Tholkobeda Becomes #ODFVillage

Tholkobeda Becomes ODF Village

Tholkobeda village of Jokbahar panchayat in Sadar block of Simdega district was declared Open Defecation Free village during a function held in the village on 28 June by Tholkobeda Gram Sabha and the District Unit of Swachh Bharat Mission under auspices of NBJK-GSF run sanitation program. Mrs Vimla Pradhan (MLA, Simdega) was chief guest of the celebration who congratulated villagers for such achievement and encouraged them for use and maintenance of the toilets. Mr. Prem Prakash Kido (President, Gram Sabha) has placed a resolution on Tholkobeda as ODF village that was passed unanimously by the villagers. Also they decided to make open defecation as a punishable offence with a penalty of Rs. 50. The amount will be used for preventive measures and repair of toilets. Tholkobeda village has a population of 440 and there are 92 households with toilet facility for each house. The villagers have developed a practice to use toilets by all and made their village ODF recently. Mr. Deepak Puri (MLA representative), Mr. Neil Justin Bake (Member, District Council), Mr. Satish Girija (Secretary, NBJK), Mr. Mrityunjay Chandra (State Program Manager, GSF) and many PRI members have participated in the program. Mr. Chandreshwar Munda (Mukhiya, Jokbahar panchayat) has briefed about the ODF campaign and its transforming impact over the village.

Farmers’ Festival at Khunti #SustainableFarming

Farmers’ Festival at Khunti

Mother Earth gives us a lot but she needs our love only as we offer her just small seeds and get even big trees, said Mr. Santosh satpathy (Principal Secretary-Personnel, GoJ) in the Farmers’ festival held at Saparom village in Khunti district on 24 June under joint auspices of NBJK, SRTT – CinI and Agriculture department (GoJ). The village was on the way for Krishi Rath (an Agri-Info Van) by the state government in every district to be in touch with farmers. Mr. Satpathy has praised local farmers for their innovative approach and suggested them to grow tomato on idle land with checking rain water and to make use of SRI method for paddy farming. Mr. J. S. Choudhary (Director, Agriculture) has encouraged farmers to develop barren land in their villages with support of the government. Mr. P. K. Baghmare (Dy. Commissioner, Khunti) has welcomed the efforts being made by NBJK, CInI and SRTT for sustainable agriculture in the district. He advised for other seasonal crops by farmers and assured for needed assistance. Mr. Satish Girija (Secretary, NBJK) has shared his view to replace the image of Khunti as a center for human trafficking with the natural place for self reliant tribal community. There were 32 pump sets, 4 sprayers and improved verities of seeds distributed among farmers on this occasion. The program was graced by Ms Neerja Kumari (SDO), Mr P. R. Mishra (ASP-Operation), Mr Edmond Minj (DAO), Ms Sushma Lakra (BDO), Ms Rashmi Lakra (CO), Ms. Vartika Jainee (CInI), field workers and villagers.

Teachers Training under CCCD Program @Plan_India #ChildEducation

Teachers Training under CCCD Program

During 23 – 26 June, 26 teachers from 12 Government Primary and Middle Schools of Churchu block have attended Buniyad / Buniyad Plus training at NBJK Coordination Office under Child Centered Community Development program in Churchu block with support of Plan India. Buniyad is an educational module for impressive classroom teaching to cater more children at a time. This is basically a play way method for primary classes with use of games and songs. Mr. Arun Jee (State Resource Person) has introduced the very concept, objectives and application of the module developed for attention-grabbing teaching to children. In second phase of the training, Mr. Jyotish Kumar (Resource Person) has elaborated about Level Determination, Group Division, Learning Information, Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation, Complete Teaching and Public Reading Method. He focused upon sentence formation, poem writing and teaching – learning process. Before this, government teachers of the block have participated in the training on Positive Discipline organized by CCCD at Block Resource Center at Charhee (Hazaribag) on 20 June. Mr. Rajiv Sinha (Plan, Ranchi) has explained about Child Protection Policy, Child Rights, Role & Responsibility of Teachers, Qualitative Teaching including Enrollment and Retention of Children in their schools. There were 51 teachers from 12 schools in the training along with Mr. Laldeo Yadav (Block Education Officer, Churchu). A team of CCCD  program comprising M/s Ranjan Kumar (Program Manager), Arvind Prasad (Project Coordinator), Bijay Kumar, Parmeshwar Rana, Shailendra Kumar, Ashok Mishra and Md. Azad has played important role in organizing both of the training programs for teachers.

