Director Fr. Victor Moses, SJ | Affiliations Jesuit, Catholic | |
Motto To help the poor
to help themselves Established 1976; 41 years ago (1976) Location Navrangpura, Ahmedabad
Gujarat, India Main organ Perspective – Drashtikon | ||
St. Xavier's Social Service Society (SXSSS), a Jesuit social work originating at St. Xavier's High School Loyola Hall, Ahmedabad, has since 1976 worked to improve the lot of the people in the slums of Ahmedabad city in the areas of education, health, environment, and community organization. Its efforts have also spread to the countryside and more widely. It has taken a leading role among NGOs and has been signalized with awards for its efforts.
Contents
Mission statement
To facilitate the building of people's organizations, enabling them to address their own problems and to make their own interventions for improving their economic, educational, health, and environmental situation; to work toward communal and interreligious harmony; to empower people's organizations at all levels through networking, documentation, and advocacy.
History
St. Xavier's Social Service Society (SXSSS) grew out of a 1960s outreach program of students and faculty at St. Xavier's High School Loyola Hall, Ahmedabad. Over the years three areas have come to the fore: education, organizing people's groups, and people's action to improve the quality of their lives. Thus its motto: "To help people to help themselves."
In 1973, in the wake of the floods in the Sabarmati River which destroyed several hutments and left thousands homeless, Jesuit Fr. Erviti brought together a team of young architects who built Sankalitnagar on the outskirts of the city of Ahmedabad, a model of low-cost housing for people of diverse faiths.
In 1976, Fr. Erviti, S.J., founded St. Xavier's Social Service Society (SXSSS) beginning with rehabilitation work in Sankalitnagar. In 1983 it moved on to Mahajan-no-Vando and the Nagori Kabrasthan slum settlements. It also obtained its own premises apart from St. Xavier School. In 1986 Erviti died but other Jesuits carried on the leadership. The SXSSS Center for Orientation, Research, and Documentation (CORD) was founded in 1989. It documents and publicizes events that impact people's lives and serves as a nodal point among NGOs and government offices, while coordinating action. It is located near the educational institutions of Ahmedabad and makes available its library, training hall, conference room, seminar hall, and discussion halls to further its purpose.
The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is a programme of the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development. In 1990 SXSSS became the first accredited institute in this programme in Gujarat, with English and Hindi as a medium of instruction. SXSSS also responds to emergency situations – cyclones, floods, droughts, earthquakes, and communal riots that have ravaged life in Gujarat. "In India in 1991, social and religious tensions in the shantytowns of Ahmedabad were erupting into violence with increased frequency. Saint Xavier's Social Service Society launched a program of peace initiatives such as street plays, festivals, and community meetings that served to counter propaganda and diffuse confrontations." By 1994 the Society was active in seven major slum pockets, and had increasing manpower and resources. Funds for its food for work program come from several foreign countries. Since SXSSS is not run by Hindi or Muslims, it is seen as speaking to racial issues from a neutral perspective. Also, it has Sikhs, Jains, Hindi, and Muslims on its staff. In 1995, the organization was named the first recipient of the Anubhai Chimanlal Nagarikta Puraskar for its sustained contribution to the city of Ahmedabad.
In memory of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Mahatma Gandhi, SXSSS launched SHANTI (Peace) in Ahmedabad where Gandhi founded his famous Sabarmati Ashram, and where clashes between the Hindus and Muslims have persisted. SHANTI strives to impact people's attitudes at the grassroots level and publishes reports on its efforts and experiences. In December 2004, Jamat-e-Islam-e-Hind presented its Human Rights Award to St. Xavier's Social Service Society for unflinching service towards the cause of communal unity and human rights in the year 2002.
St. Xavier's Social Service Society continues its close ties with the Jesuit schools in Ahmedabad. In 2007 the Loyola Evening School (LES) was inaugurated as a joint venture of SXSSS and St. Xavier's High School Loyola Hall. It offers children from the slums an opportunity for study and recreation. By the 2010s SXSSS was working in 30 slum pockets of 10 municipal wards in the city of Ahmedabad, while continuing its organizational and advocacy work on a wider scale.
