Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development

Last updated
Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development
Abbreviation CORD
Formation 2003;15 years ago (2003)
Founder Dr. Kshama Metre
Website

www.chinmayamission.com/what-we-do/cord-chinmaya-organisation-for-rural-development/ ,

cordusa.org

The Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development, known as CORD, is an organization that helps with rural development throughout India and South Asia. It is the service wing of Chinmaya Mission. CORD aims to promote sustainable development in India through activities such as empowering women, helping with microfinancing, and forming Mahila Mandals or self-help groups. Rather than just giving aid, CORD focuses on helping people by teaching them necessary skills to be self-sufficient and independent. [1]

India Country in South Asia

India, also known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by area and with more than 1.3 billion people, it is the second most populous country as well as the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.

South Asia Southern region of Asia

South Asia or Southern Asia, is a term used to represent the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan SAARC countries and, for some authorities, adjoining countries to the west and east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Chinmaya Mission organization

Chinmaya Mission is a Hindu spiritual organization engaged in the dissemination of Vedanta, the science of the self as expounded in the Vedas, particularly the Upanishads, and other important Hindu scriptures including the Bhagavad Gita. The Chinmaya Mission was established in India in 1953 by devotees of the renowned Vedanta teacher Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati.

History

The beginnings of CORD came from the service efforts of Dr. Kshama Metre, who worked as a doctor in India. Her experience with meeting Swami Chinmayananda inspired her to leave her medical practice and join the Chinmaya Mission to assist in their work in the rural areas of the country. [2] Metre set up health centres for women and children in the village of Sidhbhari, Himachal Pradesh. In 2003, the service efforts of Chinmaya Mission were merged into the organization CORD, so CORD was born. [3]

Himachal Pradesh State in Northern India

Himachal Pradesh is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is bordered by states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west, Haryana on the southwest, Uttarakhand on the southeast, and Tibet on the east. At its southernmost point, it also touches the state of Uttar Pradesh. The state's name was coined by acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma, one of the state's eminent Sanskrit scholars.

Related Research Articles

Operation Blessing International Relief and Development Corporation (OBI) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) humanitarian organization founded in the United States. Beginning in 1978, OBI has worked in more than 90 countries and every state. Implementing programs that provide disaster relief, medical aid, clean water, hunger relief, community development and orphan care, Operation Blessing is governed by a national board of directors that includes founder M. G. "Pat" Robertson.

YWCA USA organization

YWCA USA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all. It is one of the "oldest and largest multicultural organizations promoting solutions to enhance the lives of women, girls and families."

Chinmayananda Saraswati Indian spiritual teacher

Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati was a Hindu spiritual leader and a teacher who inspired the formation of Chinmaya Mission, a worldwide nonprofit organisation, to spread the knowledge of Advaita Vedanta, the non-dual system of thought found in the Upanishads, which epitomise the philosophical teachings of the Vedas.

Operation Flood

Operation Flood, launched in 1970, was a project of India's National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), which was the world's biggest dairy development program. It transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world's largest milk producer, surpassing the USA in 1998, with about 17 percent of global output in 2010–11. In 30 years it doubled milk available per person, and made dairy farming India’s largest self-sustainable rural employment generator. It was launched to help farmers direct their own development, placing control of the resources they create in their own hands. All this was achieved not merely by mass production, but by production by the masses; the process has been called the white revolution.

Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) founded in 1972, immediately after the Bangladesh Liberation War, by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to succeed the Bangladesh Ecumenical Relief and Rehabilitation Services (BERRS). The organization asks local imams to talk about disaster preparedness in their Friday services as part of its Disaster Preparedness Programme.

Chinmaya Vidyalayas organization

Chinmaya Vidyalayas are a group of schools operated by the Central Chinmaya Mission Trust (CCMT), founded by Swami Chinmayananda and headed by Swami Tejomayananda. There are more than 80 Chinmaya Vidyalayas across 12 states in India and one in Trinidad. They emphasise the learning of scriptures.

The Frank Anthony Public School is a public school in New Delhi, India.

Self-help group (finance) self help groups

A self-help group (SHG) is a financial intermediary committee usually composed of 10–20 local women or men. Most self-help groups are located in India, though SHGs can be found in other countries, especially in South Asia and Southeast Asia. SHG is nothing but a group of people who are on daily wages, they form a group and from that group one person collects the money and gives the money to the person who is in need.

Kudumbashree is the women empowerment and poverty eradication program, framed and enforced by the State Poverty Eradication Mission (SPEM) of the Government of Kerala. The Mission aims to eradicate absolute poverty within a definite time frame of 10 years under the leadership of Local Self Governments formed and empowered by the 73rd and 74th Amendments of the Constitution of India. The Mission launched by Government of India and NABARD has adopted a different methodology in addressing poverty by organizing the poor in to community-based organizations. The Mission follows a process approach rather than a project approach. The program started out as State Poverty Eradication Mission in 1998 as part state-level mission for poverty eradication in the context of the people’s plan campaign started by government of kerala in 1996.

