Investing In Changemakers: IDS experience with Madhukar Despande
Are you curious to know about IDS beneficiaries?
Well on the 28th of March 2020, is an opportunity for you to learn not...
Investing In Changemakers: IDS experience.
Are you curious to know about IDS beneficiaries?
Well on the 22nd of Feburary 2020, is an opportunity for you to learn not...
Spring Festival 2020
For the first time IDS along with four other Chicago organizations is hosting and bringing to you two renowned vocal singers from...
GIVING TUESDAY
Khushboo and Rajni from Uttar Pradesh have come a long a way to address barriers to education and fighting against archaic social...
Kasturba|Gandhi, Gandhi|Churchill
Across the globe, while folks were celebrating 150th Birth Anniversary of “the Mahatma” during the month of October, IDS took a bold...
Gandhi 150: The Legacy of Peace
For the past 45+ years IDS has embraced Gandhi’s “Gram-Swaraj” and Self-Reliance movement. It was truly humbling and inspirational to see how...
Mahatma Gandhi & Kasturba Gandhi’s 150th Birthday Anniversary
About Nishi Chawla:
Nishi Chawla is an academician and a writer. She has six collections of poetry, seven plays, one mime, and two...
AMGU head interviews women organic farmers
You may be familiar with Adarsh Mahila Griha Udyog (AMGU) because of the NGO's anti-dowry project, which was supported by IDS for...
Someone you should know: an IDS interview
Today, we’d like to present an interview with someone who works for Avani, one of the NGOs that has received IDS grants...
From orphanage to entrepreneurship
This inspiring story was distributed by IANS (Indo-Asian News Service) in October 2017 and published in various forms online. We wanted to...
There’s more than one Giving Tuesday . . .
Did you miss it? Giving Tuesday in India was October 2, the Tuesday during Daan Utsav (Joy of Giving Week), October 2-8,...
Medha: Helping India face the coming global employability crisis
Preparing-for-the-Future_cropped-2018In a recent email to us, Chris Turillo, one of Medha's founders, acknowledged early support from IDS that helped Medha get off...
IDS accepting donations for Kerala flood relief
As of August 24, IDS is accepting donations toward long-term disaster relief and rehabilitation projects to aid those who have been affected...
AMGU begins organic farming project
IDS board member Jerry Gosenpud met with Chandrakala Bhargaw (left) and her two sons on July 30, 2018 when the family visited...
Thanks to all for a successful concert!
IDS would like to thank all the attendees, sponsors, supporters, and volunteers who helped make last Saturday’s concert, Bhairav Se Bhairavi Tak, a success.
Here are...
Save a Mother gives credit to IDS
Ten years ago, seed funding from India Development Service (IDS) helped launch Save a Mother (SAM), an NGO that was the brainchild...
Concert reminder: tickets still available for Journey of Ragas!
After sold-out shows in Toronto, Boston, and New Jersey,
Pandit Rajan and Sajan Misra will enthrall Chicago audiences with their divine voices
...
Journey of Ragas: don’t miss the upcoming concert!
After sold-out shows in Toronto, Boston, and New Jersey,
Pandit Rajan and Sajan Misra will enthrall Chicago audiences with their divine voices
...
New IDS project support for 2018 announced
On Sunday, March 25, 2018 friends and supporters of IDS gathered with IDS board members to hear about new projects over a...
IPCA ragpicker program continues to succeed
A few years ago, IDS funding helped establish the Ragpicker Primary Education and Health Program. Although IDS is not currently giving financial...
Waste pickers rally on International Women’s Day in Kolhapur
On March 8, 2018--International Women's Day--175 women from Avani's IDS-supported waste picker project participated in a huge rally in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Powerful...
Invitation to the IDS Appreciation Lunch, March 25, 2018
You are cordially invited to join IDS for a free
appreciation lunch at noon on March 25, 2018.
-----
Help us celebrate the...
Grateful donor gives back to Avani
IDS recently received this photo and the story behind it from Anuradha Bhosale, director of Avani, an NGO in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, which...
Meet IDS representatives at the International Service Summit on February 10
On Saturday, February 10, the International Service Summit will be held at the NIU Conference Center, 1120 E. Diehl Rd., Naperville, IL....
Journey of Ragas: International tour comes to Oak Park
Join IDS in welcoming Padmabhushan Pandit Rajan and Pandit Sajan Misra
as the world-renowned vocalists perform ragas in their international tour,
Bhairav Se Bhairavi...
