Friday 1 February 2013

Post Golden Jubilee towards a new future in Development


 
  

Mr. K P John
Co-ordinator Idea Programme

As the time and tide swivel and wait for none Vijayapuram Social Service Society continues its journey, ever since its inception in 1961, committed to the cause of the poor and the marginalized, whoever leads it and whoever works for it.

As we retreat through the roads of development journey of Vijayapuram Social Service Society the annals give an account of multifarious interventions among people for their integral development.  The past years have witnessed paradigm shifts in strategies and approaches to promote services to the cause of rural development and empowerment of the powerless and the deprived sections of the community.   Began with charity and welfare providing food, shelter and cloth, the Society has passed through institutional, developmental and organizational to Participatory and partnership strategies reading the signs of time and as the faces of poverty change, looking at ourselves and the poor who occupy the centre-stage of our development concerns and action.  We have contributed significantly to the people of our operational area through innovative solutions to poverty, deprivation, discrimination and exclusion by way of service delivery, awareness raising, social mobilization, training, research and advocacy. Every step taken during the 50 years has been an expression of the concern of the Diocese for the poor. Now Vijayapuram Social Service Society is at a strategic position of strength and credibility to take up any ventures for the community.

VSSS is presently in the search of maximizing output with low external input.  It is about the technical and social options open to people in their own respective community.  It is about the empowerment of all categories of the community, male and female, children, youth and elders, who seek to build their future on the bases of their own knowledge, skills, values, culture and institutions.  VSSS seeks to combine indigenous and scientific knowledge and to influence policy formulation to create a conducive environment for the development of the people.

Development is fundamentally an empowering process.  We have moved from sympathy to empathy, from compassion to justice, from an attitude of receiving to positioning on the basis of rights.  But sinister forces are active with little concerns on ethics or human values.  We have to initiate struggle against this vituperated situation.

We have been witnessing a transition in the 50 year history of VSSS. Now, I should suggest a new motto for the post jubilee VSSS, service, faith and excellence. As a Diocesan organization, we are brought together for something extra ordinary. Each of us is involved in “transforming lives”, i.e. making possible the aspirations and dreams of thousands of our people. Together, we will continue to make great things happen.


We look beyond the horizon of the present to that of the future. This is a time for serious planning for the days ahead.   Our development concern should transcend projects to building fellowships among men and women, which in turn build a culture of love, equality and freedom. 

We had very serious deliberations during this year on post Jubilee focus of VSSS. We proposed paradigm shifts in strategies and approaches to promote services to the cause of rural development and empowerment of the powerless and the deprived sections of the community who occupy the centre of our development concerns and action.

The major shifts proposed were
- From dependency to self-reliance
- From beneficiary to benefactor
- From charity to empowerment
- From project to process
- From isolation to community
- From sense of nothingness to the sense of fullness
- From Centralization to decentralization

These positive changes are definitely possible only through hard work and dedication of all stakeholders, the community Based Organizations, the staff, the Bishop and priests, the collaborators.

I feel that we are 50 years young and our work has only just begun, and I am boundlessly optimistic about where our work will take us. Vijayapuram social Service Society is your organization; let us join hand to change the faces of poverty and make our nation a developed place where values of Love, Peace, Equity and Justice prevail

Mr. K. P. John

0 comments: