BANGALORE: They made tall promises of greater good, of serving the poor, of supporting orphans. In the end, however, it turned out that they were the only cause they served. A Bangalore-based NGO has defrauded ICICI Bank, and 134 people - many of them NRIs based in USA - of Rs 15.69 crore by using their credit and debit card details. The money was swindled in just a month, said police officials.
The Salve Regina Charitable Trust, which believes that "service to mankind is service to God", has been booked by the Cyber Crime division of the CID for fraudulent money transfers. The NGOs's modus operandi was, seemingly, foolproof.It maintained a website (http://srctrust.org) that spelt out in detail its social charter, and invited donations.
To evoke trust, the NGO declared that it had approval for foreign remittances under the Foreign Contributions (Regulation) Act, 1976.It also had a payment gateway provided by ICICI Bank.The catch was: The NGO used the payment gateway to make fraudulent transfers to its own account using credit card details of NRIs.The police are still to ascertain how the NGO got hold of the credit card details.
The scam was unearthed after 134 people, including NRIs, complained to the bank saying they had not authorised any transaction to the NGO's account. Maria Rueben, ICICI Bank's legal Counsel, Merchant Services division, filed the case against Salve Regina Charitable Trust represented by Regina Seelan and 25 other trusties. The legal department of ICICI Bank tried to contact the NGO to verify the transactions but the trustees didn't part with the information, said a police officer on condition of anonymity. All the trustees are residents of Bangalore, Ruben told the police.
The CID had issued a search warrant against the NGO and is seeking the assistance from the service provider, VCube Technologies, Chennai.Deputy Superintendent of Police, CID (Cyber Crime), T V Prabhakar is investigating the case.According to the complaint, the Salve Regina Charitable Trust approached ICICI Merchant Services in March 2010 for support to build a 'payment gateway' by providing a e-banking account.
The NGO claimed its registered office was at Kalyananagar, HSR Layout.The bank set up the payment gateway on May 28. Between July 1 and August 13, the trust made 995 transactions and swiped Rs 5,68,53,627 using credit and debit cards.
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What Kind of Images are Appropriate for NGO Campaigns?
After seeing the same image on ads throughout my browser from Smile Train, I decided to quickly write the following email on September 9 assuming that they would not respond:
To my surprise, I got the following response the next day from Donor Relations Assistant Duncan Quirk (which he has graciously permitted me to share):
Smile Train,You do great work, but please consider the removal of this picture:
It is one that takes advantage of the child who has no ability to choose if this image is used so prominently. It also plays into the wrong emotions from your potential donors and creates a system where such images are OK to show.
Instead, why not show more pictures like this one:
A play on the name would be wonderful as you show images of smiling children because they have had surgery. Why not create hope and build a movement that is empowering rather than one which is disheartening and depressing. You do the former so well, why not match that with the images on your site?
Thank you for your time and I wish you all the best in your efforts.
Tom Murphy
I followed up asking if Smile Train would be willing to share any of the market research. Mr. Quirk replied today informing me that they will not be able to share it as they place a large amount of time, effort and resources into collecting it and would prefer not to share their market testing publicly.
Dear Tom, On behalf of everyone here at Smile Train and all of the children that come through our programs, thank you for your recommendation.
As much as we would love to show the beautiful smiles of the children after their surgeries in all of our advertising, our latest market research tests have shown that, presently, we do receive a higher donation response to advertisements that only feature the before pictures. In order to help more children, we have to go with what our market tests tell us.
After donations, we do send before and after pictures to show to our donors the dramatic impact that they have had on a child's life, and hopefully as we continue to conduct market research, the tides will shift and we can start advertising with the before and after pictures again. I will pass your email onto our marketing team and if you have any other questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thanks again.
All the best,
Duncan
After posting this to my blog, people requested to know their procedures for obtaining permission for the photographs. I emailed Mr. Quirk again and he responded by saying:
So you and your readers know, Smile Train obtains written permission for use of patient photos to spread awareness about cleft and to raise additional funds for the hundreds of thousands of children who are still waiting to get the surgery they so desperately need.While the marketing research of Smile Train could very well be right, I am concerned about the implications in the long term. Should the current campaign bring in revenue at the cost of associating poverty with 'doom-laden' imagery? If it is possible, it would be great to know more about such studies. The VSO released their findings based on the media's portrayal of poverty recently called 'The Live Aid Legacy' (see a summary here). It shows how portrayals of poverty can have a significant affect on people. An example of one such finding is:
Stereotypes of deprivation and poverty, together with images of Western aid, can lead to an impression that people in the developing world are helpless victims. 74% of the British public believe that these countries "depend on the money and knowledge of the West to progress.So, I ask, is it worth it? Do NGOs have the opportunity to operate both ethically and successfully? Or do some sacrifices need to be made? Should short term awareness and financial support take precedence over long term harm to education of poverty? And, at the root, is the image that Smile Train uses of the crying boy OK?
To me, it is quite simple. The image should not be used under any circumstances. However, I do not have to raise money for an organization and must recognize what that affords me in terms of this debate. There are two strong pulls going on in this discussion and how to weigh the dignity of an individual verses raising of funds, to me, should not even need a scale.
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NGO prepares to help pregnant women in flood-hit areas
ISLAMABAD: Lives of more than one million pregnant women are at stake due to unhygienic conditions in the flood areas across the country, an official from Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) said at a press briefing on Thursday.
General Secretary PIMA Dr Mumtaz Hussain said floods were a huge challenge and needed immediate attention.
A five member delegation of Serendib Foundation for Relief and Development (SFRD) was also present at the occasion and highlighted its efforts in collaboration with PIMA for the flood victims.
The two organisations are planning to provide medicines, doctors (including female physicians), tents and winter clothes especially for the pregnant women of these areas. Hussain said that 6000 doctors including 784 paramedics, 619 medical camps and 35 ambulances had already been provided by these organisations. “Free of cost medicines worth Rs8 million have been given to these people,” he added.
Muhammad Rafiq, relief coordinator SFRD, said that the collaborative effort between the two, PIMA and SFRD, was to enhance relief efforts and make them more effective.
“Five-member teams sent out by SFRD have treated 2800 patients in different areas including Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh and Charsadda,” Rafiq said.
Furthermore, Hussain added that they were eager to send more teams to the areas and were planning to call more doctors and paramedics from abroad. “We plan to continue these efforts with concentration on expectant mothers for at least the next three months.”
“The real danger is of epidemics such as diarrhea, cholera and other viral diseases. Skin infections and water-borne diseases are already beginning to surface. These are not good signs for women and their children,” he said.
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NGO re-unites 137 children with their families
The Child Rights' and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN) says it has reunited 137 children stigmatised as child witches with their parents in Akwa Ibom.
Sam Ikpe-Itauma, the President of the NGO, made this known in Eket, at the inauguration of a dormitory built for the children abandoned by their parents after being labeled as witches.
"The 137 we have in our records are children who stayed with us here at the centre before going back home, after persuading the parents to take them back.
"Reconciliation is an integral part of our work, and every week, children leave the centre because we believe that the best place for the child is the home; the centre is only to provide temporary relief to the stigmatised children," Mr Ikpe-Itauma said.
He said that the centre also followed up on the re-integration process, adding that it still accommodated 214 children, comprising 110 girls and 104 boys.
"Our records show that in 2009, we rescued 84 children from the streets while we have so far rescued 52 in 2010, and out of the 52, four of them have returned home while two cases were referred to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development," he added.
Mr Ikpe-Itauma noted, however, that some people had perceived the intention of the centre as portraying the state in a bad light.
"We are focused on ending the child-witch syndrome which is caused by poverty and ignorance and we are committed to ending the phenomenon in partnership with the state government and other stakeholders," he said.
Suomi Sakai, the Country Representative of UNICEF, commended the centre for its efforts in child protection.
"CRARN is the embodiment of what a handful of ordinary people with passion and compassion, courage and commitment, can achieve in a community.
"They have not only saved and sheltered hundreds of children, they have brought their plight to our attention," Mr Sukai said.
The centre received global attention about two years ago when an international television station focused on child-witch syndrome in Akwa Ibom.
Children accused of witchcraft are often taken to certain churches or spiritualists to be `delivered', which often entails extracting ‘confessions', a process that can involve serious physical abuse and subsequent abandonment.
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US Army fascinated by Indian Sulabh toilets
New Delhi: The US Army has shown interest in replicating the low cost Sulabh public toilet system for war-ravaged Afghanistan.
Holding the charge of rebuilding of the war torn country, the US Army plans to construct 40 public toilet complexes linked with biogas digester application, a low cost toilet model designed and developed by the Sulabh International, founder of the NGO Bindeshwar Pathak said.
A senior official of the US Army, looking after the reconstruction aspect of the towns, has expressed desire to get detailed concept report about the biogas based Sulabh public toilet system.
In a communication to the Sulabh International, Edward T Mears stated that the Engineering and Facilities wing of the US Army wished to pursue the concept of construction of public toilets at around 40 places in Kandahar, the second most important city after Kabul.
The US Army wants to learn the design plans for existing Sulabh community toilets, which are being maintained by Kabul Municipality and share these with the Afghanistan Ministry of Energy and Water.
Sulabh International implemented five public toilets linked with biogas plants in Kabul in collaboration with the Kabul Municipality about three years ago. These plants were funded by India.
Pathak, a pioneer in the field of sanitation, said he has assured all possible assistance to the US Army for the construction of biogas linked public toilets in Afghanistan.
