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NGO Project Report Internship with The Paraplegic Foundation

Team members : 1. Harshit Doshi - 17 2. Bhavin Mehta - 125 3. Megha Gandhi - 96 4. Kavita Jayaraman - 124

Acknowledgement

We are heartily thankful to Professor Mrs. Durga Surekha whose encouragement, guidance

and support from the initial to the final level enabling us to develop an understanding of the

project.

Lastly we offer regards to all the organization who supported us in any respect during the

completion of the project. Acknowledge the wonderful opportunity provided by the

foundation, it was a truly knowledgeable experience and a pleasure undertaking this project.

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Contents

General

Introduction..................................................4

Methodology..................................................7

Project and its Objectives...........................12

Recommendations.......................................15

Learning Experience...................................19

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GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Most of the time a paraplegic is looked on with pity. But what he really needs is just a

helping hand to enable him to live his life once again with dignity. A paraplegic is a person

whose low extremities are affected. He usually has no control over his bladder and bowel

movements and little or no sensation in his low extremities. A person becomes paraplegic

mostly due to injury or infection of the spinal cord. This often occurs at prime of life; in the

age group of 18-35 years. The ratio of affected men to women is 5:1. As a result of the

permanent nature of the condition and associated medical complications; a paraplegic tends

to become a problem person; severely affecting his whole family and society. Hence he needs

special resources.

Realising the dearth of special resources for rehabilitation of paraplegics a few professional

social workers working in Municipal General Hospitals initiated the concept of starting an

organisation for them. Their hands were further strengthened by other like-minded

rehabilitation professionals. Thus in 1968 Paraplegic Foundation came into being. It is

registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act and the Societies registration Act. The

objective was to work with paraplegics to enable them to regain their lost confidence and

interest in life.

The two main centres are Kantaben Shah Comprehensive care Centre at Sion and Sanjeevan

Deep Total Education and Health; Personnel training and Research Centre at Airoli.

At sion centre:

Regular yoga session for the beneficiaries both in health Harmony Project and Sheltered

Workshop.

Resumption of regular sports activities and holding of National Level Wheelchair Games.

Facilitation of marriage between two beneficiaries of the workshop.

At Sanjeevan Deep:

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Constant and ongoing participation of the children in a variety of activities jointly with

organizations in the community. Extensions of total health facilities to inmates of

neighbouring institutions for homeless Mentally disabled.

The concept of I CAN, I WILL:

Our focus has never been on disability; but an overall development of affected individual into

a happy and self-reliant member of his family and society .Our motto “I can; I will”; says it

all.

In time; as we sensed the needs and plight of other severely orthopedically disabled; we

reached out to them as well through our activities. Services for paraplegics and orthopedically

disabled are offered at our centre in Sion; which is housed in the Barrack allotted to us by

L.T.M.G Hospital and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.

In 1996; we started a Centre for all types of disabled children and youth on the piece of land

allotted to us by CIDCO in Airoli; Navi

Mumbai. This development was again based on our assessment of local needs.

We conduct our activities at two centres – The Kantaben Shah Comprehensive Care centres

at Sion and Sanjeevan Deep Total Education and Health; Personnel Training and research

Centre at Airoli.

Realising the dearth of special resources for rehabilitation of paraplegics a few professional

social workers working in Municipal General Hospitals initiated the concept of starting an

organisation for them. Their hands were further strengthened by other like-minded

rehabilitation professionals. Thus in 1968 Paraplegic Foundation came into being. It is

registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act and the Societies registration Act. The

objective was to work with paraplegics to enable them to regain their lost confidence and

interest in life.

The two main centres are Kantaben Shah Comprehensive care Centre at Sion and Sanjeevan

Deep Total Education and Health; Personnel training and Research Centre at Airoli.

1. Finance

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Paraplegic Foundation had received support from wide variety of sources, be it voluntary

service, extension of facilities, giving or arranging donations in cash or kind.

Some of the major supporters are : Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation, Herdillia

Chemicals, Girnar Tea Pvt. Ltd., N.M. Wadia trust etc.

Revenue generation through Sheltered Workshop. Workshop includes Sanity Pad making,

Art Section & Block printing as major activities. Apart from this revenue were generated

through Liquid Soap, Phenyl production etc.

2. Marketing

Various marketing & promotional activity are performed to increase sales of items

manufactured at workshop.

Sales counter at 22 Municipal Hospitals & Maternity Homes.

2 Stalls manned by patient of Paraplegic foundation at the Sahakari Bhandars at

Matunga & Chembur.

Participation in number of Exhibitions to make public aware of Foundation & display

creative abilities of patients of foundation.

Promotion through events like Sports etc.

