I. With Samhathi-Austria
Samhathi-Austria has about 70% of the MIF Project sponsors and so primary intention of the trip was to meet the sponsors and thank them for their esteemed support. Not only this was very well achieved but also many important events took place during our four-day visit.
Following are the highlights:

1. A well arranged gathering of MIF sponsors at Gerda's home on 2 April followed by Holy Mass and a general gathering at the parish-hall of St. Jakob's Church. About twenty sponsors came for the MIF sponsors gathering, while more than one hundred persons were there for the specially arranged Holy Mass and gathering. A DVD on Samhathi made by Gerda was shown at the gathering and a well participated open discussion followed.

2. A coffee-gathering was arranged at the parish of Gerda after the Sunday Holy Mass on 3 April. We could meet some potential sponsors / supporters / members there and share with them about Samhathi's programmes.

3. We had a special invitation to the birthday party of Ms Susanne Moser, a friend of Gerda. Here again we could talk to a number of persons about Samhathi and some of them were looking forward to closer association with SAMHATHI in future.

4. We visited the Technical School at Gänserndorf on 4 April. A group of students under the leadership of Teacher Ingrid Schönner is already supporting an MIF family and now they are trying to support a Study Centre in India. The DVD on SAMHATHI was shown there and then an open interactive meeting followed.

5. It was decided in a meeting at a Café in Wien to submit a project proposal to Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the official agency of Austrian government for humanitarian / developmental works in Third World Countries. This was a big step because SAMHATHI-Austria became a registered organization only a week ago and it was making a leap. Peter Pressnitz and Elfi Seigert agreed to work alongwith with Gerda for this important task.

What has been and being achieved:

1. Most of the meetings in Austria were meant to thank the sponsors as well as to get new members / supporters for SAMHATHI-Austria. In that sense all the meetings were very successful as the present sponsors / supporters / members were personally thanked and encouraged while a number of others took interest in SAMHATHI. It was like sowing seeds and so the results will be visible in the coming months, I presume.

2. The group of students at Gänserndorf Technical School were supporting one family of MIF, but now they are seriously considering to support a Study Centre in India, probably a Study Centre attached to the new Home for Tsunami affected children.

3. Biggest achievement is the project from ADA. ADA approved our project application for a Home for Tsunami affected children and we will get about 73,000 € from ADA and 23000 € will be the share of SAMHATHI-Austria. ( We are yet to find another 59000

4. € for the project and attempts are made in Austria, Germany and Italy to find sources for this). 80 children in the Home for Children and 120 children in the Study Centre attached to it (so 200 children altogether) will benefit from this project every year. It is expected to complete construction by September 2006. Gerda, Peter and Elfi deserve all our appreciation and congratulations for this great achievement, as it has been possible only because of their hard work and team spirit.

II. With SAMHATHI-Germany

It was a 'dream-coming-true' experience in Germany this time, because it had been always our wish to establish contacts to funding agencies in Germany to get support for our programmes in India and this time it came true in a very successful way, mainly because of the praiseworthy works done by Ursula Flüeck, founder member and former President of SAMHATHI. Maria Flüeck had to drive about 6000 kilometres for various meetings in different parts of Germany. Also I must place on record with deep gratitude that, as done in all the past years, Family Flüeck cared for my food, accommodation and all the other arrangements during my entire stay in Germany.
Highlights are:

1. Altogether we had meetings with fourteen funding agencies spreading across Germany. Two of them are part of German Federal Government itself.

2. Twelve projects were submitted to these organizations and of this two are already fully approved and funds are being made available. One is for Rain Water Harvesting ( to solve drinking water problem by collecting rain water in household tanks of 10,000 litres capacity in each family for 100 families) and total amount is 47000 €, of which 36000 € comes from the agency and rest will be local funds of SAMHATHI-India. The second is a carpentry training project for 18300 €. Of this 11000 € will be given by the supporting agency while rest has to be raised by SAMHATHI.