Launching of Childline Hazaribag

Under aegis of the Union Ministry of Women & Child Development, CHILDLINE India Foundation, Kolkata has initiated Childline Hazaribag with support of local NGOs including NBJK. There was an in house training for the partner organizations at NBJK coordination office during 27 – 31 May. There were 25 participants from Darpan, Jan Sewa Parishad, Srijan Foundation, Samadhan and Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra in the training. Mrs. Harshmanjari Nanada and Ms Meghali (Resource Persons, Childline India) have informed about Childline, an all time toll free telephone and outreach service for children in need of care and protection. They explained about the Childline number 1098 serviceable at 330 places across India which aims to facilitate an environment for promotion of child rights in its coverage areas. The service has been started for Hazaribag district also in coordination with the district administration and VOs working with children for a long time. Darpan and Srijan Foundation are the Nodal and Collaborative organizations while Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra, Jan Sewa Parishad and Samadhan are the Sub-center organizations for Chouparan, Barkagaon and Bishungarh blocks respectively. Mr. Chandra Kumar, Mr. Sanjay Kumar, Mr. Ramabriksha Yadav, Mr. Sanjiv Bhattacharya and Mr. Prabhunath Sharma have contributed to the training organized to work smoothly over the issues concerning children of Hazaribag.                                

SPPS Students Crack CBSE with Flying Colors

The students of NBJK run Surekha Prakashbhai Public School have scored 100% result in class X under Central Board of Secondary Examination, New Delhi. There were 62 students appeared this year for the examination conducted by CBSE and all have made their school proud of them. Three students namely Ankit Kumar Singh, Aman Raaj and Nancy Jain have achieved 10 CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average). While Pinky Kumari & Rupesh Kumar (9.8), Ankit Raaj (9.2), Anuranjan (8.8), Jaikishor Kumar (8.6), Rimy Chatterjee, Imteyaz Khan, Ankit Kumar, Himanshu Kumar, Chandrashekhar Kumar, Shilpy Kumari and Shruti Kumari have enriched the list of high fliers. Mrs. Rina Padey (Principal, SPPS) has congratulated all the students and their parents on behalf of the school family and expected for better performance by the students in future. She praised the teachers and NBJK leadership for support with team spirit. Mr. Girija Satish (ED, NBJK), Mr. Gandharv Gaurav (Program Director) and the school teachers like Mr. Indrajit Sharma, Mr. Ajit Pandey, Mrs. Kanchan Gupta, Ms Neha Kachchap with others have extended their best wishes to the outgoing batch. Surekha Prakashbhai Public School has introduced Plus 2 classes also from current academic session and contributes to affordable as well as quality education within reach of the rural community at Chouparan block in Hazaribag district of Jharkhand.

Biometric Attendance System at NBJK Coordination Office

NBJK has introduced a Biometric Attendance System for its Coordination Office at Amrit Nagar, Hazaribag from May’15. All staffs have been instructed to make entry of their thumb impression for incoming & outgoing movements. They report for arrival during 9 – 9.30 AM to register daily attendance, for departure & arrival during 1 – 1.30 PM at lunch time and for exit in between 5 – 5.30 PM at end of the work day. This allows Microcredit field staffs for late entry at 2 -2.30 PM and includes local travel with all outside movements of employees as per the rule. Mr. Mithilesh Kumar (Office Manager) has informed about various features of the biometric system before all staffs of C. O. and demonstrated about the functioning. He believes in smooth dealing of the affairs now and confirmed about all time personalized data on hand to finalize salary, pay-roll and other monthly calculations. In the field of advanced electronic identification, automation and tracking products & services, The Biometric Access Control System is a professional fingerprint access and time attendance control system that uses fingerprint, voice guidance, attendance record, fingerprint update and data communication. This can be applied widely in confidential places for its easy installation and high security.

