Barnamala Educational and Cultural Society

BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY is a registered non-profit secular grass root voluntary organization, that has been serving the upliftment of the rural and tribal poor in their Socio-economic, education, health aspects etc for the past 17 years. BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY is dedicated to the service of mankind and it is founded on the principles of universal brotherhood, love, peace and harmony. The aim of the organization is to release the poor from their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual poverty and place them in good designation and make them responsible and respectable citizens of the country.

Programs

BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY is established for the benefit and betterment of needy, poor and economically backward people.

*To provide accommodation, food, clothes, valued education and vocational trainings to the orphan, poor children and child labor children.

*To provide shelter, food, clothes and medical assistance to the aged.

*To render necessary Skill training for the upliftment of poor and destitute women.

*To render shelters, good water and sanitation to the rural poor.

Poor families in the area are often in financial crisis because the low wages are not enough to support families.

*Mainly to uphold child rights through enrolment and retention of all children in various schools until they complete grade ten, and facilitate their higher education or vocational training.

BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY Educate after school program started to provide education to poor children, who are lacking behind in their studies due to child labor and many more reasons. Through these educational programs, BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY has given education to 6000 children by way of scholarships, school kits, uniforms, hostel fee etc, but able to mainstream 4500 plus children in schools and now their studies are going on well. Where ever necessary, BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY provide fees, uniforms, school kit etc to more underprivileged children in rural areas.

Training for women

BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY looks forward to generating confidence in women and girls by further strengthening their qualities of leadership, their self-confidence, their bargaining power and their representation in policy making.

Through our BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY Community center, Poor and illiterate women and girls from rural areas are imparted training in leadership, management, accounting, crafts, textile designing, toys making, Brick making, healthcare, literacy and rural based business skills.

The literate young women and girls in villages shall be given free computer training through BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY computer centers set up by BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY. Their strength of solidarity, which is above caste and creed, helps them support each other in adversity. Through BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY, these rural women and girls can experience the joy of success with collective action. Today’s women and girls need to step forward and initiate development projects, better village governance, awareness and quality of life. With financial support and entrepreneurship and education, women and girls can get opportunities to break the cycle of poverty.

SHGs For women and girls. SHG is a group formed by the community women, which has a specific number of members like 15 or 20. In such a group the poorest women would come together for emergency, disaster, social reasons, economic support to each other have ease of conversation, social interaction and economic interactions.

Objectives

To sensitize women of target area for the need of SHG and its relevance in their

empowerment process.

To create group feeling among women.

To enhance the confidence and capabilities of women.

To develop collective decision making among women.

To encourage the habit of saving among women and facilitate the accumulation of their own capital resource base.

To motivate women to take up social responsibilities particularly related to women development.

Self-help Groups are around the world for several years and it is only now that their true potential is being realized by players in the microfinance sector.

Political Impact of Self-Help Groups

SHGs often interact with local civic leaders to promote their interest in community development through the establishment of roads, ration cards, construction of school buildings, etc., and they also fund the election campaigns of any group members willing to step into politics.

This is an emerging trend in India, where a majority of SHGs are formed by women, hence this trend has implications on women’s empowerment.

Social Impact

SHGs promote social harmony because they are composed of community members with common interests. As group members from different ethnic group realize they are all aiming for the social and economic betterment of themselves and their families, they may be encouraged to overlook their differences.

However, the informal nature of the groups fails to guarantee total gender and ethnic equality, because certain sub-groups may still be able to dominate minorities.

Self-Help Groups: Strength in Numbers

While the various self-help options available make it possible to achieve significant breakthroughs all by you, some people prefer to find their personal freedom in self-help groups.

Although less times is invested dealing with each particular individual, the collective membership will often work together to brainstorm creative and unique strategies, to obtain fresh perspectives on old issues and to increase the accountability factor. While a “Lone Ranger” can fall off the wagon without anyone knowing or caring, in a self-help group, there are others waiting to lift you up when or if you fall. Self-help groups include the traditional “12 Step

Programs” that aid in battling addiction of all sorts, as well as support groups for individuals suffering from illnesses or other issues relevant to health.

Furthermore, self-help groups have grown beyond dealing with health “problems” to those that address and assist those with common concerns or circumstances, like women who have decided to breast-feed, those who are single and even parenting groups. Finally, there are family self-help groups that can help the loved ones and relatives of those dealing with serious issues like alcoholism, drug addiction, those dealing with long-term or terminal illnesses, etc.

Not only do self-help groups offer strength in numbers, they have also increasingly come to offer greater convenience than previously imagined. Today, not only do attendees have the option of face-to-face meetings and group events, but some also hold meetings online or over the phone to address the needs of those with busy schedules, those who are virtually bed-ridden, or those who are “shut ins.”

The Benefits of Self-Help Group Meetings

In addition to offering convenience, the other attractive feature of self-help groups and meetings is that they are much more affordable than private counseling or therapies. Some are totally free and others are offered for nominal fees that just about anyone can afford to pay. Many of the most popular self-help programs that are available are so popular that even small, more rural communities offer multiple meetings in various locations throughout the week and month. Plus, with the advent of online self-help groups, there is even greater anonymity and the relief of other concerns like discrimination, etc. that might arise in traditional face-to-face encounters.

In addition to convenience and cost, other benefits of self-help group situations are that you are imbued with a greater sense of belonging and community. Since many of the maladies that lead people to find help in a self-help group are issues that make you feel isolated and alone, this sense of community can go to great lengths towards helping individuals find freedom and recovery.

BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY Self Help Groups Self-Help Group Project of Community health, housing and social education (BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY),West Bengal, gained momentum since August 2005 with an integrated approach for poverty reduction in rural areas. We follow a modified version of CASHPOR index based on housing index, assets and family income of the households for targeting women. Cohesive women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are formed. Rural women are encouraged to pool rather than the amount, and internal rotation in the form of lending to needy members are the basis of group strength.

Key components of the Women’s Development Project are:

Training in entrepreneurship, community development and vocational skills. Credit linkage to cater to the needs of poor women. Their credit worthiness has been proved savings on a regular basis, however small they may be, as a common fund. Regularity in savings, beyond doubt and repayment rates are in excess of 98%.Income generation programmes such as Embroidery, Tailoring, computer skill, weaving, paper cup making, food vending, pot making, poultry, spice grinding, juice pressing, bicycle repair are initiated. Groups of women can together take up bigger income generating projects like bakery goods manufacture and brick making.

“A sewing machine or Embroidery machine in the hands of one of the poor women can mean a better life for them and their kids. It puts food on the table and clothes on their backs,”

BACK GROUND

Many are sinking deeper into poverty and needs are growing as crisis spreads: many women, girls in our target area are uneducated and school dropout at young age. Poorest among are struggling to put food on table. Many postpone children education just to keep their families fed. They put off health care needs to pay basic utilities. They postpone dreams or stop saving money because there’s nothing extra to save. The secret of training is to empower, restore and regenerate women and girls. When women and girls are poor, families and communities cannot be strong. Women living in poverty face greater challenges in earning a steady income, educating and feeding their children, and escaping violence.

More than ten lakh people around the world live on less than ten rupees a day— and women make the majority of the world’s poorest citizens. Women face many numbers of economic barriers in developing countries, such as unequal low wages, bad working conditions, property rights, and lack of access to credit.

Problem

There are still millions of women and girls who remain in poverty and are exploited, despite their long hours of hard labor. It is our social responsibility to bring the deprived and hapless women and girls into the mainstream, so as to enable them to avail the new opportunities that are developing with the ongoing economic reforms in our country.

Our solution

BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY looks forward to generate confidence in women and girls by further strengthening their qualities of leadership, their self-confidence, their bargaining power and their representation in policy making. Poor and illiterate women and girls from rural areas are imparted training in leadership, management, accounting, crafts, textile designing, toys making, Brick making, healthcare, literacy and rural based business like fruit, vegetable, spices vending in streets and in road sides.

The literate young women and girls in villages shall be given free

Poor families in the area are often in financial crisis because the low wages are not enough to support families. computer training through computer centers set up by BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY. Their strength of solidarity, which is above caste and creed, helps them support each other in adversity. Through BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY, these rural women and girls can experience the joy of success with collective action. Today’s woman and girls needs to step forward and initiate development projects, better village governance, awareness and quality life. With financial support and entrepreneurship and education, women and girls can get opportunities to break the cycle of poverty.

Our Objectives

• Provision of income skills to girls and women.
• Creating awareness among oppressed women and girls about their rights in society.
• Giving self-confidence to these disadvantaged women and girls by providing them with skills which will enable them to avail jobs opportunities in industries or set up their own micro businesses.
• Empowering poor girls of age between 18-35 years, with stitching, embroidery training and rural based vending business and literate poor girls of age between 18-35 with computer training.
• Provision of marketing skills (Survey, production and sales)
• Self-help group (SHG)formation and micro loan for girls and women.women will be trained through the women’s sewing center. The poor communities will be able to save their income and earn at their household level.
• Educating women and girls about health issues and their healthy life through conducting seminars and workshops.
• Creating job opportunities and encouraging self-employment.
• Providing necessary infrastructure for self-employment, where ever possible.

Provision of income skills

Women and girls in India need to acquire remunerative and marketable skills which are not taught at home, such as facility with computers, fluency in an internationally spoken language, financial skills, and knowledge of social systems. New methods to promote interactive and collaborative learning can help develop critical thinking and decision making skills and instill a habit of lifelong learning—capacities that will equip girls for a rapidly changing world.

Training programmes for rural women and girls comprise the following:

• Tailoring skills
• Embroidery skills
• Toys making
• Crafts
• Artificial jewelry making
• Textile designing
• Soap making, Agarbathi making, etc

And Village need based skills training & vending business

Our achievements: Till Oct.2010

Refreshment

The poor and under privileged rural trainees suffer without refreshments. They come for training after doing all their house hold work. BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY provide refreshments like tea and biscuits to give energy to our trainees to learn better and to provide a better future to earn and live securely.

Stipend

During training period, the poor and under privileged rural trainees suffer without their daily wages. BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY help the trainees with a small sum of stipend to run their families without any difficulties during training.

Sewing or embroidery machine

BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY provides job opportunities where ever possible in the local market. Some of our trainees are not able to go to work due to certain problems and some of them are not able to start their own businesses due the cost of sewing or embroidery machine and accessories. BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY select the deserving and provide sewing machines to start their sewing business.

 Your support will go to:-

1) 1000’s of girls and women, who seek skills training at BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY training centers to gain employment and future stability.

2) BARNAMALA EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SOCIETY needs your help to provide Skills training to more and more women and girls and also the infrastructure to start a business, where ever possible.