Tag Archives: Development

Guru Krupa Foundation Renews Anisha Kitchen Garden Project

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Susila Dharma USA is proud and happy to report that Project Anisha has received the second year of funding for its Kitchen Garden Project from the Guru Krupa Foundation based in New York state. The Foundation has given another grant of $10,000 to Anisha this year to continue its four-year educational project to teach over 1400 middle school students to grow organic kitchen gardens at their homes.

The Kitchen Garden Project at Anisha teaches families to grow small-scale kitchen gardens, producing organic vegetables from native seeds. This can make a significant difference in their health and standard of living.

These students live in the Martalli Region of Karnataka State in Southern India. Their families, often single-parent, struggle every day with extreme poverty and everything that results from it. They live in a drought-prone area that is also hard-hit by the effects of climate change. Learning to grow small-scale kitchen gardens producing organic vegetables grown from native seeds (initially supplied by Anisha’s native seed bank) can make a significant difference in improving the standard of living in this area. It can help to stem the flow of farming families that are forced to abandon their homes in India’s countryside and move into the dumping grounds of India’s big city slums.

We are so appreciative of the support provided by the Guru Krupa Foundation to help Anisha do its vitally important work! Please visit their website to learn about their impressive work in both the United States and India – www.guru-krupa.org.

You can read more about Anisha on our web site and see a slide presentation about the Kitchen Garden Project below.

Clean Water at CEDERI Madimba

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Water-borne disease is one of the main causes of illness and death in death in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Susila Dharma DRC has established three community health centers (CSCOMs) and is working on a fourth; but better than curing disease is preventing infection in the first place.

The new well at CEDERI Madimba will bring 5000 liters of water to the village.

The new well at CEDERI Madimba will bring 5,000 liters (1321 gallons) of water a day to the village.

Clean drinking water can prevent illness and infection. The CSCOM, CEDERI-Madimba has addressed this reality by digging a well and piping potable water to the health center and the village. This project brings a vital supply of clean drinking water to a population of almost 5,000 who live in the village of Kimbobolo in Madimba Territory of the D.R. Congo and to CEDERI Madimba, a 30-bed medical centre that serves over 8,000 people in the rural area.

The population of Kimbololo is higher now than when SD-DRC first established this project, as babies are born and people move into this area in the hope of a better life in a community with access to clean water, electricity, healthcare and education. Bringing 5,000 liters of water a day to the village considerably lightens the work of water-collection for women and young girls in Kimbololo where the water point is being installed and clean water will improve the health of the community. Many generous donors have supported SDIA, SD Congo and CEDERI-Madimba to bring clean water to the hospital center in Kongo Centrale province as well as to a nearby village.

You can see the process of digging the well and bringing water to the village in the three videos below. In these videos you can see the work that was going on in June, what conditions are like there, and what local community members think of the initiative.

Since these films were made, the well has been dug, a shelter for the pump has been built and the conduit taking the water to the village and the hospital is in place. The only work that remains is to build the structures that will hold the tanks. We’re nearly there!

Part I: Well Construction

Part II: Bringing Water to the Village

Part III: An Interview with Villagers

Yayasan Tambuhak Sinta (YTS)

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Indonesia

Using participatory rural appraisal techniques, YTS helps villagers create a Community Development Plan
Using participatory rural appraisal techniques, YTS helps villagers create a Community Development Plan

YTS began working in the seven villages of Bukit Batu in 2009. Using participatory rural appraisal techniques, we assisted each community in the sub-district to make a village development plan, and started providing an annual village development fund to support local livelihoods. The project has identified two livelihood opportunities that show much promise for the development of successful micro-enterprises, these are fish-farming and chicken-raising. In both cases, profitability is limited by the high cost of material inputs, primarily for feed. To overcome this barrier, YTS wishes to provide strategic support to the seven communities by providing training and equipment to manufacture feed from local sources. In 2013, we wish to provide each community with appropriate technology and training in order to enable them to operate local fish and chicken feed-production centers in each village.

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Anisha

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Karnataka, India

Children's excersize in plant diversity.
A Children’s excersize in plant diversity.

Anisha’s work is focussed on rural areas of India, specifically in the state of Karnataka, in an effort create a sustainable economic and environmental model for villagers and to slow the flight of families from impoverished areas in the countryside into the hugely overcrowded urban areas.

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