SWADESI is a rural development organization, working with poor and marginalized communities of Orissa since 1989, towards making sustainable improvements in the quality of life of the rural poor. Founded by a group of volunteers in Orissa under the umbrella of the Young Students Movement for Development, SWADESI was registered as a society on September 13, 1993, under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The organisation currently serves a population across thirty districts of Odisha.

The organization has primary focus on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, ensuring social inclusion and justice, good governance and citizen‟s right. Helping communities identify and initiate development measures; providing training and other capacity-building support to pro-poor organizations and individuals; and carrying out research and advocacy in favour of the poor people especially the tribals constitute the major initiatives of the centre. Rural Livelihoods, Education, Participatory Governance and Budget Accountability, Financial literacy and empowerment, Disaster Response and Mitigation, Health, Gender Equity; Child Rights and Protection, and Water and Sanitation are its major areas of work. SWADESI works at both the grassroots level - directly with communities - and through NGOs partners, which makes its development model unique.

SWADESI is different from traditional Non Profits by providing innovative services such as micro banking, micro insurance, micro finance, internet based services for the sustainable development of the underprivileged.

Our Vision

An equitable and sustainable society where people live in peace with dignity

Our Mission

To promote processes which are sustainable, socially inclusive enable critical masses of poor and marginalized rural people or communities to achieve a dignified quality of life.

OUR CREDENTIALS

Our Registrations with

• IGR
• FCRA
• EPF
• ESI
• CLINICAL REGISTRATION
• 12 A OF INCOME TAX
• SERVICE TAX
• PAN
• TAN
• 80G

WHAT WE DO

SBI KIOSK BANKING

The Kiosk Banking facility is an initiative by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which has revolutionised the banking system in India. Aimed at ensuring greater financial inclusion and wider outreach of the banking sector, the facility gives people in remote locations access to basic banking services and undertaking different banking transactions without the need to visit a bank branch. Offered by various banks, the facility is made available with the help of intermediaries, also known as Business Correspondents (BCs) through kiosks or small booths serving as the customer service point (CSP).

Skill Development

Micro Banking and Micro Insurance

For State Bank of India

SWADESI provide door step Banking Support of State Bank of India, Currently we have around 3000 Kiosk Outlet in the State of Odisha , In this Kiosk Outlet we are providing different banking actives like Deposit, Withdraw, Remittance, Account Opening, RD, FD, Recovery & other actives.

For LIC & New India Assurance

We provide Micro Insurance in Health and General insurance

Internet Based support in Rural Area

For BSNL

SWADESI provides Internet support in different Remote Places like Cyber Café, where people can access there Land Record, Result and other activities.

Employment Assurance Scheme

SWADESI implemented the employment assurance scheme in 3531.716 Hectors. As its name suggests, the primary objective of the EAS is to provide gainful employment during the lean agricultural season in manual work to all able bodied adults in rural areas who are in need and desirous of work, but cannot find it. The work may be either on farm or on other allied operations or on the normal plan/non-plan works during such a period. The secondary objective is the creation of community, social and economic assets for sustained employment and development

Govt. of India	CAPART	1560.126 Ha
Govt. of Odisha	OFSDP	Village covered - 96 Nos.

Governance

Accountability and Transparency

In its efforts to ensure that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over allocation of development resources, SWADESI aimed at provided for an environment conducive to sustained development.

Social Audit

SWADESI‟s purpose of carrying out Social Audit Interventions was to make functions and functionaries of government accountable on public development spending, to create a deep sense of accountability and transparency in the minds of the public, to initiate independent process of Social Audit and accountability in all Gram Panchayats in our program operational areas, and to develop partnership with the mainstream agencies for successful implementation of Social Audit. SWADESI‟s approach towards ensuring transparency and accountability in Governance was Participatory to every extent as it concentrated on introducing RTI and Social Audit as accountability tools through the formed RTI and Social Audit Cadres before facilitating the process of Social Audit.

The Social Audit process was conducted by the “Social Audit Committees” with an aim to identify gaps, enable provisions and carry out mid-course corrections through a mechanism of participatory review, from the initiation of the process through completion, ensuring a vigilant and socially accountable process, credible and answerable to the beneficiaries.

