Very well said Ram. My very best personal wishes for Ashadeep too.
I have some more efforts that other energetic and well meaning people are taking up at different places. I will write about those too in the days to come. But one effort that is doing dramatic work that should be mentioned here is Snehalaya. Fr. Lukose in affiliation with Don Bosco's Bosco Reachout NGO and the Sisters of Charity are doing fabulous work in providing shelters, education and vocational training to homeless and/or abandoned boys and girls from all over the region. During the last five years or so, their successes, with an expanding support base from Guahati citizenry ( including a small group of expatriate Oxomiyas) has been spectacular and their successes have been remarkable. Let us keep them also in our thoughts and plans. c-da At 10:18 AM -0600 1/4/06, Ram Sarangapani wrote: >Of late, there has been much discussion on NGOs. > >Some of the things we can surmise are that it seems that around 70% >of the NGOs working in India are suspect. Many of these NGOs have >great websites and solicit funds - usually from foreign countries. >They undertake a project or two, but their ultimate mission is not >that lofty. > >Having said that, we must also understand that there are a few >really great ones. NGOs that really work, are difficult to find, and >we approach them with some trepidation. But we are generally assured >by personal visits by some NRAs. The ones that we can readily attest >to are NGOs like RVC and Ashadeep. Trust is an important in these >things. Without throwing caution to the winds, we ought to be able >make good value judgements on genuine NGOs. Being absolutely >cautious in our approach to each and every NGO will really >tantamount in NOT being able to help even the good ones out there. > >Some of the problems that we see around Assam that these NGOs work >are long-term, and have definitely fallen thru the cracks. Without >the help of genuine NGOs, whole sections of people would be without >any material support. > >Thinking of NGOs and the possibility that some of them may have a >'hidden agenda' makes one thinks about organizations like Mother >Theresa's Sisters of Charity. While it may be true that SOC, being a >Christian organization, may have wanted to convert people they help >to Christianity, the services they rendered over the years far >outweigh any perceived ill-intentions. > >My argument would be in the case of Mother Theresa's organization >is, so what, if some were converted.The bottomline is that the >organization made a huge difference in lives that mainstream >religions/Govt. agencies took for granted. The same goes for so many >other such organizations, like some Hindu based ashrams that are >doing wonderful. If it takes a bit of religious zeal to help people >in need, so be it. It is better than NOT doing anything. > >Social workers like Sanjay Ghosh or Ravindranath are the ones who >are silently working to make things better. Most such people, I >beleive, are not aware of political, state or geographical >boundraries in their quest to better the livlihoods of people. So, >it would be nice if more people just gave them any support they can, >and let them do their thing. > >--Ram > > > >_______________________________________________ >assam mailing list >[email protected] >http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
