NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON RURAL MARKETING

Anand Raj
MUMBAI, OCTOBER 15, 2010: Don Bosco Action India, the network of the Development Offices, organized a two-day Capacity Building Workshop on 13th and 14th October, at Don Bosco Provincial House, Mumbai. The theme for the workshop was Rural Marketing, and 20 participants from the various development offices attended this workshop. Setting the premise of the workshop, Fr. Savio Silveira, National Convener of DB Action India, welcomed all the participants and spoke about the importance of right attitudes in the field of development work.
  
The aim of the workshop was to equip the participants with the necessary ideas and tools to introduce the concept of structured marketing and innovative strategies in their respective programmes. Dr. Mala Shrivastava, professor and marketing consultant, (NMIMS University), facilitated the first session; she presented an overview of the concept of Marketing and then explained the existing rural market environment in the country. In the pre-lunch session, she enlightened the participants on the concept of consumer behaviour and the factors affecting it. The session focussed on several important areas such as Targeting, Segmentation, Positioning, and Approaches to Rural Segmentation.
 
Mr. Niranjan Amte, marketing head and consultant with Future Group, facilitated the post-lunch session on Rural Market Research and Distribution Strategy. This session involved many discussions and exchanges of ideas. During his presentation, Mr. Amte shared several examples and experiences from the industry. The second day focussed on market linkages, communication strategies, and innovation in rural markets. In this session, Dr. Mala also discussed the major findings of recent researches on rural marketing. The last session looked at the Scope, Opportunities and Challenges in Rural Marketing.
 

Closing the programme, Fr. Savio Silveira thanked all the participants for their active participation and the DB Action Team for coordinating the workshop successfully. The workshop concluded on an enthusiastic note with the participants expressing their desire to apply these concepts in their programmes.

INTERFACE MEETING AT ANAND - GUJARAT

GUJARAT, OCTOBER 11, 2010: On October 7, 2010 at 11’o clock, approximately twenty-four railway personnel assembled to attend a meeting at Anand (Gujarat) railway station in the waiting room on platform number five. This meeting was organized by Don Bosco Snehalaya. To begin, all were invited to join in the prayer bhajan -Tumi Ho Mata, Pita Tumi Ho. The aim of this meeting was to sensitize railway personnel about the grim conditions and sad realities of street life and to get in touch with one of our caring communities – the railway personnel (TCs, railway staff and railway workers) to make them aware of these children’s difficulties, to treat the children with respect and dignity, to understand them better and also to enter into a good working relationship with the railway personnel, who are an important contact group for our marginalized boys.


The Director heartily welcomed the participants for the meeting and he introduced the institution and staff to those who were present. Mr. Francis Dodia our outreach coordinator requested the participants to introduce themselves to each other and afterwards he asked them to share their experiences with street children whenever they came across them on the railway stations or in the trains. Mr. Waghela (Station Supritendent) and Mr.Mathur (CMI) shared their experience. They told us that as soon as a vagrant child is found on the railway platforms the immediate action taken by them is to hand over the case to the RPF who will later contact some NGO. After the sharing was over the Director took over with a power point presentation on Snehalya and Child care and protection. In the PowerPoint Presentation the work of the institution was well explained. The staff also shared their experiences with platform boys. At the end our Outreach Coordinator thanked the entire group of participants for dedicating special time for this meeting.

          
The participants were happy to have this meeting and to give whatever help was required to Don Bosco Snehalaya in its work with railway platform and street children. By the help of this meeting they came to know many things about child care and protection and became aware of the work carried out by Snehalaya in Vadodara. At the start, the participants seemed a little apprehensive about the programme but they soon got interested and we dare say, it turned out to be a very fruitful interface meeting. Snacks and tea were arranged to conclude the meeting.