Avani success story: women waste pickers rally in Nagpur
Last month, 450 waste pickers from Kolhapur traveled to Nagpur (800 km one way) to put their demands before the state government...
Attendee report on Conference in India (December 19, 2017)
Dr. Radha Goyal, Deputy Director, Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA), speaks at the conference.
We would like to thank Sameer Prasad, IDS...
“Service is health . . .”: her father’s suggestion became Sai Padma’s mantra
Sai Padma, the founder of Global AID (Ability in Disability), a nonprofit that IDS has supported in the past, was featured in...
Progress Report on JSS Vocational Training Project
JSS (Jan Swasthya Sahyog) has been working for more than 15 years in Chhattisgarh in the area of health care. Their community...
Progress Report on Project Jal (SIF)
SIF (Save Indian Farmers) is an NGO that IDS is supporting for the first time in 2017. The $6,000 IDS grant to...
Barefoot College—Enlightening Rural Communities
Here's another guest post from Diane Fiksel. Back in March 2017, we published Diane's post about her visit to PUKAR, an IDS-supported...
Volunteering with the Himalayan Naari
This is a guest blog post written by Amanda Novotney, a HEF (Himalayan Education Foundation) volunteer who spent a year after college...
IDS announces upcoming Conference in India (December 2017)
Creating Resilient Families and Communities is the title of the next conference in the Conference Series in India. The one-day conference will...
Conference videos now available
Speaker videos from the 2017 Conference in India (International Conference on Environmental Exposure and Preventive Healthcare) are now available.
Click on the speaker...
IDS project update: Nutrition and Education Project, Madhya Pradesh
As of the end of 2016, the Nutrition and Education Project for children up to 5 years old was being implemented in 11 villages...
IDS project update: GRAVIS medical camps
Since 1994, GRAVIS, an NGO based in Rajasthan, has been actively working in rural India to improve the health and working conditions...
PUKAR: How Participatory Research Inspires Social Change
This is a guest post from Diane Fiksel, Principal and Co-Founder, Eco-Nomics LLC and former Board Member of The Women's Fund of...
Summary of 2017 Conference in India now available
The summary of the 2017 Conference in India, "Environmental Exposure and Preventive Health Care," is now available. The conference, the third in...
IDS board votes on 2017 project funding
Dr. Nila Vora presents one of the approved 2017 projects at the luncheon.
On February 11, 2017 the IDS board met to...
Final program for 2017 Conference in India posted
The final program for "Environmental Exposure and Preventive Health Care," the 3rd International Conference in India, is now available here. The conference...
Primary education and health care: 2016 report
IDS has received an end-of-year report from the Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA) about the 2016 achievements of its health care and...
Year-end update from Himalayan Naari
Back in July, readers of this blog were introduced to Himalayan Naari, a group of about 100 fiber artisans working in Munsiyari...
Conference Series in India: February 2017
International Conference on
Environmental Exposure and Preventive Health Care
India Institute of Technology, Delhi
February 3, 2017
Published reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate...
Back to school with Medha
IDS recently received the September 2016 edition of Medha's online newsletter; click here to view it.
More about Medha
Founded in 2011, Medha is...
Have you liked IDS on Facebook yet?
About six months ago, we began to update the IDS Facebook page. Blog posts published on the IDS website now go simultaneously...
News from HEF and the artisans of Himalayan Naari
IDS recently received a quarterly report from the Himalayan Education Foundation (HEF) about the progress of the Himalayan Naari project. A HEF...
Monthly health camps added to IPCA education centers
IDS’s intervention with Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA) is growing! We are now creating a preventive health care initiative within the education...
IDS co-founder S. R. Hiremath to visit Chicago
S. R. Hiremath
Though S. R. Hiremath is perhaps best known worldwide as a crusader against the illegal mining mafia in Karnataka...
IDS partners with GRAVIS to help miners in Rajasthan
Occupational lung diseases are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in India. These diseases are caused by inhalation of dust particles...
Scenes from Student Life in Indirapuram
Municipal corporations are responsible for handling the daily waste generated in India's cities. However, according to the latest newsletter from the Indian...
IPCA Initiative: Even We Use Waste Bins
IPCA (Indian Pollution Control Association) operates five schools in the Rag Pickers’ Children’s Education Programme. All the schools are situated in the...
More Perspectives material added to the IDS website!
Couldn’t be there in person? Find links to the day’s schedule (with speaker bios), photos, and nearly three hours of video from the...
Perspectives from India and Chicago: Highlights
IDS was proud to co-sponsor a one-of-a-kind event on January 23, 2016: Perspectives from India and Chicago, a symposium of multi-media arts,...
