Happy New Year! This year, we hope millions of children around the world walk a path towards a brighter and a more promising future. We take an oath to make this future possible and call upon compassionate patrons like you to continue your support to this cause. You could contribute through The Help Them Grow program (as outlined later in this newsletter) or volunteer with Vibha. You could spread awareness by talking to your friends and family about the cause of the underprivileged child. We hope to hear from you soon. Till then best wishes for the New Year. Let 2006 be the year of unparalleled success, may all your dreams come true.

You Can Help

The Help Them Grow Automated Donation Program, Vibha's flagship fund-raising program enables our partner organizations in India to provide food, shelter, education, health care, and vocational training for needy children on a consistent and continued basis. With a monthly donation as low as $15, you can make a big difference in a child's life.

The impact of a monthly contribution
More than 100 million children in India are denied a childhood. They are proxy adults, caring for their siblings when they should be at school. They are bread winners who support the meager earnings of their family when they should be at play. You can help. A monthly donation of $15 can support supplemental education for 12 children or complete quality education for a child*.

The Help Them Grow Automated Donation Program gives you the convenience to contribute a fixed amount of your choice every month directly through your bank account or credit card. Your donations through the program are tax-deductible. To signup for Help Them Grow, please fill this form and mail or fax it to us (contact information below).

* The actual numbers vary from project to project.

Vibha In The US

Child Development Association, GA
The Child Development Association (CDA) of North Fulton is a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs of disadvantaged pre-school children in the North Fulton community. It also administers the North Fulton Human Service Center, a multi-purpose facility housing social services for North Fulton.

Make-A-Wish Foundation, GA & AL
The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Georgia & Alabama fulfills the special wishes of children, who have reached the age of 2½ and are under the age of 18 and who suffer from a life-threatening medical condition. Through their wish granting process, the Make-A-Wish Foundation aims to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy.

Collin Intervention To Youth, Inc., TX
CITY House, Plano works towards strengthening the community by helping youth and their families resolve physical and emotional crises. They provide intervention as well as prevention services like youth shelter, family counseling and life skills education to abused or neglected youth. They strive towards the goal of enabling families to function and interact more effectively. Vibha helped CITY House with their efforts to build a new shelter for newborns to 9 year olds.

Big Brothers Big Sisters, MN
The Big Brothers Big Sisters organization pairs up adults and children between ages 7 and 13 in an effort to help the children develop better attitudes towards school, families, peers and society in general. This organization is active in Minneapolis since 1920. Vibha supports this program in Anderson Elementary School in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis. This is one of the lower income neighborhoods of Minneapolis, with many families living below the poverty level and many families with no adult male members around the house. Most of the children attending Anderson Elementary are from this neighborhood and benefit immensely from their association with their Big Brothers or Sisters.

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Project Profile

Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha (BTS),
South Sunderbans, West Bengal

In his book “The Hungry Tide”, Amitav Ghosh describes the Sunderbans region of India thus: “An archipelago, stretching for almost two hundred miles, from the Hooghly river in West Bengal to the shores of the Meghna in Bangladesh…..The islands are the trailing threads of India’s fabric, the ragged fringe of her sari, the achol that follows her, half wetted by the sea…..” These islands, numbering in the thousands are covered with mangrove jungles, and are the home of such fearsome animals as the Bengal Tiger, crocodiles, sharks and snakes.

An estimated 4 million people reside in these perilous circumstances - made worse by the constant threat of cyclones. A vast majority, about 85%, are very poor. They eke out an existence collecting non- timber forest produce like tiger prawn seeds, fishing, vending vegetables and fish, and by working for a daily wage.

One of the largest islands in the Sunderbans is Kultali. Baikunthapur is the biggest of the five villages on Kultali island. All the islands are accessible only by boat. The remoteness serves as an excuse for poor facilities and healthcare services are almost non-existent. Baikunthapur Tarun Sangha (BTS) was born out of a local club in 1982, when major floods forced the club members to spur into action by helping flood victims reach safer places and to petition the government to provide relief and support.

In the last 23 years, the services and programs provided by BTS have grown to include two crèches for infants, a sustainable agriculture project, agro-equipment support service, community grain bank, savings and micro-credit ventures, disaster mitigation and emergency relief services, rural library and literacy programs. BTS serves nearly 2800 households out of the estimated 25,000 households on Kultali.

Since January 2004, Vibha has been funding the operation of the two Child Care Centers (crèches) run by BTS. The crèches, “Shishutara” and “Green buds”, serve Baikunthapur and the neighboring four villages. They take care of 50 infants (0-5 years old) while their mothers work to supplement their meager family income. In the crèches, the children are provided nutrition in the form of a mid-day meal, regular health checkups and immunization, in addition to providing them a head-start towards formal schooling. Two “crèche mothers” take care of 25 children in each Child Care Center.

The mothers of the infants in the child-care centers also participate in a self-help group, where they discuss issues such as health and hygiene, small savings and school attendance. This discussion serves as a feedback mechanism between the crèche mothers and the families of the infants in their care.

In early 2004, Vibha funded a permanent brick and cement structure to house the two child-care centers and furnish them with basic amenities at a total cost of $3300. Vibha has also been funding recurring expenses like staff salaries, food, emergency medicine, school uniforms and educational aids to supplement the funds provided by West Bengal Social Welfare Advisory Board (CSWB). CSWB provides $820 annually and Vibha funds the remainder $2600.

As you can see, each dollar you contribute goes a long way here in the Sunderbans - just 125 km. from Kolkata and a world away from the services we take for granted. For more information about this project please Click Here.

Vibha 1030 E El Camino Real, #424 Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Voice: 408-997-9992 | Fax: 775-593-1061

Vibha is a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit, non-religious, non-political organization that seeks to restore to underprivileged children their basic rights to food, shelter, health and education - in short, a future.
All donations to Vibha are tax exempt in the US.