Newsletter

HELP FOUNDATION
UPDATE
Website: www.jkhf.in | Postal Address: 50, Tulsibagh, Behind Amar Singh College, Srinagar | Pin Code: 190008 | Phone: 01942310256 | Issue: October, 2015

Women Empowerment Education Rehabilitation Capacity Building Mine Risk Education

If we lose all our wealth and are only left with

HELP
love, indeed we shall never be poor......”
In This Issue Stephan Richards

undertakes
HELP Foundation offered 200
sacrifices throughout Jammu and
Kashmir

Renovation and
HELP Foundation launches Mine
Risk Education (MRE) in Jammu and
Kashmir

Beautification
HELP Foundation Action-aid
join hands in ‘Securing Rights and
Sustainable Livelihoods’ in Budgam

Pratap Park
HELP Foundation and SEWA
expands women empowerment to
Ganderbal, Srinagar of
HELP, CHILDLINE teams up with
state administration for networking
and advocacy for children in the state

Rs. 30 Lacs distributed under

Economic Revival Initiative (ERI)
Project

2100 rural women covered under

Women Self Help Group Scheme

An initiative to Revive Centuries Old

Kashmir Pashmina

SAM starts boarding facility for

Secondary class students

Cont. on P2

PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

SEWA
 HELP undertakes renovation and
From the beautification of Pratap Park
Chairperson’s The long-delayed renovation work had left

I
Desk the much-loved public destination out of bounds
t is my great
pleasure
to extend
heartfelt
greetings to the
readers of the first issue of the
HELP Foundation Newsletter.
A special word of appreciation,
gratitude and respect is due to my
colleagues on board, who have
worked so tirelessly for HELP
Foundation for the last 15 years

H
while contributing to the society.
ELP Foundation supported by Godfrey Philips
It gives me immense pleasure India Limited (GPI) has undertaken renovation and
to work in the process of beautification of Pratap Park in the city’s commercial
Development, which leads to hub, Lal Chowk.
The redesigning of the park would be part of the project for the
increase in the Happiness Index.
beautification of Lal Chowk. Since a large portion of the park was
It was our dream and goal to turned into a garbage dumping site and the place was left in shambles,
start this organisation 15 years HELP Foundation stepped in for its infrastructural improvement and
ago. With a humble start in beautification plan.
This is accomplished by working with high standard architectural
1997, we had a dream to build
designs and with close coordination with the state government and
an organisation that would department of floriculture.
mitigate the suffering and retain The planned renovation work entails adding Modules and Plazas,
the social fibre of the people pavements, a sub-surface drainage system, irrigation system, plantation
module and landscaping, turfing and pump-house and kiosk, in-
of our land who have been
addition minor structural reinforcements and improvements.
suffering for several decades. “The existing pump-house will be remodelled with a capacity
The experiences gained during of rain shelter flood proof mechanism which will combat the flood
this period have buttressed our vulnerability of the city,” said, Shadab Chisti.
What looked like a flood-ravaged landscape will be equipped with
resolve to turn our dream into
sub-surface drainage using perforated pipes and sub-merged pumps
reality. for enhanced drainage system.
We at HELP Foundation believe “The park will be planted with the marking of dense green belts
that even a thousand mile along with proper lighting system which would ensure to avoid
any dark spots. In-addition modern automated irrigation system
march is taken in steps. The
will be installed to ensure proper and adequate water supply to the
journey being undertaken by us groundcover landscape,” Shadab adds.
may be only a few steps but it The existing pond will be converted into a ‘Lily Pond’ with the
takes us that much closer to the help of advanced architectural schemes fitted with proper pavements
along the edges as well as across the park.
destination.
 An Initiative to Revive Centuries
Old Kashmir Pashmina