All the public toilets are socially acceptable and economically sustainable as they are based on pay and use system. All biogas plants are functioning well, he said adding that recycling and reuse of human excreta for biogas generation is an important way to get rid of health hazards.
He said Sulabh International would construct public toilets in developing countries to popularise the Indian low cost toilet system. The NGO has been playing a key role in construction of public toilets in several countries including Afghanistan, South Africa, China, Bhutan, Nepal, Laos, Ethiopia and 10 other African countries. It has already constructed public toilets in some of these countries, Pathak added.
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Unregistered Pakistani NGOs collecting donations
KARACHI- As Pakistanis rally around their suffering compatriots, dozens of unregistered NGOs are siphoning millions of rupees by setting up relief camps in the city, Central Asia Online has learned.
Their camps now stand on roadsides and near traffic lights in Karachi, while their representatives, including children, go soliciting door to door and through markets.
“We don’t need to register our NGO … because we are doing relief work,” said Malik Ajmal, sitting in the camp of Punjab Welfare (PW), a self-declared NGO in Karachi’s Korangi Industrial Area.
“We have collected donations and goods since August 5, and nobody from the police or administration has come to check our NGO credentials,” Ajmal told Central Asia Online.
PW has spent millions of rupees to help flood survivors in Punjab, he said. However, when asked, he had no written documentation of collections or expenditures. PW has no office or office staff, he said. Only three PW employees run the camp.
No mechanism for verifying NGO legitimacy exists, admitted Lt-Gen (R) Nadeem Ahmed, head of the National Disaster Management Authority.
“The government realises that some miscreants may collect donations in the guise of welfare or charity organisations, but currently any action against these people can destabilise relief and rescue operations,” Ahmed said.
“Relief operations are so fragile and speedily conducted that nobody can enforce any check on them, so we have to bank on the intentions of charities,” Ahmed said, adding that any action by the government against them could discourage genuine NGOs at a crucial time.
Another organisation, the Al-Gilani Welfare World Organisation (AGWWO), has set up camp on Malir Cantonment Road. Hussain Shah Gilani, the camp organiser, told Central Asia Online that AGWWO is not registered with the Social Welfare Department (SWD) but it was registered at “global level” and had been running the camp since August 8.
Gilani did not respond when asked about his NGO’s international registration. Locals said they had never heard of it.
Concerned agencies, especially the SWD and Home Department lack mechanisms to monitor fundraising by private organisations that never registered with the SWD.
Hijab Manzar, deputy director of SWD Sindh, told Central Asia Online that his agency was aware of spurious NGOs collecting donations for flood relief.
“We can take action only if we receive complaints from organisations registered with SWD,” Manzar said. “We need special orders from the provincial chief secretary in order to take action against these phony NGOs.”
About 7,000 NGOs are registered in Sindh with SWD and are working properly in collaboration with the government, she said. Most of the registered NGOs are based in Karachi, she added.
Some of the supposed NGOs that have established camps throughout the city have never been heard of before. Some use the names of political party leaders to discourage official attention.
The government should develop a mechanism to monitor NGOs involved in relief and rescue operations, genuine NGO officials and development analysts said.
“Karachi’s local administration should check the NGOs to learn who is collecting donations, why they collected them, and where they were spent,” said Muhammad Habib, a Karachi-based development expert. The government should take strict action against questionable NGOs, he added.
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Standing ovations, applause, jaadu ki jappis and smiles all over.The auditorium at Ahmedabad Management Association was high on emotional quotient on Thursday as prominent people from across town gathered to celebrate NGO Yuva Unstoppable's fifth anniversary.And what's a birthday without cake, dancing and some music?
Yuva founder Amitabh Shah along with a youngster from an underprivileged area cut the ritualistic cake followed by an electrifying performance by singer Aishwarya Majmudar. Businessmen, bankers, principals, lawyers, academicians, artists and the inexhaustive Yuva army, they were all there and made their presence felt singing the Yuva anthem as the evening wore on. Inkeeping with the tradition of spreading smiles, there was a mini mass hugging drive. "I'll give you a short demo of how kindness can be exchanged in 30 seconds.
Every body present here has to hug three people," said Yuva founder Amitabh Shah, taking a cue from Bollywood's compassionate goon Munnabhai. And, the hall erupted with mirth as unknown people embraced each other. Former president APJ Abdul Kalam, the chief guest for the event, had its his version of making a difference. "Do you want to be kind?" he asked and suggested that people pay a visit to any government hospital in the city and gift a flower to one of the many patients who get no visitors. Stressing on education for the India's growth, he further added, "Take a ride 50 km from Ahmedabad to a remote village and take up a humble mission of teaching five children."
