WHAT WE DO
Core Activities:
- To organize women, youths, landless workers of target group through group formation like- Women Group, Peasant Union and Youth Organization.
- To do common effort with village organization to solve the problems of target group.
- To organize workshops, meetings, conference, training programmes and awareness building programmes.
- To guide and help in proper implementation of govt. schemes to facilitate the deserving people.
- Empowering PRIs and Gram Sabha
- To act collectively like- survey, identification, application, performance and rallies towards peoples’ control over natural resources like- land, water and forest.
- To initiate training and learning activities in various areas of interest to upgrade the skill and knowledge of its associates youths, farmers, students, women and opinion leaders. Major training and exposure programmes are concentrated on Income Generation Programmes, Agriculture, and education and leadership development.
- Promoting Sustainable Agriculture
- Critical engagement in Women Empowerment
- Involving women in savings, self-help Group and thrift & credit programme.
- Supporting women organization’s activities at grassroots level.
- Promoting Traditional System of Medicine
- Watershed Management
- Eradication of blindness
- Community based social and economic rehabilitation for visually impaired
- Integrated education for visually impaired
Community Eye Health Program:
PRERAK initiated Community Eye Health program in the year 2003 in two blocks Gariaband & Magarlod of Raipur & Dhamtari district with the help of Sight Savers International Mumbai to eradicate the eye related diseases such as cataract, glaucoma, low vision and other refractive errors. Since inception of the project more than 3000 cataract patients have been motivated and operated. Looking at the good response from the community PRERAK has launched the same project in Chhura and Fingeshwar block of Chhattisgarh and the program is going on.
Vision center:
A well-equipped vision center is maintained by PRERAK at Rajim by the support of Sight Savers International where eye patients are diagnosed on every Friday. The vision center provides counseling, medicines and spectacles to low visions.
Community Based Rehabilitation For visually impaired:
PRERAK is working on two types of rehabilitation economic & social rehabilitation. Under community based rehabilitation the visually impaired given orientation and mobility to know about the environment & walking skills. They are taught to perform daily living activities such as brushing, eating food, identification of things etc so that they can live like a normal person. In the economic rehabilitation those who are physically fit are linked with economic activities according to their interest so that they can earn for their livelihood.
Reproductive Child Health:
PRERAK has initiated the Reproductive child health program for the tribal communities of Gariaband block to reduce the infant mortality rate & maternal mortality rate. Under this program traditional birth attendants are given training and supported with Dai kit to reduce the death rate during & after birth. Under this program Prerak also teaches on hygiene, pre and postnatal care of women and child.
Leadership skill development:
To understand the all-round development of the environment, it may need social relationship for a human being so Prerak has known about the social pathway to complete performance in the society. For this reason Prerak organizes seminars, training programmes, workshops and many other educational programmes for the village leaders and other officials to promote capacity building / leadership quality in the community.
Panchayati Raj/Gram Sabha empowerment:
If we have to go a broad through the Panchayati Raj Administration to village level administration that we have to create awareness of the people’s movement in which the village committee is the tool so to make a strong village committee. Prerak arranges the training programme as a media to empower the village committee to identify & solve the problems of the community.
Income Generation programme:
Prerak has initiated so many income generation programmes for the tribal people basically priorities given towards the downtrodden peoples to make sustainable performance in the life situations so PRERAK initiates in
- Group farming.
- Paddy Cultivation using modern technology.
- Collection, storage and sale of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) like honey, mahul, and shal leaves, Mahua flower etc.
- Brick making.
- Fish rearing.
- Goatery etc.
- The organization has established Dal Mill, Oil and Lac processing Units and others for promoting income generation programme and NTFP activities.
Women empowerment through micro finance:
Prerak gives priority to the women to get the ownership of the parental property and social participation with any organization activity so that they are able to learn the strategies to develop the leadership skill and talking style with community, and able to promote self income generation activities. Presently there are 65 SHGs in Mainpur block &112 SHGs are formed and are linked with banks and some of the SHGs are engaged in income generation activities such as fisheries, goatery, collection and sale of non timber forest produce. Some of the SHGs are managing the mid-day meal. PRERAK has taken initiative to federate the SHGs and in future has planned to transfer the federation in to multiple self-help cooperatives. PRERAK imparts various trainings to develop the skills of SHG leaders & members.
Integrated Education for visually impaired Children:
PRERAK promotes equal access to appropriate education for all visually impaired children and youth so that they may achieve their full potential. Visually impaired children and youth are entitled to a full range of educational services. The teachers and professionals are supporting in reading Braille and providing pre and early education. PRERAK has provided appropriate educational materials and methods to educate the visually impaired. Presently 51 visually impaired children are receiving education.
Vaiddya Promotion:
PRERAK is promoting herbal medicine for the tribal people because tribals reside in the far flung areas of thick forest where medical facilities are rarely available. Therefore PRERAK has taken initiative to train traditional Vaiddyas (Healers) to identify the herbs and prepare medicines. The objective is to reduce the dependency upon the allopathic medicines on the treatment of every minor diseases.
Vasundhara Agricultural Demonstration Center:
Herbal plantation and agriculture demonstration center is situated three kilometers away from Gariaband Office at village Bhilai. Around 100 types of different medicinal herbs are planted for demonstration. For the demonstration in agriculture Nadeep tank, wormy wash and wormy compost pit are demonstrated. Traditional Local paddy seed collection and multiplication work is going on. Around 225 local paddy seed has been collected. There are upland and sandy land in the area useless that are made appropriate for crops and vegetables cultivation. And demonstration work is going on in this centre so that the farmers can learn and practice in their own fields.
Agricultural Development:
Lac is one of the most important non-timber forest produce available in the area for house hold income. In many parts of Chhattisgarh state Lac is cultivated but due to lack of technical knowledge and unavailability of seed people don’t have much production. For Lac cultivation organisation has financial support to its beneficiaries and advanced method of lack cultivation has been introduced. Training and exposures are being conducted to promote the Madagascar Technology of Paddy cultivation.