Mayurbhanj, India

Kalapathar's VDC uses its tractor to help villagers.

ADP staff say recent incidents demonstrate people’s burgeoning co-operative spirit and a proactive approach to addressing social problems. Here are some examples:

• A children’s club in Matiali village collected money to buy an earthen water jar and glass. Each morning they fill the jar so passing travellers can refresh themselves with a glass of water.
  
• The Kalapathar Village Development Committee (VDC) contributed Rs.3000/- (about $NZ100) to a young man whose parents could not afford his apprentice training at naval dockyards in Mumbai. In the past year, the VDC has also helped a person with funds to build a house and two others to start small businesses. The VDC raised this money by hiring out a tractor that World Vision provided to the community in 2001.
  
• A group of young people in Kundalbani village approached a middle-aged man there about the effect his drinking was having on his children. The man is a hard worker, but was spending 80 per cent of his income on alcohol, which meant his children missed out on schooling. To the young people’s surprise, their plea for the man to reconsider his priorities worked. He has stopped drinking and publicly vowed never to start again, and his children are now at school.
  
• The Kisandahi VDC surveyed land in their village, looking for any unused areas that could be cultivated to alleviate poverty in the village. As a result of the survey, six hectares of former wasteland has since been planted with fruit trees, rice and tomatoes. The VDC also helped a struggling family start a small business selling biscuits in the village centre.
  
• Rajendra, aged nine, was reluctantly placed in bonded labour by his parents because of their financial plight. The landlord that Rajendra was ‘mortgaged’ to was reluctant to let him go, but the VDC negotiated the boy’s release and Rajendra has been able to return to school.