VST and its Indian NGO partners work with people’s organisations such as women’s groups, Dalit activists, HIV+ people’s associations and panchayat reformers. Our partners help form these organisations and provide support and training.
The part of India where our experience lies and where we are best known is Theni district, in the west of Tamil Nadu in southern India. Most of VST's trustees have lived and worked there. VST's programmes manager visits frequently. VST’s field officer has lived and worked in the area for 30 years. This gives VST a deep understanding of the economic, social and political life of the region.
Our relationship with our partners is strong. We know staff and directors personally. We offer long term support to partners with consistent priorities. We have worked with our oldest partner for 28 years. Our partners are recognised for the quality of their work. Several are accredited to government programmes; one is recognised nationally for its HIV/Aids work. All belong to NGO networks and keep abreast of latest ideas in development. The trustees and staff of our chief partner, DACT, are development professionals.
VST's relationship is friendly - not a giver-receiver kind of relationship. (Vanajaa Augustine, below, programmes director, Development Action Consortium Trust)
The quality of VST’s activities is recognised by the Department for International Development and by the Big Lottery Fund. They have funded VST for two decades, funding that is only given after a rigorous examination of our programmes. Such funding amounts to more than £1m in the last ten years.
A loyal body of individuals, groups and trusts underpins VST, with regular long-term donations both large and small. We ensure our supporters are kept well informed about our activities through newsletters, reports and this website. We keep our overheads to a minimum. Frank and detailed reports on all our programmes and finances are available to anyone.
Why I support VST
By Sir Nicholas Fenn, VST patron and former UK High Commissioner to India
Many small charities do excellent work in India. VST is special. My wife and I lived in India for five years (1991-96). We were struck by the size of the country and its diversity. From the Himalayan ramparts to the palm fringed shores of Kerala, from the mountains and jungles of the neglected north-east to the salt flat desert of the Rann of Kutchch, the Indianness of India is easy to recognise but difficult to defme. It has problems built to scale - poverty, population, illiteracy, disease; casteism, communalism, criminalisation and corruption. Above all we were impressed by the vitality of Indian democracy and the determination of its people to help themselves. The special skill ofVST is to recognise this, to listen and respond to the enthusiasm of those who will benefit.
We first encountered the redoubtable figure of Dora Scarlett, working amongst the really poor in Tamil Nadu on issues that directly affected them: leprosy, TB, basic health care for mothers and children. The work has moved on and expanded now. In addition to the control ofTB, leprosy, HIV/AIDS, and community health care, VSTworks with women's self-help groups, developing credit unions for micro-enterprise, resisting violence against women and encouraging them to band together into federations. And it works to make a reality of the Panchayati Raj, so that village councils become agents for the development of their villages, and to eradicate human rights abuses and discrimination against Dalits - not telling them how to do it but encouraging their own determination.
So why do I support Village Service Trust?
- because, in a nation which is no stranger to poverty, it works among the poorest;
- because its purpose is the empowerment of disadvantaged people;
- because it works alongside these people, engaging their enthusiasm;
- because expenditure on administration is minimal: the money we give goes to India.
Such a charity deserves support. Let's make it happen!