Microcredit, Hazaribag Observes Annual Review Meeting

Microcredit department of NBJK, Hazaribag has organized its annual review meeting on 15 – 16 May. This had an agenda to analyze the achievements of the program for the year 2014 – 15 and to agree on the target to be reached during current fiscal year. The meeting was attended by all 22 members of the program team for Sadar I, Sadar II, Ichak, Barkagaon and Chouparan blocks of Hazaribag district. Mr. Sudhir Kumar Upadhyay (Program Manager) has welcomed all participants, greeted them for their works on the ground and made them aware of various challenges emerging from the field. He has warned about Multi-lending practice by the groups when they avail credit from different agencies at a time and couldn’t do justice with the resources available due to overlapping and collision of business plans. The review meeting was graced by Mr. Girija Satish (President, NBJK) who expressed his concern over the problem of regulations for MFIs and cited for a clear legal framework to avoid any misunderstanding. He awarded Mr. Shivnath Rana (Credit Officer, Sadar block) as all-round best performer of the year, Mr. Ajay Kumar Gupta (Credit Officer, Ichak block) for highest growth rate and Mr. Naveen Kumar Mishra (Credit Officer, Chouparan block) for best group structure & record keeping. Its worth mentioning that the program has covered 4435 members of SHGs and JLGs with a total disbursement of Rs. 8.65 crore with 99.9% repayment rate. We are all set to dispense Rs. 9.86 crore among the groups this year, Mr. Sudhir Upadhyay has informed after the meeting that discussed over monetary policy of RBI, MUDRA Bank and other related developments too.

On Rights to People with Special Needs

With a result oriented intervention over the issue of rights to people challenged by physical or mental impairments, NBJK has focused upon mobilization of PWDs, their certification and entitlements during the period from July’09 to June’13 in 5 districts of Jharkhand – Bihar. This innovative program was implemented among 32000 identified PWDs, ensured disability certificates for 29860 such people and pension or other benefits to 17000 of them with support of AVI & DFID, UK. The program has got an extension for next 3 years from May’15. The newly appointed program manager Mr. Mohit Gupta has briefed about it’s continuation to strengthen the process initiated by NBJK earlier. By accessing their rights, more challenged people can be a part of the change initiated with a fresh baseline survey in 500 new villages under 20 blocks of Hazaribag, Koderma, Giridih, Nawada and Gaya districts. The program will ensure selection & training of 100 volunteers, issuance of 15000 new certificates, entitlements to 19000 PWDs, formation of 250 SHGs & 75 DPOs, self business promotion for 1000 challenged people, skill training to 1000 PWDs, service to 4000 visually / hearing impaired children, awareness events in 300 schools and many more within the time to come. Every district has a team of 11 members including 8 field staffs, 2 block coordinators and a district coordinator to look after the program smoothly. Now we are reviving our field contacts and 33 certifications have been reported at the camp by DDRC, Hazaribag on 15 May.

Cultural Show-case by Orphan Children

The children of Lord Buddha Home for Children, Bodhagaya have come forward with self composed lyrics and music under Show-case program organized on 13 May with support of Manzil Mystics, a local group on arts & culture. A team of the group has worked hard for two days with children for the program and facilitated them for an excellent exposure by using their own talent. All the exercise was to imbibe some valuable traits of self respect, confidence, leadership, farsightedness and discipline for personality development among them through the mystic tool of music. LBHC children have liked this new experiment and performed amazingly during the show. They put words, made musical accents and impressed the audience by their flair. The show was anchored by Mr. Tripurari P. Singh (Asst. Program Coordinator, NBJK – Bodhgaya) who welcomed the guests and dignitaries. Mr. Shamshul Akhtar (Karuna Shechen), Mr. Amrendra Kumar (Nalanda), Dr. Abhishek Mrinal (Lions Club) and Mr. Santosh Kr. Sinaha (Gyan Bharti) have graced the event and encouraged the children to present their learning on the dais. The program was coupled with prize distribution and citation for 12^th batch apprentices of Rozgar Training Centre running inside the campus of LBHC for rural youths. Mr. Nitesh Kr. Sharma, Jasveer, Anshu Raaj, Santosh Pandey, Anant Rohit, Minhaz Ansari and Ajay Kumar have contributed a lot to make the events successful.

Refresher Training for Rozgar Staffs

2 days Refresher training for faculties, mobilizers and placement officers working at all 9 RTCs (Rozgar Training Centers) in 8 districts of Jharkhand by NBJK with support of Axis Bank Foundation, Mumbai has commenced on 28 April at NBJK Coordination office, Amritnagar, Hazaribag. This was focused upon uniformity in documentation, curriculum, study material and process of their functioning. Mrs. Sujata Prasad (Program Manager, RTCs) said that due to multiple courses and a large number of trainees, such exercise is needed for the project team.

She has informed about skill development training on computer software / hardware, BPO, cell phone repair, bedside patient attendants, driving, electrician, beautician, tailoring etc. for around 1400 youths and placement for roughly 500 among them within last 4 months after opening of the RTCs at Ranchi, Khunti, Ramgarh, Hazaribag, Koderma, Devghar, Dumka and Jamshedpur.

Mr. Girija Satish (President, NBJK) too has joined a session and provided important tips for ease and practicability within modus-operandi of RTCs. There were 55 participants on the first day of Refresher training.