Stories of Change
Work Supported by the Unitarian Universalist Holdeen India Program
Editor’s note: This account is compiled from articles written by Judith Walker Riggs (May/June 1988) David A. Reich (September/October 1994) which appeared in UU World magazine.
The Holdeen India Fund does not create programs to give to the poor, nor bring Indian students to North America, nor sponsor North Americans’ trips to India. Rather it exists, in the words of its Director Katherine Sreedhar, to help the poor solve their own problems. We are investing in people and developing human resources. About three-quarters of the Holdeen money goes to community-based grassroots groups who deliver services and generate programs for the poorest of the poor.. The other quarter supports organizations that provide technical, management and other expertise to grassroots groups.
"We are in India," said Sreedhar, "to increase people’s power, to help them improve their livelihood and their quality of life. We want to increase their access to assets, resources, and services—including health and education. Most of all, we want to enable people to take control of their own lives."
By focusing on the landless, the casteless, and the displaced, the Unitarian Universalist Holdeen program has chosen to work with people many other groups have labeled ‘impossible’ to help in any meaningful way. These groups include:
- SEWA, the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a self-governing union founded
in 1971 with a current membership of over 30,000. SEWA runs a cooperative bank,
a self-funded social security plan, various income-producing ventures, and has
advocated for policy changes for unorganized sectors of society.
- Deccan
Development Society promotes village self-help through cooperative women’s
groups called sangams. Now there are more than 30 sangams who have made over
200,000 rupees available for short-term loans to help support change in farming
communities.
- Annapurna Mahila Mandal is building a women’s center, and
helping secure bank credit for the thousands of women who support themselves by
preparing meals for unattached men who left their villages and families to seek
work.
- Vidhayak Sansad attacks the problem of bonded labor, when a debtor is
forced to pay off a landlord’s loan by working exclusively for the landlords.
Such people have no right to bargain, strike, or leave; though bonded labor was
technically outlawed in 1976, more than 2 million people are still in its
thrall. Vidhayak Sansad trains people to seek their freedom, teaches them how to
avoid debt, and has developed employment projects for newly freed laborers,
displaced tribals, and other ‘untouchables.’
- Mahiti helped villagers in a
perennially drought-stricken area design and build an innovative rain collection
project, so that people and cattle can survive and thrive in areas where disease
and fighting over life-saving water was the previous order of the day.
- Shakti Shalini’s focus is on preventing dowry deaths, as well as dowry harassment cases, divorce, and violence against women. A dowry death occurs every 36 hours in New Delhi. Currently, the program offers housing for eight women and their children, as well as legal aid, job training, medical care, child care, counseling, and room and board for up to three months.
Sreedhar says, "Holdeen differs from other [funding groups] because it does not shy away from experimentation or risk. To me," says Sreedhar, "empowerment means changing power relationships. Groups we work with have local community leaders who decide on their own objectives and how to go about achieving them…. We identify groups that share Unitarian Universalist values and then we provide them with the support they need—information, training, publicity—whatever is critical to strengthen that organization’s ability to work effectively and to have a long term impact on social change."
For more information contact holdeen @ uua.org.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
