North East India Project - Current Project

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Yimjenkimong Village, Nagaland, India

Overview

North East India Project is currently working with one village; Yimjenkimong Village, located in Nagaland, India.
To read more about the village, click here
To read more about Nagaland, click here

Below are areas in which we are working in the village, current progress and future plans...

Economic Development

NEIP's goal is to help the village become self-sustaining, and not reliant on us in the long term. We will help them to own and sustain the project long after we pull ourselves out of the area. There are many economic problems within this village, and many others like it in the area. Many of the youth leave the village when they are old enough and do not come back. If this rate were to continue, the village could cease to exist over the next half century or so. Education opportunity is limited for the children in the village, due to lack of resources, and financial stability from the parents. Health problems are ramped due to the lack of income to afford proper care.

Weaving and Handicrafts
NEIP has encouraged the women of the village to look back into their own history and remember how they made clothes of out cotton and silk, which they stopped due to the easy availability of synthetic material. The old art of dying, spinning yarn and weaving is once again returning to the village.

Handmade Bookmarks: The public can help by donating to NEIP. NEIP purchases Handmade Bookmarks hand-made by the women of Yimjenkimong Village, in order to begin helping some of them earn a supplemental income. NEIP will send you a Handmade Bookmark as a gift , for a donation of any amount. All you have to do is request one in the comment section of your donation, and we will gladly send one your way!

Silk Extraction: One volunteer came with the team in 2008 and held classes teaching the women of the village how to extract silk from the silk worm cocoon that they harvest each year for food. They have been eating the silk worm for years, but never knew how to make silk thread from the cocoon. We hope this will help them down the road in being able to produce a supplemental income selling the thread or even making silk products. You can sponsor a woman to go for training here.

Bamboo Cups: NEIP is encouraging the use of bamboo, which grows here in abundant, to make handicrafts for national and international markets. The public can help by donating to NEIP. NEIP purchases Bamboo Cups made by the men of Yimjenkimong Village, in order to begin helping some of them earn a supplemental income. NEIP will send you a Bamboo Cup as a gift , for a donation of any amount. All you have to do is request one in the comment section of your donation, and we will gladly send one your way!

Children's Education

Through generous contribution this past year, NEIP was able to assist 47 children in sending them back to school for the 2009 school year. On average, these children’s parents make between 20 and 100 U.S. Dollars per year. Most of the parents are only able to work in cultivation, which generally only provides enough food for the family, and little or no extra money for their child’s education.

NEIP met with each and every family who requested assistance, and there were so many sad stories of trials, disease and loss in these families. One woman who needs assistance lost her 14 year old daughter in 2002 due to an unknown type of fever. She then lost her 14 year old son in 2004, when he drowned in the nearby river. In 2007, her husband died of Typhoid fever. Now, she lives and takes care of her son and her mother. All of this has happened to her, and she could still sit there and smile while talking to us. There was a sense of Joy in her even still that only God could give.
NEIP will be working with the parents over the next year or two to help and provide ways of producing a supplemental income in the hopes that the parents will then be able to send their own children to school in the near future.
If you would like to help children like these, please visit our support page here.

Computers & Training

In October of 2007, two used PC computers were donated to Yimjenkimong Village, from Alliance for Community Capacity Building in Northeast India (http://www.accb.org.uk), partnering with the Prag Foundation (http://www.pragfoundation.net). Two teachers from the village were sent to Guwahati, Assam for computer training that was provided by ACCBNI in October of 2007.

photo provided by Steven Faucette

Once training was finished by the teachers, they were given the computers and taken to the village. The teachers will be responsible for teaching the children the basics of computer usage, as well as using it as a teaching aid. These are the first two computers to ever be in the village. It was the first time that most of the people of the village had seen what a computer was and did.
In December of 2008, NEIP brought the village a laptop computer, and one of the volunteers held computer training classes for some of the youth and the teachers. Everyone seemed very excited to learn.

Healthcare

Basic Healthcare Packs: Through generous contributions from many people, NEIP was able to provide the village with basic healthcare packs. These packs included toothbrushes, toothpaste, antibiotic ointment, hydro-cortisone cream, q-tips, and more. There are no doctors in the village, and most of the people in the village could not afford one if they needed to go to the hospital for any reason. We hope that these basic healthcare packs will be just the beginning stage of this process in helping the people.

Cleft Palates: NEIP has recently sent two children, Alum and Tsuti, to a Smile Train doctor who has performed the first part of their surgery; preparing their upper lip. Their second and final surgery will most likely be in 6-8 weeks, and will provide them with a new smile. The Smile Train doctor is located in Shillong, Meghalaya, which is over 300 miles from the children's village. Your support will also help pay for transportation to-and-from the village. Click here to read more, or click here to donate to the New Smiles Fund now.

Water Development

NEIP is working on installing a water system which will pump clean water to the village. Yimjenkimong Village lives on a hill top, and the only nearby source for water is a natural spring down the mountain-side. Most of the homes have set up bamboo rain water harvesting systems on the rooftops, which catch and run the rain water into containers, which they in turn use for drinking and cleaning. This water problem is one of the primary reasons for health issues in the village, causing many deaths each year. NEIP is working on installing a pump system which will pump clean water from a natural spring located down the mountain-side. A volunteer engineer joined us for our most recent trip and details are being worked out for the purchase and installation of the new pump system.
Click here if you wish to help financially.