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FUNDACIÓN VICENTE FERRER Vicente Ferrer Foundation
© Jesús Gutiérrez / FVF
1
o What is the Vicente Ferrer Foundation?
The Vicente Ferrer Foundation, Fundación Vicente
Ferrer (FVF), is an NGO (Non-Governmental
Development Organization) committed to the process of
transforming one of the poorest and neediest regions of
India, and some of the poorest and most marginalized
communities on the planet, the dálits or untouchables,
tribal groups and backward castes.
The FVF is an organization based on the philosophy of
action. Its founder, Vicente Ferrer, worked for more
than 50 years in India amongst the underprivileged. His
view of understanding development has created a model
example for International Cooperation.
With his way of thinking and acting, Vicente Ferrer was
able to move consciences of thousands of people in the
fight to eradicate the inequalities between people,
conveying his commitment and enthusiasm and
motivating people to work and collaborate, day after
day, for the same cause in India and in Spain.
Our work is based on:
• Permanence through a long-term project.
• Respect to the people's culture and customs.
• Participation by encouraging the active
partnership and leadership of our stakeholders.
• Action, which is our work philosophy.
• Accountability, as we believe in efficient and
accountable program and financial
management.
• Humanism: we have a strong faith in people
and their capacity to help others.
2
© Jesús Gutiérrez / FVF
In Spain, this work is carried out throughout the Vicente
Ferrer Foundation and its network of collaborators,
volunteers and representatives following the philosophy
of action.
In India, our local counterparts Rural Development
Trust/Women Development Trust (RDT/WDT) manage a
full programme of integrated development and operate
respecting the environment and leading the important
process of transformation whose ultimate objective is
community development. We do not search for short-
term solutions but a continuing and unlimited remedy
within the same region.
Currently, the FVF relies on the support of more than
132,375 collaborators in Spain for specific and constant
help for the work of RDT/WDT in India, guaranteeing
autonomy and continuity so that the most
underprivileged and poorest people in Andhra Pradesh
are able to escape social marginalization in their lives,
and raising awareness amongst the Spanish population
of the possibility of regional transformation.
3
o Where we work
The FVF operates in the south of the country, at the
Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana - which
until June 2014 was a single state, Andhra Pradesh - as
well as in Srisailam area, namely in the Anantapur,
Kurnool y Mahbubnagar districts.
The area of the former state of Andhra Pradesh, with an
approximate extension of 275,000 Km2, has a population
of more than 84 million people according to the last
census of 2011. With the division, the state of Andhra
Pradesh is composed by the regions of Coastal Andhra
and Rayalaseema. Telangana, the most prosperous
region, has become the 29th state of India. The old state
capital, Hyderabad, is on the boundaries of this new
state and will be the capital of both states for a period
of 10 years.
Telangana comprises 10 districts and Andhra Pradesh,
13 districts, among them Anantapur and Kurnool, where
is concentrated most of the work of FVF. In the wooded
area of Srisailam, north of Andhra Pradesh and south of
Telangana, nearly forty thousand people - most chenchu
tribe - benefit from projects that the Foundation has
launched from 2010.
In those southern states of India, there are no serious
conflicts but an extreme and continuous deprivation.
Sporadic interventions are insufficient to face up to the
endemic difficulties which are serious and completely
entrenched within the state’s own social structure.
Presently, FVF’s work embraces 3,235 villages and
benefits more than 2.5 million people.
4
5
o With whom do we work
In India, society is organized in terms of a rigid system
of castes and subcastes. Each one occupies a
predetermined position in the social structure, with its
own behaviour, rules of conduct and beliefs based on
the general principles of Hinduism.
It involves a hierarchical system which has existed for
thousands of years. Although nowadays the Indian
Constitution has abolished discrimination for reasons of
caste, in practice castes are socially so well-rooted that
they continue to exist and to determine people’s lives.
The dálits or untouchables
Hinduism teaches that human beings were created from
different parts of the body of a god (Purusha) called
(Brahmā). Depending on this, people are classified into
four basic castes that define their social status, with
which they can marry, the type of work they can be
given and can carry out, etc.
Each caste corresponds to a hierarchical order,
according to Hindu mythology, following criteria of
purity. There are an enormous number of people
excluded from this system, the “pariahs” or
untouchables, considered within the above-mentioned
criteria of purity to be the most contaminated, which
constitute the lowest layer of society and carry out the
most reviled jobs.
