STRENGTHENING VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS        

ISHA'S WORK WITH THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR IN INDIA

ISHA, in the past twenty-five years of its existence, has worked extensively with the voluntary sector to help it grow as a potent force in the health and family welfare field. ISHA has conducted training programmes, workshops, seminars and Conferences for VOs. ISHA has assisted in improvement of their management and organization systems, manpower development, community involvement, development of field programmes, in developing sustainability plans, and in improving their collaborative capabilities with Government departments. This has been attempted through the workshops and seminars, and individualised work with large number of VOs.

Specifically, some of the major contributions of ISHA to the development of voluntary sector, are as follows:

A. TRAINING PROGRAMMES, SEMINARS, AND WORKSHOPS

1. TRAINING IN TRIBAL HEALTH. Organized two National Seminars for voluntary organizations working for tribal health and welfare, on, "Health of the Tribal People in India", May 20-26, 1990 and November 28-30, 1991, in which a total of 70 representatives of voluntary organizations participated. Based on the seminars, publications were brought out and widely distributed. Participating VOs were helped to develop their action plans.
2. MEETINGS. With financial assistance of USAID, conducted two meetings, one at national level and the second at regional level, for representatives of voluntary organizations, Ministry of Health, Government of India, and Planning Commission, October 31, 1991 at Delhi and May 25-27, 1992 at Bangalore with 31 and 36 participants respectively.
3. WORKSHOPS. For representatives of 60 major voluntary organizations (PVOH I and II) engaged in health and family welfare work at grass-root level, June 22-27, 1992 at B R Hills in Mysore District, and August 2-7, 1992 at Bangalore, with 40, and 41 participants respectively. These workshops were aimed to impart skills of project management, and financial sustainability.
4. NATIONAL LEVEL WORKSHOPS. Organized at national level, workshops for voluntary organizations as follows:

       August 1996 - Tirupati- Planning and Management of Voluntary Organizations
       August 1997 - Tirupati - Planning and Management of Voluntary Organizations
       August 1998 - Tirupati - Planning and Management of Voluntary Organizations
      June 2000 - Pondicherry - Planning and Management of Voluntary Organizations
     June 2004 - Tirupati - Planning and Management of Voluntary Organizations

In each of these workshops 60-70 participants from all over India, majority from Andhra Pradesh, participated. Many of the participants wanted to learn how to start a voluntary organization, the formalities for registration, preparation of project proposals, and sources for financial assistance.
5. Organized a two week training programme on health and family welfare management, August 8 - 20, 1992, on managerial concepts and techniques.
6. TRAINING IN HIV-AIDS CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT. Conducted six workshops in each of the North Eastern States of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura (also covering Arunachal Pradesh), to help 83 VOs in these States evolve their action plans for HIV-AIDS control, keeping in view their specific resources and constraints.
7. Conducted two workshops for grass-root VOs and Mahila Mandal leaders on HIV - STD prevention and FW, in Belgaum District, in collaboration with a leading VO in Karnataka, at which approximately 90 persons participated.
8. ISHA has organized todate thirteen national level workshops at different venues throughout India on HIV-AIDS. In each of these workshops 25-30 representatives of voluntary organizations have participated. Representatives of active VOs are also involved as resource faculty. We have also conducted workshops on HIV-AIDS exclusively for voluntary organizations in Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and all the North Eastern States. Through these workshops, we have worked with over 300 voluntary organizations throughout the country.
9. TRAINING IN COUNSELLING TECHNIQUES. Keeping in view the critical need to provide counselling to alcoholics, drug addicts, HIV-AIDS persons, family planning, STD, and unemployed youth, ISHA has conducted six national level one-week training courses on counselling techniques. Also, several regional level workshops in counselling techniques have been conducted. Through these workshops, representatives of over 150 voluntary organizations throughout India have been trained.
B. NATIONAL CONFERENCE
National Conference on, "Role of VOs in Health and Family Welfare in India", November 5-7, 1992 at Bangalore was organized with 176 participants, of whom 139 belonged to Voluntary Organizations from all over India.
Totally, at the above workshops and meetings, approximately 1200 key persons from approximately 600 VOs from all over India were trained/enabled in health and FW programme management.
C. INTENSIVE ORGANIZATIONAL STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT WORK
1. With financial assistance of ICMR and UNICEF, ISHA had conducted intensive studies of 17 innovative projects by voluntary organizations, towards understanding the profile of successful VOs, and useful learnings, for the benefit of VOs in India. These are documented in the publication, "Community Participation in Health and Family Welfare - Innovative Experiences in India", which has been widely distributed and is being referred as a resource material.
2. Worked intensively with 60 leading voluntary organizations being assisted by the USAID under the PVOH Scheme, to help strengthen their programmes, enlarge their vision and capabilities, and develop long-term sustainability plans. This included study of the projects, personal interactions with the project and community leaders, arranging study visits of leaders to suitable successful VO projects in other parts of the country, and inputs through training programmes and publications.
3. At the initiative of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, conducted evaluation-cum-organizational study of 70 voluntary organizations in Southern and Western States, towards enabling more effective utilization of voluntary sector in health and FW in India.
D. PREPARATION OF FILMS:
With financial assistance of USAID, prepared a 50-minute documentary for the Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, titled "Reaching the Unreachable: Role of Voluntary Sector in Health and Family Welfare". ISHA is currently completing a film on, "Health of the Villages and Urban Slums: Community Participation and Commitment". In this film work of voluntary organizations in improving the quality of life in villages and urban slums is reviewed.
E. PUBLICATIONS:
Keeping in view ISHA's commitment to strengthening the voluntary sector towards health and development, ISHA has prepared several publications. The major publications on voluntary sector and/or for the use of VOs, brought out on the basis of ISHA's interactions with VOs, field studies, and literature review, are indicated below. These have been distributed extensively to VOs, concerned international agencies, and government officials.
a) "The Third Force in Health Care - Role of the Voluntary Sector" - 1970 copies distributed/used as training material so far. 1992.
b) "Community Participation in Health and Family Welfare - Innovative Experiences in India" - approximately 1500 copies distributed/used as training material so far. 1990.
c) "Health of the Tribal People in India - Present Status and Future Directions"- approximately 800 copies distributed so far. 1990.
d) "Leadership and Human Resources Development for Health Care" - approximately 800 copies distributed/used as training material so far.1990.
e) ISHA Journal issues devoted to, "Role of Voluntary Agencies in Health Care in India",and "Community Participation in Health Care", published in 1984, distributed to approximately 3000 ISHA members, VOs, medical colleges, etc, and being used as reference material by VOs and professionals.
F. RELATED ACTIVITIES:
1. Other Training Programmes:
Apart from the above focussed efforts of ISHA specifically for VOs so far, representatives of approximately 200 other voluntary organizations from all over India have participated in our training programmes/workshops on, "Action Plans for HIV-AIDS Control", "Mental Health Care", "Counselling Techniques", "Leadership and Human Resource Development in Health Care", "Disaster Planning and Health Management", "Planning and Management of Old Age Homes", etc.
2. Advisory Services:
ISHA has provided informal advisory services to over 50 grass root level voluntary organizations, particularly in Karnataka, specifically in the past five to six years in planning and developing a voluntary organization, mobilization of resources, manpower development, self-reliance, sustainability, and community involvement.