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FUNDACIÓN VICENTE FERRER Vicente Ferrer Foundation

© Jesús Gutiérrez / FVF

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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.

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© 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.

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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.

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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.

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© 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.

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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.

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© 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

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© 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.

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© 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.

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© 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.

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© 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.

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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