From: Madhulika Date: Fri Mar 19, 2004 8:22 am Subject: HBP-Bihar: Monthly Update ADVERTISEMENT AID Austin: HBP Manpur (Gaya) Monthly Update ---------------------------------------------------------------- We finally managed to have a phone conversation with Binod Kumar ji (Block coord) on March 12th and with Saritaji, Dharmendharji (state resource persons) & Dineshji (state coordinator) on March 15th. Due to the phone problems through last year it was difficult to get a sustained dialog with the block. BGVS Manpur finally got a new connection and it appears that our communication will improve significantly. During the call, we followed up on the Madhulika and Bala's block visit in December. The report will be available on the AID AIPSN website shortly. The following key points emerged from this conversation Telephone Conversation: March 12th 2004 Participants: Binod Kumar ji, Nishant, Madhu 1. We will have a monthly call one first saturdays of each month at 7.30am (IST). 2. Second round of weighing is almost complete and the results will be given to Dinesh Prasad ji (State Coord). He will be hand them to Balaji before he leaves for US early April. AID Austin will then perform some analysis on the data and compare the results with the analysis of the 1st round of weighing. 3. 6-7 self help groups been initiated in last couple of months. The difficulty in opening of new bank accounts should be resolved by next month. 4. The block re-training of 60 village health activists will be held from March 13-15th by state resource persons - Sarita ji and Dharmendar ji. The names of all 60 VHAs will also be sent via Balaji. 5. We will send certificate of appreciation for each VHA. This was initially proposed by Balaji and Binod kumarji agreed whole-heartedly. We sent 43 diwali greetings lsat year to VHAs which were really well received. We hope to make this a regular feature. - There is a need for a new borewell in one of the villages. Binod Kumar ji will submit a formal proposal to us. We will take it under review under advicement of Balaji and Dinesh Prasad ji. Telephone converstation:March 15th 2004 Participants: Saritaji, Dineshji, Dharmendharji, Madhu 1. There was a three day training camp on the 13th, 14th & 15th of March in Manpur block. 27 health activists attended and 14 of them were women. 5 cluster resource persons attended. They have identified one lady as a prospective cluster resource persons. 2. Dharmendharji is going to join the health program. So, the number of state resource persons will be 4 now. He will be coordinating the work in Manpur block and 2 more blocks in the north. 3. At the training, Saritaji made a plan of work for the activists. Dharmendharji will be visiting Manpur on the 29th of March to review this and see the progress. 4. Dineshji will discuss the borewell requirement with Binodji and the BGVS committee. If they can mobilise resources locally, there would not be any need for a proposal to AID. Otherwise, they will submit one. 5. We asked Dharmendharji to think about the ways we can help from the US and let us know. We can contact him through email at the bgvs email address. 7. They are having bandh in Gaya again, as two people were killed a couple of days back. Dharmendharji said if we are successful in channelising the creative energies of the youth, these things will drastically go down. He was optimistic that BGVS' work can bring about the change in the area. Madhulika and Nishant (AID Austin)