Creation of Mini forest in the dry zone of the Jhargram district, as a part of the ‘Swachhta Pakhwada’ activity

Project Name - Swachhta Pakhwada

Jhargram is nicknamed as the ‘Jungle Mahal’, but the tragic part is that ‘Jungle or forest’ is diminishing day by day due to excessive deforestation for agricultural, industrial as well as for commercial purposes making our environment polluted and the wildlife homeless. The initiative of developing a mini forest in the area, which means re-creating a natural forest with the native trees, will help in restoring back the greenery and life for humans and shelter for various birds and animals.
The activity was supported by BPCL as a part of the project "Swachhta Pakhwada".

The Entire  Community involved in plantation work

Mini Forest in Jhargram.

Volunteers involved for preparing land for plantation

NRM Master Trainer, Mrs. Supriya Maicap from Dantan secured the second position in Bengali reality show ‘Didi No 1’ in Zee Bangla
Supriya Maicap a simple homemaker from one of the most backward villages named Gonpada, became the expect Master trainer in Dantan. She had earned a good income by assembling, marketing and providing training on solar lanterns. Her confidence became so firm, that she was auditioned for a famous reality show in Zee Bangla. She secured the 2 nd position. Today she is not only empowered but has become the role model of the entire village. People from nearby villages are coming to greet her, for the achievement. She says, ‘Solar has given me a new identity by transforming me from a shy housewife to a confident woman, I am proud to be a Master Trainer’. The same Father-in-law, who holds her from stepping out of the house, is now proud of
her. Congratulations to her for setting her journey from humiliation to dignified living.

Reality show - 'Didi No 1'

Supriya- NRM Master trainer confidently takes part in the show

Prizes won by Supriya.

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