On behalf of the Micro Credit Summit Campaign, Global Micro Credit Summit 2006 is to be held from November 12-15, 2006 at the World Trade and Convention Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Mr. Satish Girija, Secretary, NBJK, flew off to Canada on 9th November to attend the four day summit to be attended by representatives of 80 countries. Summit is continuation of Micro Summit Campaign, held in 1997, in Washington DC, USA , which launched nine year campaign to reach 100 million of the world's poorest families, especially women of those families, with credit for self employment and other financial and business services by the year 2005.

Mr. Satish Girija will participate in sessions cornering subjects such as how to reach poorest of poor families, micro insurance and impact assessment. It is to note NBJK for the last ten has been working on the subject of micro-credit in Ranchi, Koderma, Patna and Pakur districts of Jharkhand and Bihar and has benefited 1821 SHGs canopying 28 thousand women. Mr. Satish Girija in this world summit will represent Jharkhand and share his experiences. He believes that the world summit will provide the issue of micro-credit a new direction. Mr. Satish Girija has been specially provided scholarship to attend the Global Micro-credit Summit 2006.

The advertisement was published in one of the leading Local daily of Jharkhand in the Koderma page for filling of the application form and replies for the queries raised.

The interview was held on 10th of October 2006 where nearly 110 candidates appeared before the panel.. The selection committee finally selected 15 candidates each from Poultry and Electronic repairing.

For the past 10 years Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra with the help of its donor partner Community Aid Abroad (CAA) supported Women Empowerment and Sustainable Livelihood Programme in the block of Itkhori block of Chatra District.

The project areas are characterized by high incidence of poverty, lack of institutional credit for the poor and prone to naxalite problem. The context of the areas of work includes rural, urban and tribal. The Community Aid Programme functioned through SHGs consisting of groups of women. The programme adopted three pronged strategy once the group was formed. It conducted regular meetings so that the group remained intact, it provided training to them on book keeping, entrepreneurial activities, etc, provided loans and linked with IGAs (Income Generating Activities).

The programme is advanced by adding social, educational, politicalS and cultural and health improvement of women through institution and capacity building. A host of activities are carried out under this project with the aim to holistically improve the quality of life.

In the initial days of the major work was to organize the community, both men and women and raise their voice to make their grievances and issues heard. Eventually, it was felt that mere organization and struggling for rights would not be adequate and the initiatives yielding some concrete outputs should also be undertaken to benefit the rural poor. In this backdrop the CAA’s Women Empowerment programme came at glance.

The micro credit component was therefore introduced to increase access of women to financial resources by organizing themselves, inculcating a habit of saving and having greater access to credit. 

The program covers all sorts of people whose lives are dominated by extreme poverty, illiteracy, diseases and other handicaps and strives to bring about positive change in the quality of life of these people. To reach the most disadvantaged, NBJK followed a targeted approach to open its door for all women irrespective of their caste and class. In doing so, it is running micro credit and credit plus programmes, rural industries programme, integrated tribal development programme, poorest area civil society programme and many others.

Due to the intervention of NBJK, the women in the study group have been enabled to become involved in new IGAs are expand the size of operation in which they were involved earlier. Many have become involved in non traditional activities. It was witnessed that apart from owning poultry and livestock they also own the assets such as swing machine, rickshaw etc. The non productive assets acquired have been jewellery and brass utensils. Another noticeable factor has been the increased spending of the saving of women to household needs with any crisis situation. Household economic security has thus increased the credit worthiness of the community can be set.

12^th October, 2006 is celebrated as 'World Sight Day' to create awareness round the issue of primary eye care amidst masses. Rate of blindness prevalent amidst rural sections is very high. It is observed that on every twenty minutes a child loses his sight and on every eight minutes an adult loses his sight. Staffs of Lok Nayak Jay Prakash Eye Hospital facilitated by NBJK also observed the occasion on same day at Maharajganj Bazaar, at Chauparan in Hazaribag district.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Prabhunath Sharma, Treasurer, NBJK, narrated that NBJK assessed that rural poor could not afford proper eye care. Lok Nayak Jay Prakash Eye Hospital came into existence with pious support of NBJK to provide proper eye care to rural people on affordable rates. Nukkad Natak was also staged on this occasion to let the people know magnitude of the problem and their probable solutions.

The rural entrepreneurship development program was started with the help of NABARD-Ranchi in order to promote rural entrepreneurs through providing technical skills and later on by linking with Banks in order to promote rural employment and arrest the migration from the village. Poultry Training (15 candidates; spread across 4 weeks) and Electronics Repairing (15 candidates; spread across 6 weeks) is in process under this program. Following pre training phases were adopted in this process.

The program was inaugurated on 12^th of October 2006 on the premises of Markachho Block. The chief guest of the ceremony was Mr. Mahendra Singh, LDM-Koderma, Mr. Giridhar Thakur (DDM-NABARD), BDO (Mr. Prabhat Kumar Badadiyar), all the bank managers of Markachho, selected candidates as well as the staffs from NBJK-Koderma were present in the program.

Both the trainings are going on in Markachho itself. The training is not going at a stretch due to festivals and then the election in Koderma. The training would take pace after the counting (9th November 06) and would end by 1st week of December 2006.

Interested farmers in Jhapa, Bendwara, Bhadail and Madhyagopali constructed fifty farm ponds with technical guidance of Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra, with financial assistance of CEE .Cultivation in the banks of ponds is carried on a cyclic basis. Innovative technique is applied to construct these ponds. 2 decimal of land is required to develop this pond. Plants bearing fruits, vegetables, etc. are cultivated. New means has increased the productivity of the area and this stands as a miracle for the beneficiaries of the area.