SWERA
Social Work and Environment for Rural Advancement
SWERA Office
A fully functional office with training facilities in rural setting
Empowered Women
Women empowerment is at the core of all the activities that SWERA is engaged in
Children's Fair
In full strength children participate in a fair organised for them
Children's Fair
A group of children shows its perfoming skills duirng their fair
Open Air Training
The huge lawn of SWERA office serves as an ideal place for open activities
Big Event
SWERA organised a sheep and shepherd fair
On Display
Sheep of various races at display at the sheep fair
Education Projects
Joyful Education
To improve the poor educational scenario of project villages (10 villages of Shrinagar block) the organisation has deployed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. SWERA, apart from running Non Formal Education Center, is facilitating functioning of government schools of the area to prepare a lighter/joyful environment for education. It works to strengthen the capacities of School Development and Management Committees so that people themselves come forth to educate their children and gender gap in education could be bridged up. Furthermore, One Self Help Group in each project village is promoted as 'Education Working Group', lending support to improve the scenario of education in their area.
The organisation, through different sport activities, using TLM and participatory learning methods ensures that classroom environment remain lighter or in more appropriate words 'Joyful'. Teachers/working group members have been capacitated through different training programs to overcome the gender gap in education and to make educational canvas of the area more colourful.
For the time being, a total of 515 children are benefited through Non Formal Education Centres. Here, children have been organised in the shape of Environment Protection and Health Committee (EPHC), playing a pivotal role in sensitizing people on different healthy practices of protecting environment like use of solar cookers/gobar gas instead of wood as fuel for cooking, planting and guarding new plants, etc. Besides, girls are getting literate, enrolled and prepared for Middle and Secondary level exams through Bridge Course Centre under strategic name 'Literacy to Livelihoods'. Education is imparted in two batches of 35 in each. Each batch, apart from merely educating, is offered training on stitching and solar lamp to inculcate them with sellable market driven skills and to make them financially independent.
More details are available under 'Livelihoods Development Initiative' chapter
Combating Poverty
Taking into account the vulnerability of the issue, SWERA continued its child development initiatives by catering to educational needs of deprived children, with special focus on girls under the strategic name 'Combating Poverty' which came into effect from October 2005.
Under this project apart from educating children the organisation also intends to build different village level institutions, viz., women groups, adolescent groups, kala jattha (a group of children) and to sensitise them on their rights so that they start recognising them and raise their voice to ensure it.
SSATHI Project
To extend the outreach of its education programme SWERA is running two bridge course centres in Farkiya and Bhuvada villages and making pioneer interventions to streamline SDMC Committees of 22 villages for supplementing Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan under the strategic name 'SSATHI Project' which came into effect from June 2005.
SWERA identified 60 girls form Farkiya and Bhuvada villages who had wrapped their school bags and put them in a nook years back due to their unfavourable family circumstances to teach them at least up to primary level through bridge course centres. However, the core objective of the project is to enable them in functionally reading and writing.
To make a difference in community's attitude towards education SWERA organised different awareness programmes especially conveying the importance of girl education through folk media, viz., street plays, puppet shows and so on.
To supplement the functioning of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan different training, workshops disseminating the information about SSA were also organised for teachers, SDMC committee members.
Literacy to Livelihood
SWERA strongly believes that without resorting to a holistic approach of development making differences in educational scenario of project villages is not a snap job, hence to respond the livelihood needs of people along with educating girls a project 'Literacy to Livelihood' was undertaken.
As it is apparent from its very name the project consists of two parts; 'literacy' (educating girls) and 'livelihood' (providing them with different vocational training to open new avenues for strengthening their livelihoods). A total of 72 dropped out girls were trained in stitching and solar lamp making apart from educating into two batches at 'Swawalamban Shaala' (name of the school). Once again mainstay of the organisation's intervention was equipping the girls with functional reading and writing skill.
