VRO 40th Annual General Body Meeting, Presidents address.

1. What would I like to contribute as a president of the Governing Board?To coordinate the strategic review and the change program that this board will undertake. VRO faces some of its greatest challenges in its more than 40 years’ existence and I believe I can help to converge our founder, Father Michael Windey’s original objectives, to eradicate the endemic poverty in the villages, with the strengths of our current teams. We need to meet the needs and expectations of those we assist with the ones of our sponsors in a fast changing environment. We need to re-focus our attention from house building to village community building. We need to re-focus from providing to assisting with self help solutions. We need to address health, education, land use, equity and equality. We need to accept our responsibilities for the errors of the past and deal with them in an open and unambiguous manner. We need to improve and further professionalize our teams. We need to execute the current work program with diligence and ahead of deadlines. China reduced its poverty from more than 50 % of the population to less than 10% in 30 years and thereby accounts for 75% of the global poverty reduction, it is the only country that is achieving the millennium objectives of the UN, India is lagging behind and on top of that we see an unequal distribution of resources between rural and urban development .// Our board will organize itself to harness the insights of these long term strategic thinkers to develop a plan for the next 10 years and to guide, train and develop our volunteers, regional coordinators and possible other structures to meet the new challenges ahead. Besides the exploration of these new directions we will also ensure that we continue to improve the operational efficiencies that we achieved in the previous phase. When should we deliver results?I foresee to need between 6 and 12 months to develop a deeper understanding to disseminate this learning process in our movement and organization. Secondly I see an implementation phase of another 12 to 18 months. During the following six months of this 3 year period we will prepare a new leadership team to solidify this interaction with our sponsors through an elaborate communication program. Letter from Theo Vaes, With my current understanding as on 5/11/2010 1

2. 1] Sense of Urgency Talk of change typically begins with some people noticing a vulnerability in the organization. The threat of losing ground in some way sparks these people into action, and they in turn try to communicate that sense of urgency to others. "Without motivation, people won’t help and the effort goes nowhere…. It is hard to drive people out of their comfort zones". In the more successful cases the leadership group facilitates a frank discussion of potentially unpleasant facts: about the changing environment, or other relevant indicators. It is helpful to use outsiders ( to bring outsiders who can share the "big picture" from a different perspective and help broaden the awareness.) When is the urgency level high enough? Kotter suggests it is when 75% of your leadership is honestly convinced that business as usual is no longer an acceptable plan. 2

3. Organizational renewal program: Proposalsby the President Origin of the thinking process: If it is not worth measuring it is not worth doing Not everything that can be counted counts (Einstein) If you cannot imagine it, you will never create it (Einstein) 3

4. What has changed and what has not changed since the start of VRO. I will try to explain my conviction that VRO needs sincere efforts with long-term vision, sacrifice, unbreakable social commitment and good understanding. I took 2 weeks to look around in India and spent a substantial part understanding the world around VRO. This is what I did:Delhi (, TISS, IISS, Action Aid) 4

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10. Ranchi XISS 10

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12. 12 Fr Prakash Luis also participated in action aid activities. They are member of the IPPA (International Partners Program association). These seven organizations are funded by the UK government for the time being. Apart from traditional development work they also engaged in human rights actions and capacity building.

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15. Bhubaneswar XIMB 15

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20. Mumbai (Shroff Self Help Groups,) 20

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22. Healthcare 22

23. Parntering & networked solutionsICDS centers, train village level workers to enable them to connect and refer to 3rd partly solutions 23

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26. This single—market vision has also spread to the NGO sector—MadhavChavan’s vision for Pratham is to teach 60 million children across India to read.We do not provide enough schools, universities, basic civil infrastructure (housing, public health, general hygiene etc) for the people we are adding each year in our country. Expenditure and supervision in basic education, general infrastructure is far from adequate to cater this increasing population. Just one example- The “right to education” bill is practically dead as states and central Govt is yet to come up with required funding and political willingness to make it a reality. 26

27. Much of the recent literature favouring a multidimensional view of poverty stems from Sens critique of a narrow utility-based approach to assessing welfare in economics, in which he questions the solitary focus on income levels and consumption choices as markers of broader well-being (Sen 1985, 1987). Rather, his pioneering approach judges individual advantage in terms of capabilities, defined as the freedom and potential to actually achieve or enhance certain valuable functionings (Sen 1999). Poverty is conversely conceptualised as the inability of individuals to acquire the necessary capabilities, prominent amongst which is the capability to be healthy (Nussbaum and Sen (eds.) 1993). 27

28. Economic growth but..The national survey statistics are starting to come out. India actually lost jobs, although unemployment rates also decreased. The main aspect is that it was mainly casual labors that have no assets who lost their jobs. What we need to focus on is to help these people find the dignity of work. 28

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31. Poverty statisticsOn the other hand, the highest incidence of poverty (over 84%) is recorded in 5 district located in Orissa. In fact out of seven districts that have more than 70% incidence of poverty, four districts are in Orissa, ./.. 31

32. Empowerment - EntitlementsAs mentioned earlier: Government initiatives such as right to education, right to work are there but their implementation is dramatically low.VRO could consider it as their mission to make these government initiatives actually work. Very often government will choke initiatives that are not aligned with their ideology. VRO could become a platform for peaceful mobilization to assist the ST SC and OBC to inform them about and get their entitlements. This will provide a substantial alternative to armed struggle that is currently developing in India. It is interesting to see that F Windey already pushed for this Empowerment aspect. 32

33. Empowerment VRO should become active in villagers empowerment in a structured way. ./..This will ensure a transparent bridge between the central government policies and the ultimate impact there of on the village level. In this way we facilitate the capacity building of the government. 33

34. Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful. The less toil there is, the more time and strength is left for creativity. And work, properly conducted in conditions of human dignity and freedom, blesses those who do it and equally their output. (Inspiration: Schumacher,) 34

35. Reduce the physical geographical size Reduce the number of our various activitiesStrengthen core competencesReduce the distance to the Donors Get closer to State government (if not for funding, at least for learning) Intensify Survey and Impact measurement activities 35

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38. Satyagraha statement Develop awareness campaign Give everybody the opportunity to come clean with the pastwith a legally binding settlement deed. All VRO engaged people to commit to a clean VRO Put any irregularity in the hands of the court. 38

39. I always had these questions in my mind: Should WE be doing some of the services we offer? Should we still BE in some of the area’s where we operate today? Should we be offering ALL the different services in those chosen areas? Are the areas that we operate in still the neediest or is inertia keeping us there? Should we not be considering addressing new needs? 39

40. 40 What do we stand for: VRO becomes a national champion to fight endemic rural poverty VRO demonstrates operational excellence and is prepared to benchmark this VRO measures its impact both internally and externally in a transparent way VRO actively searches for the most needy area’s VRO moves on swiftly when the mission is accomplished, constantly rewriting history in our heads. VRO commits to pre-defined capacity building of its own teams (*) VRO continuously upgrades and disseminates its knowledge base VRO people are ready to move on after a maximum of six years’ cycle VRO is an explicit clean hands organization VRO values work hard, play hard and warm people VRO cherishes the inspiration of Father Michael Windey What do we do: VRO delivers any service that can uplift villagers from endemic poverty VRO does not necessarily fulfill these services itself, it can coordinate other parties VRO surveys, tests, mobilizes the community and the resources necessary for a sustainable solution

42. The Rainbow BridgeMany stones are on the earth,many houses we can build,many walls can be trainedtall towers can be built upon.Will you be stone among stones?Little is the protection of the house,all walls must fallthe highest towers fall.You see, the rainbow bridgespreads its high archbetween stars, between people. -You are hovering just recovered! Should you wear the rain bridgeyou must go with light feet.Will you say the word that turned you,send your angels out to implore it.God is mighty weak, not strong,forget about the forces that you yourself have.On the shores of your dreams waiting barges,contribute to more than holds your soul. ( Ephides) 42