Tree planting

In both school compounds, in Chaparda and in Adhoi, an active programme has been started of planting trees. Trees which give good shade have been planted near the boarding house. Also Neem trees have been planted near by – these trees have medicinal properties. Fruit trees like Kesar Mangoes were planted in 1998 and are now bearing fruit. Banana plantation, papaya trees and many other fruit trees are planned. Hundreds of trees of different varieties have been planted over the past year and the students of both schools are encouraged to nurture them. The whole of Chaparda is already looking green, especially after the rainy season.

Tube Wells

Several years have elapsed since the Tsunami occurred in 2005. BEHT has helped to build 8 tube water wells in villages south of Chennai in Southern India, which were affected by the tidal wave. Five of these wells were kindly donated by Teddy Smith UK and the other three by individual donors from the UK.

Greening of Jamnagar

A report by Kumar Malde
Prior to the year 2002, for almost a decade, the Jamnagar district had experienced drought conditions. What little rain that fell was in many villages lost due to run-off. In May 2002 the project GREENING OF JAMNAGAR DISTRICT was conceived to build artificial lakes (TALAAVS) in the 52 Oshwal villages to partially solve the water shortage problem. The artificial lakes would help retain the rain water and allow it to be seeped into the ground and thus help replenish the village wells.

With the knowledge that ANARDE FOUNDATION was capable of building dams, digging ponds (TALAAVS) and had the personnel to supervise the work, it was mandated to begin work in the Oshwal villages. As the initial donations were made by the Oshwals, work began in June 2002 starting with a few villages. It was decided that a donation of £225 would be made for each village. For the money donated from overseas Oshwals, ANARDE FOUNDATION organised the villagers to contribute an equivalent amount of their own. The money was used solely for hiring the mechanical equipment for digging the ponds. The work was supervised by the staff of ANARDE FOUNDATION at no cost. The work in most of the 52 villages was completed by January 2003.

In the UK, BEHT accepted the donations from the UK Oshwals and remitted them to the ANARDE FOUNDATION as charitable donations under its umbrella, thus enabling the donors some tax relief. A total of £5,800 was remitted from the United Kingdom and the rest came from Oshwals in Canada and the USA.

The donors were very generous and donated with a very true and noble goal of helping the land of their origin. The nobility of their intentions was rewarded by nature. Jamnagar district received good amount of rainfall in the summer of 2003. A visit to 18 of the 52 villages in July 2003 indicated that the TALAAV project had indeed helped in a substantial manner. During the visit to the 18 villages, interviews were held with the villagers through their leaders (SARPANCH) to find out if the project had been useful and whether it had really helped. Without exception they were very grateful of this effort and were pleased with the contribution of Oshwals.