VOLUNTEERS FOR RURAL INDIA

It is rare for the voices of the poor to be heard, let alone those of the rural poor.

the poorest villagers still live in houses made of mud, straw and dung and sleep on handmade rope beds

a street in an Indian village

getting water from a village pump

villagers take the harvest home by bullock cart

Invitation

Programme

Aim of conference

Contact

Invitation

INTAF - International Task for the Rural Poor

in co-operation with Asian Foundation for Philanthropy, London

invites you to participate in the Eighth INTAF World Conference

to be held on Saturday, 18th June 2011

at Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT
(4 minutes’ walk from Old Street tube station on the Northern Line)

The theme of the conference is "Experiences of Working with the Rural Poor"

To book a place, please contact the convenors

(If you are are interested in learning more about the VRI "Experience India" scheme, feel free to just come along to the afternoon session.)

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Programme

Saturday, 18th June 2011

10.30 am	Arrival and registration
11.00 am	Opening Remarks - Jyoti Singh, INTAF International Convenor A Grass-roots/NGO’s Perspective Mukat Singh, founder of Amarpurkashi Project, Dr Jai Pal Singh Vyast and Dr Naresh Jha from India A Voluntary Organisation’s Perspective Bala Thakrar, founder/director of AFP, will speak of her experiences in India Jasbir Singh, researcher Question/Answer Panel Discussion Showing of film, "Pollute and Prosper", made by AFP volunteer, Blossom Carrasco
12.15 pm	A Donor’s Perspective Stephen McClelland, Head of European Programmes, DFID, speaking in a personal capacity Hari Dhanoo, individual donor
1.00 pm	L U N C H     B R E A K
1.30 pm	A Volunteer’s Experience Nayan Shukla, volunteer in 1988 Dial Sharma, volunteer from Oct. 2007 Aditi Shah, volunteer in Feb. 2011 Question/Answer Panel Discussion
3.00 pm	Plenary Discussion, led by Jyoti and Bala

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Aim of the conference

It is rare for the voices of the poor to be heard, let alone those of the rural poor. The World Bank’s project, "Voices of the Poor", which studied 60,000 poor from 50 countries, showed the utter powerlessness, dependency and humiliation that they suffer. The poor cannot speak for themselves. They are mostly illiterate, know only their local language or dialect and cannot articulate their problems. How can we bring their cause to a wider audience? The theme of the Eighth INTAF Conference, "Experiences of Working with the Rural Poor," is an attempt to identify some of the key issues by looking at the experiences of those working with them from a number of different perspectives. We hope that this will not only give a fascinating insight into the lives of the rural poor but will encourage the world community to engage with them.

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Contact

To register for the conference, please contact:

Mukat Singh [email protected]
or Jyoti Singh [email protected]

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