Against all odds

A Kathyayani, Andhra Pradesh

I was born in Baraddipalli village, Chittoor Dist., which is in the Western part of Andhra Pradesh. My father is a teacher. I hail from a respectable family. After completion of my education in the village I had gone to the nearby town for higher studies and completed my graduation in 1987. Then I searched for a job. Many offers came from cities and towns, but my father refused to send me to faraway places.

In our area there is no opportunity for jobs for youth. There is only a voluntary social service organization named Grama Pragathi Samstha (GPS) providing jobs. I approached them and they appointed me as an additional teacher. I joined there in 1988. I faced some problems in visiting various schools, because there was no transport facility. My father sent my mother along with me to the villages as escort since I was an unmarried girl. That is how my work started. Seeing my hard work and commitment the Secretary promoted me to the office. I got involved in different programmes for women, health, disability and children.

I got married to a colleague in the same organization. While working in GPS I found that they rendered good services for all sections of people but for the disabled they were doing only a few activities. They never thought about their sustainable livelihoods. So I decided to do something for the disabled if any opportunity came. After a few years because of the poor health condition of the Secretary of GPS, the organization was closed. I lost my job and become unemployed.

Through involvement in GPS’ activities I had a good rapport in the villages and I thought that we should register our own organization to render services to the poor and needy.

In 2001, my husband and I registered our own organization named “Rural Small Industries Development Society”. We searched for funding. We struggled a lot to get funds from government and donor agencies. While applying for government schemes it could take a long period for sanctioning. After they send the first installment, they take two years to send the second installment. In the meanwhile, staff cannot be paid and the work also suffers. At such times, we cannot ask them to work and contact with villages is affected too for sometime.

One donor agency sanctioned Rs.100,000 for a six-months training program. They took signatures for the total amount but released only Rs.90,000. It is over three years since then and they have still not released the remaining part.

To get a loan to work with the disabled, we deposited 25% of loan amount with a government institution, as per their requirement. They sanctioned the loan and we repaid the amount in the given period. The condition was that if we repaid the loan amount they would return our deposit. It is over one and a half years since then but there is no sign of repayment.

In the meanwhile we deposited Rs.37,500 for another loan of Rs.150,000. It took over a year to get this amount released. We have spent over Rs. 800 on telephone alone in following up the case. To go the office physically is difficult because it is far from where we stay. We contacted the Director over phone. The Finance Officer asked us why we reported to the Director and also made some comments regarding our programme. We told him that he was welcome to come anytime to see our ongoing programmes. In a week’s time he released the money. Through this we were able to undertake programmes for the self-reliance of disabled persons.

At the beginning we formed fifteen women’s self-help groups (SHG) and linked the groups with banks for getting loans for income generation programmes and also signed on the papers. The government introduced ‘Velugu’ programme and merged the groups and brought them under their control and appointed a volunteer to follow up the activities women groups. They also provided some honorarium to the volunteers. The government changed and the procedures were changed as well. The Velugu authorities did not pay any further any honorarium to the volunteers. Most of the women’s groups became irregular in repayment of their loans. Migration is also to some extent a cause for non repayment of loans. The women’s groups are no longer under our control, but the bank authorities ask me for repayment of the loans. We struggled a lot and asked permission for two months for settle the matter since the women’s group members had migrated. After 3 to 4 visits to the groups the members got together and repaid the loan amount.

Some group members requested us to help their groups in getting loans for income generation programmes with bank linkage. I also realised that we need to take care of staff’s requirements even when our organization faces funding crises,. For this purpose we have provided micro-finance to the staff as a secondary source of income to sustain their livelihood. They are therefore able to do more work and are honest in the activities.

Like while steering a vehicle, one observes backwards, side-wards and moves forward, in the same way we observe what is going on in the field, push the staff for getting good quality work, and move forward in search of funds. For implementing our activities effectively, I often have to act as the manager and as a peon, at times as a project officer and also as a field worker.

We faced a lot of problems in getting licenses and exemptions also. There is a lot of corruption in all offices. In local government offices they cannot pressurize us because of our services to the community, but in dealing with higher authorities we are still struggling.

These are some of the crises grass-root level NGOs facing now days. From my experience, I feel that to get funds from foreign funding agencies is better than to get funds from the government because the foreign funding agencies maintain punctuality in releasing funds and also collect the work from us in a systematic manner.

While facing constraints, we solve the problems of the disabled in society to some extent and bring confidence among them to sustain their lives independently. We also solved the problem of alcoholism in three villages and are slowly motivating farmers to apply organic manure in the agricultural fields in place of chemical fertilizers. Our success, though slow but steady, is the source of our strength.