Action Village India

 London     England

http://www.actionvillageindia.org.uk     << visit website

Coverage:  International

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Action Village India Charity Profile

Action Village India was established in 1988 as Friends of ASSEFA to support the work of ASSEFA (Association of Sarva Seva Farms). The name was changed as it grew and took on more partners. AVI works with six partner organisations in India all of which are well known to our members.

AVI is a partner led organisation; all the programmes we support are devised and managed by our partners. All of our partners work in rural areas within a Gandhian framework, seeking to work with the most marginalised, creating village self-sufficiency to reduce the flight to the cities and, of course, promoting non-violent change.

India is now being touted as a new economic giant, but the country's rapid development has left millions of people especially those in rural areas, untouched. So wherever they work all our partners aim to:

improve the standard of living for the poorest
build and strengthen participation and democracy
promote equality for women
ensure that people know and can act on their rights
promote access to basic services like water, education, justice and healthcare

Action Village India Volunteer Information

Action Village India (AVI) is heavily reliant on volunteers to support its partners in India effectively.

In the office, volunteers can be involved in a variety of work; mailings, routine administration, corresponding with supporters and organisations in India, publicity, preparing the newsletter, fundraising and organising meetings and social events. For all of this work, some basic administrative experience is essential, especially word-processing.

AVI's main need for volunteers is to help run the Madras Café where we serve Indian food. This is one of AVI's main fundraising activities, so it is important for us to have a good number of enthusiastic volunteers there. AVI currently runs the Café at WOMAD, which is always over a long weekend in late July at Reading and at the World Fair which is held in central London on a Friday and Saturday in early December. AVI is occasionally asked to run the café at other weekend events and those who have signed up as interested in helping with the Café are asked if they can help.

There are few opportunities for volunteering with AVI's partners in India. One of the main reasons for this is that they all work in rural areas in local languages. However, Lakshmi Ashram at Kausani in Uttaranchal, is used to hosting volunteers to help in its school and with the land and other small projects.
At the first AVI Partners Forum in March 2004, Lakshmi Ashram asked for help in finding a TEFL/TESL trained teacher to work with their staff to help them teach English.
AVI had a similar request from the head teacher at NBJK's English medium school in Hazaribag District, Jharkhand, who is concerned about his teachers' level of English.