Disaster Response

SADESHI‟s Journey in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR): SWADESI‟s experience in DRR is in the areas of disaster preparedness, response (rescue & relief), mitigation, rehabilitation and long-term development. SWADESI has worked to respond variety of disasters in Odisha as well in the country like flood, cyclone, tsunami, tornado and drought. The centre got involved into disaster response and mitigation measures soon after the 1999 Orissa super cyclone.

The centre has also experience in community based disaster preparedness, capacity building on DRR, development of community mobilisation for DRR, development of contingency plans, both unconditional and conditional cash transfer in disaster response, child-centric DRR and school safety programme on DRR.

Response to the 1999 Orissa Super Cyclone: SWADESI has been making efforts to respond to the natural disasters since the aftermath of the Orissa super cyclone 1999. As part of the process, the centre was involved in multi-faceted activities like relief and rescue work - food relief and habitat retrieval which include (i) distribution of dry food, (ii) running of community kitchens, (iii) carcass disposal, (iv) garbage removal, (v) road cleaning, and (vi) renovation of water sources; health care and sanitation, shelter to the

shelter less, bringing children back to schools; long-term efforts for livelihood restoration-support provided for the commercial and summer crops, promoting collective farming with women‟s participation, setting up of agro service-cum-information centre, regenerating the vegetative cover, community asset reconstruction and employment generation through food for work, building people‟s institutions, improvement of community based disaster preparedness and community contingency plan etc.

Response to the floods in 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011 and other disaster: SWADESI also responded to the floods in 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011 and other disasters like earthquake, tsunami and tornado-2009, etc in the affected regions of Odisha and other state. However, special care has been taken to focus on the building people‟s institutions, improvement of the community based disaster preparedness, focusing on the women and children related activities, school safety and community contingency plans and development of partnership and network.

SWADESI has always emphasized community ownership as the key to any development initiative. Accordingly, the centre has not only promoted people‟s institutions in the cyclone-affected areas, it has also tried to strengthen their capacities to ensure the sustainability of the interventions and building up the desired social and economic capital.

The efforts have resulted in the formation of a number of functional groups and community organizations like village development committees (VDCs), farmers' groups, women‟s and girls' groups (Balika Mandals) in the operational areas. Special care has been taken to form women‟s self-help groups (SHGs) for taking up micro-credit and entrepreneurship activities, school safety, strengthening of village disaster management committees/ disaster mitigation teams (DMTs) and school disaster management committees.

In particular the following focused activities were initiated by SWADESI in the highly vulnerable coastal villages. The four phases of the initiative were:

Community based disaster preparedness (CBDP), later known as community contingency plans (CPP);

Training of Trainers programmes (TOT) to facilitate community contingency plans; Formation of village disaster management committees/disaster mitigation teams (DMTs) who would carry forward activities such as warning and information dissemination, rescue and evacuation, first-aid and emergency health care, relief and shelter management, formulating and updating community contingency plans (CCP), etc. and Development and updating of CCPs and organization of mock-drills on hard skills relating to search, rescue and evacuation in each and every village.

The entire process saw the formation of Disaster Management Teams known as „Durbipaka Mukabibla Dala‟. The process involved the formation of spearheads and task groups on (i) warning and information; (ii) rescue and evacuation; (iii) emergency health care; and (iv) relief/ restoration management. All along the SWADESI‟s emphasis has been on building partnerships and networks with CBOs, PRIs, NGOs, and other agencies to ensure the sustainability of activities. Sharing of resources and information remains the key to such sustained partnership.

