RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS
Summary of Annual Report of Financial Year 2009-10
We want to thank all of you who partnered with us in 2010, and are happy to share with you the highlights of this year’s activities at Asia Initiatives in Tokyo and New York:
• Asia Initiatives New York was registered as a 501-C3 non-profit organization, so donations for our projects can now be tax deductible. Thanks to our volunteers, our operating costs remain below 3% of all funds raised, the lowest among NGOs.
• We had a chance to meet with many of you during the events held this year. In Tokyo we had the Festival of Colors high-tea. In New York we had poetry reading by Ambassador Seth, dinner dialogues with Citizen Effect, and with Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit.
• Geeta visited sites in South India where Asia Initiatives is partnering with M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, including Fish for All Center in Poombuhar, Bio-Center in Pudhucherry, and micro entrepreneurs working on crab raising (photo above right) and sanitary napkin production unit.
• Mayuri Straub, a former board member of AI-Tokyo and the founder of Etose, our network organization, lead two groups this year to visit our projects in Kolli Hills and Kannivadi with MSSRF, as well as with Ashta no Kai in Pune. They visited the micro entrepreneurs who make paper from banana plant waste (photo on right) that is very successful now, and the Reddiacharan Seed Growers Association which has now become a registered company with individual incomes increasing from under a dollar/ day to up to five dollars/day. They also visited the groups making bio-fungicide and bio- pesticides that are doing a booming business, and exemplify our commitment to help projects that are pro-poor, pro-environment, and pro-women.
• 15 new micro credit banks were added to the nearly 200 already in operation. MSSRF has now begun to create ‘federations’ of self help groups that have been in operation for over five years, with the goal of passing on control of micro credit to local people, with continued oversight from MSSRF. This helps in local institution building and leadership development. So in some cases, some micro credit banks from our donors will be combined to provide larger sums to the federations to loan to micro entrepreneurs. Donors will still be able to donate new banks in the name of your choice, and track how their funds are being used via the Internet, as they will receive reports for all the micro enterprises supported by a particular federation. As before, the loans are only given for income-producing activities that help the ultra poor climb out of poverty. This new model reduces delivery costs, while still insuring that people get loans at under 2% interest (to cover federation operating costs), compared to 12% commercially available, and over 35% charged by money lenders. This is an exciting development that will help us support many new enterprises, and we look forward to your continued support on this. If you do not wish for your new micro-credit bank, or the one already donated, to not be pooled for a federation, please do let us know.
• Besides the micro-credit banks, the projects supported this year include the following:
- Desks for students of Kasari Primary School, Pune, with ANK ($5,000) (photo in the center)
- Farmer's Federation Building in Kannivadi with MSSRF ($8,250)
- Village Knowledge Centers with MSSRF ($2,912)
- Philippines Christian Fund for supporting Slum Children project in Philippines ($3,000)
- Kolli Hills KHABCOFED Uniforms with MSSRF ($2,870)
- Kolli Hills Storage Drums for Seeds with MSSRF ($348)
- Kolli Hills Drier for processing millet grains with MSSRF ($870)
- Village Resource Center in Kolli Hills with MSSRF ($3,500)
- Community Learning Centers in Kannivadi with MSSRF ($ 15,450)
- Micro venture grant for sanitary napkin project in Pudhucherry, and Kutthavarapatti SHG in Kannivadi with MSSRF ($500)
- Bombay Club for supporting E-learning module for disadvantaged students ($5,000)
- PUKAR - Slum redevelopment project in Mumbai ($7,500)
- SCSTEDS Chennai– Slum Children's Soccer Team support ($1,000)
Our goals for 2011 include supporting more community learning centers, as well as adding more micro–credit banks with MSSRF. We will also strengthen our support for education initiatives with smaller NGOs in their grass roots efforts to provide quality primary education to disadvantaged communities.
Summary of projects supported in the Financial Year 2008-9 is below
Projects with MSSRF (www.mssrf.org):
· 2,000,000 yen sent for an up scaling of Community Learning Centre at Reddiarchatram, Dindigul to 10 more village hamlets. These centers use innovative tools for increasing literacy and computer skills in villages.
· 700,000 yen sent for Micro Credit Banks Federation building at Kulumai, Tamil Nadu.
· 60,000 Rupees provided as Micro-enterprise grant to self-help groups (SHGs) to produce an innovative natural pesticide that exemplifies the pro-environment, pro-women and pro-poor approach of MSSRF.
· 20,000 US$ sent for improved livelihood training of the coastal artisan fishermen in Poompuhar.
