I must say that I really admire VACHAN. Anyone who can come up with an six-letter acronym, that refers to specific activities, and form a cool-sounding word like VACHAN is already my hero irregardless of what they do. But even if their acronym was WYV they should still be your heroes because these people have been fighting poverty in Maharashtra since 1987.

  For fifteen years VACHAN has worked closely with the people of a small area of Maharashtra, only 40 villages. But what they lack in size they make up for with style and determination. In their years of operation VACHAN has moved beyond providing only services (vaccines, etc) and gone on to some advocacy and legal issues. They have pursued tenancy issues, the sharecropping system that impoverishes small farmers. They've monitored infant mortality records and schools in order to keep the health care and educational systems honest. But they've not lost their service-providing roots, they have helped local area farmers discover new more efficient methods of farming that have improved yields and have continued health-care education efforts.

  To continue this munificent work they have asked us for the princely and exorbitant sum of 6,07,00 Indian Rupees, which comes out to 13,000 US dollars.

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