Swadhina

A joyous journey-together, a journey worth taking.

We tell this story to all who come to our office for the first time...It all began nineteen years ago in a small, very small room in Calcutta (Kolkata) - barely accommodating three people at a time, a few rupees in hand and some energetic people wanting to make a difference. And that is where was born - Swadhina.

Those were hard times - two broken typewriters and two tables; there were times when there was no provision or luxury to have new, fresh paper and so used envelopes and folders were torn open so that the empty spaces could be used for office work. For months there was no salary but smiles and dreams remained intact.

Slowly but steadily Swadhina programmes expanded to wider areas. What began as rural camps in a localised manner gradually culminated into concrete activities like Non-formal Education centres, Environment Programmes, skill trainings from 1989 onwards, spreading to areas like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka. From 1991 onwards Health was brought into the programme agenda through Health Education Promotion Effort. In the year 1993 work began in areas of Bihar, beginning with establishment of NFE centres. Much expansion took place in the year 1994 when a new project in Orissa was started, entitled: "Orissa Women and Child Development Programme". At Kanyakumari, a Tailoring Training unit was developed in this year. Another very effective programme namely "Orissa Health and Cultural Regeneration Programme" was developed and initiated in the year 1995 stressing on the health needs of women and reviving old cultural values in the tribal areas. A programme for the self-reliance of tribal women was initiated at Midnapore and Bankura area of West Bengal in the year 1999. This apart 30 rural libraries have been formed at Rayagada, Dhenkanal, Mayurbhanj of Orissa. Rural libraries are also functional at 20 places in Kanyakumari.

From the year 2002, a new area has been selected for work and a new dimension has been developed. In the newly formed state of Jharkhand, ten villages have been identified for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security programme. The aim is to provide a stable economic situation and Providing food security so that the women face lesser hardships in maintaining the families during unfriendly economic situation and also to ensure that their LifeStyle is improved in the process.

We believe that women's organization has a three-tier approach :

- Identification of issues relating to development of women at the micro as well as macro level.

- Awareness training and formation of women's groups around those issues, initiate participative self-reliance efforts, and,

- Handing over the organizational and functional work to those people- based groups.

Area: On these lines of development interaction we are working in four states of the country, where Swadhina has her full-time staff co-Ordinators, namely, in Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. Following is the village-based pattern of involvement - Tamil Nadu in 20 villages, - Orissa in 100 villages, spread over in 3 districts, - West Bengal in 30 villages, - Bihar in 20 villages, and 15 slums in the city of Calcutta.

Activities: Swadhina works through over these 185 Women's Groups and also through 170 Non formal Education Centers for children which also act as action centers. It also conducts field level trainings on skill enhancement, peace/value education and development orientation, for other organizations.

Funding: Swadhina is funded by local friends and overseas grants. The overseas friends may send in their financial support to our Bank Account in India or through KurveWustro Account in Germany.

Affiliation: At the International level Swadhina is affiliated with the WRI- War Resisters' International, UK At the National level Swadhina is affiliated with NAVA- Networking Alliance for Voluntary Actions, India.

Offices: Main/Administrative Office Swadhina 34/C Bondel Road Calcutta (Kolkata) 700019, INDIA Telephones: 0091 33 22470934 / 22406244 Fax: 0091 33 22470934

Programme Office: Swadhina (Ground Floor) 107/F Dr. G. S. Basu Road, Calcutta (Kolkata) 700039 Telephone: 0091 33 23449504

Documentation Office: Swadhina (Ground Floor) 2A, B D Second Lane East End Park, Calcutta (Kolkata) 700039 Telephone: 0091 33 23442885

E-mail (s): swadhina@vsnl.com , mainoffice@swadhina.org