Assembling of 3,000 solar lanterns by Producer group members in Dantan block

Seva Kendra Calcutta’s NRM project’s producer group (45 technicians) of Dantan Block received an order for assembling 3,000 solar lanterns from ‘Vision Pvt. Lmt’ within the duration of 3 months. Already 2,000 solar lanterns were completed and delivered before the deadline and the solar technicians earned a profit of Rs. 95,000. The Solar technology not only ensures them a Climate-friendly environment but secured a new way of livelihood.

Assembling of solar lanterns at Dantan by Producer group

A female technician, helping the male technician during assembling

Fault detection by female Master Trainers.

Solar lanterns ready to be dispatched

Special Day celebration

Seva Kendra Calcutta's SAMBANDH project organized Special Day Celebration at their field offices in Kolkata, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore in West Bengal and Anti Corruption Peace Rally at Gandhi Sevagram Ashram in Varda, Maharashtra. The following activities took place at the event :
1. Poster making competition on Anti Corruption Day
2. Sit n Draw competition on Save Earth-Green Earth theme
3. Sapling distribution
4. Basic awareness on Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
5. Anti Corruption Peace Rally was organized by Joint Action Committee at Gandhi Sevagram Ashram, Varda, 
Sambandh Team participated in it.

Sit n Draw competition on Save Earth-Green Earth theme

Gandhi Sevagram Ashram, Varda 

Drivers' Day Celebration

Seva Kendra Calcutta's SAMBANDH project organized Drivers' Day Celebration for Truck Drivers. The Program started with a brief introduction of sambandh project and activities organized under our project and significance of celebrating driver's day followed by a short discussion on problems faced by drivers like wage issue, overtime, bad facilities, disrespect in workplace. The following activities took place at the event :

1. Social security schemes
2. Road safety rules and regulations
3. Substance abuse and its ill causes
4. Ghanti Bajao (Missed call campaign)
5. Group counseling
6. Common problems faced by drivers
7. Shared good practices of other drivers

Tower Gardening Training at SKC

On November 20, 2015, Seva Kendra Calcutta (SKC) organised a training session on "Tower Gardening". Mr. Tim Fialkowski and Mr. Brody Joly from Australlia came to SKC as trainers who taught the participants how to grow numerous plants in a very small space.They explained the whole concept of tower gardening and said, "In this day and age where the idea of global climate change and the efforts to be "green" are becoming more prevalent, educating the public about tower gardening and implementing them could make a positive environmental impact. Also, when there is a shortage of space for growing various plants, tower gardening is the best option."

Trainers explaining the concept at SKC premises.

In this blog post we would like to share the simple process (with pictures) of how you too can utilize a small space to create a beautiful garden...

1) Take a drum/bucket (as shown in the picture) and do the marking and cut. 

 2) Make some holes at the bottom of the drum for water drainage.

3) Place the tube with holes in it in the center of the drum/bucket.

4) Add soil around the tube (not inside the tube).

5) An important step, adding of worms in the tube to increase the fertility of the soil. The tube must be covered with newspaper to protect the worms from direct sunlight.

6) Add water to the soil every alternative day (not inside the tube). 

7) Plant the different seedlings you want to.

Seva Kendra wishes that more people try this art of gardening. This can positively impact the health of an entire family as well as the community. 

 The participants & 

the trainers

Thank you!

Intervention in Kishalaya Home

Since April 2015 to September 2015, Kishalaya Correctional Home, Barasat, focused on two fold activities i.e-
- Non-Formal Education: Mainstreaming and Life skill education
- Livelihood,
for the betterment of the inmates (young boys).

The Outcome:
1) Non-Formal Education
Being the social wing of Arch Diocese of Calcutta, one of our main focus is "Education" and we want to ensure that every juveniles comes under this programme where the children are given the basic primary education with an aim to make them eligible for taking admission in primary schools.
Hence, the children were introduced to the concepts of cleanliness and good practices; introduction to alphabets, sounds and writing; introduction to numbers and counting; and drawing.

2) Livelihood
Initiated in July, it was a new initiative in the Indian context that the juveniles are producing a part of their daily food in the home campus. 
Under this programme, the juveniles were taught how to produce vegetables. Vegetables like - brinjal, green chilies, kalmi saag, indian spinach, okra, etc were grown in the home campus which are then used to prepare the food for the inmates.
Also, they were taught seed collection preservation, bio-composting, developing water conservation models, etc.

The targets were successfully achieved with the help of the collaborating NGOs like Seva Kendra Calcutta (SKC), Swanirvar and others.

Land inside the campus being prepared for planting seeds.

Inmates growing vegetables

Non formal education

Emergency Relief Support

Seva Kendra Calcutta (SKC) along with its partnering organisations conducted a Relief Material Distribution Camp for the flood victimized families of North 24 parganas, West Bengal, in the month of August and September 2015.

A deep depression was formed as an aftermath of Cyclone Komen that battered large parts of South Bengal resulting flood situation in West Bengal and has turned grim as many areas are still inaccessible, disconnected and submerged in flood water.

CRS, CARITAS and SKC made rapid needs assessments of two Gram Panchayats namely, Tepul Mirjapur and Saguna under the jurisdiction of Swarupnagar onAugust 8 and 9, 2015 respectively with the following objectives:

 To understand the extent and type of damage;
 Determining the immediate needs of flood-affected families
 To assess the government’s response needs,

SKC distributed 5 kgs of Rice, 1 kg of Dal, 1 kg Bleaching powder, 2 kgs Lime and 1 piece of mosquito net to each family. Also, 859 pieces of tarpaulins were distributed to families whose houses were fully damaged.

SKC office and field staffs along with PRI and influential person visited house to house for

observation of the situation of the victimized families and distributed the coupon to the needy families to avoid chaos during the relief material distribution.

The Flood Relief and Distribution Committee had a meeting with the PRI members for the selection of beneficiaries as per the criteria and established a good rapport with various Government Departments and NGOs for peaceful distribution of relief materials. There were 10 Civic Police under the supervision of Charghat Police Phari was deployed at each distribution places.

SKC director, Caritas representative, Sub inspector Charghat Phari and SKC staff in a discussion.

Stock of food materials.

People gathered outside the distribution counter.

Queue at the distribution centre.

Queue at the distribution centre.

Volunteer explaining the process of using bleaching and lime.

Distribution of the relief materials in process.

A volunteer is serving an old man to receive materials.

Job Oriented Programme at SKC

Seva Kendra Calcutta (SKC) in collaboration with Smile Foundation, Ericsson Global and Microsoft Corporation inaugurated a Job Oriented Learning Programme on August 24, 2015 at SKC under the Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP).

STeP is a national level initiative of SMILE Foundation - an effort towards creating a pool of independent youth living with dignity from the underprivileged section through skill enhancement in tandem with market requirements. 

Under this national programme SMILE Foundation sets up STeP centres in partnership with NGOs called the "Implementing Partners". SKC is one of the implementing partners having a STeP centre in its premises.

The project aims at preparing urban underprivileged (adolescent youths) with skills in

-English Proficiency, 

-Basic Computer Education and

-Soft Skills, for enhancing their prospects of employment in fast expanding sectors like retail outlets, hospitality and BPOs sectors. 

It is a four months training period, with the first batch starting from August 24, 2015.

The second batch from December 26, 2015, and

The third Batch from April 24, 2016.

For admissions in the second batch, please contact at SKC office.