3. HR

Under leadership of experienced “Smt. Sulabha Warde”, Paraplegic Foundation successfully

achieved there objectives. Currently Smt. Sulabha Warde works as President at Foundation.

Foundation was honored to receive services from Dr. (Mrs.) Saral Dabir as an incharge of the

Health Harmony Project & Dr. Vijay Kulkarni, Andrologist expert.

Foundation received services from 20 Final year physiotherapy students & 15 Occupational

Therapy student as an intern.

Two student from social workers from S.N.D.T. college worked in Sion centre.

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The Project Manager, a trained nurse, was incharge of nursing care and overall management

of the dormitories.

METHODOLOGY

Most of the time, a paraplegic is looked on with pity. But what he really needs is just a

helping hand to enable him to live his life once again with “Dignity”

The focus of foundation has never been on treatment of disability of paraplegic person, but its

on the overall development of the affected individual into a happy & self-reliant member of

his family & society.

The Objective of Foundation is achieved through 2 different sections:

Ward Section

Sheltered Workshop

Sanity Pad Making

Art Section

Block Printing

Liquid Soap & Phenyl production

1) Ward Section :

Here all paraplegic patients are medically treated to achieve foundations objective

“Putting them back on their feet”

Open Door Clinic: An outdoor clinic is held twice a week. Treatment includes

acupuncture, acupressure, physiotherapy and counselling as well as regular health

check ups.

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Sweekar – Dormitory Type Accommodation: Paraplegics & other severely

physically challenged persons who needs daily, intensive rehabilitation service, but

have commuting problems are provided accommodation facility along with a relative.

Strength through Sports: Once a week, Sports activities are conducted for all

Paraplegics.

There is arrangement for playing team games like Throw Ball & Cricket. This results

in increase in Motivation level of Paraplegics.

As Management students, our objective was to provide few suggestions to increase

working efficiency of Ward department from Management perspective.

After meeting with “Dr. (Smt.) Saral Dabir” as an incharge of the Health Harmony

Project, we were made aware of few Management issues faced by foundation.

Now our goal was to come up with suggestions to reduce Management problem faced

by Ward department.

We analysed the problems & tried to find out reasons for this problems.

We narrowed down main reasons for problems & came to conclusion that our main objective

should create awareness about foundation among people which will result in increase in

Fund raising activity of foundation. So on basis of our findings we came up with following

objectives :

Objectives :

Creating Awareness

Fund Raising activities

More Staff

Analysis :

Below are list of activities carried out by all team member after thorough research of all

problems & regular brainstorming activity by all team members to resolve above mentioned

problems & achieve defined Objectives.

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1) Planned to have collaboration with Outlets like Lifestyle, Globus to create awareness

about Foundation. For executing & checking feasibility of this plan, we went to few

popular Outlets were people footfall is high. There we analysed the behaviour of

customers. One of the important thing which came to our notice was that most of the

items (shirts, pants etc) were having MRP of Rs. 299, 399, 449 etc. The important

thing to notice over here is most of the MRP mentioned dint had a round figure

amount. And most of the customers were reluctant to collect remaining small amount

of change i.e. Rs. 1, 2 etc. This was the behaviour of almost 80-85% of customers. So

we came up with an idea that if we can place a donation box of Paraplegic foundation

next to payment counter & with help of Payment executive officer at the counter who

can give a brief about foundation to customers, can result in creating awareness

among people about foundation & also customers can donate their received change

amount to foundation by putting it in “Donation box”

2) We also went through list of Donors who are already associated with Foundation &

provide funds as a donation towards Paraplegic patients. We realised there were few

Donors who own a business & manufactures items which requires continuous

advertisement / promotion to sustain in such a competitive market. So we thought to

promote Donors product in events organised by foundation like Sports event,

Handicraft exhibition. This will result in promotion of Donors product & return

foundation will receive more long term support from donor.

3) To achieve our objective of increase in working staff, we went through different

NGO’s websites few of this NGO’s were India based & few were Europe & America

based. After studying practices followed at some International NGO’s we got stats

that most of the working staff at NGO’s were final year medical students willing to

work as an intern at this NGO’s to get practical knowledge of patients to enhance

their skills & knowledge. We realised that if we can hire more number of medical

intern at foundation then working staff problem can be resolved. Also intern does not

demand for high amount of payment as their main moto is to learn & gain some useful

practical knowledge of patients. In return foundation can help intern will full case of

the patient for their study. This will make tenure of an intern with foundation very

fruitful.

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2) Shelter Workshop

Sharam Safalya :

A Training-cum-Sheltered Workshop, which consists of three Sections:

1) Training: The disabled are given training as per their previous background and

interest in areas such as tailoring, art work, etc.

