DWS Country Programs
India
Women attending classes in the evening at a Non-formal Education Centre. NFE Centres are initiated and supported by LWSI for illiterate adults and out-of-school children. |
The LWF/DWS India Program was started in 1974 in response to refugee needs after the Bangladesh war of independence. Lutheran World Service – India, or LWSI, as it is currently known, works with the ever-growing population of rural and urban poor in the country. The main objective is to empower men and women of disadvantaged communities to enhance their quality of life by cultivating self-reliance. LWSI has been implementing Disaster Response and Integrated Development Projects for more than three decades. Although the program responds to large disasters anywhere in India, it has focused its emergency response, disaster preparedness and development efforts in Eastern India.
While LWSI provides relief and rehabilitation when natural or human made disasters occur, its Integrated Development Projects have over the years built up expertise in a number of sectors that are normally part of the local development needs. The five main sectors are Capacity Building, Education, Healthcare, Agriculture and Income Generation. The work also includes building awareness, skills and competence at the community level to combat the growing menace of HIV/AIDS.
India is a country of more than one billion people, where the impact of economic globalization disproportionately benefits a small segment of the population while the marginalized are driven further into poverty, with about 260 million people living below the poverty line. At the same time, natural disasters (floods, droughts, cyclones and earthquakes), especially in vulnerable areas, and human made disasters (riots, stampedes, terrorist attacks, etc) continue to destroy the hard won gains of development efforts.
Group farming by women. LWSI encourages women Self Help Groups to take up joint cultivation on wasteland. © LWF |
LWSI projects continued work in the states of West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Gujarat, and took up relief and rehabilitation intervention in a big way in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster on 26 December 2004, and in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal during and after the massive floods in August-September 2006 caused by torrential monsoon rains and overflowing of major rivers.
LWSI emphasizes the active and direct participation of the most marginalized in development and disaster response efforts. The communities are partners and all interventions are carried out through their organizations and groups.
At the end of 2005, LWSI was working in partnership with 3,047 communities, covering approximately a population of 917,460. It was supporting 5,009 Community Based Organizations, Self Help Groups and Disaster Mitigation Teams.
The process towards LWSI nationalization has progressed significantly. According to plan, LWS India would become a national organization by January 2008. The governing board is expected to be in place by middle of 2007.
Rural Development Project
In rural areas, LWSI works with the landless and vulnerable communities living at subsistence level. Majority of the families in the operational communities belong to the traditionally marginalized groups, such as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. RDP operates in three districts of West Bengal: Bankura, Birbhum and South 24-Parganas, and seven districts of Orissa: Bolangir, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Nuapada, Puri and Subarnapur. Considerable expansion of the Rural Development Project in South 24-Parganas with Canadian Lutheran World Relief funding is an example of donor confidence.
Urban Development Project
The project works with dwellers of urban slums and squatter settlements, consisting of refugees from neighboring countries and migrants from rural areas. UDP continues in Kolkata (West Bengal), Cuttack and Bhubaneswar (Orissa).
Community Based Disaster Preparedness Project
LWSI trains Disaster Mitigation Teams to help people during disasters. A mock drill is being presented by DMT members. © LWF/ |
LWSI helps local communities in flood and cyclone prone areas to respond to natural calamities and mitigate the effects of future disasters by training them on Community Based Disaster Preparedness and organizing Disaster Mitigation Teams. CBDP projects were functional in Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Ganjam and Jajpur districts of Orissa, Dhubri and Goalpara districts of Assam and Dahod district of Gujarat.
Disaster Response (Appeal) Projects
During 2005, LWSI initiated, continued and completed various projects in response to natural and human made disasters with the support of ACT International: Tsunami in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, floods in West Bengal, Assam and Gujarat, and resettlement of people displaced in inter-tribal violence of 1996 and 1998 (many of whom are still living in relief camps) in Kokrajhar district of Assam. In 2006, relief and rehabilitation intervention has been taken up for flood victims in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal.
For further information please contact:
Ms Elsa Moreno, Program Officer
Local representative
Mr Neville Pradhan, Director
