Jahresbericht von Father Jacob (in Englisch)

Report on Samhathi-India’s activities in 2020

I. Introduction

The main issue we had to deal with was the Covid-19 related problems in our villages since March 2020 to this day. Since we are not yet able to wind up works connected to this pandemic, we are only providing updated information on what has been done so far and what we are intending to do in the months ahead. The education promotion activities were badly hit as we have not been able to conduct trainings or hold meetings connected to our activities as school level students up to Class Nine are still not allowed to be gathered in groups be it in the schools or otherwise. Yet Samhathi-India teams in various villages provided support in attending online classes by getting access to internet connection and related issues as some of our villages do not have steady access to internet services.

II. Program Based Activities

1. People’s Organizations (POs)

a) SHG network:  Number of SHGs have come down to 1270 with about 12700 families benefitting from their activities.

b) OFSHGs: It is still remaining 1300 with about 13000 families benefitting but more or less these groups are functioning independently and so their data is often not forming part of Samhathi-India’s activities since one year.

2. Education Development

Education-Career & Lifeline Program: All the education development activities have been brought under one program called Education-Career and Lifeline Program (ECL Program) for better coordination and results. There are nearly 30000 students participating directly or indirectly in this huge Program aiming lasting development of our entire target area through various education related activities. The activities under the ECL Program are as follows:

  1. My Indian Child Project: There are 41 students under Phase I of this project while 63 students are supported under Phase II by Samhathi- Austria. Even though gatherings are restricted due to Covid, we had four gatherings of these students and their parents at various occasions during 2020.
  2. Children’s Clubs and Youth Clubs: These two entities are now under a frozen state due to Covid and so there were not any activities by them, except that of extending support to its members in accessing online classes.
  3. Higher Education Centre: This has four divisions namely:
    a) Training Centre: This Centre takes care of Human Resource Development Trainings (HR Trainings) as well as academic trainings, including language trainings. Currently 21 students are undergoing training in German language, English language and HR trainings to go to Germany and UK for professional studies and job. This is a great service Samhathi is rendering to these students and nurses from poor families and communities like fisher folk. Samhathi’s People’s Bank provides necessary education loan support to them in managing the financial requirements.
    b) Career Guidance Centre: Already four sessions have been given to 870 students even amidst the Covid situation in this regard. There is big demand for Samhathi’s career guidance sessions and so we hope to organize many more once this covid situation is over.
    c) Professional Education Promotion Centre: Those obtaining the services of Training Centre and Career Guidance Centre are helped to choose from a variety of opportunities in professional education all over the world through this Centre  and they are given all necessary support to apply to various universities/institutes, undergo various required trainings, processing of documents etc by this Centre.
    d) Global Placement Bureau: This is still in the formation stage and will commence activities by the end of 2021.

3. People’s Bank (Jnanpet Nidhi Limited – JNL)

The relevance and importance of People’s Bank reached its peak during the Covid situation. Samhathi came up with the soft loan scheme for 5000 poor families which lost their sources of income due to covid and so far 3700 families have benefitted from this scheme. Apart from this relief oriented scheme, JNL provided other banking services to its 24000 families (that is about 110000 persons) and the total transaction have crossed 440 million INR (about 6.21 million Euro) which clearly indicates a big jump from previous year.

4. Wholistic Health

  • General Health: 2000 families were given sanitizers and gloves as part of Covid relief activities during the year 2020.
  • Community Based Palliative Care (CBPC): The CBPC project continued to extend its services to its nearly 1600 patients during the year with additional services and support to selected patients who suffered more due to Covid-19. Altogether 280 mobile clinics were conducted with the involvement of 4 medical doctors, 6 nurses, 170 health volunteers and 90 social volunteers.  A total of INR 3.01 million ( 43000 Euro) was collected from 3800 shops while Samhathi-Austria provided support worth 6000 Euro for providing food stuff support to the most deserving patients.

4. Welfare and Charity Activities

  • Covid-19 relief activities:

Samhathi-Austria Team raised a big amount of 9350 Euro (748000 Indian Rupees) to support the poor people in our villages who suffered most due to this totally unexpected pandamic.

  1. Food stuff kits were given to 3800 families
  2. Education aid to 1100 poor students
  3. Sanitizers/gloves to 2000 families
  4. Meals to 3500 families through local NGOs
  • My Indian Family Project (MIF Project):

A total of 5.21 million INR (65200 Euro) has been given as aid to 340 families  during the report period mainly from the funds raised by Samhathi-Austria.

  • My Indian Child Project (MIC Project): A total of 1.78 million INR (22300 Euro) has been spent in support of 103 students during the year 2020.

III. Conclusio

Though the year 2020 witnessed upsetting of all schedules and plans by a pandemic all over the world, Samhathi took it also as a chance to reach out to the needy and provided relief as well as welfare measures to thousands in our villages. And this has been possible mainly because Samhathi’s India Team was so strongly supported by its Austrian partner through their immediate and innovative activities to raise funds for various relief measures in India. For the Indian Team it was also an opportunity to once again experience the strong partnership support from you all at a time of totally unexpected agony. We thank very specially M’am Gerda Madl, M’am Elfriede Siegert and each one in the Board of Directors of Samhathi-Austria for the most valuable and staunch support you gave us in 2020 especially when we were so upset with the gripping of Covid-19 in our villages. We also express our heartfelt gratitude to all the MIF & MIC Sponsors and all donors particularly in support of DSILL and CBPC Ration Support for their valuable support in 2020 to help so many poor families, students and patients.  We earnestly request you to kindly continue your efforts to help the poor in our country through the various activities you are implementing in Austria.

Prepared and submitted by

Father A Jacob Paliath
Managing Trustee for Samhati India Team