INTRODUCTION:

During 1st June10 to 30th June10, I was working as a volunteer in Francois Xavier Bagnoud (F.X.B.), Mizoram. This is the report on the work which I had experienced during that period. F.X.B. is an international N.G.O. which has branches in 21 countries. F.X.B. is named after a helicopter pilot who died in 1986 on a helicopter rescue mission. In 1989, his mother Albina du Boisrouvray and family friends founded the Association Francois Xavier Bagnoud as a reflection of the values of generosity that guided Francoiss life. In India, it has its headquarters in Noida. In Mizoram, FXB was started in the year 2001. Today, FXB, Mizoram has 21 workers, one doctor and one counselor. FXB, Mizoram received its funds from FXB headquarters. There are various units under this NGO, some of which are O.V.C. (Orphans Vulnerable Children), M.S.M. (Male having sex with men), FXB Village and handicrafts. FXB has projects in China, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Burundi, the Democratic Republic Of Congo, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia and Switzerland.

FXB has administrative offices in Geneva, Switzerland, Paris, France and New York. It has previously conducted work in Bolivia, Mongolia, Niger, Togo and Uruguay. The strategies drawn up by F.X.B. depend on the social, cultural, economic and political conditions of the regions in which the programmes are implemented. All F.X.B. programmes aim to reduce the consequences of H.I.V. and AIDS in societies in general and on vulnerable children in particular. The mission of F.X.B. is to fight poverty and AIDS, and support the orphans and vulnerable children left in the wake of the pandemic by advocating for their basic needs and basic rights and providing direct support to families and communities that care for them. F.X.B. works with the conviction that the best solution for helping these children is to strengthen the social and economic capacities of their families and communities. When empowered with the right tools and resources, caregivers are able to protect, care for, and raise the orphans and vulnerable children in their extended families and communities.

DISCUSSION SECTION:
During my internship, I had been introduced to the various programmes of F.X.B. The details of the programmes are as follows:-

1. ORPHANS VULNERABLE CHILDREN(OVC):

This unit functions as a day-care centre for children who cannot be looked after by their parents. It was started in 2008 with 3 workers. Under this project, around 30 children between 2 to 5 years are looked after. It has received its funds from FXB itself and their daily expenditure is around Rs.200. The children are given various facilities like educational support and nutritional meals like dal, milk, etc. The table below shows us the background of their parents: TYPES OF NUMBER OF OCCUPATION COUPLES Working at road-side 14 Working at different 9 places Other works 12

The table clearly shows us the poor condition of the family. During my internship, I was with the children and the workers. I helped them in giving lunch to the children, reading stories to them, singing songs and teaching numbers and alphabets.

2. F.X.B. VILLAGE:
The FXB-Villages are community-based, sustainable responses to the AIDS orphans crisis and extreme poverty. Each Village supports 80-100 families, comprising approximately 500 individuals, mostly children. Over a three-year period, FXB provides communities with important life skills in the hope that they will ultimately become independent physically, financially and socially. This programme concerns the income generation activities for P.L.H.I.V. (People living with HIV) and B.P.L.(Below Poverty Line) families. These people are divided in groups and each group is named as Village. One village consists of around 500 individuals. Different facilities provided under F.X.B. Village are- income generating activities, nutritional support, day-care centre, psychosocial support and counselling and child rights advocacy. F.X.B. Village was started in 2008 and received funds from FXB itself. The families are given ration
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once in a month including dal, eggs, cooking oil and rice. The workers visit them once in a month and check their health, education, etc. To know the effect of F.X.B.Village, a case of one woman is given:LIVING CONDITIONS BEFORE F.X.B. INTERVENTION LIVING CONDITIONS AFTER F.X.B. INTERVENTION Divorced and living with Started grocery relatives and having no shop and receiving medical facilities. medical facilities. No income. Earns Rs. 5000 from her grocery shop and earns Rs. 3000 from M.S.A.C.S. (Mizoram State AIDS Control Society) as she is working as Peer Educator. Her assets included only gas Assets include cell stove and utensils. phones, television, house with proper latrine and carpet. From the table we can see the positive effect of F.X.B. Village and how it improves the living
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standards of people. F.X.B. has provided money to families in lump sum amounting to Rs. 6500 approximately. The following are the types of Income Generating Activities(I.G.A.) trades and number of families engaged in the trade. NAME OF TRADE Piggery Poultry Grocery Decorative/flower making Beauty Parlour Candle Making Weaving Butchering Farming NUMBER OF FAMILIES 18 12 33 2 1 1 1 1 1

The key achievements of FXB Village are as follows:1. Infected beneficiaries receiving specialized clinical care 89. 2. Number of children receiving nutritional support in schools or through drop-in-centre 41. 3. Number of children receiving educational support directly managed by FXB Village 75. 4. Number of families receiving nutritional support 80. 5. Number of people reached through community sensitization meetings 5325. 6. Number of beneficiaries trained or receiving training on Income Generating Activities (I.G.A.) 80. 7. Number of children receiving educational support in terms of books, uniforms and educational kits 75.

I distributed rations to those people who came for the rations such as rice, dal, eggs and cooking oils. During that period, I could interact with those people who came for the ration. Sometimes, we
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went for the outreach programme, where we visited the homes of those people who are looked after by F.X.B. Through the interactions Ive learnt that people living with HIV face a lot of discrimination from other people in the society as people react with fear when they know that someone is infected with HIV. Due to this problem, most of them face difficulty in getting employment. It is now high time to understand the lives of these people, change our attitude and accept them, as they need love and understanding. We must realise that HIV does not spread from interacting and working together.