Further programs initiated by SXSSS or in which it is active include: INNovative Education (INNED), Child Labour Education Centre, Promoting Higher Education (PHE), Social Awareness and Action Program (SAAP), Child to Child Educational Programme, Child Leadership Programme. Gramin Education Programme, Vocational Training Centre, Child Labour Educational Centre, Community Health Improvement Program, Critical Illness Eradication Program, Organizing for Empowerment as with Ahmedabad Shehri Jansangathan, Organizing Women as with Naari Swaman, Youth Empowering Society, and Organizing Occupational Groups, SXSSS has been especially active in health issues and in maternal health.
Every year St. Xavier's Social Service Society celebrates "Lokotsav" in the memory of its founder Fr. Erviti, with a host of festive and informative programs that attract thousands of people. In 2014 Lokotsav built on the theme of International Women's Day.
To make people aware of their right to food and as a forum for people to speak out regarding corruption in government which impedes people from getting benefits of various government schemes, SXSSS arranged a public hearing in co-ordination with other NGOs and a new forum was formed: Anna Surakhsha Rights Platform.
The Society's main efforts in environmentalism have been by stimulating the solar cooker movement and by educating for the preservation of forests. SXSSS has been recognized for its environmental efforts by being one of only two Christian NGOs in India invited to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Perspective – Drashtikon is a quarterly magazine produced by SXSSS in Gujarati since 2009. It relates experiences of the urban poor along with expert analysis.
Sponsored workshops
St. Xavier's Social Service Society brings people together in various ways, including workshops, in the course of its work. A few examples follow.
In 2000 the Society cosponsored a seminar on multi-cultural democracy in India, attended by over a hundred activists and intellectuals.
"Reconciliation in Post-Godhra Gujarat – A journey Towards Peace" is the contribution of SXSSS toward the book People Building Peace. The article focuses on the formation and development of the Jalampuri ni Chali Peace Committee in which SXSSS was instrumental during the communal riots in Gujarat in 2002.
In 2007 a poster competition for children was held on International Day of Peace and an exhibition followed which drew a large response, as detailed in the booklet "Perspective of Children on Peace."
In 2008 a workshop on peace was held, including area representatives. Then in 2009 a high level workshop on peace was held during which the booklet "Shanti ane Astitva" (Peace and Existence) was released. It narrates peace building efforts of various groups including SXSSS.
CORD
At its CORD facility, SXSSS maintains a library of newspapers in English and Gujarati, 750 magazines, journals and newsletters, and a holding of more than 8000 books, 388 video cassettes, and 330 audio cassettes, along with slides, posters, and charts. It also serves as a publishing house for leaflets, booklets, magazines, books, and reports.
Publications by CORD:
Networking
SXSSS is accredited to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the UN Inter-Governmental Negotiating Committee for a Convention to Combat Desertification (INCD), and the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and has an open invitation to UN conferences in which NGOs have a place. It is also a Council Member of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and a member of the Global Health and Environment Library Network (GELNET) of the World Health Organization (WHO). SXSSS also works closely on several issues with the national and state governments and with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
This besides many linkages through the Jesuit connection including Jesuits in Social Action (JESA), the Social Action Sector of the Society of Jesus in South Asia. The Gujarat Jesuit Province runs, besides SXSSS, the following social action centres: Ashadeep Human Development Centre, Vallabh Vidyanagar; Navsarjan Trust, Surat; Prashant, Ahmedabad; Rajpipla Social Service Society, Rajpipla; SANGATH, Modasa; SHAKTI - Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (LAHRC), Songadh; St. Xavier's Non Formal Education Society (Behavioural Science Centre [BSC]), Ahmedabad; Nayay Darshan (Vadodara). The multifaceted works of these centres are summarized on the SXSSS website.
Further awards
SXSSS was honored by the Gujarat Minister of Health who, on behalf of the Government of Gujarat Health and Family Welfare Department, Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute, presented a certificate of honor for its contribution to health care and especially for its de-addiction campaign and awareness programs, on 31 May 2007, World Anti Tobacco day.
In 2008 the Communal Harmony Award was given to an SXSSS children's home monitor (balmitras) Mrs. Niruben Marwadi by the NRI Coalition, for saving Muslim families during the Gujarat Carnage in 2002.
Fr. Cedric Prakash, S.J., was director of SXSSS in 1998 when SHANTI was founded and has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards.