Thank you, CTED team and all our supporters around the world to help us to combat the Covid pandemic among the Project Area in Uttar Pradesh.
The past year has been a period of one of the greatest challenges the world has ever faced. It may be a time to fight, a time to question, a time to mourn, but there is always one thing we can hold on to: hope.
We have closed the Year with little bit of disruption due to COVID-19 induced lockdown. Lots of operational adjustments, whether rescuing colleagues who got stranded while on travel or moving offices and readjustments of tasks and priorities, had to be accommodated. This was not a very happy situation for year closing.
How shall I thank the many CTED friends who have supported us during these hardest of times, even while you yourselves are going through so much uncertainty and are hurting? The CTED family is thinking of you all and remembering you in our prayers during these unprecedented and deeply uncertain circumstances. I can imagine that many of you are suffering different kinds of hardships. We empathize with you and hold you in our thoughts every day.
The effects of COVID-19 have been devastating in our Project area communities. Most project areas are daily wage earners, earning daily and spending daily. They are too poor to have any savings. The Prime Minister of India announced a complete national lockdown from midnight of March 24, 2020. This sent our backward communities into economic and financial shock. The police patrols were severe, and residents were beaten if they dared to step out of their homes. The struggle to cope with COVID situation continues. The stress in the rural areas is quite visible. Disrupted income flow from migration has hit the families hard.
Our togetherness in this vast mission has touched and saved thousands of lives. This emergency is long and uncertain, and we must continue our interventions with loyalty and commitment for as long as is necessary. Your choice to live by the highest and noblest of values gives me so much encouragement. I receive the strength to lead my team with boldness and enthusiasm.
After the initial shock we not only put things in order but also responded actively in relief operation for the COVID affected rural communities. Our Uttar Pradesh Team joined the district administration to manage large numbers of Face Mask and RTS Food packets. We have contributed INR 1.00 Lakh to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund through District Administration. We have provided more than thirty thousand Triple Layer Mask to district administration, health and migrate workers and in urban & rural communities. More than 100000 families have been benefited through relief activities and we continue to do so with the help of local police to identify the people who are in immediate need of support.
CTED bagged the Best Practices Award in Skilling & Cluster Development by ASSOCHAM & NABARD, which has given the organization a great sense of achievement and motivation to work harder towards its intended long term results. Seen from another perspective, CTED has now been able to establish itself as a prospective and effective agency for delivering corporate grants- an effort that has been in progress for the past few years.
FY 2020-21 has otherwise been a productive year for CTED. We have completed most of our planned activities for the year. We have empaneled with the Ministry of MSME as a Technical Agency (TA) for technical assistance to SFURTI Cluster Implementation Agency (IA) especially for Natural Resource Development in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The Producer Organizations (POs) are leading this new venture. It has also reflected the able leadership, management, and mechanisms of the organization. There are many more developments during the year which I am happy to share in this 24th Annual Report and hope that you will enjoy reading our stories of change. Thank you for always lending us your support in times of crisis such as this. We are thinking of each one of you, and pray that you will stay safe and well.
We, on behalf of our Governing Body, take the opportunity to thank our donors for their generous contribution to continue our work and to all our partners and stakeholders for their continued support and trust in our endeavor. My heartiest gratitude to my colleagues for their extraordinary courage and commitment in fulfilling their responsibilities at this hour of crisis.
Wishing everyone good health and safety.
Warm regards,
SANJAI SINGH
(SECRETARY)