Brief descriptions of the organization
The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery has been working in and around Ashta since October 1972, through ‘Pushp Kalyan Kendre’ and since 2008 it is known as ‘Nav Ankur Manav Kalyan Sanstha, Ashta’ after the bifurcation of the Pachmarhi Province. The office of the ‘Nav Ankur’ was shifted from Pipariya (Hoshangabad Dt.) to Ashta (Sehore Dt.). The sisters have sought to make known God’s compassionate love and concern for the poor, deprived, and marginalized through their services. The focus of the sisters had been to answer the needs of the most vulnerable groups (SC, ST, women and children). To meet the goal they had different activities over the years like, non-formal education, housing, agricultural development, M.C.H. Programme (Mother & Child Health), embroidery and needlework classes for the young girls, and mobile clinic etc.
Slowly the concept of social work changed. Social work was no more limited itself to the charity model but increasingly it was replaced with developmental model. Slowly sisters changed their strategies. People were helped to see their own situation, analyze it, and plan for the solutions. They are responsible for their own destiny. Thus, the need-based social work has been turned into right-based social work. The animation for social action has begun for Social Changes. Slowly the Advocacy gained importance in our work.
For eight years, we were engaged in working for the strengthening of the Panchayat Raj Institution with a special attention to the women representatives in 25 Panchayats. Together with this, we are also engaged in Animation for action, watershed, adolescents’ health, human rights, Rehabilitation of the displaced people, livelihood and food security, and land right for the forest dwellers. Now our gear is on right based approach in the panchayats (MNREGA, MDM, RTE, RTI, PDS, Health & Welfare activities). We have very good net working, issue-based support from other NGOs and GOs as well as we support others.
What we do
Nav Ankur Manav Kalyan Sanstha, Ashta has been working in and around Ashta since October 1972. Our focus had been to answer the needs of the most vulnerable groups (SC, ST, women and children). In the beginning our members were involved in non-formal education, housing, agricultural development, M.C.H. Programme, embroidery and needlework classes for the young girls, and mobile clinic etc.