Conference Series in India 2016: Post-conference report
On January 15, 2016 we had a productive conference entitled Waste Management Innovations: Research, Learning and Propagation. This event was organized and...
Perspectives from India and Chicago: a free symposium
Perspectives is a half-day symposium that is co-sponsored by ART WORKS Projects, India Development Service, and WBEZ’s Worldview. It's taking place on...
Conference Series in India–January 2016
As many of you are aware, sanitation and pollution problems in India are quite severe. IDS has a number of health care...
More annual reports added to IDS website
This week, links to IDS annual reports from 1985 through 2010 were added to the website.
To find a particular annual report, start...
IDS website update in progress
Visitors to the IDS website may have noticed some changes recently.
The “Projects” area has been updated—all the project stories from the 2014...
Thirty-nine percent of Indian children are stunted from poor nutrition—what can be done?
Recently, the New York Times ran an article that was quite telling about the health and sanitation conditions in India and how...
Success story: Himalayan Inter-College, Uttarakhand
This week, an IDS board member received a letter of appreciation from Jayant Hardikar, founder of the Himalayan Education Foundation (HEF), announcing...
Vidnyanvahini and its MSL
In February 2015, IDS board members Nilesh Kothari and Nila Vora, along with Jerome McDonnell and Steve Bynum of WBEZ, visited Vidnyanvahini...
International Yoga Day
Celebrate International Yoga Day (June 21, 2015) with the students of our tribal hostel in Vizianagaram District, Andhra Pradesh!
Meanwhile, in New Delhi,...
IDS Featured on WBEZ’s Global Activism Podcasts
Listen to World View with Jerome McDonnell in anticipation of IDS’s 40th celebration last fall.
https://soundcloud.com/wbez-worldview/decades-of-development-in-india
If you missed listening to the first episode of...
Government Recognizes Innovative Preschool Model
With additional funding from a private donor, Sodhana Charitable Trust was able to construct a pucca building for Balabadi children in S.C....
Family Supports IDS Project Close to its Roots
The Joshi and Moorthy family.
In recognition of the 40th anniversary of IDS, the funds raised from an event held in Pittsburgh...
CinePlay “Between the Lines”
IDS has a long history of bringing new and unique events to Chicago that have social relevance beyond entertainment. In continuation of...
The HEF Story
IDS support helped the Himalayan Education Foundation (HEF) with a solar installation project in a school operating in the Kumaon region of...
Kolhapur’s Female Rag Pickers Tackle Poverty
In July 2014, IDS approved a grant supporting AVANI’s efforts to empower the rag picking community in Kolhapur, Maharastra, for the next...
Cylcone Hudhud Destroys Tribal Schools and Homes
Last week, Cyclone Hudhud (category 4) bore down on Eastern Andhra Pradesh with 120 mph sustained winds. Unfortunately, IDS’s network of tribal...
Child Rag Pickers Attend School in Growing Numbers
In a year’s time, we have been able to convince rag-picker parents to send their children to our schools, and enrollment has...
A Word From Our President
As incoming president, I am honored to help guide this already great organization as it celebrates its 40th anniversary. Highlighted by an...
Best Performance Award for Tribal Students at Cultural Workshop
Our hostel/orphanage students in Gajapathinagaram won the award for best performance during a cultural workshop. Ten of our hostel students participated in...
IDS Interview on WBEZ’s Worldview on SoundCloud
Listen to WBEZ's Jerome McDonnell talking with Nila Vora and Jagjit Jain about IDS and its upcoming 40thcelebration on Worldview on SoundCloud.
Here is a...
Booming Enrollment in Rag-Picker Schools
When we set up five schools in Noida and Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh we had estimated an average enrollment of 25 children per...
Rag-picker Students Receive New Shoes
IDS has set-up a network of five schools to provide education to the children of rag pickers in the National Capital Region...
Save The Date
India Development Service
40th Anniversary Event
Investment in People
&
Success Stories
With Jerome McDonnell, WBEZ
Sunday, September 14th, 2014 5:30 P.M.
Meadows Club 28950 W. Golf...
Local Hostel Children are “Change Agents”
In 2008, our program started out in a small hostel set up to accommodate boys in grades 6 through 10 who wanted...
Promoting Hindi and English In Tribal Hostels
In a country with twenty-two different spoken languages, Hindi and English are the national languages of communication between India's ethnically diverse populations....