HELP Foundation steps in with one last effort to revive

the genuine hand-made brand of Kashmir and protect the
livelihood of deprived artisan class of the valley.
In an effort to replace spurious,
machine-made Pashmina with
Kashmir-patented hand-woven
original shawls, HELP Foundation
has hired the services of some 40
underprivileged women from Sri-
nagar. The female weavers are pro-
vided with relatively higher remu-
neration than the general market
rates, with the objective to restore
their lost livelihood sources.
Despite the government ban on
introducing spinning wheels and
power looms, the genuine hand-
made Pashmina is disappearing
from the markets. an expert and project coordinator, tain goat, often referred to as the
This interchange has not only HELP Foundation. “Pashmina goat”.
brought disgrace to the Kashmir Khan adds that, “Our Pashmina The Pashmina obtained from
brand in the international market, revival project is an initiative to- Jammu and Kashmir is known as
but has also deprived the hundreds wards the promotion of the Kash- “Changthangi”, the same brand
of local skilled artisans from their miri Pashmina and would benefit that was once presented by Napo-
basic livelihood sources. The origi- the forgotten and deprived women leon Bonaparte to his lady love, Jo-
nal hand-made Kashmir Pashmina weavers of the valley.” sephine.
is known for its superior quality HELP Foundation is planning Even though India contributes
throughout the world. to promote Pashmina products like only about 1% of the world’s Pash-
“Traders are mixing some other Pashmina shawls, stoles, scarves, mina, but the Pashmina produced
fabric to it so that it could survive sweaters and blankets from this in India is the best in the whole
power-loom vibrations. And this hand-made high quality fabric. world and occupies a unique po-
machine-made production poses a Pashmina is a woollen cloth sition. Pashmina is obtained from
serious threat to the genuine hand- made from the fleece of the ‘Capra the Ladakh region of Jammu and
made Pashmina,” says Nazir Khan, aegagrus hircus’, Himalayan moun- Kashmir.
 HELP Foundation and SEWA
expands women empowerment
to Ganderbal, Srinagar

Under the project SCRC (Sheh- “Although, Kashmir scenario in Srinagar Kashmir for latest and
jar Community Resource Centre), (conflict, patriarchy) can never be innovative designs. In-addition to
HELP Foundation, in partnership abandoned, still our trainees went the thousands of skilled women
with SEWA has expanded its oper- for an exposure visit to Ahmadabad project has generated a sale of Rs 8,
ations towards the central Kashmir’s couple of times to avail trainings, 50,000 from the products of train-
Ganderbal and Srinagar areas. says Program Manager,” SCRC, ees.
After the positive outcomes from Uzma Qureshi. Similarly, our trainers in Craft
SCRC Kupwara and Sogam, HELP Soon after the inception of SCRC trade have been skilled with exper-
Foundation and SEWA setup skill Salkote Kupwara, the project ex- tise in home furnishing, apparels,
development centres at Ganderbal panded towards Sogam Lolab. In ad- and other items like clutch pouches,
and Inderhama providing trainings dition to cutting and tailoring, hand- purses etc.
in stitching, craft and wicker work icraft, solar, SCRC came up with a “Recently our craft trade received
and food processing. new activity of Handloom produc- an order of Apparel Work from MS.
Three years ago, HELP Founda- tion for the women trainees there. RITU KUMAR-Delhi’s renowned
tion joined hands with SEWA (Self Frequently, experts from SEWA designer-, which costs around Rs. 2
Employed Women’s Association) visit the centres for monitoring and lakh,” adds Uzma Qureshi.
in the, frontier, backward district of if needed, for advanced training’s as Under solar trade trainees are
Kupwara with the objective to em- well. skilled in solar marketing in remote
power women and their skill de- Many experts from different fields areas of the district for which the
velopment under the project She- of SEWA visited SCRC Centers and trade has generated a sale of Rs 5,
hjar Community Resource Center deliver trainings in-addition to field 15, 115. Furthermore, the sale from
(SCRC). HELP along with Guja- visits for the various awareness pro- Agriculture and other activities like
rat based SEWA began its training grammes in the remote villages. Food items has been Rs 19, 455 and
programmes in different trades like Until now, we have trained around 1745 respectively.
stitching, handicraft, handloom, so- 3000 ladies from both the centres During these years, the centre
lar and agriculture. with 650 Master Trainers. The train- targeted 3 exhibitions outside Kash-
SCRC (Shehjar Community Re- ers are expert in making designer mir in different locations like Chen-
source Centre) was setup for skill wears, Kaftans, gents wear etc. nai Exhibition, Delhi Haat, Oz Haat
development trainings for the ladies The centres already collaborat- Mela by Australian Embassy and Ex-
from remote areas of the district. ed with School of Design based hibition at Hansiba, Delhi.
HELP Foundation launches Mine
Risk Education (MRE) in J&K