3. Another major project which is approved, but yet to get a sponsor / agency to support is for total amount of 183105 €, of which 95000 € is requested as support grant while the rest will be raised by SAMHATHI through other means including a bank loan for 40000 €. Let us hope it comes through soon to help out women / girls to get training in garment making and to establish a full fledged unit providing employment to 500 to 700 women / girls in three years. Already this training is given through a nine-months course at SAMHATHI-India's office premise for the last two years and by getting this project we can make it a well organized programme, training at least 100 to 150 women every year. A trained woman / girl could earn about 40 to 70 € per month. This would mean a big change in our villages, both in the income of families and status of women.

4. Another project (Rain Water) pending with BMZ of German government will be submitted in the next meeting of their Board in Bonn for consideration in the coming months, so as to start implementation from January 2006 to December 2006. This again is to provide rainwater tanks to 100 families from two fishermen villages to set model in solving age-old drinking water problem which became still worse after Tsuanmi waves filled all the local ponds and water sources with sea water. Total amount of the project comes to 38560 € and of this 28910 € is requested as aid, while 5800 € would come from SAMHATHI-Germany.

5. Projects are also submitted to various agencies for Children's development, youth development, women's training, physically challenged children, computer training centre etc. It is not yet time to say anything definite as these are under processing and consideration in different agencies.

6. We also explored the possibilities of getting persons / agencies / companies to help SAMHATHI-India to make use solar energy for producing electricity. Electricity has become very expensive in India and so it is not affordable for many poor families at all. At the sametime India has lot of sunny days every year and, if made use, solar energy could solve the energy crisis of the poor. Links were established to a community near Munchen and an agency in Köln agreed to help in technical matters if we needed their help. Also a friend of Gerda agreed to help in this regard as she is familiar with the technology for several years. We are looking forward to develop these into a programme for our villages in India. Links have been also established with a reputed company in India that produces solar panels and equipments. We hope to provide more concrete details in the coming months.

7. Links were also established with two large Fair Trade organizations to promote our products in Europe. Here again, discussions are still underway. Though no definite results are achieved, we hope to develop these contacts for the benefit of small producers in our villages in India.

8. Contacts with Gymnasiums, which had been supporting us since many years, were brushed up through visits.

a) On 15 April '05 Montgelas Gymnasium in Vilsbiburg was visited. Dr. Kraus (Director) Mr. Riedl (Assistant Director) and Mrs. Kuhn are taking interest in supporting our children's education programme. We spoke to the pupils of different classes after a short video on SAMHATHI.
b) Visited Christoph Scheiner Gymnasium in Ingolstadt on 20 April '05. Though Mrs. Gerhilde Winbeck has recently retired, she had already formed a very good team of pupils to continue her work for the poor children of India. Also she had convinced Dr. Bergmann, the new Director of CSG, about the Study Centre project in India and so he told us that he would continue to support the Study Centre in India. We met about 500 pupils in five sessions and spoke about SAMHATHI and answered their questions. Mrs. Winbeck is in constant touch with the CSG - India Team and so we can be very well optimistic about future support.
c) On 28 April Albertus Magnus Gymnasium, Regensburg was visited. For about two years or more the team at AMG was very weak and therefore we got support from there mainly because of Dr. Pfaffel's (the Director) efforts and personal care for our project . But now we are blessed with very good team under the leadership of Mrs. Wutz, a teacher of AMG. Mr. Hahn, a teacher of religion at AMG, is also very supportive. Under the able leadership of Mrs. Wutz, we can be confident that AMG - India Team will grow further.
d) At Hans Carossa Gymnasium, Landshut, Dr.O'Connor has taken charge as Director in March '05 and so we held discussions with him and Mrs. Elisabeth Bäumel & Mr. Elma Weber, the two teachers who lead the efforts at HCG to support their Study Centre in India. Dr. O' Connor assured us that he would continue the support to HC Study Centre in India.
9. Ms. Maria Flüeck motivated her fellow students at Landshut Klinikum to donate their collection of money at the end of their course for the Tsunami victims. So SAMHATHI got 1056 € and links were established to the Klinikum authorities to keep up contacts with them.

III. With SAMHATHI-Italia:

It needs to be specially mentioned that SAMHATHI-Italia was in the beginning days of its existence when we visited Schio from 19 to 23 March '05. It was soon after Tsunami on 26 December '04, Daniela, Nevio and Anna of Balasso family, Luca De Rizzo, Carlotta Beggio, Marco Raumer, Paola Beggio and their relatives and friends decided to support the victims and so they collected funds from all possible sources and sent to Samahthi-India. Their support was vital in undertaking emergency relief activities in our villages in India for eight weeks after Tsunami to help thousands of victims to have necessary good, clothes, medicines etc. This was the background in which SAMHATHI-Italia was born.Though it was in the initial days, very systematic arrangements and schedules were made for the programmes in all the four days.