3. MALE HAVING SEX WITH MEN (M.S.M.):

As we are all aware of the alarming increase in the number of gays, a special programme for gays had been started in 2006 under F.X.B. M.S.M was started by Mizoram State Aids Control Society (M.S.A.C.S.) in 2006 with a one year contract and the contract was renewed every one year but from 2010 the contract was extended to a two years contract. The main aim of M.S.M. is harm reduction. It has received its funds from Mizoram State AIDS Control Society (M.S.A.C.S.). The main facilities provided are medicines, nutritious diet, psychosocial counselling, outreach monitoring and education. At present there are around 300 clients, 1 project manager, 1 accountant, 4 peer educators and one counselor.
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Under this programme, the peer educators organize an outreach thrice a week where they visited their clients homes and discussed their problems. Also, clients blood test is done once in three months. They also contributed around 2000 condoms every month. When peer educators meet the clients, they provide information on S.T.D.(Sexually Transmitted Diseases), H.I.V., importance of regular check-ups, referrals to I.C.T.C.(Integrated Counselling and Training Centre), condom usage, and also conduct condom demonstration. In this programme, I had been going with them to I.C.T.C. in the Aizawl Civil Hospital at the time of their blood test.I had been there during the outreach programme and visited homes of these people. But visiting them at their homes is quite difficult because most of them are not open and they are scared that their family members might know that they are gay. So they are quite timid and face a lot of problems. Even the churches in Mizoram do not accept them. Churches in Mizoram play a very active role in the life and culture of the state with a population of 900,000. Gay couples may be on cloud nine across India but their 'freedom' seems to elude their peers in Christian-dominated Mizoram. The churches stated that homosexuality should be banned and termed birth control and abortion as 'immoral acts. Therefore they have no freedom and their life is a
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misery. It is quite shocking to know that amongst them there are people who have grandchildren. They are talented and most of them are beauticians and tailors. It would be a good thing if the government could built a place where these people could open their own shops so that it will also serve as a meeting place for the gays where they can interact freely and also earn money. This place will also serve as a good place where workers could meet them and give them awareness for their safety and harm reduction.

4. HANDICRAFTS:
Under F.X.B., there are also handicraft units and their products include file covers, fancy benches, bamboo pens, bamboo and cane hangers, flower vases and wooden pens. Under this programme, training is given to those B.P.L. members who can help in making these products. This serves as a good source of income to them. These products have been distributed in different places such as the Civil Hospital, Delhi and at an exhibition organized in Aizawl and Geneva. The Government of Mizoram has also ordered file covers, wooden pens and fancy benches from them from time to time. A number of individuals have also bought their products. This unit is also funded by the F.X.B. itself.

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The profits utilized during three months from 1st April to 31st June from their products can be seen from the given table:PRODUCT Fancy bench Hanger Vase(small) Vase(big) File cover(small) File cover(big) Bamboo pen Wooden pen TOTAL COST 4800 200 300 2000 7500 17500 500 24 TOTAL TOTAL REVENUE PROFIT 10000 5200 1000 1000 5000 12500 25000 2500 2400 800 700 3000 5000 7500 2000 2376

From the table, it can be seen that these products are quite profitable but as compared to the number of people who depend on these activities, it is not very satisfactory. This is because the number of articles sold is not enough as there are number of people who depend on this activity. There can be several reasons for the problems faced by this programme. There is irregular supply of electricity which has slowed down the production process.
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Even though the government supplied raw materials at subsidized rate, it is not enough to meet the demand. So there is shortage of raw materials and they are very expensive as they have to be imported from outside. Due to all these problems there cannot be enough stock and thus it is very difficult to meet the demands of the people. Therefore, for satisfactory results, new and better equipments should be introduced so that the production process would be faster which means increase in supply to meet the demands of the people and increase in profit. I had attended their workshop during my internship and saw that due to irregular power supply and inefficiency of the machines, the production process is quite slow. There is also the problem of lack of raw materials which has been one of the major causes of slow production. Since the workers are mostly poor people infected with AIDS, they are not very productive as they do not have any special skills for this activity. I also helped in distributing the products to some places like hospitals and from my interaction with those customers I have found that they are quite satisfied with the products.

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SUMMARY:
During my internship, I have learnt a lot which has helped me in understanding the lives of those people who are not able to enjoy their own lives. There have been lots of people who are members of B.P.L. and who are the victims of AIDS, who do not have access to the basic needs of life. I have also learnt that our facilities are not sufficient enough to meet the demands of the people, which results in the import of even small things from outside. Last but not the least, I feel proud to be able to volunteer myself during those few weeks to help those people and learn their economic conditions and understand their lives.

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DECLARATION:
I hereby declare that this project report on Francois Xavier Bagnoud (F.X.B.), Mizoram is based on my understanding and has not been copied from some published source or website. My indebtedness to other works on the subject has been duly acknowledged at the relevant places.

Signature of the mentor Signature of the student

(Maam Vatsala Kuriakose)

NAME-Florence Lalduhsaki ROLL NO.-29

Signature of teacher-in-charge

Date:
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PROJECT REPORT ON FRANCOIS XAVIER BAGNOUD MIZORAM

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
TITLE Introduction Discussion section: Orphans Vulnerable Children F.X.B.Village Male having Sex with men Handicrafts Summary PAGE NUMBER

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