The centenary celebration function took place on 27th February 2011, at Jyoti Gardens, Vadodara. Rev. Swami Shri Sadanandji Maharaj of Ramkrishna Ashram Nimpith, West Bengal, was the chief guest. Honorable Chief Minister of Gujarat, Shri Narendra Modi presided over the function. Chairman of the trust, Shri. Kantisen Shroff also shared the dais. Three books including one on the founder himself, ‘Karm Margna Pravasi’ and seven training manuals which were written during the year, as part of the celebrations, were released during the function.

About 1500 people attended the function. The guests included eminent personalities of Baroda, Govt. officials, representatives of NGOs and educational institutions, heads of corporate and business houses, tribal men, women and youth from Chhota Udepur, Pavi Jetpur, Kutch and Padra and people from all walks of life who were connected with SFT and late Shri. Govindji Shroff. Honorable Chief Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi lauded the contribution of Shroff family in social development.

Silver jubilee of Shroffs Foundation Trust was celebrated at Kalali campus on 28th February. The staff from all centers, the trustees, members of Shroff family and invited guests attended the function. Some staff members presented a dance depicting various activities of the trust and functions of each department. All the staff members and invitees were presented with sweets and a memento to mark the silver jubilee. This was followed by lunch.

Centenary Celebrations with a Difference

On February 28, 2011, Shroffs Foundation Trust completed 25 years of active engagement with rural development. SFTs silver jubilee coincided with the Birth Centenary of SFT’s founder, Late Shri Govindji Shroff. The celebrations were an occasion to revisit the rich experience of the past 25 years with its sweet and sour memories.

A massive exercise was undertaken to review the impact of our interventions on the lives of the people. We looked hard at areas where we needed to give a more directed thrust, or expand our endeavors and reach out to more people. It was also a time to rethink and revise programs and strategies and design initiatives that would lead to quantum leap in the prosperity of the region and bring significant improvement in the quality of their lives.

Impact

A research traced step by step development journey of 100 representative villages from the rural Kalali and Padra, tribal Chhotaudepur and the arid grasslands of Banni. The stories of individuals who had played a significant role in the development of their community were also tracked. These are the inspiring stories of ordinary men and women who played an extraordinary role in the development of their community. The feedback from the people was transcribed and transformed into stories by professional writers. These field stories have been published by SFT, in form of two books “Vikasni Kediye” and “Vikasni Vaatna Path Darshako” which recount the impact of the work done in people’s words.

Training Manuals

Training Manuals on various subjects were also written by experts in the fields. They were based on the IEC material used by SFT and its experiences in the field over the years. They were written on subjects like Literacy, Use of IEC Material, HIV/AIDS, Community Organization, Livelihood, Early Child Centered Development and Watershed Development. The purpose was to use them for training of our own staff as well as information sharing with other organizations working in the same field.

A short film ‘Vikasni Vaate’, journey of 25 years, was also produced documenting the inputs from all the stake holders.

New Initiatives

Several new projects and programs were launched throughout the year, dedicated to the founder, Shri Govindjibhai Shroff. Gyanjyot, Jivanjyot and Kamdhenu programs were launched in Banni.

Gyan Jyot Program focuses on school support and adult literacy programs. This program strives to improve the quality of the school education through the active participation of the community, parents and teachers. SFT has set its target on 100% enrolment of children in schools. The adult literacy programs focuses on making specific villages 100% literate.

Jivan Jyot Program was launched to fill up the gaps in RCH related services in Banni. The focus is on pregnant women, lactating mothers, new born babies, eligible couples, adolescent girls and boys, Anganwadi workers, Traditional Birth Attendants, village health committees and ASHA workers.

Kamdhenu Program focuses on animal husbandry and dairy development, the traditional mainstay of the maldharis (cattle owners) to revive the economy of Banni. The objective of the program is to develop animal husbandry as a professionally managed program with higher returns, to provide veterinary services and establish market linkages and establishing cattle feed centers, fodder development and capacity building through appropriate training.

Medical Services As part of birth centenary celebration of the founder, services of Sharda Medical Centre in Hodko were extended and it was converted in to 24 hour hospital with emergency services available. Responding to the demands of the community, SFT set up a 24 hour hospital in Chhota Udepur area so that it could cater to people of surrounding 200 villages of Chhotaudepur, Pavi Jetpur and Kavant talukas of Vadodara district.

New Directions

Some of the major new projects initiated recently and directions charted for the coming years hope to take development to the next level.

VIVEC: Vivekanand Institute for Vocational & Entrepreneurial Competence (VIVEC) is an ambitious initiative to open new doors for tribal youth. VIVEC will strive to be a center of excellence that will provide world-class skill training in various contemporary vocations with the objective of building the capacities of tribal youth, from across the state to take up gainful employment or become good entrepreneurs in the mainstream world.

The center has a target to train about 9,000 tribal youth, over a period of 7 years. Since the courses planned will have contemporary content, encompass requisite soft skills and the training is to be state -of-the art, the employability of trainees will be very high. It is expected that a minimum of 75% of the trainees will be gainfully employed.

SVKSK: Swami Vivekanand Krushi Seva Kendra was established in Rangpur, Chhotaudepur taluka in 2002, to provide agriculture services to farmers. It would now include an information center with a permanent exhibition and display, soil and water testing facilities, internet kiosks, toll free help lines, maintenance workshops, agro processing units, godowns and a small shop where farmers can buy their inputs. SVKSK would also liaison between farmers and government schemes. All services would be provided under one roof, to cater to 144 villages of Chhotaudepurand 222 villages of Pavi Jetpur. Together they will serve 66,742 households.

Tool Bank and Agri Resource Center: Tool Bank and Agri Resource Center were established for drudgery reduction, poverty alleviation and making life more comfortable for the people in tribal areas. Agri mechanization through this intervention would help the farmers save time, energy and money. This could help them utilize their time in additional income generation activity.

Grooming Samaj Shilpies: As SFT expands its radius of operation, it will need to put in place catalysts that will look into the development needs of every village and every individual in that village. The model is based on Mahatma Gandhi and Jay Prakash Narayan’s concept of Gram Swaraj. Samaj Shilpis would be trained to be sensitive to the various nuances of development, appreciate local problems, work without gender or caste biases, understand constraints and be adept at creating creative linkages between government schemes and local needs. The key objective of this project is to create a development movement wherein the society, particularly the youth take responsibility and ownership for the development of their region. Intensive training programs have been initiated for 50 Samaj Shilpis. The modules have been prepared with the basic objective of inspiring these ordinary village youth into extraordinary social architects who will catalyze the development of their region.

Orsang River Basin: Development of Orsang River Basin in Chhotaudepur area is another major project that SFT has initiated. After seeing the impact of watershed development in the Rangpur -Sadhali area of Chhotaudepur, people now dream of a larger transformation of their terrain through similar initiatives. SFT plans to develop the Orsang River Basin through water and soil conservation. The project would encompass 142 villages. Quality inputs in agriculture, irrigation and crop diversification will be a boost for the economy of the region. Farmers will be able to take more crops, coax higher yields and thereby earn more.

All these above programs were launched as part of centenary celebrations and dedicated to the founder Late Shri Govindji Shroff.