Highlights can be put as follows:

1. On the first day of our visit, I could concelebrate with the parish priest of Carlotta Beggio's parish and that became a good opportunity to spread the message of SAMHATHI as many people are known there to our Italian Team.

2. A special Holy Mass had been arranged on the following day with friends and relatives of the Team leaders of SAMHATHI-Italia. Nearly one hundred persons came for this Eucharist. During the meeting cum dinner followed at a specially arranged restaurant, I could meet most of the persons who were helping to make SAMHATHI-Italia a reality and who were very helpful in raising funds for Tsunami related relief works.

3. A video presentation on SAMHATHI and a slide show o Tsunami was arranged in the parish hall of the local parish on the evening of 20 March '05. More than 150 persons came for the programme and it became an excellent opportunity to spread the message of SAMHATHI as all the people came were very much interested and wanted to know more about SAMHATHI.

4. We visited two schools in Schio and could share about SAMHATHI with nearly six hundred pupils. This again became very good opportunity to promote SAMHATHI in the minds of coming up generation in Schio. In general, the pupils were very much interested and we can hope some of them will come closer to SAMHATHI in the coming months and years.

5. We had a very fruitful visit to Caritas - Schio. As our Italian Team had known some of the main persons at this office, it was possible to have an open and cordial discussion. It is hoped that Caritas Schio would support some small projects of SAMHATHI in the coming years. This meeting can be seen as the beginning of an important partnership relation.

6. Another significant achievement was the meeting with the Mayor of Schio. As our Italian Team had close contacts to some of the City Counselors and Carlotta's pappa himself was the Mayor of this city some years ago, a meeting with the Mayor had been arranged and during this meeting he donated 2000 € to SAMHATHI for Tsunami victims.

7. Also the video o SAMHATHI could be shown in a nearby parish and the interaction followed provided the opportunity to promote SAMHATHI there. This parish also donated 1000 € towards Tsunami relief works.

8. We could also hold discussions on Fair Trade with Mr. Guido of UNICO MONDO to explore the possibilities of Fair Trade promotion in Italia as we have many thousands of small producers in India who badly need such support for their survival. We visited also a few Fair Trade shops to know closely their products, promotional methods, product presentation etc.
Towards the end of our visit, SAMHATHI-Italia Team came to the consensus to go ahead with the idea of forming into an organization and as the first step it was decided to open a Bank Account in this regard. This, I believe, is a great achievement for SAMHATHI and all its members and supporters everywhere. Before I left Europe this Bank Account was operational and the Team had also decided on the responsibilities of each of them. Anna Balasso will be the Leader, Coordinator, Translator, Website and Communication in-charge of SAMHATHI-Italia, while Carlotta Beggio would look after Sponsorship projects (of MIF, Children and Students), education and youth affairs. Paola Beggio will be in charge of Fair Trade, Marco will look after the totally new programme called 'Responsible Tourist' and Luca De Rizzo will be the Cashier of SAMHATHI-Italia.
I have given above a brief description about what was done during my six-week long visit to Europe in March-April '05. Yet, in case I have missed any important item, please excuse as the same is never intended.
This visit has been the most successful and fruitful visit of all the six visits I made to Europe in the last eleven years and I owe you all very much for making our efforts so successful. I am sure if we move ahead in the same manner, SAMHATHI will be able to do great works in future for the development of the poor people not only in India but elsewhere too. Even as we help the poor people in India, it should be also our aim to promote solidarity and fraternity among our members and supporters so that a true global fraternity will emerge through SAMHATHI in the coming years.
Once again, thanks a lot for everything you did to make my visit and our efforts together fruitful. And we all at SAMHATHI-India and in our villages oblige you deeply for the esteemed support you are giving to make us a better community here.
May God bless you all , dear friends.
With best wishes and warm regards

Direktor Fr A.Jacob Paliath & Team
SAMHATHI-India