Unemployment has been a major concern for the country for the several decades. Despite the effort of the Government to solve the problem, it persists as many educated youths still do not find employment to sustain their livelihood. It is therefore important to encourage them to become entrepreneurs and take up self employment avocations. In this regard, MRF made effort to organize several vocational trainings to provide opportunity to the interested youths to learn the skills of different avocations and thereby take up independent entrepreneurial units for self employment. The details of the programmes organized during the year are as follows;

The main stay of the rural economy is agriculture. Unfortunately the growth in the sector has remained around 4% due to lack of modernization, irrigation, crop diversification etc. Dissemination of new knowledge and technology inspires the farmers to go for improved practices leading to higher productivity and high return on investment. During the current year MRF organized the following programmes to enable the farmers to gain new skills and adopt new practices to earn more.

During the year, twenty Farmer Clubs were formed to provide them new knowledge and skills and through them help the farmers to adopt new agricultural practices, crop diversification etc.

More than 500 Farmers of Bolgarh and Begunia blocks were provided with useful information on crop diversification & backyard Mushroom cultivation & Kitchen Garden with demonstration. Some of them were linked with KCCB Rajsunakhala SBI for Kisan Credit Card and JLG fund.

The concept of SHG has turned into a movement all over the country as an alternate method of promoting rural development. In Orissa, the Government has promoted this concept with special emphasis. There are bodies like Mission Shakti, Mahila Vikash Smabaya Nigam that exclusively work for the empowerment of women through SHGs. The NGO sector in Orissa is no exception. Most of the NGOs in the field of rural development have promoted SHGs to foster the process of development. MRF has taken initiative in this regard from the very beginning of its intervention in the area. During the reporting period the following activities were accomplished.

Agarbati making has been a very convenient business for the women. Besides the domestic chores the women find enough time to manufacture Agarbati at home using manual technology. There are many SHGs who are now producing Agarbati in the area with the support of MRF. To consolidate their unity, facilitate effective marketing, mobilization of raw material etc effort was made to form a federation of such SHGs in which 18 SHGs were enrolled. They are now being trained on their roles and responsibilities for the effective functioning of the federation. They were capacitated to function effectively.

Two trainings were organized in Business Promotion for the SHG members who are covered under the Agarbati Cluster Development Programme. The concept of commercial marketing, the importance of quality, labeling, packaging and branding was highlighted in the training. 76 women belonging to 19 GPS participated in the training.

Since Agarbati making through SHGs has been a booming business in the block, a need was felt to plant Bamboo for environmental and ecological sustainability and continuation of the Agarbati business. Considering the importance, MRF raised bamboo nursery for bamboo plantation in 50 hectares of land. The seedlings were supplied to Farmer Club members to promote bamboo plantation in their respective fields. The programme was supported technically by Odisha Bamboo Development Authority.

MRF since its inception has attached top most priority to education of people - men, women and children that is considered as the key to development. To foster the vision of education, MRF sensitized the parents in SC communities of Banki Block to send their children to school on a regular basis. In 15 villages of the said block 15 Village Education Committees (VECs) were formed. Through regular meetings the VEC members were sensitized on their roles and responsibilities to ensure regular attendance and quality education for their children.

Drug addiction is injurious to health. Globally millions of people are dying due to drug addiction that causes diseases like cancer. Drug addiction is increasing in Odisha as younger generation people are taking drugs including alcohol. MRF conducted massive campaign in three districts of Odisha such as Khordha, Cuttack and Nayagarh. In this regards street plays, awareness camps were organized both in towns and villages. About 10,000 people were sensitized on the ill effect of drug addiction. With the help of medical doctors the drug addicts were counseled on how to leave the habit of taking drugs.

Every Consumer in daily walk of life very often being mistaken and cheated in terms of quality, quantity, and durability of the goods or commodities purchased from different markets /Hats/Bazars etc. The legal forum established by the Government is called as Consumer Redressal forums both at district and State level. The concerned consumers of the district may move to the district consumer forum for redressal for their grievances in simple method of applications with little expenses to get the justice with minimum and lowest expenditures. In this context, the organization has been organizing awareness camps in the project areas to sensitize the people for the same. The State Commission of Consumer forum is the appellate court against the decision of the district consumer forums. Thus, highlighting the simple procedure of legal steps, the organization has been conducting regular Awareness Campaigns in the district of Cuttack, Khurda and Nayagarh.

Considering the importance of blood to save lives of thousands of people who die every day without getting the blood, MRF has made it mandatory to organize blood donation camps every year to help the poor and needy people to receive blood at the time of critical operations. In this regard two blood donation camps were organized at Dhalapathara and Patapur Sasan in collaboration with the local level CBOs. The local level health officials also extended their support and cooperation. About 100 youths in both the places voluntarily donated blood which was handed over to the district level blood bank.