About

The Shankar Rural Development Foundation (SRDF) is dedicated to sustainable rural development in Andhra Pradesh. SRDF was founded in February 1999. Since then, we have engaged in a range of projects, particularly in health and education. Currently, we are focused on supporting the rural development needs of two villages near Hyderabad – Chilver and Dannur.

Mission Statement

The mission of SRDF is to facilitate sustainable economic, social and environmental development by using the “Participatory Action Management (PAM) Model”, which involves stakeholders at all levels. The aim is to empower rural communities and enable them to address existing rural development issues in partnership with local, regional, national and international stakeholders.

Our Model

Shankar Rural Development Foundation believes that all stakeholders, including migrants, should be involved in rural developmental activities. The government initiates many programs to improve health, education, agriculture, industry etc, but parallel attempts are also made by private agencies and philanthropic organizations.

Running parallel programs creates confusion, wastes scarce resources and fails to create synergy. Moreover, sustainable development opportunities and issues are complex and required coordinated efforts to address economic, social and environmental aspects. Innovations in sustainable development demand participation of different agencies and relevant stakeholders, but this participation must be managed in action. Dr. Shankariah Chamala developed a generic model called the “Participatory Action Management (PAM) Model”. It is an organizational system – a convergent action model that provides a framework to bring together the stake holders at local, regional national and international levels. It offers true partnership to all stakeholders for a given project or program.

In the PAM Model, community groups, teams, councils, or NGOs can act as a ‘lens’ that to bring together parallel activities and create a new energy. This energy could then be directed to various group activities. This generic model was adopted for land care and water conservation programs in Australia. It has also been adopted in Indonesia and India.

Objectives

SRDF works specifically in Andhra Pradesh on several rural development goals:

  • Improving formal and non-formal educational opportunities
  • Promoting the process of scholars assisting scholars
  • Assisting women’s empowerment activities in partnership with community groups and government agencies
  • Promoting the holistic development of youth
  • Improving the health of people in rural areas and providing education on health issues
  • Increasing household income through the development of knowledge, skills, entrepreneurship, health, ethical values, and positive attitudes
  • Reducing poverty through self-help and support from other stakeholders
  • Promoting social and cultural development
  • Reducing environmental degradation and enhancing the physical environment

Annual Reports

2004 Annual Report (pdf)