Flanked by two remarkable youths and underprivileged visionaries — Raju Makwana and Ranjeet — Kalam showed how their simple dream of making people smile could inspire many. Recognising all important contributions to spreading kindness, Youth Icon awards were awarded to many eminent people, including Pranav Adani of Adani Wilmar, Rajul Sarkar from HDFC Bank. "I am so glad to be here and listen to Dr Kalam in person. He is an inspiration to all," said Bineka Sadhnani, a college student. Confederation of Indian Industry chairman Yatindra Sharma talked about how people need to become more connected to their hearts instead of becoming techno connected. Displaying his witty streak, scientist Kalam summed it all by saying, "Yuva has orbited five times around the sun."
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Kisan Swaraj Yatra: Promote self reliant Farming
This is about Kisan Swaraj Yatra, an outreach effort from Sabarmati to Rajghat (from October 2nd to December 11th) - a call to join forces to save Indian farming and farmers, to promote self-reliant farming....
This is a bus yatra that will start at Sabarmati Ashram on Gandhi Jayanti to traverse through 20 states of India before it reaches Rajghat on December 11th 2010, being organised under a broad informal banner called ALLIANCE FOR SUSTAINABLE & HOLISTIC AGRICULTURE (ASHA).
This Yatra is to remind all Indians of our hard-won independence and the insidious ways in which agri-business corporations and others are taking this independence and sovereignty away, especially with regard to our food and farming. This Yatra is a call for joining forces to save Indian farming and farmers mired in deep distress and to forge a sustainable path forward for Indian farming.
This is a historic juncture for the farmers in the country. There are obviously strong forces pushing farmers out of agriculture, with the vision that Indian agriculture will be more 'manageable' and 'productive' with around 15% of population engaged in farming, under the domination of corporatization, hybrid seeds and biotechnology and heavy machinery. There is also a vision driving policies that believes that pushing people out of farming and rural areas into other sectors and into cities is what constitutes development. The effects of this are already evident, with the distress migration from villages to cities, the forcible acquisition of agricultural land for industry and SEZs, and the increasing difficulty of the farmers to make ends meet where more than two lakh anna daatas were forced to commit suicide. This Yatra will seek to create a debate on this ‘developmental inevitability’ that is being pursued.
This is the time to speak more loudly than ever, about the return of the small farmer and sustainable and holistic agriculture in our national conscience. There is a growing body of research, knowledge and opinion against the diabolic fallacy of pursuing the market agenda in food and agriculture, and in favour of biodiversity-based self-reliant ecological agriculture. The IAASTD report issued in 2008, prepared over four years and based on the work and deliberation of over 800 scientists and intellectuals across the world, has pronounced that sustainable, ecological, smallholder agriculture is the only way forward, if humanity was to have any semblance of purposeful survival in future.
This is also that point of time when large scale ecological farming has re-established itself at a convincing scale in many parts of the country and yet, the State tends to discount evidence related to such a livelihoods-based approach to farming and pursues an anti-farmer agenda.
It was 80 years ago that Gandhiji led the Namak Satyagrah (or the Dandi Yatra) to claim people’s sovereignty over their natural resources. It was hundred years ago that he extended a development model for India centred around the concept of “Hind Swaraj”. This year, on 2 October 2010, dozens of farmers’ movements and other organizations across the country will launch the “Kisan Swaraj Yatra” that will take off from the Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat and traverse through 20 states to reach Rajghat (New Delhi) on 11 December. The Yatra will be flagged off by renowned natural farmer Shri Bhaskar bhai Save.
The Yatra will highlight issues such as seeds sovereignty, land grab, climate change, food sovereignty and security, GE seeds, chemical pesticides, farm produce pricing, etc. that directly and indirectly affect small farmers in addition to bringing up a debate around the proposed Green Revolution in Eastern India, the tie-ups that several governments have with MNCs like Monsanto, the continuing saga of farmers’ suicides and so on. The Yatra will also raise the concerns over free trade and bilateral agreements, the proposed food security and seeds laws, BRAI Bill, the handing over of public resources for private gains etc. The Kisan Swaraj Yatra will also draw in urban consumers into its fold and will raise issues of food safety, consumer choices etc.
The Yatra will celebrate the conservation of diversity by farmers, farmers’ knowledge and will highlight the successes of ecological farming. The participants will develop concurrent events, programmes, campaigns in accordance with the needs and priorities in their respective states.
In the attached documents here, you would find the route of the Yatra including the key contact persons in various locations.
COME, JOIN THE YATRA IN LARGE NUMBERS.....
And, PLEASE SPREAD THIS INFORMATION FAR & WIDE....
Kavitha
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KAVITHA KURUGANTI
Kheti Virasat Mission
Jaitu, Faridkot dist., Punjab
www.indiagminfo.org &
www.iamnolabrat.com
source from:news.google.co.in
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