November 20, 2018

From Raw Hill brooms to processed Hill brooms : The Success story of a few primitive tribal women…..



Kulusing is a village of Abada Gram Panchayat, which is a tribal dominated village of hilly and terraced land mass. The total population of the village is tribal, who are solemnly named as solely Lanjia Soura Tribe who are one among 13-PTGs(Primitive Tribal Group) existing in Odisha. They are called Lanjia Soura because of their traditional dress which they used to wear which appears like “Lanjia” or “Tail”. Similarly, the females of Lanjia Soura community use to cover the lower part of their body by handmade napkin leaving the upper part quite naked traditionally.



They speak Soura Munda language. They have scattered housing pattern. The village guardian deities are represented by wooden posts installed at the entrance of the village. They pursue shifting cultivation and prepare terrace fields for rice cultivation.
 The Hira SHG has been formed in 15th December 2014 in Kulusing. Total 14 members and their regular saving is a part of their income. After the intervention of OPELIP, the members of Hira SHG has improved skill and techniques on Broom collection, finishing, binding with rope, snickering, value addition process, marketing linkages, and convergence and networking process through the different training program.
 Hira SHG has formed a new uniqueness in the project operational areas for their new initiative. The demand for hill broom is very high in urban as well as rural are of the entire district. It has developed an identification in the village and became the confidence level high.
Before OPELIP intervention the community has no thought on hill broom as an income opportunity. Only it used to fulfill their domestic requirement for cleaning. Some people were used to collect the hill broom and sold it at a distress price. There were no collective business attitudes before.  They were sensitized with numbers of meetings at SHG level by OPELIP staff. For rapport building, they were provided with unique saris and box to keep all records with safety. 
The profit amount was very meagre which might seem insignificant to many of us, but imagine the joy of these women who are otherwise always confined to their domestic sphere, burdened with gendered roles of being the Caretaker, mother and various other Society defined roles. Some of them have not even seen the face of a school, forget alphabets and numbers. The excitement when they shared the message of their profit, was probably the best thing for us to work with them.




















                                                                                                       








October 2, 2018

"Promoting A Society For All Leaving No one Behind"




Though sometimes overlooked, seemingly underappreciated and at times taken for granted, senior citizens have a lot to offer us. International day of elder persons is celebrated for the senior citizens all across the world to focus on the responsibilities towards their lives.

1st October 2018 was also celebrated in our Senior citizens Home in a grand manner where District Collector, Senior government officials, NSS cadets of Rayagada Autonomous College, Students of Vignan Public School attended the programme along with staffs of SHAKTI. It was a great pleasure that the students performed cultural programmes. A Marathon competition was also held separately for male and female inmates and the winners were awarded with prizes. Accompanied with such different programmes , Health camp was also organised there for our inmates. It can't be wrong to interpret that District Collector has led the event whole heartedly. Collector has distributed snacks, towels, T-shirts to all the inmates and a Hot case (having large capacity) to the Senior Citizens Home. A smile on the face of those who always live their life for their children made all the faces cheerful again there...... 



August 16, 2018

A Day of Pleasure....72nd Independence day



Enthusiasm and zeal could be felt in the environment since early in the morning of 15th August 2018 at Shakti Senior Citizen Home. Everyone was busy in the preparations for celebrating the glorious independence of India. Elderly members of the home were busy in decorating the premises and helping the staff in making arrangements as per their capacity.

Mr.Gunonidhi Bauri presided over the function. The ball started rolling with flag hoisting. After flag hoisting, the general secretary of Shakti Organisation requested to address the gathering. He reiterated the need for national integration and communal harmony.





The day was quite joyful and ended with a smile on the faces of all the inmates of Shakti Organisation.

January 26, 2018

Unfurled the tri-colour flag at Old age home on Republic day

A day which is celebrated with full of pride and patriotism in heart is the celebration of Republic day. It was a white winter morning on 26th January, all the inmates of Shakti Old age Home assembled under the tri colour flag to celebrate this auspicious day. Unfurling our tri colour national flag followed by the echo of national anthem “Jana gana Mana” by all our inmates brought a heartfelt tribute to the freedom fighters and our mother land "INDIA" and we bowed our head with a salute to our national flag. General Secretary of Shakti organization delivered his words on republic day after unfurling the national flag. The day was quite joyful and ended with a smile on the faces of all the inmates of Shakti organization.



       

                                                 

Honorable Minister visited Old Age Home

India’s republic day marks the anniversary of the adoption of our Indian constitution. It’s a day to remember the completion of our country’s transition towards becoming an independent republic nation. Like every year’s celebration, this year also our Old age Home inmates celebrated the republic day with patriotic fervor. 
             It’s our pleasure to mention that our honorable health Minister Mr. Pratap Jena, esteemed district Collector Mrs. Guha Punam Tapas Kumar along with the senior government officials visited the Old age home. There was also a very good interaction between the inmates and government officials. The officials distributed blankets, fruits and snacks to the inmates with affection. At last honourable minister, district collector and all government officials conveyed their best wishes and gratitude to the inmates of Old age home with a hope of meeting them all again.