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Channel of blessings

Greetings from The President

I bring greetings on behalf of the Covenant Social Service to our respected partners,  friends and well-wishers for your continued support and help.

The CSS has been channel of blessings to thousands of families and individuals, who are poor and marginalized. The CSS has been helping women and teenage girls, who often suffer atrocities in family and society. Our focus also has been to children who are malnourished, child labourers, rag pickers and oppressed.

The CSS has stood with the people who were affected due to natural calamities such as flood, cyclone, Tsunami, fire and earth quake. The CSS has been helping people by providing immediate relief, rehabilitation and sustainable livelihood to thousands of families and individuals and specially the senior citizens.

I am happy to state that we have moved from charity and need based approach to Right based approach (RBA). Our approach has been community-based development and people-based approach, where we have emphasized people’s participation as most important components of development.

We seek your continued help and support for this noble task to help the society to transform itself for the betterment of all the people. Please extend your hands of support for the Covenant Social Service.

Rev. Dr. Steven David
President
Covenant Social Service.

Vision & Mission

VISION

CSS envisages a society where people participate in their own empowerment towards a transformed life.

MISSION

To actively support and work towards a just and sustainable society by creating conditions for meaningful and disciplined involvement of all people in the development process.

 

 

Help Society and Nation Building

History

The primary discussion for Covenant Social Service began in 1998 when several community leaders, who are interested and committed to help the society and in the nation building.

Several rounds of discussion took place from 1998 to 2002 regarding on various issues and challenges facing the society.

Based on primary discussion a working group of Community leaders was formed to provide conceptual framework to the Covenant Social Service.

  1. Steven C. David (Chairperson)
  2. Shekhar Singh (Secretary)
  3. Yeshunath Kalekar
  4. P. G. Kale
  5. Philip Nadvi

Several working group meetings were held between 1999 to 2002 to develop the conceptual framework along with the process of writing of its MOA, By-Laws, structure, policies and operational procedures and this task was assigned to Dr. Shekhar Singh.

All these documentations were completed in 2001, and the Covenant Social Service came into existence in 2002.

The Covenant Social Service was registered in 2004 with the Charity Commissioner.

After the registration of the Covenant Social Service in 2004, the Community leaders agreed on following points.

  1. Covenant Social Service should focus on Community Development Projects.
    2. CSS should also address the disaster related relief and rehabilitation.
    4. CSS should focus on capacity building, training, Community Based Organization.
    5. CSS should develop its competency on developing projects and programmes.
  • Responded to the distress call of flood affected people. The CSS responded to the distress call of the flood disaster relief to affected people in Maharashtra in 2003, Gujarat flood in 2004 and 2006, in Karnataka 2006 and in Bihar in 2006.
  • The Tsunami disaster struck Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and southern part of India in Dec. 2004. It was just after the Christmas day, when people were celebrating Christmas and were in tourist places. It was reported that more than 300,000 people died in the Tsunami and several small islands disappeared in the sea. Fertile land turned into unfertile land due to salty water.

The CSS provided relief, rehabilitation and sustainable livelihood to the people affected by Tsunami in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

  • The CSS provided 250 fishing nets and boats,
  • 150 hand pumps,
  • 700 temporary shelters,
  • 152 permanent houses and
  • Micro-finance for sustainability.
  • The CSS has implemented programmes 2006-08 and 2009-11 supported by MCCS/SMC/SIDA. It was a major initiative for community development. It was integrated development program related to poverty, economy, water, health, education and other factors. It was well appreciated by people which helped them to build their capacity and in turn community-based organization was strengthened.
  • The CSS has also implemented several projects related to malnutrition, pre- and post- natal care, health and hygiene.
  • The PME Department was established to look after the planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of the projects.
  • The CSS is also grateful to Covenant World Relief, which has helped in implementing mother and child project Melghat, women empowerment programme in J & K, Rag picker project and Home of Hope initiative for CSW.
  • The CSS is implemented project 18:009 “Empowering Dalit Women through Self Help Groups in Tuljapur and Kannad.” This project is implemented with the help of United Church of Sweden and SMC. This project was completed in 2020.

The CSS has been instrumental in helping marginalized people from J & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Himanchal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands during disasters and rehabilitation.

Objective of CSS

  1. To serve the people of India, irrespective of colour, caste and creed through literacy, medical, educational , welfare work and in disaster.
  2. The Covenant Social Service envisages a society where people participate for their own empowerment and development towards a transformed life.
  3. The CSS facilitates people’s empowerment from oppressed context to a holistic development.
  4. The CSS visualizes a society where peace, justice, and equality prevails. Where all citizens irrespective of caste, creed, language and religion live in peace and communal harmony.
  5. The CSS envisages a society where poor and the marginalized have equal opportunity in the development process, which is value based and sustainable and provides an appropriate environment to develop their fullest potential.