The India Program Office of Terre des Hommes, Netherlands organized Annual Program Partners Workshop 2010 at MEC campus between 19th and 21st November 2010. Altogether 90 members from partner organisations participated in the program. It was an occasion of coming together and sharing with one another the rich experience of working with the children and their issues. The objective of the workshop is, “to support and enhance the capacity of the partner organisations of Terre des Hommes in India in strategic resource mobilisation which starts from exploring the concept of resource mobilisation, looking at the skills needed and eventually developing an action plan”.

Annual Project Partners Workshop 2010 was started with an informal inaugural function followed by welcome address by Mr. Bhaskaran, the Administrator. Mr. Meru, Program Officer introduced the theme for the workshop and emphasized that Terre des Hommes, Netherlands had on several occasion warned the partner organisations not to depend on one donor. The principles of partnership demand for working together. Changes that are happening in the world affect the development sector. What is the way out? Phasing out necessarily does not mean to stop the good works. Therefore, resource mobilisation is vital to keep occupied with the good works that one is doing.

The workshop was jointly facilitated by Mr. Lei Brouns, Regional Director, Terre des Hommes, South Asia and Mr. Meru Miller, Program Officer, Terre des Hommes in India.

Conceptual framework for resource mobilisation, Different kinds of resources, Exploring different kinds of mechanisms, understanding different resource providers, Resource provider’s mobilisation, Planning steps for resource mobilisation, Reviewing current organizational resource and identify resource gaps, Reflecting on resource sustainability, Developing skills for presource mobilisation work, Researching resource mobilisation mechanisms, Mapping resource providers, Researching information about resource providers and Preparing and creating a resource mobilisation plan that were dealt with during the workshop.

The partner organisations were asked to make a graphical presentation of resource provider dependency chart. It was understood that most of the organisations depend only on Terre des Hommes, Netherlands’s funding. The degree of dependency greatly varied from organisation to organisation. However, the exercise was an eye-opener for most of the organisations. To ensure and strengthen the needed resource base, each organisation was asked to chalk out an action plan. Mr. Narendran was also one of the speakers during the resource mobilisation workshop and englightened the participants on online resource mobilisation. He dealt with the concepts, strategies, tools and success stories in online resource mobilisation.                               Mr. V. K. Shivakumar, renowned Chartered Account from Gandhigram also enlightened the participants on the legal aspects of resource mobilisation and sustainability of development programs.

It has been customary during the annual project partners workshop to honour an organisation for the best performance in reporting. Vidyanikethan, Home of Faith and Mobility India were the forerunners. Eventually the jury selected Vidyanikethan (IN 127E- RPDP) for the Award. Mrs. Susheela the Executive Director, Mr. Nagaraj, the Program Director and Mr. Siddharaju the Project Co-ordinator of Vidyanikethan were honoured by the Regional Director.

The Principal of Mathagondappalli Model School shared the achievements of the school to the project partners.

Mr. Rajmohan, Editor NEWSDROP appealed the project partners to share the news from time to time to update our newsportal.

The workshop ended with the thanking note by Mr. Thangaperumal, Project Officer, Terre des Hommes, Netherlands in India.