Water & Sanitation

WASH in schools is globally recognised as a key intervention to promote children‟s right to health and clean environment and to influence a generational change in health promotion behaviour and attitudes. If school children have access to clean and appropriate toilets, functioning hand washing facilities with soap, sufficient and safe drinking water and have developed adequate hygiene skills, they will:

• Be healthier
• Perform better in school,
• Positively influence the hygiene practices among their family members and the wider community
• Have learnt to observe, communicate, cooperate, and listen, to take and carry out decisions about their own hygiene conditions and practices and those of their friends and the younger siblings whose hygiene they are responsible for. They will also be able to apply these skills in other aspects of their lives,
• Change their current hygiene behaviour but also use better hygiene practices in future when they are likely to become parents, teachers, health staff or other workers,
• Learn about menstrual hygiene and physical and emotional changes during puberty, which will encourage girls to come to school during menstruation and will help to avoid menstrual odour, discomfort and potential urinal and vaginal infections,
• Learn about the equal division of hygiene-related tasks (cleaning of toilets, fetching and boiling water, taking care of sick people) between boys and girls.

School is important for cognitive, creative and social development of children. So, the Water Sanitation and Hygiene Education in school are necessary for the safe, secure and healthy environment for children to learn better and face the challenges of future life. Water Sanitation and Hygiene Education in schools has now become a reality of school centric development action being realized by most of the schools.

If sanitary facilities in schools are available, they can act as a model, and teachers can function as role models. Schools can also influence communities through outreach activities, since through their students; schools are in touch with a large proportion of the households in a community.

However, inadequate school WASH facilities contribute towards disease burden among children causing dropouts, absenteeism, retarded intellectual progress and inability to participate in games / sports / extracurricular active ties. Several studies have pointed out poor WASH situation hampers enrolment, retentions and completion of education by girls.

Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene practices are major causes of morbidity and mortality. The Department of Drinking Water Supply (DDWS) reported that five of the ten most common causes of death in children are due to poor WASH situations. The Government of India (GoI) has launched a major program to improve school infrastructure and 200,000 school toilet blocks were built in the last financial year (2009-10) alone. But the progress in not similar in all the areas and particularly in tribal areas on various pretexts the scheme is not implemented properly depriving the school children their assured rights. What is more alarming is the fact that most of the toilets are non-functional due to poor maintenance, lack of water supply, behavioural gaps in the users, non-availability of accessories like soap, wash-brush, dilapidated soak pits, dirty surroundings and lack of any effective initiative by school authorities, teachers and students.

The following points present the degree of vulnerability suffered by school children due to very poor WASH arrangements at schools.

• Faulty construction due to defective design or monitoring on quality
• Vertical implementation of sanitation program without ensuring integration of water supply causing non-use, unclean interiors, breeding of flies, mosquitoes, harmful vectors and foul habitat conditions.
• Non-detection of worm infestation caused by poor WASH leading to several forms of diseases among children.
• Emphasis on budget spending rather than creating and enabling environment for proper use as well as operation and maintenance.
• Inadequate cooperation of teachers in ensuring the use of installed facilities by children.
• Lack of hygiene orientation and education at schools.
• Indifference towards poor water and sanitation practices.
• Lack of supervision by VEC, PTA/MTA and PRIs
• Lack of capacity for monitoring water quality and taking remedial action.
• Inadequate coordination between school authorities and line departments implementing the construction projects.
• Inadequate convergence among technical and resource agencies to forge partnerships for overcoming gaps and shortfalls.
• Lack of community involvement and participation (village water and sanitation committee) in demand generation and advocacy for timely release of grants and completion of project followed by proper use and maintenance.
• Lack of space enabling children to articulate and express their difficulties.
• Lack of holistic perspective to use School-WASH as a platform for demonstration and multiplication.

The proper WASH initiatives shall contribute towards improvement in health, education and improved wellbeing of children and communities as well. Child participation shall be promoted through active association and leadership role of student health club members at school, village, GP and higher level. The girl child education shall get a fillip by improved enrolment, retention and completion level thanks to integration of child friendly elements in school environment. The learning abilities of children shall improve due to decrease in preventable morbidity burden on account of unhygienic living and sanitary conditions. It will also boost self-esteem, self-confidence and personality development of children through energetic participation in games, sports and extracurricular activities. Differently able children shall be freed from the psychological harassment and physical drudgery caused by open air defecation. Further, over all the good practices of the school shall form tangible habits among the students and through them get communicated to their respective families and communities facilitating desirable behaviour changes generating demand for accelerated implementation of total sanitation program of the government. This provides adequate justification for the WASH in schools pinpointing specific areas of interventions