Community Aid & Sponsorship Programme

Motto - Child as the Focus, Family as the Unit and Community as the Milieu of Development

Vision - A world in which all children realize their full potential in societies, which respect people’s rights and dignity

Mission - CASP strives to achieve lasting to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of deprived children in India uniting people across cultures and adding meaning and value to their lives by:

Enabling children, their families and their communities to meet their basic needs and to increase their ability to participate and benefit from their societies.

Fostering relationship to increase understanding and unity among people of different cultures and countries.

Promoting the rights and interests of the children. To improve the quality of life of children, their families and communities by establishing sustainable development processes.

CASP helps an underprivileged child

• To start or continue education by providing school fees, textbooks, notebooks, uniforms, clothes, umbrella, stationery etc.

• To avail medical facility, through medical check up, medical insurance, supplementary nutrition etc.

• To attend Holiday camps to enhance their social skills and leadership abilities.

• To benefit from rehabilitation care in general through part-time vocational training and placement programmes.

It presently takes care of the needs of 23,155 children from the various states of India. The children assisted under the scheme include those who are economically disabled, mentally challenged, physically handicapped, healthy children of leprosy - affected parents, children of sex workers and children of persons sentenced to life imprisonment.

casp-rajagiri - an innovation in partnership

In 1982 CASP, Mumbai joined hands with Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, a leading educational institution in Kerala, leading to the formation of CASP- Rajagiri Sponsorship Project in Kerala. The unit is presently functioning from Rajagiri College of Social Sciences. The collaboration, which began by sponsoring a few children, has now leapfrogged into a massive unit within a short span of 18 years by taking care of the weakest, the most vulnerable, the destitute, the neglected- touching the lives of nearly 2000 children and their families through the child sponsorship.

The strategy for children is two- pronged:

• It sponsors children, which involves the strengthening of their environment.
• It reaches out to the rural poor through community development programmes.

 

The main thrust of the community development projects has been to involve local residents in community programmes with the objective of creating an environment for the promotion of both the overall economic development of the area as well as leadership qualities in the individuals involved. CASP works with both urban and rural communities on a variety of projects that include Drinking Water Schemes, Housing, Bio gas plants, Senior Citizen Day Care Centers, Sanitation, Solar Power electrification, Tapping Drinking water from natural resources etc. The experience shows that the partnership model promoted by us is sustainable in every respect

All our activities for the underprivileged are centered around the following:

Needs Programme implemented

Education Sponsorship, Community Tuition

Programme, Distance Education

Programme, Children’s Library

Sports Club, Holiday camps& Career guidance camps

Health &Sanitation Awareness Camps, Medical Clinic

Construction of latrines.

Shelter Housing Scheme

Drinking Water Community Water Supply Scheme

Employment Income Generating Programmes & Skill Training

Self Sufficiency Micro Credit Co-operatives, Self Help Groups

Formation of People’s organisations

Rural Electrification Solar Photovoltaic Programme

Our glittering contributions so far

1. Community Tuition Programme, Children’s Library &Sports lub

• All the above programmes for beneficiary students of CASP is organized, run and managed in several communities by people from the community itself.
• Its success & widespread acceptance is because of high level of community participation.

2. Kothad Sanitary Latrine Scheme

The programme launched in the year 1992

• Altogether 371 latrines were constructed to accomplish the rare status of cent percent sanitation - the first village in India with total sanitation.
• Beneficiary committees selected, each beneficiary was given specific tasks and collective works promoted among the beneficiaries

3. Drinking Water Project at Thuruthoor

• Project launched in the year 1995
• 500 school students and 100 families around St. Thomas UP School utilize the benefit of the Project
• 10 % of funds mobilized from the community to ensure community participation

4. Income Generation Programme(IGP)

• The programme intends to promote self-sufficiency among Community people
• IGP units like Food processing, Tailoring, Coir spinning, Dairy projects and Grocery store are the major experiments in this line.

5. Micro Credit Co-operatives & Self Help Groups

• The programme has the main objective of promoting saving habits among the rural poor
• Micro credit cooperatives are presently functioning in 5 communities
• We act as the intermediary agency to guide the community in the formation of Self Help Groups (SHG) under Rashtria Mahila Kosh sheme of Govt. of India.