Abhay and Rani Bang Indian social activists, and researchers

Abhay Bang and Rani Bang are Indian social activists, and researchers working in the field of community health in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India. They have revolutionized healthcare for the poorest people in India and have overseen a programme that has substantially reduced infant mortality rates in one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have endorsed their approach to treating newborn babies and the programme is currently being rolled out across India and in parts of Africa. The Bangs founded the 'Society For Education, Action and Research in Community Health' (SEARCH) – a non-profit organisation, which is involved in rural health service and research. The couple is the winner of the Maharashtra Bhushan Award. Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow has conferred honorary doctorates on Abhay and Rani Bang. SNDT Women's University, Mumbai has also awarded Honoris Causa to Rani Bang. The Lancet has honoured the couple as 'the pioneers of health care in rural India'. Abhay and Rani Bang are the first recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They were also inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. The Bangs are honoured for their leadership in community-based health care that is now helping to save the lives of millions of the most vulnerable newborns and children. During their careers, the Bangs have helped foster a renaissance in community-based primary health care. In 2016, Johns Hopkins University conferred the Distinguished Alumni Award upon them.

Professor R.N. Kapoor was born in 1931 at Allahabad, India. He graduated with Honors in Mechanical Engineering. Throughout his professional career he did exemplary works in the field of technical education, appropriate technologies, integrated rural development, women empowerment and gerontology in India. Currently he has been involved in promoting Holistic health treatment therapies in United States of America.

India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF) is a Maryland, USA-based 501(c) (3) tax exempt, non-profit organization that supports impoverished people in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. IDRF’s main goal has always been- to put power and not charity in the hands of those in need. It has always striven to break the cycle of poverty by empowering the marginalized people with skills, services and infrastructure in sustainable development. IDRF's programs span all over India from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu, and from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, Nepal and more recently Sri Lanka. Since its inception in 1988, IDRF has disbursed $34 million in grants to various developmental programs pertaining to areas like: education, health, women’s empowerment, eco-friendly development, good governance, and disaster relief/rehabilitation.

Rajanikant Arole associate professor

Rajnikant Shankarrao Arole was born in Supa in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra State, India, on 10 July 1934, the second child of Shankar and Leelawati Salve Arole. His parents were both schoolteachers and his father became Inspector of Schools. The Aroles raised their three sons and four daughters in the faith of the Church of England, inculcating in them Christian ethical and spiritual values that have guided Rajnikant through a lifetime of public service.

Nari Shakti Puraskar highest civilian honour for women in India

Nari Shakti Puraskar, literally meaning "Woman Power Award", is India's highest civilian award for recognising the achievements and contributions of women. The awards are given away by the President of India every year on March 8, International Women's Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana or DAY is a Government of India scheme for the helping the poor by providing skill training. It replaces Aajeevika. The Government of India has provisioned 500 crore (US$70 million) for the scheme. The objective of the scheme is to train 0.5 million people in urban areas per annum from 2016. In rural areas the objective is to train 1 million people by 2017. Further, in urban areas, services like SHG promotion, training centres, vendors markets, and permanent shelters for homeless. The aim of the scheme is skill development of both rural and urban India as per requisite international standards.

Phoolbasan Bai Yadav is an Indian social worker and the founder of the non governmental organization, Maa Bamleshwari Janhit Kare Samiti, known for her efforts towards the development of economically and socially backward women of Chhattisgarh, India. She was honored by the Government of India, in 2012, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.

Anil Prakash Joshi Indian green activist

Anil Prakash Joshi is an Indian green activist, social worker, botanist and the founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO), a Dehradun-based non governmental organization involved in the development of environmentally sustainable technologies for the agricultural sector. He is a recipient of the Jamnalal Bajaj Award and is an Ashoka Fellow. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2006, for his contributions to Indian society.

Dr. Kshama Metre, popularly known as Doctor Didi, is an Indian rural development leader, and a pediatrician, who has led the Chinmaya Organization for Rural Development (CORD) since the founding of its predecessor organization in 1985, and she leads the organization as its National Director. The organization serves the rural areas of India with its unique approach for sustainable and comprehensive community driven integrated development program, under the aegis of the Chinmaya Mission. While holding the directorship of CORD India, she also serves as an adviser to CORD USA, the US wing of the Organization. A recipient of several awards including the Guardian International Development Achievement Award of 2012, she was selected as the Woman of the Year by The Week magazine, in 1993. The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honor of the Padma Shri, in 2008, for her contributions to society.

Iris Grace Rajakumari Paul(born 1945) is an Indian physician, theologian, missionary, and community development worker. A devout Christian born into a highly religious family, Paul had a passion for helping others from a young age. She received her B.Sc. in zoology with outstanding marks from Women's Christian College in Madras and completed her MBBS with a Gold Medal in pediatrics from Kilpauk Medical College.

References

  1. "CORD - Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development". Chinmaya Mission. Central Chinmaya Mission Trust.
  2. "Dr. Kshama Metre Nominated for 2012 Guardian International Achievement Award". Indo American News. 27 September 2012. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
  3. "CORD USA - Our Inspirations". CORD USA.