HELP Foundation and Handi- The purpose of this project is to order to ensure their support and
cap International supported by Hu- generate awareness among the peo- corporation throughout the entire
manitarian Aid and Civil Protection ple living in these border areas close process. In MRE Phase V meetings
(ECHO) launched the first of its to LoC (Line of control) and be- were conducted with Sarpanchs
kind Mine Risk Education (MRE) tween fence and Actual Line of Con- (local village head), Numberdar,
in the conflict region of Jammu and trol. These areas are mostly contam- and other village officials in order
Kashmir. The inception of MRE inated by landmines, laid by Indian to streamline the process.
component took place in Febru- army in order to prevent infiltration The Information Education and
ary 2015 with the base line survey from the neighboring country. On Communication Material (IEC)
called as KAP (Knowledge, Attitude April, 04, 2015, an incident took material in the form of posters and
and Practices) Survey. The findings place in Nowshera block of district leaflets contain safety and security
of KAP acted as a backbone for the Rajouri, where three people died fid- messages which are kept in Urdu as
Conventional Weapons Risk Reduc- dling with a landmine. Another inci- well as in English keeping in view
tion (CWRR) initiative been taken dent took place in Pattan, Baramulla the languages spoken in these ar-
in Jammu and Kashmir. The four when 14 year old boy died while fid- eas. The messages are backed by
major districts under this project dling with hand grenade. In June this relevant pictures to make it com-
are Baramulla and Kupwara from year, Border Security Force (BSF) prehensive.
Kashmir province and Rajouri and Sub- Inspector was injured in yet an- In phase V eight large scale
Poonch from Jammu province. KAP other landmine blast near L-o-C in awareness camps were conduct-
Survey was followed by Mine Risk Tangdhar sector of north Kashmir’s ed in four districts i.e. Rajouri,
Education programs in these dis- Kupwara district. Poonch, Baramulla and Kupwara.
tricts which share the border with The project started after the These camps were attended by lo-
the neighboring country and most- meetings with higher authorities cal village heads, religious heads,
ly witness landmine explosions and in government department and villagers, children, teachers, por-
cross border shelling and affecting army and police officials keeping ters, shepherds and even by army
the day to day life of people living in in view the sensitivity of the area officials. In each camp more than
these areas. of intervention. It was necessary in 70 people participated.
2100 rural women covered
under Women Self Help
Rs. 30 Lakhs distributed
Group Scheme
352 WSHGs formed, 300 WSHGs
under Economic Revival
savings linked, 32 WSHGs credits
linked, 10 Joint Liability Groups
Initiative (ERI) Project
An Idea of Economic Revival Initiative came
handy as floods hit the valley

Aspiring to inculcate a spirit of entrepreneur-

ship among rural women at the grassroots level
more than 2100 women of district Kupwara were
covered under the scheme Women Self Help Groups,
(WSHGs) implemented by HELP Foundation under
central government’s National Bank for Agriculture
and Rural Development (NABARD) Scheme.
The project emphasizes on formation and con-
solidation of Women Self Help Groups for their As the floods receded last September, the flood ravaged Kashmir suffered with
collective socio-economic developments. The suc- multiple crisis ranging from food, water, medicine to rehabilitation. The floods im-
cessive activities of Self Help Groups are, group
savings, book keeping and capacitating women to pacted people on a large scale, mostly economically. Among them was the sec-
manage their day to day needs. The projects main tion who lost their homes as well as business infrastructure. Due to the intense
objective is to organize 5000 women from this fron-
tier district into 500 Self Help Groups within the
financial crisis and colossal damage after the disaster the small business holders
period of three years. struggled much to come to terms. HELP Foundation came up with an innovative
“In-addition, the scheme promotes internal initiative of ‘Economic Revival’ with the objective to uplift this section of the soci-
lending to minimize the sufferings of individual
group members, linking their savings to the banks ety left with no means of survival.
for multiplying their savings and inculcating in them After identifying the commercially affected people, like provisional store keep-
the habit of regular saving,” Project Coordinator, Na- ers, Auto-Rickshaw owners, cart-owners, tailors and skilled labourers like carpet
zir Dar says.
“Basically our job is to link these groups with weavers and handloom weavers, HELP Foundation under the project ERI provided
financial institutions so that they can avail credit reimbursements in the form of cheques ranging from Rs. 10,000- Rs. 50,000 with
facility at the times of their expansion and devel- the objective to assist the affectees to revive their lost livelihood sources. All this
opment, capacity building of groups regarding their
day to day activities and inculcating in them the went after thorough assessment with monthly monitoring and reporting.
managerial skills,” Dar adds. ERI covered the economic revival of small traders and business owners, perma-
While providing the update, Project Coordina-
tor, Kupwara, Nazir Dar says that, ”more than 300
nent shelters for poor and under privileged, livestock support for relevant down
women were provided bank credit who have creat- trodden, financial assistance to the artisans associated with Kashmir craft. Under
ed their small income generating units. In-addition this project cheques ranging from Rs. 10,000-Rs.20,000 were provided to 78 small
352 Women Self Help Groups formed along with 300
WSHGs Savings linked and 32 WSHGs Credit were traders for their business revival. In-addition 30 carpet weavers were revived by
linked along with the formation of 10 Joint Liability providing cheques to the tune of Rs.600,000. Around Rupees 30 lakhs have been
Groups and linkage of 1 credit JLG.” disbursed among the beneficiaries under ERI project.
Launched by HELP Foundation in September
2012 in the backward district of Kupwara the HELP Until now, the project has catered 40 commercially hit areas from different
team organized around 22 Awareness Camps at localities each from Srinagar, Baramulla and Kupwara districts. Apart from HELP
Village level to create mass awareness about the Foundations individual loans which ranges more than 200, some 825 beneficiaries
Scheme.
Moreover, around 20 capacity building pro- related to ERI were benefited under project Godfrey Philips India Limited (GPI).
grammes have been conducted for capacity With proper monitoring over the improvements under ERI project, HELP is in-
building, group dynamics, and monitoring credit
discipline of the WSHGs and training of WSHGs on tending to provide second instalments to the needy beneficiaries, so that their
procedures and business development skills. livelihood infrastructure can excel.
 HELP Foundation Action- 7 Districts with 14879
Households covered
Aid join hands in ‘Securing under Qurbani Package
Rights and Sustainable on Eid-ul-Adha
Eid Al-Adha reminds every
Livelihood’ in Budgam Muslim that one has to
sacrifice his good for the
happiness of others

