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Introduction to DANA
Hindu Aid has initiated the Development Awareness Networking
Agenda (DANA) project to actively educate and increase participation
of British Hindus in international development and poverty
alleviation.
DANA is funded by the Department for International Development
through a grant from the Development Awareness Fund.
Strategic partners for DANA include:
Development Education Association
Department for International Development
Core Objectives
The objectives of DANA are:
- To deliver a sustained and participatory development education
programme to the British Hindu community and increase knowledge
about global poverty, the Millennium Development Goals (MDG),
global interdependence and the plight of developing countries
- To create opportunities for the British Hindu community
to participate in international efforts to reduce poverty
and promote interdependence To enable individuals and groups
in the Hindu community to make informed choices about their
lifestyles and appreciate their roles and responsibilities
as citizens in a global village.
These objectives directly match the objectives set out in
sections D1 and D4 of the DFID strategy paper Building Support
for Development. A partnership between DFID and Hindu Aid
is a priority area (Churches and Faiths) described in Section
E14 of the same paper.
Target Audience
The DANA programme will work with the following target groups:
- Regional Hindu umbrella organisations within London &
South East, East Midlands, West Midlands and the North (including
groups such as Hindu Council of Brent, Hindu Council of
Birmingham, Leicester Hindu Council, Hindu Council of the
North)
- Hindu led faith organisations in the above regions
- Hindu community organisations working with the elderly,
young people, women and children
- Large gatherings of Hindus at public functions, festivals
and temples
- Audiences of television, radio and newspapers through
the Hindu Centre for Communications, and ethnic media including
the Asian Voice, Gujarat Sumachar, Eastern Eye, Sunrise
Radio, BBC Asian Network, ZEE TV, Star TV and other channels
- Hindu businesses
- Mainstream organisations and institutions such as schools.
Community Partnerships
Hindu Aid has established the following partnerships to execute
the DANA Programme:
- Development Education Association: assistance and advise
in designing and executing Development Education training
programmes
- Hindu Forum of Britain: the largest representative umbrella
body for British Hindus with over 260 affiliated member
organisations has undertaken to work closely with Hindu
Aid in utilising their large networks and memberships across
UK to identify and approach the target audience for delivery
of the DANA programme nationally
- The largest regional umbrella organisations in four regions
of Britain
a. Hindu Council of Brent: (London and South)
b. Hindu Council of Birmingham: (West Midlands)
c. Leicester Hindu Festival Council: (East Midlands)
d. Hindu Council of the North
Key Activities
The DANA Programme will be implemented by focusing on four
key component units:
(1) Research & Publications
(2) Education and Training
(3) Capacity Building Unit and
(3) Networking Unit.
DANA will be implemented with the following activities:
Advice clinics on capacity building: Targeted
organisations in London and Midlands will be allocated one
1 hour session. These clinics would provide technical assistance;
advice on volunteer management, information, funding needs,
organisational development and a check for each organisation
so that appropriate capacity building initiatives can be identified
and implemented to strengthen their development education
needs.
Development Education training courses:
Conduct at least three specially formulated training and education
courses that will take into account the issues highlighted
in the preliminary/in-depth TNA and advice clinics to enable
the target organisations to understand and acquire knowledge
on DE issues, poverty alleviation and global interdependence
Partnership networking: Encourage participants
at the DE training seminars to partner and work with another
organisation in India undertaking development work.
Annual Conference: To discuss issues like
poverty reduction, primary education or basic health care.
Information Counters: At Hindu festivals
where Target 2015 booklets and information on the Millennium
Development Goals will be circulated.
Media Partnerships: Work closely with the
ethnic media in Britain to encourage printing/broadcasting
stories on international development issues. Media that will
be covered include Sunrise Radio, ZEE TV, Asian Times, Asian
Voice, Gujarat Samachar, Garvi Gujarat, Eastern Eye and others.
-Monitoring and evaluation of Year 1 programme
What is Development
Education
Development education aims to raise awareness and understanding
of how global issues affect the everyday lives of individuals,
communities and societies and how all of us can and do influence
the global. It aims to bring global perspectives into all aspects
of learning - the school classroom, universities, local community
activities, the media.
The DEA defines development education as lifelong learning that:
- explores the links between people living in the "developed"
countries of the North with those of the "developing"
South, enabling people to understand the links between their
own lives and those of people throughout the world
- increases understanding of the economic, social, political
and environmental forces which shape our lives
- develops the skills, attitudes and values which enable
people to work together to take action to bring about change
and take control of their own lives
- works towards achieving a more just and a more sustainable
world in which power and resources are more equitably shared.
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