Chale Chalo has been actively working with Odisha Budget Advocacy and Campaign Network initiated by CYSD – Bhubaneswar. We have been the partner for Nuapada District. During this year Chale Chalo has continued to organize District Level Meetings, Workshops and Consultations for preparing district chapter of demand in the field of Education, Health, Nutrition and Agriculture. We have successfully prepared the Nuapada Charter of demand and finalized the same during District Level Pre-Budget Consultation and the same had been submitted to State Government after compilation by CYSD. 20 ICDS centers had been surveyed and tracked during the year. Chale Chalo has participated in all the state level programs on budget advocacy and campaign organized by CYSD including periodic review and planning meetings. With the support of CYSD we have been able to disseminate information related to budget to local communities and other stakeholders and distributed the folders, booklets and books on various budget related issues. We had to work with DDOs for inclusion of people’s needs in the budget and making the common people aware about the budget processes, budget allocations, spending and tracking etc.
Chale Chalo in collaboration with OBAC / CYSD, Bhubaneswar had organized a District Level Consultation and Interface on ECCD – Knowledge Hub on 28th June 2014 at Chale Chalo Conference Hall, Khariar. Ms. Wahida Begum, ICDS Program Officer, Ms. Nibedita Samal Nutrition Manager (Training) and Mr. Harish Chandra Dhala Nutrition Manager (Program) of District Social Welfare Office, Nuapada joined as resource persons. Representatives of CSOs, PRIs, Janch Committees, ASHA, social workers and community members were present in the program. Mr. Rudra Madhab Barik, Chairman, Chale Chalo facilitated the day long consultation and interface. Mr. Purohit Banchhor, Coordinator of ECCD – Knowledge Hub, welcomed the participants and resource persons and shared the objectives of the program. The participants had shared their experiences in family, community and ICDS services for ECCD. Mr. Rudra Madhab Barik briefed about the budget advocacy work for last four years with the support of OBAC/ CYSD-Bhubaneswar. Dr. Harendra Kumar Panda, the Senior Reader in Economics, Khariar Autonomous College shared the activities done by Nuapada District Budget Watch Group. Mr. Banchhor highlighted the status of ICDS Building in Nuapada District. Out of 1356 AWC & Mini AWCs, 584 AWC have own building and rest 772 AWCs have no building. Safe and suitable ICDS building is important for ECCD. The resource persons informed available services and various aspects about ECCD and responded the queries of the participants related to ECCD, IMR, MMR and Nutrition etc. During open house discussion the participants had presented ECCD problems and given suggestions for ECCD - Knowledge hub.