Preschoolers Enjoying Eating Eggs—A Protein Supplement Program Implemented by Sodhana Charitable Trust and Supported by IDS
Children of B.G.Palem preschool enjoying supplemented eggs as a part of a nutrition program supported by IDS.
Rickshaw Colony preschoolers, who are participating...
Nutrition Supplementation Program Increases Children’s Heights and Weights
Beginning in the summer of 2013, Sodhana Charitable Trust implemented a nutritional supplement program for preschool children from 24 schools throughout the...
New Schools for Rag Picker Children in National Capital Region
Last year, working with India Pollution Control Association (https://www.ipcaworld.co.in ) IDS opened two schools in the National Capital Region (NCR) for children...
Where Girls Are Not Wanted
With the help of financial support from IDS, Going to School moved its project Skills4Girls a step forward by teaching girls entrepreneurial...
Nutrition and Education Training in Mandla District
IDS visited five villages in the Mandla district and gave feedback on project expansion in specified areas.
IDS funding helped support the Watershed...
Hostel Orphanage Students Selected For National Green Core
IDS is currently running a hostel orphanage in Vizianagaram District, Andhra Pradesh. The primary objective is to provide tribal children in rural...
IDS Participates in WBEZ’s Global Activism Event
India Development Service has been invited to participate in WBEZ’s Global Activism Event series hosted by Jerome McDonnell and the Worldview team....
Improvement in Child Education and Development in Remote Tribal Jhagadia Villages
Despite several years of school attendance, children from rural families in underdeveloped and economically weak areas of Jhagadia fall below academic and...
Curative and Preventive Programs for UP Villagers
Uttar Pradesh (UP) is a region in Northern India where illiteracy is high, disease rampant, and villages lack basic medical services. In...
India Pollution Control Association and Going to School Fund Meet Up
IDS recently hosted a small field-based workshop for India Pollution Control Association (IPCA) and Going to School Fund (GSF), two NGOs that IDS supports....
A Few Words from Our President
As incoming president, I am honored to help guide this already great organization as it celebrates its 40th anniversary. Highlighted by an improved,...
IDS Conducts Ground Assessment After Cyclone Phailin
Approximately five kilometers inland from Gopalpur on the Odisha coastline lies a village where Cyclone Phailin, the second strongest cyclone in India’s...
Mother’s in Mandla District Receive Nutrition Education
Mothers at the Anganwadi in Mukhaskala village are being trained to monitor the nutritional status of their children using a growth monitoring...
Rag Picker Open-Air School In Full Swing
Our second school for rag pickers’ children is up and running after a fire last fall burned down the school and devastated...
Educating Quarry Worker Children
Quarry work is labor-intensive and physically dangerous work. Workers are migrants who come from Bihar, Orissa, and Jharkhand, and tend to be...
Parting Words from our 2013 President
As I turn over the mantel of the IDS presidency to Jerry, I would like to reflect upon some of our achievements...
Hostel Up and Running After Political Instability
Our hostel and orphanage in Gajipathinagram, Andhra Pradesh (AP) bounced back after political instability the last few months due to the anticipation...
Village Women of Madhya Pradesh Form Self-Help Collectives
Self-Help Group (SHG) meetings took place in Mukhaskala, Gadadevri, Barbati, and Banar villages. These villages are close to each other and have...
Rag Picker Children Attend Cultural Event
Recently, we took our students to a puppet show organized by Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts at Ramakrishanan Mission, Vivekanand...
IDS Develops Ground-Level Solutions Through Research and Collaboration
IDS is a leader in developing solutions at the ground level by working on research in collaboration with universities and NGOs. Here...
Hub ‘n Spoke Hostel Update
From a hostel of 22 children in 2008, now we are a Hub ‘n Spoke model of 48 hostel children and 121...
An Update on IDS’ and Upaya’s LiftUp Project
Upaya Social Ventures’ Sachi Shenoy and her team attended the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York City in September.
India Development...
Girls from our Hamlet In the News
Some of the girls from our hamlet in Viskahapatnam were interviewed by The Hindu, a top news publication in India. Click on...
Cyclone Threatens Three IDS Projects in Andra Pradesh and Orrissa
In case you might be following the news, there is a cyclone, Phailin, that is about to hit the AP and Orissa...
Disaster Strikes Rag Picker Project: Fire Destroys School
“It is quite painful to inform you that our center at Noida had an accidental fire in the morning and the entire...
Schools for Rag Pickers Children in National Capital Region of India
Pilot Project and Propagation
IDS in collaboration with Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA)* has setup two pilot schools to provide education for rag-picker...