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Hinglogadh Eco-development Programme (HEDPro):
CEE
has been working since last 19 years in villages of Jasdan taluka,
Rajkot district for sustainable development. In these villages the
latent potential of local youth and women has been harnessed by
establishing village level institutions called Paryavaran Vikas
Mandals (PVMs), currently with a membership around 1000. Though
significantly engaged in micro-finance, they take leadership and
responsibilities for sustainable development at village level. Many
of them have become now independent Community Based Organisation
(CBOs) and with minimum support of CEE.
These
CBOs take various developmental issues like agriculture, water,
women empowerment, governance, sanitation, health and education.
They mainly focus on demonstration of sustainable livelihood
options; capacity building through exposure, training and
information services; marketing support; exposure visits,
internship and collaboration of the CEE Field Office; and
participation of the team in workshops, training programmes and
other events.
The main support services provided to strengthen and enhance
the livelihood of the communities are information services,
experiences sharing, technical know-how, capacity building training,
exposure tours, awareness campaign, forwards and backward linkages.
The main aim of the programmes remains to improve livelihood
opportunities without compromising the natural resources. The focus
remains on diversifying the livelihoods, strengthening networking
and local governance to improve the livelihood.
Most
of the marginal community depends for livelihoods on farming or
seasonal labour work. In absence of proper education and skills
their employability in non-farming jobs is very low. Microfinance
provides small financial services to assist the poor, both
financially and socially. Microfinance aims to target the rural poor
who own micro-enterprises that work in agriculture, dairy, poultry,
processing, artisan, rural product marketing, grocery, tailoring,
and pottery, among others. The main objective is to develop
institutional financial self-sufficiency.
Lateral learning among stakeholders working towards sustainable
development is much needed. The knowledge generated at one place
need to be shared among other stakeholder to reduce repetition or
reinventing wheel. The lateral learning reduces waste of resources
(financial, physical and human). Lateral learning helps stakeholders
in efficiently utilizing the learnings and experiences accordingly.
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