Report 2001          Report 2002        Report2003

IFHD Report of Activities for the Year 2001

South-Asian Co-operation

1. 2nd South Asian Regional Conference: Current Challenges for Volunteerism (27th-29th July, 2001, Hyderabad, India)

This Conference was a continuation of our earlier initiatives to build a network of voluntary service organizations in the South-Asian region that will help us co-ordinate our efforts in a few specific areas for the development of the region. The first such conference was held in 1998 in Hyderabad. The participation was international as well as South Asian.

There were four workshops conducted in this 3-day conference:

Workshop 1 - Use of Information and Communication Technologies by Youth Leaders towards Poverty Alleviation and Counseling

Workshop 2 - NGOs and Business Firms: New Partnerships in Civil Society

Workshop 3 - Flat Culture: New Opportunities for Creating Urban Communities of Sharing and Caring

Workshop 4 - Good Governance: Need of the Hour in Developing Democracies

The details of the Conference and the final report are available on our Website and a hard copy could be sent if requested.

VYASA meeting: During the above conference, a separate consultation was held between the members of the youth organizations from the different South Asian countries, namely - Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and Bangladesh. There was also a delegate present from Japan. The consultation was under the auspices of “Voluntary Youth Association of South Asia (VYASA)”, an informal network of youth NGOs started in Macau in 1998 with the aim of consolidating the voluntary movement in the region and developing better networking and partnership between the actors of the region. The consultation focussed on this theme and different strategies were charted out but a need was felt to hold a lengthier consultation especially for this purpose so that the strategies could be operationalised. We are currently exploring the possibilities of holding such a consultation.

2. 2nd Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Network on Tolerance and Non-violence (4th-6th December 2001) at Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Our organization participated in this meet and our President, Dr. Rao V.B.J. Chelikani had been its Rapporteur and prepared the final report. In fact, IFHD has been working in collaboration with UNESCO to promote a “Culture of Peace and Tolerance” among the NGOs in the region. We have organized programs for the promotion of values education in educational institutions and disseminating literature on tolerance. We collaborated with some spiritually-oriented organizations such as, “Institute of Human Study” and “Aurobindo International School”, the “Brahma Kumaris” and the “Baha’ais”.

3. FAFI Educational Collaboration

In co-operation with the “Federation of Franco-Indian Association (FAFI)” in France, IFHD had contributed to a modest educational reconstruction program in Paschim Kachcha in Orissa, after the cyclone disaster.

4. International Exchange

IFHD received two volunteers from Holland as part of its tie-up with “Fonty’s”, an institute of cultural and social studies in that country and arrangements are made to receive two more from France for the following year. The objective is to facilitate among the volunteers their own individual development by opening up of their minds and in the process to stimulate similar efforts in the receiving groups.

National Level Programmes

1. Partnership with Lok Satta

IFHD is an active partner of Lok Satta, a people’s movement that strives to bring transparency in the administration and accountability on the part of the political leadership in order to rejuvenate Indian democracy for good governance. In fact, as of now, 60% of the organization’s time is spent on Lok Satta activities. As part of these efforts, IFHD strove its best to rectify electoral rolls, tried to make the executive of the state more accessible to the general public, exhorted the people to participate actively in governance and policy formulation. Every time there has been an election in the state of Andhra Pradesh, for the national Parliament, state Assembly and for the local bodies, IFHD and Lok Satta have organized the “Election Watch” programs.

Apart from this, IFHD has regularly brought to the notice of the governments - local, state and national, the most pressing needs of the people. It evolved a system for lodging complaints and for seeking redressal of grievances by the common wo/man against the administration. It is coming out in a book form for easy consultation in early 2002.

As a part of its campaign to reduce wastage of precious natural resources like water, electricity, milk and food grains, IFHD has actively engaged itself to promote better use of water in the municipalities. IFHD issued a stern warning against the wastage of water by them.

Many activities of IFHD are carried out exclusively in the name of and in collaboration with Lok Satta for the sake of simplicity, efficiency and with the sole objective of attaining better results.

2. Partnership with the Forum for Better Hyderabad

Campaigns were carried out to reduce noise pollution in the city of Hyderabad throughout the year. Pamphlets and literature were distributed in English and in the vernacular languages to increase the out-reach and the effectiveness of the campaign.

3. Social Security

IFHD has been trying to identify various schemes for promoting the insurance culture among the people, as part of its efforts to enlarge the social security system in the country. IFHD has helped in the preparation of the “social security guide” in association with the “Social Security Association of India”. It also organized a seminar on 8th December, 2001 in Nizamabad district for Bidi (a form of cigarette that uses leaves instead of paper to hold tobacco) workers, in collaboration with the “International Labour Organisation (ILO)”. It also identified some schemes that could cover hitherto uncovered groups of people, such as the watchmen, domestic helpers, etc.

4. Flat Culture

This is IFHD’s pet project. With more and more people living in flats in the urban areas in India, there is a diminishing sense of community among the people. IFHD seeks to redress the situation by trying to lay down guidelines and develop techniques for effective community living for those staying in apartments. Apart from conducting interactive sessions for the office-bearers of various apartments’ associations, IFHD is publishing a guidebook for this growing section of the society.

5. Concern for Senior Citizens

IFHD has become conscious of the growing importance of the senior citizens in the country, not only in terms of their growing number, but also in terms of the potential, experience and most importantly the time that they have at their disposal. It prepared a few essays on this subject. It has encouraged the formation of Senior Citizens’ Councils in the state, which we hope will eventually join a national confederation.

In Tarnaka

1. Psychological Empowerment
We have continued our programs on psychological empowerment in the form of providing free psychological counseling for young people with various intrapersonal and interpersonal problems. Though the focus is on the youth, the services have been provided for older people and couples too. We have also been conducting workshops on self-empowerment, personality development and meditation in many colleges of the twin cities (Hyderabad and Secunderabad).

2. We continue to assume the presidency of the “Association Internationale pour le Partenariat Entreprise-ONG (AIPEO)” at the international level. Dr. Somasekhar our national convenor has conducted a few ‘concept-familiarising’ lectures in Andhra Pradesh on this subject. He is also in the process of forming a national executive committee.

3. We continue to be benefited by the guidance provided by the Division of Information Systems and Informatics of UNESCO on youth matters, particularly through UNESCO-INFOYOUTH program.

4. With the active cooperation of the local Police station, a friendly competition of games was carried out in the Osmania University grounds for the children from difficult social and economic background.