Introduction:
GMRV Foundation recognises the significant role that youth have in achieving desirable social changes. Any community development programmes may be implemented effectively if the local youth are provided an opportunity to actively participate in various phases of programme management. The important prerequisite to ensure youth participation is that the youth are organised. With this objective in mind, the Foundation established the first youth club in Mettavalsa, Rajam in October 2005.

Objectives:

• To motivate youth to become change agents of the community and to facilitate greater community awareness and promote social responsibility amongst the youth
• To promote positive attitudes and behaviours, greater sociability, improved communication, healthy decision-making and effective conflict resolution skills amongst the youth
• To get access to networks and resources

Process:
GMRVF encourages and facilitates youth to come together to form such clubs. It is in no way directly involved in the running of these clubs. Clubs get themselves registered and have their own office bearers. GMRVF encourages and facilitates them in various ways supporting leadership training for the members, suggesting programmes and activities, organizing educational tours and exchange visits. But the emphasis is on the youth strengthening their own institution.

Today there are eight youth clubs, two of which are women groups. On an average, each club has around 20 members. With the supervision and motivation of the Foundation, youth clubs not only organize various community activities like cleanliness drives, plantation drives etc., but also assist in planning and organizing various events and celebrations for the community members.Efforts made by these groups have also resulted in increased participation of adult community members in various Foundation programmes.

Achievement/ strengths:

• In villages where youth clubs exist there is notable positive effect on the programme management and outputs because of their participation
• Youth clubs organise several activities for the community such as clean and green programme in which they clean up roads and drainages, Shramdan in which they construct roads for the village.
• The youth clubs actively work to collect donations and also organize various events and competitions in the community.
• The youth clubs have resulted in improved youth-adult relationships leading to increased participation of the community in the programmes.
• Adults have become more responsive to the youth.
• The participation of youth has resulted in better decision making practices and outcomes on one hand, and improved life skills, knowledge base and attitude on the other hand.

Introduction:

Small libraries are established in select villages, to reintroduce the habit of reading among children and wean them away from TV addiction. Apart from children, these libraries also reach out to youth and adults, encouraging them to develop reading habits. The young and the aged come together at the libraries and this opportunity is also used to strengthen awareness on various issues in the communities. The village libraries were started in 15 villages in Rajam in 2005. Today there are libraries in and around Rajam, Hyderabad, Uttrakhand and Delhi.

Objectives:

• To provide access to good books in the villages
• To encourage people to utilize their leisure time usefully
• To motivate students to read other than class books
• Promote reading habits amongst the villagers – especially youth and children

Process:
A list of books with wide-ranging appeal to children, youth, older people, women etc. has been identified. Sets of each of these have been purchased by the Foundation. A system has been worked out for systematic circulation of these books among the villages. Each village at any time has 20 books. Each week, the set of 20 changes. In addition, periodicals like Vijetha Competition, Yojana and Chandamama are also subscribed to.

In most cases village libraries have been opened in the premises of the Foundation-run Bala Badis. The BB instructors are responsible for maintaining them. On an average, about 20 people access each library daily

Achievement/ strengths:

• The village libraries have been successful in encouraging reading habits in not just the youth and children but also in old and adult community members. People have gotten into the coming to the libraries regularly.
• There has been increased community participation as well. Many community members come forward to donate books and magazines for the library.
• The libraries are slowly becoming the churning centres as far as strengthening local community participation in the community development work is concerned.

Introduction:

The adult literacy programme is aimed at women who are non-literate or semi-literate. The programme was first started in Mangalore with eight women students in 2003-04. In 2006 the programme was extended to Rajam as well.

Objectives:

• To improve women literacy.
• To improve quality of book keeping in SHGs.
• To help women improve their children's education.
• To create awareness among women on government schemes, health, and other issues of concern to them.
• Personality development.

Process:
The night classes are going on at Rajam and Mangalore. Around 15 women attend each of these night schools regularly.

The Foundation facilitators and VVs identify women in the community who are non-literate or semi-literate. They are motivated to join night schools. A teacher is posted at the schools who comes regularly to teach these women. He/she is trained adequately by the Foundation and regular supervision and monitoring of these classes is conducted.

The effort is not just towards literacy but are also to share information about issues like AIDS, different government schemes and programmes they can benefit from and other similar issues that can make a difference in their lives.