H
ELP Foundation and Ac- pendent on informal economy to
tion-Aid supported by access education.
European Commission In order to commence the activ-
for Humanitarian Aid and ities and extract the data from the
Civil Protection (ECHO) launched a target area HELP Foundation and Seven districts with 14879 households
were covered under Qurbani package im-
programme,” Securing Rights and Sus- Action-Aid has identified ten villag- plemented by HELP Foundation on Eid-ul-
tainable Livelihoods,” in Budgam district es of Beerwah block where general Adha with meat distributions in the areas
with the objective to cater the people baseline has been carried out by the of Srinagar, Baramulla, Pulwama, Kupwara,
dependent on the Informal Economy end of September 2015 followed by Budgam, Ganderbal and Bandipore.
(PIE) in Kashmir. The main objective of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) in After special prayers to mark the day,
the programme stands to. the area. Muslims offer Udhiyah (sacrifice), a ritual
that reminds us of the great act of sacrifice
Moreover In continuation of the
Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismaeel were
 To secure sustainable livelihood project One Day training programme willing to make for the sake of God.
of marginalized and vulnerable was organized in response to the With distributions under various HELP
people dependent on informal project PIE in collaboration with EDI Foundation units, 1978 households were
economy. (Entrepreneur developmental insti- covered in Srinagar, 1958 in Baramulla, 900
 To protect social and economic tute) by Help foundation and Action- in Pulwama, 800 in Bandipore, 623 in Gan-
derbal, 2673 in Budgam and around 5947
rights of marginalized and vulner- aid at block Beerwah in two villages
households were covered in the frontier dis-
able people dependent on infor- of the target area Chewdara and trict Kupwara.
mal economy. Ohangam.The main objective of the “Many of these families don’t get to eat
 To build capacities of marginalized programme was to sensitize the tar- meat all the year other than this occasion
and vulnerable people dependent get population about various govern- due to extreme poverty. May Allah (SWT) re-
on informal economy to advocate ment-sponsored schemes particu- ward all who shared in this effort to make it
for and secure social security and larly schemes offered by (JKEDI) and possible, and accept it from all of us,” says
Nighat Shafi, Chairperson HELP foundation.
better working conditions. link them with various credit facilita- “We distribute the meat mostly among
 To enable marginalized and vul- tors. Most of the participants in the the poor and this is the nice way for the fam-
nerable people dependent on in- programme were women folk, Self ilies who cannot afford the whole animal,”
formal economy to start their own Help Groups (SHG’s), locals, Village she adds.
workshops/manufacturing units heads, Panchs and field mobilisers. People usually spend huge amount on
and sell their products directly in Mr. Dheeraj from EDI, Miss Shafia clothes and other things but forget their
poor fellow muslims. So, the priority was giv-
the market. from Action-Aid and Mr. Tahmeed en towards the under privileged and back-
 To enable the children of margin- from HELP Foundation coordinated ward areas of the state, where poor people
alized and vulnerable people de- the programme. hardly enjoy the luxurious lifestyle.
 SAM starts boarding
HELP, CHILDLINE teams up
with state administration for
networking and advocacy for
children in the state facility for Secondary
class students
Boarding facility is desired to give children a better
and early edge in life — the environment, both in
academics and extra-curricular activities

