A F C I N D I A . c o m

AFC opens Microfinance Division

WESTERN ORISSA RURAL LIVELIHOOD PROJECT
AFC works as Project Implementation Agency

The districts of Nuapada, Bolangir,and kalahandi and the Padampur sub-division of Bargarh in western orissa, with a population of nearly 4 million ,are among the poorest in India, with 70 per cent of the population living below the official poverty line. Literacy rates are well below the state average, health indicators are poor, and there is a shortage of safe drinking water, a lack of sanitation, and poor infrastructure .natural calamities, inequitable social structures, distorted land distribution, indebtedness gender and other inequities have created wide spread poverty in these districts. It was prudent therefore for the Govt of India and DFID, which are committed to the reduction of poverty in the rainfed regions of India, to select these four districts for assistance under the western Orissa rural livelihoods project (WORLP)

The WORLP project design emphasises on Livelihood support along with natural resources management on a watershed basis. AFC with its wide experience in watershed development within Orissa and other states of the country , was assigned the role of Project Implementing Agency (PIA) for WORLP project. AFC was assigned Bhavanipattana block of kalahandi district on 21/07/2005 by the state level steering committee of WORLP. The watershed area of 5000 ha covering 26 villages in three gram panchayats were assigned to AFC.

In August 2005 AFC opened an office at Bhavanipattana to implement the project. AFC’s staff consisted of Watershed development team members and Livelihood support team. The processes followed are:

	1.	Delineation of watersheds
	2.	Awareness campaigns,
	3.	Base line sureys.
	4.	PRA surveys, community wealth ranking& transact walk
	5.	Identification of existing groups/SHG’s
	6.	Identification of new SHG’s
	7.	Capacity building of all groups
	8.	Exposure visits of groups.
	9.	Identification of entry point activity.
	10.	Preparation of PRA based micro level plan and annual action plan along with identifying user groups to implement the plan.
	11.	Implementing of entry point activities with the participation of village community.
	12.	Formation of watershed committee and watershed Association, training of office bearers.
	13.	Registration of the Watershed associations . opening of bank accounts and transfer of funds .
	14.	Capacity building and technical support to the watershed committees to implement the project as per micro plan prepared.

After assessing AFC’s watershed programme at Bhavanipattana the state level steering committee for WORLP, assigned a second watershed project in Sohela block of Bargarh district to AFC for implementation in the month of March 2006. The project area covered 17 villages having an area of 5000 ha.

Description of Works undertaken in Bhavanipattana

1)Community mobilisation

Under community mobilization activity AFC organized the following activities in the watershed villages:

	a)	Awareness campaign through street plays, and village level meetings,
	b)	Health awareness campaign through visit of doctors to the watershed villages helped villagers in getting treatment for diseases,
	c)	Animal health camps in 26 villages,
	d)	Supply of solar lamps for village meetings as all the villages had no electricity,
	e)	Supply of dhari for village meetings,
	f)	Identifying 26 volunteers as community link workers(CLW) and their training.
	g)	Wall paintings and welcome pillar indicating project objectives in Oriya,
	h)	AFC organized relief kitchens and temporary shelters in the villages affected by heavy storm ,
	i)	Entry point activities were identified by the community and implemented through community participation.

1.1 Important events and incidents that have emerged through community mobilization

AFC’s school project in Thangaballi village

The AFC team during the process of spreading awareness about WORLP project and community mobilization among the project villages visited Thangabahali village of Chancher gram panchayat. The village is 17km from Bhavanipattana and is adjacent to Karlapad Reserve forest . The village is connected by a dirt track road. The village has 17 household having a population of 86 people, consisting of scheduled tribes and scheduled castes. Thangabahali village does not have infrastructure like health centre, anganwadi center or primary school and most of the villagers follow subsistence farming practices. To address to their health needs the villagers have to travel to Bhavanipattana which is 17 km away, while the nearest school available for them is situated at Jugsipattana and Phokarighat which is about 7 Km away. The situation is same for other tribal villages in the area.

The villagers requested the AFC team and the Managing Director AFC on 29/03/06, who was on a review mission to the project site , for establishing a school in the village. The community agreed to provide a room for the school and pay a token fee of Rs 2/- per child. With no provision for running schools under the WORLP project the team decided to initiate the process under entry point activity. AFC appointed a community link worker as the teacher for the school and an old lady to tell stories to the children so that they are aware of their cultural and moral values.


MD’S visit to the Project Site	Inauguration of WORLP-AFC’s informal school at Tangaballi

The school was formally inaugurated on April 1st 2006 being Orissa day. During the initial period there were 26 students between the age group of 6 to 14 years. They are being taught to read and write. Books and slates were provided to the students. The popularity of the programme can be judged by the fact that 20 children from adjoining village of Marnabhali have joined the school raising the enrollment to 46 students.

Village Check dam constructed through community participation in Karlakoda village

AFC team visited karlakoda village to spread awareness of the project in the month of September 2005. During the initial meetings it was observed that few persons of the village were disrupting the functioning of AFC. Few of our staff were threatened and about to be beaten by the those elements. Villagers intervened and started beating these people, AFC team intervened and requested the villagers to pardon. Then, during the meeting the villagers selected construction of an earthen check dam for collection of water for bathing and drinking water for cattle as an entry point activity. The villagers agreed to contribute towards construction of the earthen dam and a day was fixed for collection of contribution from the villagers.