· 150,000 yen sent for post-harvest processing training of millets and paddy by the tribal women SHGs in Kolli hills.
· 7 new micro credit banks launched.
· All micro credit banks donated so far are now in action, and Fall reporting to all donors was completed.
Projects with other organizations working with the MSSRF philosophy of "Pro-poor, pro environment, pro-women":
· 300,000 yen provided to Philippine Christian Foundation for education of children of rag-picker families in Manila. Katie Baker, our former co-chair is working with them now. (Education Initiative)
· 750,000 yen grant to PUKAR/URBZ (www.urbz.org) to establish Dharavi Community Cell, which will work to empower the community along the lines of MSSRF Village Knowledge Centre (Digital Bridge Initiative)
· Funds provided for a PC projector to NESCONN in Nepal (Education Initiative)
· Funded operation for one year of one Mobile Crèches to (www.mobilecreches.org) childcare centre for migrant laborers in Delhi (Education Initiative)
· 2,000,000 yen provided to Arpana Trust in Delhi (www.arpana.org) for micro credit loans to SHGs for building their own micro housing in Molarbandh (Micro Credit Initiative)
· Desks and benches provided via Armene Modi/ Ashta no Kai in a village school in Khandale near Pune. Photographs attached. (Education Initiative)
· 150,000 yen provided to Komazawa University Student Fund (under the guidance of Prof. Yuko Nishimura) for training of village people in Kovalam to build eco-san toilets (Education Initiative)
Most of the projects have been personally visited by board members Kylie, Lindy or Geeta. Further details are on our website www.asiainitiatives.org. All this would not have been possible without your support. We look forward to your continued partnership this year. We still need to fund 6 more micro credit banks for self-help groups at MSSRF. We also welcome your feedback and ideas, so please do write.
Summary of Annual Report of Financial Year 2007-8
• Micro-credit Banks: Our target of establishing 20 new MCBs a year was met in the first 6 months of the year! We added 25 new banks to our portfolio this year and now have nearly 140 MCBs, thanks to the generous donations of our members.
• The Festival of Colours 2007 was held on 19th May at the Shinsei Bank in Tokyo. This, our largest fund-raising event, raised over 10 million yen for our projects. This sold-out gala event included fine Indian cuisine, entertainment and a live and silent auction.
• “Masters of Modern Photography – Japan” Exhibition at the Tokyo American Club, November 2007, helped raise over 1 million yen. A remarkable portfolio of limited edition prints by twelve internationally renowned Japanese photographers, each known for their personal impact on the history of modern photography in Japan, was compiled by expert curators with works donated to AI by the photographers.
Our Major Initiatives of 2007
With M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation
1. Micro Credit Banking (MCB) Initiative: 20 new micro credit banks with the donation of US$1,500 each and 5 partial banks with a donation of 50,000 Yen each were donated this year, bringing the total number of banks donated by Asia Initiatives in Japan to 150. 128 of these banks are already operational, and preparations are underway to launch the remaining. These banks are in located in villages in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, Orissa and Gujarat. 223 enterprises have been started with the help of these banks over the past five years, enabling the poorest families to double or triple their incomes.
2. Self-Help Group (SHG) Confederation Enterprise Initiative: Based upon the success of the Self-Help Group (SHG) Micro-credit Projects over the past 7 years, MSSRF has been helping them to form representative confederations so that they can govern the MCB projects by themselves. The Confederations are also keen to start larger projects that can be started by smaller SHGs. In response to this, Micro Enterprise Marketplace (MEM) program has been devised to provide Confederation projects - selected in a competition - with grants of 30% funds to supplement the 70% that they will borrow from the MCB. Sustainable projects that help in health, education, and employment generation within the community will be selected under this program. The first project supported by MEM is the production of affordable biodegradable sanitary napkins for rural women. Inadequate hygiene related facilities have resulted in a very high incidence of cervical cancer in rural women and this project is expected to help with this situation. 135,000 yen has been given as a grant for this project.
3. Bridging the Digital Divide Initiative: Village Knowledge Centre (VKC) Besides the US$ 20,000 grant given by Lehman Brothers Foundation in Japan to MSSRF, an additional funding of three million yen was allocated this year. Farming regions in Maharashtra that have experienced a failure of crops in recent years were given 2 million yen to set up VKCs to offer market, health, education, e-governance and e-education information to farmers as well as Computer Aided Learning Programs (CALP).
Our Complete Annual Report 2007-2008 can be downloaded here
