The Hindu : National : Japan grants infrastructure assistance to NGOs

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Japan grants infrastructure assistance to NGOs

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Japanese government has granted infrastructure assistance worth more than $150,000 to non-governmental organisations bringing sustainable agriculture to the drought-ridden regions of Karnataka and alternative education systems to the tribal and the Scheduled Caste communities of Kerala.

Japanese Consul-General Kazuo Minagawa signed the grant contracts with representatives from the two NGOs, Parivarthana and Mitraniketan, here on Friday. “I trust these projects will contribute to uplifting the well-being of the disadvantaged grassroots people,” said Mr. Minagawa.

Construction

Over $85,348 will be used to construct the Mitraniketan-Nippon Facilitation Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, a part of the Mitraniketan People’s College, which aims to empower the disadvantaged through an educational system inspired by the Indian gurukuls and the Danish folk high schools. “The centre will have a training hall for 100 people and dormitory facilities for 40 people. We will also let it out to other NGOs and government agencies,” said K. Viswanathan, director of Mitraniketan. Building the centre will involve partial renovation of a 250-year-old royal structure and will use the cost-effective building techniques developed by Laurie Baker, the British-born architect who settled in Kerala.

The other $65,403 grant will be used to build SAKTHI, a multi-purpose resource centre for Parivarthana. The NGO works with farming communities in the drought-ridden Shimoga district. “We use a comprehensive holistic approach,” said D. Shankarappa, secretary, Parivarthana, explaining how self-help groups in 30 villages are the tools to carry out projects in forest management, sustainable agriculture, women and child development and savings and credit management.

SAKTHI will have dormitories, a training room, a counselling room and rooms where women victimised by domestic violence can find refuge for short periods.

The grants, given under the Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects, a part of Japan’s Official Development Assistance, benefit 6 NGOs in southern India every year. The Japanese consulate disburses the money in two tranches and will continue to monitor the project for a year.

More than 80 projects in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have been funded since the scheme was started in 1990.

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