Went to the Bala Vikasa head office in Kazipet today… Luckily got to meet the head of the organization for operations in the state. I was directed to the incharge of their media and presentations division where I was given a ppt about the organization and then was answered some questions which I prepared before hand.

Bala Vikasa was founded by Mr.Andre Gingras and his wife Singareddy Bala Theresa in the year 1990. It is a sister organization of SOPAR an organization in Canada that was founded in 1977. Singareddy Bala Theresa is from a small village near Warangal and she married Mr. Andre Gingras when she was doing her masters in the US. She was particularly sad regards the poor state of living of the people in her village and always questioned herself as to why those who live around her in Canada have so much and those very neighbours in her village have such a state. It was then, she decided to do something for these people and with the support of her family members started a small organization Bala Vikasa in 1990 in Reddy Palem (her native village) near Warangal. In the past two decades, this very organization spread into being one of the largest of its kind in India by directly benefitting a million people every day.

Bala Vikasa is an active partcipant in issues regards women development, education, drinking water, Public Development Training Center (PDTC), water sheds, farmer co-operatives, rehabilitation and other humanitarian acts. This organization which receives funds from donors primarily from Canada, Europe and Asia have built over 500 overhead tanks, 5000 borewells, 100 fluoride removal plants in 22 districts of Andhra Pradesh benefitting hundreds of villages and over a million people through this very initiative.

Bala Vikasa, till date has about a 175 thousand members (operting through 12000 groups) in 1553 villages across the state. It has 48 partner NGO’s and has 350 people dedicated as staff entirely for the organization.

I was surprised by the fact that this organization which operates on such a mammoth scake has no division that takes care of awards and certification and it believes people have joined Bala Vikasa only because of the fact that they do serious work and they can ask for no better recognition. Kudos to this great organization that has vowed to dedicate itself for a noble cause.