6
© Fundación Vicente Ferrer
In contemporary India, this extensive group represents
approximately some 160 million people who are given
the name dálits (“oppressed” in Hindi). In rural India,
the dálits constitute a marginalized community and
their work as labourers, terribly and irregularly paid,
hinders their access to conditions of a dignified life.
In this context, the FVF works so that the dálits,
together with other discriminated groups such as the
tribal groups and the backward castes, the impoverished
sections, take charge of their own destiny and recover
their dignity.
There are 12 primitive indigenous groups in this area.
They live in wooded regions of Andhra and Telangana
and in the forest of Nallamala: are the chenchu people,
about 8,000 families, the poorest of the nomadic
communities of this region. They live in isolation, as
hunter-gatherers, directly dependant on the forest and
without knowledge of customs related to agriculture.
Given the limited access to education and healthcare,
and the high rate of poverty of the chenchu people, the
FVF has started to work with these communities since
2009, to identify, as the first stage of contact, their
problems, needs and demands. And it has already begun
to act in some communities by providing access to
education, health and housing, as well as promoting
their self-organization and knowledge of their rights.
7
o How do we work
The FVF and its counterparts in India, RDT/WDT, carry
out a full programme of integrated development with
the objective of achieving a real improvement in the
living conditions of the most discriminated communities
of Andhra Pradesh.
We believe that people are the main actors in their
development process and we ensure their active
involvement and leadership in the programs. An
important approach is the continuous sharing of
knowledge, skills, and awareness about all aspects of
life. We work in collaboration with the government and
other NGOs to draw maximum benefits from
development, to raise people's awareness and support
their use of government schemes and resources.
Bring about a change that provides long-term solutions
and contribute to eradicating poverty requires working
in all areas of development. To do this, we conducted
a comprehensive development program and focus our
actions in six key areas of action:
• Education
• Women
• Healthcare
• Habitat
• People with Disabilities and Discriminated
groups
• Ecology and rural development
The integrated development programme trains and
teaches its beneficiaries and enables them to specialize
so that they can improve their living conditions and
become self-sufficient. Through empowering the
community, the FVF assures the sustainability of its
integrated development programme.
8
© Ramón Serrano / FVF
© Juan Alonso / FVF
� Housing construction
The housing sector was one of the first developed
sectors since the communities with which FVF and
RDT/WDT work, as a result of their scant economic
resources and their marginalized social situation, had to
live in precarious huts grouped in colonies separated
from the superior castes and removed from public
services that at times the local government have
provided (wells, toilets, schools, pharmacists, etc.).
The new housing are serviced with the minimum
standards of healthcare and provide efficient protection
before the heavy rains, from dangerous animals and the
intense heat, but above all give rise to a feeling of
dignity within a deeply discriminated community.
This programme is based on the participation of the
beneficiaries themselves (the families that most
recently will occupy the new housing) who work with
the technical and financial support of the RDT/WDT
specialists.
Thus, until 2014, 48,469 homes have been constructed
including 2,613 adapted houses for people with
disabilities. Also, it should be noted that 4,249 homes
have been built jointly with the Indian Government and
2,845 rebuilt after natural disasters.
� Ecology
With an average rainfall of 940 mm per year, Andhra
Pradesh is the second driest state in India after
Rajasthan. By district, Anantapur is one of the driest;
there are regions which register less than 550 mm per
year.
These meteorological conditions restrict agriculture, the
way of life for almost 80% of the population. This brings
with it economic losses, such that it is calculated that
production falls by between 25% and 75%, the fall of
9
© Albert Uriach / FVF
food prices and, in many cases, the emigration of the
rural dweller to the big cities.
Our organization works according to a long term plan
that aims to halt the progressive desertification of the
region and come up with a solution that includes: the
creation of water structures, incorporation of the most
efficient agricultural technology (irrigation through
water sprinklers, drip watering, photovoltaic solar cells
systems, …), excavations for wells, soil conservation,
reforestation, planting fruit trees, diversification in
cultivated crops, bio-fuel cookers, introduction of
organic fertiliser, and the maintenance of a Permanent
Fund Against Drought through which the generation of
employment through the critical months is encouraged.
� Education
The education sector is one of those that receive
special emphasis, since its access forms the
fundamental base to community development. The
education programme began in 1978 with a campaign to
make the people understand the importance of
schooling and to give families the incentive to enrol
their children in a school programme, which required
more determination in the case of girls.
But the children of the poorest communities faced a
problem: the lack of previous preparation with respect
to children from higher level castes provoked problems
of adapting and educational failure. For this reason, the
Foundation set up education reinforcement measures by
creating additional self-running schools and summer
schools.
