The second winner of FundsforNGOs first ever “Great Grant Proposals Contest” is India based Centre for Action, Research and People’s Development (CARPED). They win a prize of $500 to support their work with women and children.
CARPED won the prize for an excellent project proposal that provided a solution to issues in bio-medical waste management practices in health clinics in rural India. We spoke to xxxx Subhash Mamidi about CARPED’s work including his top tips for writing successful grant proposals.
FundsforNGOs: Congratulations on winning the contest. You beat strong competition from over two hundred entries from NGOs around the world. Could you introduce CARPED and its work to the community?
CARPED was established in 1989 with a a main focus women and children in remote and tribal hamlets. We run projects such as shelter homes for out of school children and health camps for women. Other projects include tracing missing children and promoting institutional care in government healthcare centers.
We are also known for designing and executing pilot projects like research that identified and exposed a high magnitude of hysterectomies in rural areas which drew national media attention.
FFNGOs: What impact has CARPED has over the past two decades?
SM: Our campaign against unnecessary hysterectomies was a huge accomplishment for CARPED as we identified and exposed a critical health issue for women across the country. We really caught the attention of both the media and policy makers which resulted in the operation being delisted from Indian government health insurance and a measurable decline in the number of unnecessary surgeries performed.
FFNGOS: That’s a really fantastic result. What would you say are the biggest problems facing the communities that CARPED supports?
SM: The biggest problem for any community is powerlessness. This is the curse of illiteracy, lack of education and poverty. Women and children who live in rural and remote areas are particularly affected as they have limited access to education, health services and government sponsored programmes.
FFNGOs: What does the future hold for CARPED?
CARPED is focusing on critical issues such as hysterectomies, child marriages, tracing missing children and will continue to do the same. We’ve already helped 223 missing kids reach their homes and would like to instensify our campaign on these projects. We would also like to start a resource centre to train and disseminate information for all community stakeholders, including NGOs, that will support them to scale up and replicate.
FFNGOs: You produced a great application that won our Great Proposals contest. What advice would you give to people writing project funding proposals?
We have enjoyed considerable success with our grant proposals at CARPED. In addition to winning FundsforNGOs Great Proposals Contest we are finalists of World Bank’s SARDM which called for innovative ideas in South Asia on to reduce HIV/AIDS related stigma.
The best advice I can give to other NGOs writing proposals is that you should always involve the community as much as possible. They understand the issues they face better than anyone and often already have strong ideas and solutions to their problems. Our job is simply to to facilitate and guide them, this is whatt CARPED believes in and it has proved to be successful for us so far.
It should also be said that proposals should be realistic and based on your organization’s strengths.
FFNGOs: That’s brilliant Subhash, thank you. What will the $500 prize money from the Great Proposals contest be used for?
We will use the prize money to help find more missing children in India. This is implemented with a small team of volunteers and with limited resources as well as software company Mcraan systems, who have helped us in this project.
FFNGOs: All the best with the project, keep us informed of how it goes. How does CARPED use FundsforNGOs?
FundsforNGOs is the only organisation which provides information on not just funding opportunities but also resources on how to strengthen the capacities of
development organisations.FundsforNGOs really understand NGOs and what they need to develop. I’m a regular visitor and we really appreciate your good work.
FFNGOs: Thank you for taking the time to speak to us and congratulations again for winning our Great Proposals contest. We wish everyone at CARPED all the best.
Learn more about CARPED’s work in India with women and children in rural and remote areas here.
Last week we spoke to Susan Burgess-Lent, the Executive Director of our other winner, Women’s Centers International. You can read the interview here.
Did your organization win one of our runners up price of access to an upcoming training Webinar? You can find the list of twenty winners of our Great Grants contest here.
