The event of the month was the inauguration by the Governor, Mr. B. L. Joshi of a partnership between the State Bank of India and the PYDS, to run a sales counter of Stree Shakti, every Sunday in the lobby of the Administrative Office of the SBI. Centrally located, it provides the clients at Dehradun a ready access to our different products. It also provides better visibility to our shop that will open in our premises at Purkal in February 2009. We have been operating the shop every Sunday since the 5th and intend keeping it open every week through the year.

The new building of Stree Shakti, being built at a cost of Rs. 40 Lacs will hopefully be completed in February 2009. We believe that this will help us employ many more women from the community and help them earn well.

All the children of Yuva Shakti have been introduced to the reading habit, thanks to the very fine library that we now possess. A ‘Reading Passport’ has been introduced to help record the books that each of them reads. Prizes have been instituted for a) Most books read b) The best reviews and c) The one who most influenced others into a reading habit.

You will recall that in early 2008 we had initiated a scheme called the ‘Bus Them to Purkal Scheme’ and 23 children with little or no education were taken in for a crash course. I am glad to say that these children have blossomed and now ready to enter Class 5 in March 2009. Guided by this success story, we have now decided to initiate a second batch of twenty more girls in the age group of 8/9. These children are being chosen from among several who have applied for admission into the Scheme. Specially designed activities are being used to test their potential for learning. Special attention is being paid to ensure that the limited number of seats reaches the most deserving among the poor.