AJSA India

In Krushnaprasad Block of Puri District, floods are quite common especially during the period from June- September when the region receives 75% percent of its rainfall. The monsoon season also entails various low-pressure systems in the Bay of Bengal which lead to cyclones and heavy rainfall/winds almost every year. The rural population of Krushnaprasad Block are mostly from SC/ST communities and are primarily engaged in fishing. Cyclone Fani in 2019, caused widespread damage to lives, housing and livelihood of these vulnerable communities.

Under the Global Programme, AJSA, in collaboration with Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Government of Germany and Caritas India, is engaged in building the capacity of rural coastal communities of Krushnaprasad Block through participatory risk reduction planning, training of task forces on emergency response and convergence with government departments to identify alternative farm-based livelihood.

“Migration” the alternate survival strategy of western Odisha, has not only risked the basic education of children who migrate with their parents every year for six to eight months, thereby children’s splitting their lives for equal period in two different locations that is origin and destination of migration in each year and also it results in them getting exploited as child laborers. While the elders migrate out due to poverty and debt, they drag along their school going children, forcing them to drop out of education. About 45% of the total enrolled children are drop out to join their parents to far off places. In addition they turn as child laborers.

To address existing challenges related to child labour and education – AJSA(Anchalika Jana Seva Anusthan) has established 50 Bridge Schools cum Children’s Learning cum Development Centres (CLDC) in 10 panchayats of Bolangir, Kalahandi and Kandhamal Districts of Odisha, where more than 3500 migrant children, child labors are enrolled.

BaLA is an innovative concept for qualitative improvement in education, through developing a child-friendly, learning and fun-based physical environment. BaLA is a way to holistically plan and use the school infrastructure. It incorporates the ideas of activity-based learning, child friendliness and inclusive education for children with special needs (CWSN). At the core, it assumes that the architecture of school can be a resource for the teaching-learning processes.

The main objective of the programme is to Enrich the teaching and learning atmosphere by ensuring child-friendly space by providing sufficient, safe and furnished classrooms, play and learning materials as per BaLA concept. The broad goal of the project was to create a model of an integrated school development initiative that could be scaled up and replicated in different locations.

Kalahandi tends to become quite hot and dry during the summer season. Approximately 70% of the population in the region are small and landless farmers and are primarily dependent on farming for their livelihood. Some also depend on forest products and dairy animals like goats and sheep, however, it is not enough to sustain the whole family. During summers, many face the issue of lack of employment opportunities and hence have to resort to distress migration.

Under the supported programme of BRLF, AJSA focuses on reducing poverty by improving their livelihood condition through sustainable agriculture growth and diversified livelihood options. APC is a self-regulated farmers producers organisation that synchronizes the production of a common basket of commodities/crops to create a marketable surplus and build an eco-system to provide various services required for the farmers in a sustained manner. The project aims to create sustainable livelihoods for 3000 ultra-poor households