voices... - Deepalaya

14
Deepalaya PLAN programme at Raghubir Nagar, Khyala, Meera
Bagh and Kirtinagar was fast expanding. Drawing resources from
sponsorship and administered jointly by Deepalaya and PLAN,
the programme came to become a typical Urban Community Development
Project covering all aspects of urban life. It covered
around 7507 families under a large team of committed professionals
in Social Work/other disciplines of management. The services
offerred covered areas like education, health, income enhancement
and community development. The outreach was substantial
and benefits noteworthy. Apart from health and adult literacy,
the programme covered many income enhancement (self employment)
schemes as well as multiple facets of community development
e.g. Women’s Forum,Youth Forum,Housing
Associations,Potable Water and Credit Co-operatives
The partnership forged with these three International agencies gave
tremendous fillip to Deepalya which transcended much beyond
mere monetary assistance. PLAN International brought in a professional
management approach and expertise which was, at that
point of time not present in the social developmental sector in the
country. Through the manuals for programme management, communications,
fund management, PLAN introduced a whole new
way of working in Deepalaya. Through its insistence upon adherence
to systems, procedures, controls and compliances, Deepalaya
was internally challenged to rise to the occasion and march towards
professional growth. In fact it needs to be mentioned here
with a legitimate sense of pride, that we were awarded an A+ rating
for Quality, by the external auditors for this period!!
ICCO proved to be in the true sense our partner in development
by facilitating Deepalaya to nurture its institutional base. It also
provided core support since they believed that the institutional
stability and capability was fundamentally more important than
its day-to-day operational functioning.
Similarly Unie School brought immense value to Deepalaya since
it came with infrastructure support which gave us not only concrete
assets but also enhanced visibility.
In this way, all these three partners gave to Deepalaya, both directly
as well as indirectly very substantial support in terms of
strength, standing and credibility. Deepalaya was, as a result of
this association, able to affiliate with a large number of service
providers and also to contribute
towards Public Policy and Advocacy
specially in the cause of children.
Other landmark achievements of
this period were:
• Deepalaya school obtaining the
Essentiality certificate for a
middle school in Kalkaji area
from the Directorate of Education,
Delhi Administration
and Sponsorship recommendation
for land purchase from
DDA.
• Scheme of Management of the school got approved by the
Education Directorate.
• Application for recognition was submitted to the Education
Directorate.
Ensuring healthy communities
Clearly Deepalaya had by now become a name to reckon with!