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Rohtas Educational and Associated Programs (REAP),

Sasaram

1. A brief history of the organisation

“Whenever a tree loses its leaf, a leaf is ready to take its place”- this is true to

Sasaram mission which was started by Fr. Joe Mann in 1955 and almost remained

closed for 9 years after the murder of Fr. Mathew Mannaraprampil in 1980. The social

centre REAP came to its existence in 1989 under the leadership of Fr. Tony

Pendanath. He was the first Director of REAP which became a registered society in

1991 (Registration No. 841 of 1991-92 dated December 3, 1991). Due to the hard

work of many Jesuits as subsequent Directors and staff through massive literacy

program, formation of SHGs and youth clubs, eradication of child labours and

strengthening Panchayatiraj, health and sanitation and human rights initiatives the

center has come a long way.

Since 1989 REAP has been involved in various developmental programs of the

District of Rohtas; such as in adult education, non-formal education, formal

education, community organization, etc. REAP was the District Resource Unit for

Bihar Education Project (BEP) and ran 400 non-formal education centers under the

same program. REAP is a member of the District Education Committee. REAP also

runs two formal Rural Primary schools in different parts of Rohtas district educating

more than 500 poor children of Dalit and backward communities.

REAP is a member of the governing body of Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK), ATMA,

DRDA and District minority commission. In collaboration with National Centre for

Advocacy Studies (NCAS) Pune, it has initiated grass root mobilization and advocacy

taking up various human rights issues. Having about 120 women Self Help Groups

(SHG) among Dalit women, it has initiated major entrepreneurship programs for

livelihood promotion. It collaborates with the government for programs such as SGSY

and Total Sanitation Campaign (Constructing Toilets). REAP has also been involved

in intervention among children working in the stone quarries of Rohtas.

From the time REAP was established, it has had a preference for the poor, especially

women, children and Dalits the most disadvantaged, discriminated and vulnerable

community in the society. A major investment of REAP has been children. Because, it

strongly believes that children are the most vulnerable, if given proper opportunities

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and provided a healthy environment for growth and development, they are the best

force for bringing forth social transformation. The organization believes that proper

inputs given at a tender age has a tremendous impact on development and this in turn

would contribute towards building an enlightened society.

Today it is a vibrant and credible NGO in Rohtas district thanks to Notre Dame

Sisters, dedicated staff and district administration who have been our support partners

and collaborators in making our center resourceful and relevant.

2. Vision, Mission, strategies, long and short term objectives and major activities of

the organisation

Vision:

Building a just and humane society by creating lasting changes in the lives of the

poor and the oppressed.

Mission:

To empower the poor and marginalized through a process of community

empowerment leading to integral development and structural change.

The major thrust of our intervention is to build up human communities for structural

change in favour of the poor and the marginalized. Thus our centers work for

community building of the poor and marginalized that they are empowered and in

turn take steps to develop themselves.

We dream of reaching this goal through Education, Awareness, Organization and

United Struggle. With serious concerns for the dalit community, particularly women,

children and unorganized youth, our networking of three units have focused

interventions for the socio-economic empowerment of women through Self Help

Groups, education of their children, organizing the unorganized youth through

formation of youth clubs and for community empowerment at large. Our

organizations have a team of experienced and committed persons, mostly from the

local Dalit communities. We have developed a library at the centre with branches in

villages for children and youth to raise the academic standards and a love for books

among the students of our target groups.

Areas of our involvement

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• Formation of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) especially of dalits,

women and the marginalized to give them collective strength for better bargaining

power.

• Organization of Dalit and poor especially women and the marginalized into Self-

Help Groups for financial security.

• Community health giving stress to preventive methods and home remedies.

• Micro Enterprise Developments for women

• Literacy and rehabilitation of child labourers.

• Organization of the unorganized youth.

Strategies: Educational interventions has been one of the major strategies REAP uses

to ensure our target children who are out school mainstreamed and made sure their

retention and quality education in schools. In order to ensure accessibility to

entitlements community mobilization at the grass root level and advocacy at the

district level involve networking partnership with district administration, media, PRI

representatives, teachers, community leaders, youth, SHG members and parents.

People’s Awareness – People’s Education – People’s Organization and People’s

Action has been our approach and strategy in our entire program. In other words, our

development methodology is community-based people’s participation at all levels.

We use street plays, awareness songs, audio-visual shows and participatory methods

of training to motivate, educate and empower the poor.

Objectives

i- Awaken the target community to the fact and the reason for their social

isolation, backwardness, ill-health and the need for organizing themselves

ii- To provide educational opportunities for the deprived children of the target

community

iii- To empower women, enable them to take decision on issues affecting them,

increase their bargain power and get dignity

iv- To initiate micro-enterprise for economic reliance

v- To organize youth to capacitate them and mobilize their resources to bring

about changes in the society they live

vi- To mobilize the community human resources to prevent environment

depletion and to promote eco-friendliness

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Activities

o Mainstreaming child labourers and non-school going children through alternative

education centers

o Remedial education through residential program

o Creating awareness among the target groups to claim for their entitlements

o Empowering and mobilizing Bhunya-Musahar community involving SHGs

o Networking and linkages with government schools, education department, media,

etc.

o Capacity building of SHG members for Income generation activities

o Documentation of best practices, learning and challenges

o Strengthening institutions of local governance like- PRI, VEC, Schools, AWCs,

etc.

o Celebration of local and national feasts and festivals to promote culture

o Capacitating staff through various trainings

From our experience we have seen that an individual alone cannot bring about change

in the society and this is all the more difficult when the individual is poor and

oppressed. We believe that if our marginalized section of the society is to develop it

can be only through the collective effort of the people themselves. Thus we motivate

people to form community-based organizations [CBOs,] of men and women and

network these groups to create people’s collective power. We also motivate them to

form organization at village, panchayat, block and district level for greater bargaining

power. This people’s power is used to bring change in the life of the poor. Hence all

our educational, women and dalit empowerment, awareness intervention and

programs are geared towards realizing the goal of bringing about structural change in

our society.

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OUR ACTIVITIES AT A GLANCE

Our SHG women participating in Republic Day Jhanki

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SHG women march towards their empowerment: conducting meeting

Becoming self-reliant…through Income Generation Program… using very composed for cultivation

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Children during the residential summer program: hum kisi se kum nahi..we got a talent

Being part of the campaign… creating awareness.., Making adolescent girls skillful and confident

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Capacitating community based organization(CBOs) and staff through trainings..

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Still a long way to go…our mission of eradicating child labour by ensuring Right to Education…!