2) Production and Job Work: Items produced include sanity pads, liquid soap,

phenyl, file making and artistic items such as greeting cards, glass paintings, fancy

carry bags, diary sets etc.

3) Block Printing Section: Some new items were introduced. These included double

blocks & double colour printing on Table mats, Table Napkins, Cocktail, Cushion

Covers & Tea Coasters.

After meeting with “Mr. Sagar & Mr. Manjrekar” as an incharge Workshop section, we

were made aware of few Management issues faced by foundation.

Now our goal was to come up with suggestions to reduce Management problem faced by

Ward department.

We analysed the problems & tried to find out reasons for this problems.

We narrowed down main reasons for problems & came to conclusion that our main objective

should create different marketing strategy, Product manufacturing & Promotions of products.

So on basis of our findings we came up with following objectives :

Objectives :

On time delivery

Quality Maintenance

Alternative Suppliers of Raw materials

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Analysis :

Below are list of activities carried out by all team member after thorough research of all

problems & regular brainstorming activity by all team members to resolve above mentioned

problems & achieve defined Objectives.

1) We realised main challenge faced by Workshop department was to maintain Quality

of manufactured items to keep customers happy. As there were complains like

different colour items received by customer who ordered for same colour for all the

items. E.g. Customer places an order for 10 items with Red colour but 2 were

manufactured as Crimson color as the bottle received from supplier was Crimson

instead of Red.

For this issue we went through whole manufacturing process which starts from getting

colour & other raw materials from suppliers, designing of item, arrangement of

resources, manufacturing process, final packaging & delivery to customer. We

realized to avoid such problem & maintain customer loyalty supervisor at workshop

department should properly examine all colour & other raw materials received from

suppliers at very first stage. He should not order start of manufacturing with faulty

colour bottle or faulty raw material. After initial round of inspection supervisor should

immediately inform management about any faulty material & get it replaces as soon

as possible.

2) Also we were involved in brainstorming to achieve right amount of Production

quantity in case of less or no order. To utilize resources, manpower & raw material to

its best level when there is hardly any order we came up with management

manufacturing technique called as “Just in time”.

Here whenever there is No order, Labour should be kept engaged in producing items

which is most selling among all items.

Only 20% of Raw materials should be kept as a stock & remaining 80% should be

ordered only after an order is placed. Thus the requirement of small orders can be met

using stored 20% of raw material.

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PROJECT & ITS OBJECTIVES

Paraplegic Foundation’s commitment to the all round social, physical and spiritual

enhancement of the lives of the disabled is illustrated by the various activities during the year

as mentioned below:

Regular yoga sessions for the beneficiaries.

Resumption of regular sports activities and holding of national level wheelchair

games.

Constant and ongoing participation of the children in a variety of activities jointly

with organisation in the community.

Extension of total health facilities to inmates of neighbouring institutions for the

homeless mentally disabled.

Health Harmony department:

Distribution of patients at the foundation:

Diagnosis Male Female Total

Paraplegia 14 02 16

Quadriplegia 3 3

G.B Syndrome 1 1 2

Hemiplegic 5 2 7

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Quadriparasis 1 1

T.B Spine 1 1 2

Others 2 1 3

From the above table we can learn that the main challenge for the Health Harmony

department is to raise funds for the treatment of the patients.

Apart from this the other major challenges faced by the Health Harmony department were:

To create awareness about the foundation.

Increase staff members.

Encouraging the patients of the Health Harmony department to participate in sports

and other activities in order to keep the motivation level amongst them high.

Sheltered Workshop

Putting them back on their feet...

The sheltered workshop is training –cum-workshop. The disabled are given training as per

their previous background and interest in areas such as tailoring, art work etc. Items

produced include sanitary pads, liquid soap, phenyl, file making and artistic items such as

greeting cards, glass paintings, fancy carry bags, dairy sets etc. suitable job work is

undertaken whenever an opportunity is provided. About 22 sales stalls in municipal

hospitals/maternity homes are manned by the disabled. They sell products made at the

workshop.

Items Amount in Rs.

Chocolate Tray 55

Diary Sets 200

Wine Bags 35

Mobile Cover 40

Diwali Diya 35

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Batwa 70

Table Mats 200

Phenyl 25

Sanitary Napkin Pads 22

Liquid Soap 20

Table Cloth 600

Challenges of the workshop department :

On time delivery of ordered items to customers

Quality Maintenance of manufactured items. This results in increase in customer

satisfaction.

To have more number of Suppliers: Keep more number of suppliers in hand so that

there is no shortage of raw material and the production cycle is not affected.