On the day for collection of funds from the community a box was placed near the village community centre. To the surprise of every one, it was the angry people who were the first ones to contribute funds for the construction of the dam. The dam was successfully constructed by the community and the active participation of the people who threatened AFC team initially.

The lessons learnt through the exercise was that “ If your intensions are genuine the community will participate in the project”

Community participation for the construction of check dam at Karalkoda village

WORLP Cup cricket match 2006

As a means of mobilizing the youth of watershed villages, cricket matches were organized in the month of May 2006 and a rolling trophy “ WORLP-AFC Cup” was constituted. Each watershed had a team comprising of youth of watershed villages. 16 matches were played and the final tournament was held at Kalahandi stadium. For the youth it was an opportunity to participate and play in the stadium at Bhavanipattana. WORLP-AFC cup was a good tool to motivate and organize youth of the Watersheds.


WORLP-AFC Cup 2006 : Players being introduced to the Manager & In-Charge AFC	Winning team : Receiving the rolling trophy from Manager& in –Charge AFC

Micro Level Planning of 10 micro watersheds:

Micro Planning of 10 micro watersheds for 5 years was completed on June 15th and submitted to the Project Director, (Watersheds) for necessary approvals by the District Watershed Development Committee (DWDC), Kalahandi. This micro planning was done by the Watersheds Development Team and Livelihood support Team along with active participation of the Watershed Association and Watershed Committee. The following processes were involved for preparation of the Micro planning.

	1.	Household Survey
	2.	Village Baseline Survey
	3.	Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools i.e Social, Resource, Wellbeing, Problem Matrix, Seasonal Maps
	4.	Livelihood analysis
	5.	Existing land use Map
	6.	Proposed land use Map

Formation of Watershed Committee and its Registration under Societies Registration Act 1860:

The process of formation of 10 Watershed Committees was completed by the first week of June2006. The preparation of bye-laws for the Watershed Association in consultation with the communities has been completed and have been submitted to the Registrar of Societies for final registration. Bank accounts of all the watershed committees have been opened and funds for the committees have been transferred to the bank accounts of the respective watershed committiiees.

Plantation Activities:
Backward Plantation:
Ten Nurserieas through SHG’s have been established in 10 watersheds during April & May where 25,000 seedlings have been raised for backyard plantation. From these nurseries each watershed household were supplied with Drumstick (2nos), Papaya (2nos), Lemon(1)

Mango Plantation through SHG members;

1000 beneficiaries were selected from 70 SHGs from the 10 watersheds for Mango plantation in their field. Each SHG members was given 2 mango grafts for plantation.

Agricultural Activities:
AFC has introduced new crops in the watershed area under crop diversification programme. The following seeds have been given to the farmers for cultivation, the involvement of the Horticulture dept. and Agriculture dept was ensured through the supply of quality seeds.

Variety	No of Beneficiaries	Quantity	Area covered
Paddy Foundation seeds (Swarna, Khandagiri, Lalata)	113 farmers	3390 Kg	113 Acre
Maize (Deccan-109)	15 farmers	96 Kg	15 Acre
Turmeric (Rajendra Sania)	25 farmers		7.75 Acre
Yam (Gajendra)	13 farmers		3.5 Acre

Aquaculture operations have been initiated in 79 tanks covering 15 acers involving the respective user groups by AFC team during the month of August 2006. The other activities undertaken in the watersheds are avenue plantations in19.5 km stretch, teak plantation involving 403 farmers ,lemon graft supply to 293 farmers, 1234 households have been supplied graft mango planting material and fodder cultivation has been initiated in 7 acers. AFC in consultation with watershed committees have started agro-sevice centres in two watershed villages were power tiller have been supplied.

Activities undertaken in WORLP watersheds Sohela block, Bargarh

AFC after signing the MOU with the project Director watersheds Bargarh on March 17th 2006, set up a project office at Sohela during the visit of AFC’s Managing Directors to the project site on 30th March 2006. The necessary manpower and infrastructure was in place by April 2006. As on date four watershed committees have been formed and the watershed associations have been registered. The process of mobilizing the committee in the remaining six watersheds is in process.


Managing Director AFC , addressing a meeting at Sohela WORLP watershed

Plantation Activities:

Backyard Plantation: AFC has initiated six nurseries in six villages of the project having about 12,000 of seedlings of mango , vegetables, medicinal plants and yam. The nurseries is catering to the needs of the farmers during monsoon. Through the community link workers the planting material have been supplied to the farmers.

Agricultural Activities

AFC has introduced new crops in the watershed area under crop diversification programme. The following planting material have been given to the farmers for cultivation.

Variety	No of Beneficiaries	Quantity	Area covered
Paddy Foundation Sheet (Swarna)	14 farmers	420 kg	14 acre
Groundnut AK-1224	137 farmers	41.10	68.5 Acre
Yam	200 farmers	69 quintals	10 Acre
Goundnut under Convergence	45 farmers	9 quintals	15 Acres

Training to SHG members:

AFC has conducted four training programmes for SHG members on concept clarity and management of SHGs in 04 watersheds. Resource persons from Local SBI bank and Department of Women & Child attended the meeting.

Training to Farmers on Groundnut Cultivation:

AFC has organized four training programmes for the farmers cultivating groundnut. The experts from agriculture department imparted the training and the LST & WDT agriculture attended the training.

Awareness Meeting in new Watershed Villages:

AFC has organized Mass Awareness meeting and concept of WORLP in the new 6 watersheds of Sohela block .

Total sanitation programme

AFC along with a local NGO have initiated community managed total sanitation programme in six watershed villages which under implementation.