resource raw material needed.

Assistance in sale of produce could also be provided by FS. Baroda is a large market, a number of festival will be approaching. FS could assist marketing the communities� crafts through organisation of exhibitions / sales.

LONG TERM -  By helping the group set up a developmental / educational trust formed by the money recovered from the loan so as to ensure that their future educational or any other developmental requirements too are provided for.

AIM III :-

 For the 125 looms @ Rs 8000/- per loom the total amount required works out to Rs 10,00,000/-. (Rs. 10 lacs). Today FS has Rs 2 lacs available in its earthquake relief fund, so a balance amount of Rs 8 lacs would have to be raised, which is proposed to be met through an appeal to people to support 1 or more looms. It may be noted that an initial feeler approach was met with tremendous enthusiasm. An Appeal for raising funds for this purpose is attached herewith.

AIM IV :- 

 This would not pose much of a problem as 2 banks with modern facilities are operating at MADHAPAR, just 8 km from BHUJODI.

AIM V :- 

As mentioned earlier, the communities have a strong symbiotic relationship with Vishramjibhai Wanker and Ramjibhai Rabari being the main leaders. Joint decision-making is a way of life for them that has ensured transparency in guiding the public affairs of the village.

Thus our task simply boils down to providing them interest free loans, for specific periods. The two leaders are competent enough to plan the phased re-commissioning of looms, production, marketing etc.

Here we might need to assist, or need the assistance of, the target group, in order to :-

1. Understand their relationships.
   
2. Design the package / quantum of minimum / maximum assistance to each group.
   
3. Decide whether the entire resources are procured in bulk and then distributed or a phased programme is adopted.
   
4. See if any special conditions exist anywhere to warrant deviation, and to what extent.
   

 At FS we have realised that education, formal / non-formal, forms the roots of development / progress. Let us propose a mechanism to recycle the funds to ultimately meet some small and continuing educational / developmental needs of the community. This has however, to be managed and run by them. They are best qualified to understand their compulsions and needs, and we have already seen their will to improve and their cooperative spirit, so we need have no qualms on that account. It would be profitable for both parties if FS could keep in touch with the village giving its ideas and inputs for the better development of this developmental / educational trust, but this aspect is not absolutely essential.

It would be pertinent to mention here that the target group would themselves, without any monitoring, ensure timely repayment of the loans, due to :-

1. Their strong character and self esteem. 
2. The realisation that the money refunded by them is going into the educational / developmental needs of their own community.
   

 All our efforts shall be monitored by one representative, not so much from the point of view of sitting in judgement of correctness of the working of the village committee in charge as ensuring that this entire exercise translates into :-

1. A holding of hands.
   
2. Fulfillment of our objectives.
   

In short, FS should help them to help themselves.

COURSE OF ACTION

1. FS members would be in touch with village elders of Bhujodi and initially get the list of 20 beneficiaries to whom loom have to be provided.
   
2. The basic modus operandi would be :-
   
   1. Prepare a demand draft of Rs. 8000/- on the name of each beneficiary, from Dena Bank, Vadodara, payable at Dena Bank, Madhapar. (Here, it may be mentioned that Dena Bank, R.V. Desai Road Branch, Vadodara, has agreed to waive off the commission charges on the DD)
      
   2. A development account would be opened and operated by the village elders.
      
   3. The repayment would be done by the beneficiaries into the development account.
      
3. Appeals to be sent to ex FS members, especially those abroad, to support one or more looms, in order to raise the funds. The appeal could also be sent out to any / all sources of funds.
   
4. Time is at a premium in all relief / rehabilitation work. This is more true in Bhujodi since the carpenters and other associated workers are staying in Bhujodi now. After some time, they would migrate out in search of work. If this happens, the result would be :-
   
   1. Lack of efficient workers to re-commission the looms. ( carpenters from outside Bhujodi would neither have the expertise nor the sense of involvement).
      
   2. The estimated expenditure of Rs 8000/- per loom would be inadequate.
      
5. Hence FS should commence the work within its own resources straightaway, say by financing 20 looms.
   
6. This would have the following benefits :-
   
   1. Immediate relief work would be triggered off.
      
   2. Our credibility would be established in the community.
      
   3. potential donors would be more enthusiastic to send in funds.