6. Housing

• To provide the basic necessity of shelter to the underprivileged sector, CASP, together with HDFC, Housing Board, Corporation of Kochi has constructed 500 houses,
• Community participation ensured through 10% beneficiary contribution

7. Day Care Centres for the Aged at Kothad, Mannuthy and Manappuram

• Intends to facilitate a fruitful ageing for the senior citizens
• Helps to create in them a feeling of being wanted

8. Women Empowerment Programmes

• CASP believes in empowering women for their sustainable development
• A Dairy unit and a tailoring unit have been set up in Thuruthor and Kadamakkudy respectively, with the objective of providing vocational training as well as economic independence

SPECIAL PROJECTS

1. Electrification of a village by solar energy -the first of its kind in Asia

Set amid the lush highlands of Kerala’s Idukki District, Mundanmudi at first sight seems idyllic in its timeless beauty. But the hills make communication difficult - cutting it off from the normal processes of development. But until CASP stepped in. Then things began to change. With Grant-in-aid from Grassroots Projects Japan, a novel eco-friendly power supply project was launched. 393 families had their homes electrified with individual solar power units.

Not long after, CASP, in benchmark collaboration with the Local Self Goverments was able to fulfill another long cherished dream - bringing water to the village. A series of tanks and ponds on the hilltop is connected by 22 km. of pipeline to carry the water down to distribution taps with easy reach of homes. Mundenmudi is proud of its water supply system after all, the residents have laid the pipes themselves

2 Model Village Scheme at Alakkode - ‘Adarshagramam’

Alakkode, a hilly village near Thodupuzha, was selected by HUDCO to become one of the Model villages in the country, by implementing various developmental schemes. CASP, together with Kerala State Housing Board and Alakkode Grama Vikasana Samiti, act as the implementing agency of the various Projects. CASP has already started its sponsorship programme in the community by giving sponsorship assistance to 25 underprivileged children.. The housing scheme, with the objective of empowering 422 families living in fragile conditions in the village, is in its way of completion. The other projects under implementation in the village include

• Latrine facility for 905 households
• Drinking water facility through rain water harvesting scheme
• Solar electrification of house holds
• Biogas from organic waste
• Sports promotion and youth centre
• Children’s Library
• Day-Care centre for the aged

3 DRINKING WATER PROJECT AT KOTHAD-Tapping the Natural Resources

Kothad, the island community of Kadamakkudy Panchayat is blessed with natural water resources, but for salty water, which makes it unfit for drinking purpose. A project for scientifically purifying the water sources, storing it in tanks and for supplying it through taps, has successfully been commissioned in Kothad. Maximum beneficiary participation is ensured in the project at every step of implementation. A similar project is in the cocoon stage in Kadamakudy as well.

INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

We receive helping hands from various international agencies with regard to sponsorships as well as to community development activities. Some of the projects thus undertaken are

1. Kerala Scholarship Movement- at Aomori, Japan - influenced CASP Kerala unit a lot in taking up community development activities and to experiment innovative programmes in child sponsorship.
2. EDLP Exchange Programme- Constructed 63 latrines with 80% funds from the funding agency and 20% from the beneficiaries, in Thuruthoor.
3. Solar Electrification supported by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan - 393 families are availing electricity facility through solar photovoltaic system and 560 families are getting drinking water facilities at Mundanmudi in Idukki District - Similar project has been initiated in Alacode as well.
4. The Sweden Experience - A Swedish lady, Anna Lind Berg, who got impressed by the positive influence of sponsorships on children, after visiting her sponsored child, Joemon Joseph, has identified Sponsors in Sweden.
5. Karl Kubel Stiftung Germany- Kothad sanitary latrine scheme for 371 families as well as assistance in housing scheme

6. The Netherlands support - the collaboration began in academic exchange with university of Nijmegen now turned to spread ahead a ` a Kothad model’ development in Kadamakudy

7. Rotary International & India - Island Community Development at Kadamakudy.

CASP implements its targets through the joint help of national organizations like HUDCO, KSHB, HDFC, Rotary Club, Taj Group of Hotels and a few trusts governed by missionaries.

Under the guidance of a Project Manager 21 full time staff members are working for the project. Out of which 14 are professional Social Workers. Services and assistance of standard consultants are made use in implementation of CASP projects. Assistance of people’s organizations are made use of at various project areas for managing credit co-operatives, income generation programmes, community tuition programmes, children’s library, children’s sports club, self help groups etc. To generate additional financial resources for expanding various activities District co-ordinators are appointed in Pathanamthitta, Alleppey, Kottayam, Trichur and Quilon districts.

The administrative policies are decided by the project implementation committee under the chairmanship of Rev. Fr. Fr. Jose Alex CMI, Vice Chairperson Rev. Dr. Antony Kariyil CMI and Mr. M.P Antoni the Project Manager.

Please direct your Enquiries To:

The Co-ordinator, RMD, CASP

Rajagiri.P.O, Kalamassery, Kochi-683 104

Phone: 0484-550885; Fax: 0484-532862;

E-mail: rajagiri@md2.vsnl.net.in

Visit us : www.keralaonline.com/ngo/casp

: www.caspindia.org

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