This book is our experience while doing social work in different parts of India. It contains many articles which can help many individual social workers.
About the Author: I am structural and mechanical engineer by profession and have a keen interest in improving the society I live in. I have been volunteering for different social causes, by helping others I get absolute satisfaction. I am advisor at University of Michigan Dearborn, in computer science department for last 7 years; I interview the students for Alumni Association scholarships. I am happily married and my wife is in true sense my life partner. We are financially free from our family responsibilities as our children (two sons) are married and well established in their respective professions. We are blessed with a beautiful granddaughter. What more could one ask for, so we decided to do the social work full time. For last four years we are not working to earn money. We have been traveling to India, countryside extensively to study the work of different non-government organizations working in rural areas. During that we had gone to about 300 villages in 12 different states. It had helped us understand the problems prevalent and learn the means that are lacking to solve these problems. I also write, share my experiences in form of small articles in Hindi and English, about the burning problems and their solutions that come out after discussions with the local community. So far I have written 72 articles, some of these are published in various magazines of USA and India. So far I was making rich people richer, now I decided to make a difference in less fortunate people's life for a change. I feel I have always seen the problems in different light, and never hesitated to try new ways to solve them. Unless the problem is solved there has to be more ways to try it and I am always eager to learn. At present I am voluntarily engaged as project director and co-coordinator in developing a village (Sursardham) of 114 earthquake resistant houses for the Year 2001 earthquake affected 700 villagers of Gujarat, India. I raised funds, co-coordinated donor as well as managing organizations in U.S.A. and India. Involving villagers in their own progress conceived idea to make Sursardham a self sufficient and self-sustainable village in five years. They were expected to provide labor as we provided the building material and training. They will maintain a village fund by monthly paying back to it part of their increased income potential. In one year the houses are close to complete and I am planning and coordinating to take this project to its second phase.