Distribution of similar products.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

On the basis of our Research and findings on various aspects and analysing the objectives and

issues of the NGO, we came out with the following recommendations which were approved

by the Management committee

The recommendations are as follows:

Ward :

1. Promotion of donors product during events (Eg. Sports Event etc.)

The NGO can promote their donors product during their sports events. This will help the

donors to get more sales and the NGO to create awareness and raise funds for their patients.

For example: If Mr. XYZ manufactures pens then the NGO can promote the product through

events like sports, exhibitions etc.

2. Association with Outlets (Eg. Globus, Lifestyles, etc)

Creating awareness of the NGO with reputed retail outlets like lifestyle, westside, globus etc.

in order to raise funds.

For instance, if the product costs Rs. 345 then the executive will ask the customer whether he

would like to donate the round up amount (Rs. 5 or Rs. 55) to the NGO.

This will create awareness as well as raise funds for the NGO.

3. Contacting Schools and colleges for raising funds

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Creating awareness of the NGO among the youth by conducting programs during weekly

assemblies or parents meet at the open house which will result in enrollment of new members

(donors).

The foundation can also display their handicraft products during schools and colleges

festivals/events.

4. Raise membership fees for every member and in return give them handicraft items.

Nominal increase in the membership fees annually alongside providing a special discount on

the handicraft items or gift the same as a token of appreciation. This will help in long

association of the member with the NGO and at the same time raise funds for the NGO.

5. Raising Funds for ward department through customer of workshop.

Promoting the NGO foundation via its Customers who regularly purchase handicraft items

which will help in spreading the word of mouth and in turn create awareness.

6. Association with more companies/organization.

The NGO can associate themselves with companies like LIC and other insurance companies

to spread the awareness and raise funds for their patients. Business tie-ups help in mutual

association.

7. Providing Internship program.

Providing an internship opportunities to medical students (for about 3 months) which would

solve the problem of staff requirements and in return students will gain knowledge and

experience. The process will continue with every new batch of students coming up in the near

future. Also, for this purpose, NGO should have tie-ups with Medical Colleges so that

students get to learn important practical applications and in turn reduce staffing issues of the

NGO.

Marketing Strategy:

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1. Promotion through Email, SMS (Way2sms.com)

Maintaining a database of new and existing customers and keeping them updated with the

current ongoing events of the NGO via email and online SMS. Promotion via the Internet

proves to be effective communication and also reduces cost.

2. Internet Shopping – Ecommerce.

Promoting the handicraft articles of the NGO through social networking sites like Facebook,

Orkut, Twitter etc. and providing internet shopping facilities.

3. Production Planning.

Whenever there is No order, Labour should be kept engaged in producing items which is

most selling among all items.

Only 20% of Raw materials should be kept as a stock & remaining 80% should be ordered

only after an order is placed. Thus the requirement of small orders can be met using stored

20% of raw material.

Handicraft Products

1. Supervision of Raw materials at receiving level.

To check whether all the materials are uniform and as ordered. If there are any errors in the

received raw material, concerned department should notify it to supplier & make arrangement

to get it replaced. Also, the traveling expenses for the same will be beared by the supplier

E.g. : If out of 10 bottles of ordered Red colors, 2 are erroneously supplied as Crimson color;

then necessary corrective actions can be taken accordingly.

2. Distribution of similar products.

If the customer has an issue regarding the color of the product or the product is not meeting

his expectation then similar color product should be sent to a particular customer.

For example: If red color product are sent to X customer then crimson color product should

be sent to Y customer.

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3. Keep more time buffer.

For instance: Customer orders 100 pieces of particular item & if manufacturing 100 pieces

requires 30 days, Customer should be promised to deliver item within 45 days keeping 15

days as time buffer. This will help to deliver items to customer on time.

4. Alternative Suppliers of Raw materials.

Keep more number of suppliers in hand so that there is no shortage of raw material and the

production cycle is not affected. This would help in maintaining the continuous flow of the

production.

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LEARNING EXPERIENCE

The entire NGO Project was a commendable learning experience and gave us an insight as to

how an NGO functions and also its various objectives. The project reflected the Management

issues in an NGO and solving the same in a manner which requires a balancing effect of

viewing it from a social perspective and management decision making. It helped us to

understand the various aspects of NGO management and also understand the purpose of

establishment of an NGO. The Paraplegic foundation was very diligent in managing its

patient activities as well as carrying out the activities related to products and its selling and

distribution. During our short stint at the NGO, we learnt about the funding raising activities

of an NGO. At the same time, it also helped us carrying out an extensive research on NGO

and the ways in which a probable but effective management decision can be achieved in

order to solve some of the issues like Fund raising, increasing the staff members, enhancing

awareness of the NGO, etc. Another important aspect in learning was that of social impact of

the NGO by carrying out social service.

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