Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust
(Registration under Trust Registration
Act 1982)
P.O. Sattore, Dist. Birbhum, West Bengal-731 236 Phone-‐
9434007127/ 9434113433/ 9432357160
E.mail: [email protected] /
[email protected]
Ch r i s tm a s a n d New Ye a r G r e e t i n g s 2015
Dear Friends,
The people of our village are very happy this year because of
the good rice harvest in our area. Though, we have not much
agricultural land of our own, but seeing the green fields around us
that we have cultivated for the landlords, makes us satisfied. A
good rice crop influences many auxiliary crops that follow, like
potato, mustard and vegetables. All these activities create
workdays for us that indirectly affect our life and village economy
and also the activities of our village organization.
As to the activities of our organization like in our
kindergarten, primary and high school coaching centres, Boys’ and
Girls’ Hostels, in our RSV school, in the Bio-farm, our medical
care and dispensary went on normally this year. Other annual
activities like Baha festival, children festivals, RSV Foundation
Day celebration, Teachers’ Day, teachers’ workshop and several
seminars, our annual picnic and educational tour too happened
according to our plan which we formulated in the beginning of the
year.
In the last few years we have been consciously trying to reach
to the outside world with our ideas of work and Santal cultural
dialogue. To do so several local, national and international tours,
seminars and workshops have been organized in collaboration with
various NGOs and Government agencies. For example, Government
institutions like Raja Rammohan Library Foundation, Kolkata; Bose
Institute, the scientific research institute founded in the name of
the re-knowned scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose; Rotary Clubs and
Visva-Bharati Univesity have collaborated with us. There were a
number of cultural exchange programmes held with like-mined people
and organizations within the country and abroad like Jharkhand,
Orissa (Odhisa), Bangladesh and Germany.
In March, a Two Day International Conference was organized in
collaboration with the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia
University (JMU), New Delhi, and with the financial support of the
Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi. The
conference was held in Shantiniketan and our RSV school near
Bishnubati and Ghosaldanga. The chief guest was Prof. Sushanta
Dattagupta, Vice-Chancellor of Visva-Bharati, and the keynote
speaker was Dr. G.N Devy, Director of the Bhasha Research &
Publication Centre, Vadodara. Several well-known academicians,
scholars, medical doctors, grassroot social workers from Jawaharlal
Nehru University, New Delhi; University of Hyderabad; Christian
Medical Collage, Vellore; Indian Institute of management, Kolkata;
St. Xaviers college, Maharo; and Visva-Bharati
attended. Many more individuals and representatives from NGOs
like Suchana, a community development centre near Santiniketan;
Johar, a human resource development centre at Dumka; and Manab
Jamin, Birbhum attended the conference as well. Our special thanks
to Prof. Ivy Hansda, JMU for making this collaboration happen.
Like every year a number of guests and German student volunteers
stayed and worked with us. Among them were Joschka Härdtner from
Frankfurt who stayed two months with us engaged himself with
various activities with the students and youth. Jakob Dörr, Hannah
Beckmann and Judith Drexler returned to the village for second time
and renewed some of their old memories and activities with the
hostel students. Sharmistha Dattagupta and her friend Holger
Bartels (Göttingen, Germany) too are returning to us and will stay
for a six weeks from the middle of December.
We thank all of you for your remembrance, thoughtfulness and
support, especially Marianne Pal Chowdhury, Manfred Watzke, Dr.
Ulrich and Hedwig Oser and the other team members of ‘Friends of
Ghosaldanga and Bishnubati’, Germany; Kindermissionswerk (The
Pontificial Mission of Holy Childhood) / “Sternsinger” Aachen
(Germany); Dr. Monika Golembiewski and her team of ‘Shinning Eyes’,
Makrampur; The Merck pharmaceutical company in Darmstadt (Germany);
The Meditation Centre Sonnenhaus in Beuron (Germany); Bose
Institute (Calcutta); Visva-Bharati University; Arun Kapur, Vasant
Valley School, New Delhi; Anne and Rolf Bucher (Organic farmers
from Germany). The supports of you and of all I did not mention
here means a lot to us and helps us to progress as an organization
and as individuals.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Joyful New Year 2015
Boro Baski Sona Murmu Sanyasi Lohar Gokul Hansda
Monotosh Das Martin Kämpchen Snehadri S. Chakraborty