10
© Albert Uriach / FVF
More and more students from the Foundation in India
are entering university. Support for access for students
from the lowest castes towards university studies has
relied on, since 2004, a specific programme of grants
called the “Special Education Programme”. Presently,
2,121 students receive support as a result of this
programme. Similarly, a special effort has been made in
recent years in the form of supporting those graduating
university students who want take up employment in
India. Preparing for competitive exams comes at a very
high cost, given that they are sat in the big cities,
though the FVF takes on the cost of this preparation.
� Healthcare
The healthcare sector aims to improve the life-
expectancy and quality of life for the Andhra Pradesh
population, through prevention, education and
healthcare, and through the construction of
installations that guarantee hygienic conditions and
adequate service.
The work of FVF has taken action through a Community
Health Program and a Hospital network.
The former relies on a complete health network, with
16 rural clinics and 1,027 community health workers.
This decentralised infrastructure allows a basic service
to be provided for 2,496 villages in Anantapur.
The Hospital network is composed of three General
Hospitals (in Bathalapalli, Kanekal and Kalyandurg), a
Family Planning Centre and an HIV/AIDS Hospital. Since
2010, there is also a Paediatric Hospital.
11
© Albert Uriach / FVF
© Nagappa / FVF
� People with disabilities
The extreme conditions for the rural population in India
result in a high rate of people with especially serious
disabilities. In 1987, RDT/WDT tackled the need to
resolve the two causes of discrimination against these
groups: the low level of their skills, on the one hand,
and the lack of awareness of the need to support these
people who are not able to develop productive activities
economically for the community, on the other hand.
Thus since then, the organization has worked with a
two-fold objective: providing primary and secondary
education to all boys and girls and achieving economic
independence for adults with some type of disability
thanks to a professional training process. The
Foundation motivates people with disabilities to
organize themselves into associations, the vikalangula
shangams, encouraging their ability to participate
socially and strengthening their group identity, and
putting in place workshops that highlight their skills that
will enable them to develop productive activities
economically.
In the last year the FVF has begun work on 441 new
villages to support people with disabilities. In all, its
intervention reaches 2,397 villages and the beneficiaries
thereof gather in 1,783 groups, to face together their
concerns, challenges and needs.
� Women’s sector
The Women’s Development project began in 1982 in
order to improve on the traditional situation of
marginalization of the Indian woman. In practice,
woman is the main bread-winner of the household
income and the principal conveyer of values and
customs.
12
© Nagappa / FVF
RDT/WDT has three support structures for this: support
for the creation of shangams or women’s associations in
order to encourage their social and economic
participation; the creation of a Women’s Development
Fund to provide micro-credit and the “From Woman to
Woman” programme which provides financial support
from Spain for the strongest shangams.
A total of 10,990 women have been formed in different
disciplines and 8,082 women have been addressed in
Counselling Centres.
� Emergency situation
The FVF relies on experience of their intervention in
emergency and post-emergency situations:
The floods in Diviseema
In 1977, RDT/WDT intervened in the flood situation in
Diviseema, a small island in the District of Krishna
(Andhra Pradesh).
Earthquake in the Indian state of Gujarat
As a result of the earthquake in February 2001,
RDT/WDT took part in humanitarian aid and in the
reconstruction of housing and schools.
SOS India- Tsunami
With respect to the tsunami that affected South-East
Asia in December 2004, RDT/WDT carried out
emergency aid and reconstruction, distributing boats
and fishing equipment and repairing civilian
infrastructure (housing and schools).
Floods in Kurnool and Mahaboodnagar
In 2010, the heavy rains, whose effects caused the
Krishna and Thungabadra rivers to burst their banks,
affected around 1.5 million people in the state of
Andhra Pradesh. RDT/WDT responded by sending
emergency help during the first 48 hours of the disaster,
which helped 40,672 families within 97 villages.
13
o How to collaborate
We want to thank you for considering us and supporting
our work.
Your donation will allow carrying out the projects in
which the Fundación Vicente Ferrer continues to work
through its comprehensive development program. You
can choose how much and when you want to make a
contribution, and if you wish to send it to the general
fund for all projects or destine your donation to a
specific area of our development program: Housing,
Ecology, Education, Healthcare, People with
Disabilities, Women.
You also have the chance to fund a specific project,
with donations starting from 1,900.00 USD.
By making a donation to RDT-Vicente Ferrer, you will
help us eradicate poverty and continue the
transformation process currently underway in Andhra
Pradesh.
© Juan Alonso / FVF
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