In-order to work together with the allied sys-

tems like Police, Health Care, Juvenile Justice, Trans-
port, Education and the Community to create child
friendly systems, HELP and CHILDLINE 1098 have
undertaken networking and advocacy with govern-
ment and non-government agencies regarding the
present scenario of children in the state.
A meeting with Assistant Labour Commissioner
(ALC) was held where full mutual support and co- In-order to provide supportive environment for underprivileged and or-
operation from government was agreed against the phan students, Shah Anwar Memorial School (SAM) Khumriyal, Kupwara
child labour. started boarding facility for the secondary classes from the month of October.
In-addition, meeting with Senior Superintendent
of Police, Srinagar (SSP) was conducted for coopera- From the last couple of months, HELP Foundation was pondering over the
tion and support regarding issues of child labour, child implementation of residential education with special education needs in this
trafficking and beggary cases and issuance of particu- educational institution which provides quality education to around 200 or-
lar Child Beggary Circular for CHILDLINE Srinagar was
discussed. “District Social Welfare Officer, Bal Ashram, phans and students from ‘Below Poverty Line families’, especially girls in 20
Srinagar was taken into confidence regarding tempo- identified villages of the frontier district Kupwara.
rary shelter for CHILDLINE cases,” Srinagar Coordina- The project’s long term aim is to bring all the orphans and under privi-
tor, Shabir Ahmad said. leged of Kupwara district, estimated to be about hundreds in number, into the
“CHILDLINE Srinagar conducted a meeting with
the Chairman of Juvenile Welfare Board (JWB) re- educational mainstream and provide the capacity building of teachers includ-
garding formation of CHILDLINE Advisory Board ing remedial education and trainings.
(CAB),” Shabir adds. “The basic idea to start the boarding classes for secondary level is to
As per the update provided by CHILDLINE coordina- teach students independence and self-reliance,” says Principal SAM.
tor, Srinagar, “the director of tourism, Farooq Shah was
taken into confidence to incorporate the CHILDLINE “One important motivation to start boarding facility in SAM Khumriyal is
Logo on Jammu and Kashmir Tourism website.” to help students to perform well in the exams. Because some students have
Four years back, HELP Foundation joined hands difficulties in understanding the studies,” says Administrative Officer and HR
with Child line India Foundation to set up the valley’s
first child line service in Srinagar, Kashmir regard- Manager, HELP Foundation, Aftab Bhat.
ing juvenile justice for children in need of care and “Part of this comes from a desire to give children a better and early edge
protection (CNCP). The services are available for in life — the environment, both in academics and extra-curricular activities,”
missing children, abandoned children and children adds Aftab.
in conflict with law.
During the last couple of months CHILDLINE Sri- HELP Foundation has established a computer lab with 60 student intake
nagar intervened in fourteen missing cases from dif- capacity at a time and a library that has almost 3000 books of various titles.
ferent areas of Kashmir valley in which three cases Almost 700 students annually benefit from these two facilities. Different
have been permanently restored to their families in workshops, arithmetic classes and career counselling programmes help to
front of Nodal officer, Juvenile welfare Board (JWB)
and rest of cases are in process. generate a desire for knowledge in youth and as well as senior citizens.
Nawraiz, a child from Shalimar, Srinagar, who This project focuses on rural children who are struggling to get education due
come under category of child labour was successfully to poverty or conflict. Under this project, it would support about 2000 children in
restored to his parents. CHILDLINE Srinagar has inter-
vened in forty sponsorship cases in which some cases the 6-14 years age group in the project area to improve their basic competencies
were provided educational support and few more were and learning levels. HELP Foundation has already got trained staff and a pool of
added in sponsorship list for future intervention. resource persons to conduct the supplementary education activities.
Editor-in-Chief: Mrs. Nighat Shafi Pandit, Editor: Zaheer Khan, Published From: 50 Tulsi Bagh Behind Amar Singh College Srinagar,
Suggestions/feedback, if any, may be emailed to : zaheerkhankt@gmail.com
HELP FOUNDATION UPDATE is also available on the web at www.jkhf.in
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