Achievement/ strengths:

• There is remarkable growth in the 'sense of unity' and ownership amongst women as an influence of these schools.
• Women after attending these schools have been motivated to do more. Women students at one of the communities have started 'small savings' programme. At another community, the students have expressed their willingness to contribute Rs.10 per month towards meeting part cost of teachers' honorarium.
• At several centres women can already read and write the Std. I books, which is a marked change for women who have never attended school.

Introduction:

A number of villages in and around Rajam produce sugarcane and supply the same to GMR sugar factory. The Cane Extension programme was started in April 2004 for the benefit of these villages.

Objectives:

• To facilitate the overall development of villages through active use of village volunteers.
• To develop leadership quality in youth of the villages.

Process:
To initiate activities, 25 volunteers were selected from these villages to work for the programme. Free homeopathy snakebite medicines were distributed to the villagers. Since then with the help of around 400 volunteers, a number of activities have been carried out for the overall development of more than 1000 sugarcane villages in and around Rajam,

Regular health camps are conducted for these villages. Youth leadership training programmes are organised with the purpose of developing leadership skills amongst youth. Other than regular programmes, emergency relief initiatives are also undertaken. For instance during floods in Rajam in 2006, clothes, uniforms, books, tool kits, food material and bamboo sticks were distributed to affected families as part of this programme..

Achievement/ strengths:
The active involvement of youth across the villages is the major achievement of this programme. 400 youth working as volunteers have come forward to serve their communities voluntarily.

Urban Programmes

Introduction:

CMED programme aims at the overall development of slum communities in Rajam through initiating holistic programmes based on a need-analysis of specific communities.

The programme was first initiated in May 2003 in the Medara (basket weavers) street at Rajam. Later on, the programme was extended to Harijana street in 2004; Dhobi and SC Streets in 2005 and Cleaners' Street in 2006.

Objectives:

• To improve lives and livelihoods of specific communities through holistic interventions including short-term and long-term measures.
• To improve the living standards of slum dwellers at Rajam.
• To improve the health status of slum dwellers at Rajam.
• To provide quality education to the children of socio-economically deprived families.
• To improve the economic status of slum dwellers through formation of thrift groups like SHGs.

Process:

The major activities going on in the CMED target areas are

• Tuition centers
• SHGs
• Night schools
• Bala Badis
• Suvidha toilets
• Regular drinking water supply in summer
• De-addiction programmes

Achievement/ strengths:

• There has been definite improvement in the community since the initiation of the programme. For e.g., gambling and coin playing activities in Dhobi Street have stopped.
• Children are regularly attending tuition centers in all the slums.
• SHGs have been functioning actively. SHG members have been taking various initiatives to help the community, for e.g., SHG of a slum called Menthipeta collected rice to distribute amongst the destitute.

There has been increased community participation as well for e.g., households in Medara Street have made innovative use of bamboo sticks baskets as dust bins. This has ensured systematic garbage disposal in the area.

With motivation and training, children are performing well in various cultural events.

Rehabilitated Communities

Introduction:

Illegal encroachments in the Delhi Airport land were cleared in late 2006. The community has been given land by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi at Safda Ghevra JJ Colony. The Foundation has been working with the community since early 2007 to help them in the process of resettlement.

Objectives:
To work with the rehabilitated community through short-term and long-term interventions. These interventions not only aim to restore lives and livelihoods but also aim at overall development of the community through holistic programmes.

Process:
In the beginning, the Foundation had to face severe resentment from most of the community members. They viewed GMR Group as people who were the cause for their resettlement, the reason for them to leave their homes.

However, with the constant efforts and regular visits by the Foundation facilitators and supervisors, community members gradually realized that GMRVF wanted to help them in the process of resettlement. There was slow but steady acceptance for the Foundation. The interventions include:

Short term measures

• Supplementing water supply to meet daily needs.
• Facilitation of transport for children to attend examinations in their schools in the airport vicinity.
• Mosquito-fogging.
• Organization of health camps.
• Programmes for group building and goal setting .
• Helping community to get public bus service to the area.
• Helping them to get children transferred from one school to another.
• Helping community to get new ration card.

Long term measures

• Skill training of youth for employment.
• Improving the quality of education through tuition centres.
• Laying the foundation of learning through opening pre-schools.
• Provision of scholarships.
• Formation of women Self Help Groups and exploring home-based work options.
• Opening a weekly health clinic.
• Facilitation of service provision
• The Foundation is working with the authorities to expedite creation of quality infrastructure including water, sewage, street lighting, etc.

Achievement/ strengths:
The initiatives of the Foundation are gradually being accepted and welcomed by the community. There is complete participation and support from the community in the various efforts being undertaken by the Foundation