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CINI is an award-winning,
registered Non Governmental Organisation (NGO),
operating primarily in West Bengal and Jharkhand.
It has over 35 years of experience in the
issues affecting poor women, children and
adolescents from some of the most disadvantaged
areas of India.
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CINI was set up in 1974 by Dr Samir Chaudhuri,
a
paediatrician working in Kolkata.
One man’s mission to treat children
with malnutrition has, over the years, grown
into a highly regarded, comprehensive
development project supported by a wide range of
organisations including the Government of India
and Save the Children.
By listening to the people it is trying
to help and helping them to help themselves,
CINI has evolved over time and now tackles a
range of the challenges facing India’s poorest
families. |
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Preventing malnutrition and disease by
teaching mothers simple and readily available
ways of helping themselves, was one of CINI’s
first priorities.
CINI quickly realised that one of the
main reasons why the children being treated were
trapped in poverty was due to their lack of
education.
As a result, projects which focused on
getting poor children into education and
supporting them through to adulthood were
established.
At the same time, it was impossible to
ignore the dangers facing poor women and
children above and beyond inadequate nutrition
and healthcare, so projects such as shelters and
half way houses were set up to protect abused
and trafficked children, the homeless and child
labourers.
While considerable progress has been made in
the years since CINI was set up and government
services are slowly improving, there is still
much to do.
One of CINI’s most important roles
today is that of facilitator.
It empowers people by communicating their
rights and entitlements to them and helps women
and children make use of those services already
provided by the government.
CINI also reaches out to every level of
government from community leaders to policy
makers to ensure that as much as possible is
being done to help the poor, and to minimise the
damage caused by ineffective governance.
CINI
now has a wide range of projects which deal with
the principal issues facing the poor in India:
nutrition, healthcare, education and protection.
You can read more about these in the What We Do section.
 India:
CINI operates in
some of the poorest areas in India. It is based primarily in West Bengal with its headquarters in
Kolkata and, in addition, also runs projects in Jharkhand, Chattisgarh
and Madhya Pradesh.
Units and Divisions:
CINI Around the World:
Fondazione CINI International was
launched in Italy in 2000. Its
function is to set up independently registered charities around the
world to support CINI in India. CINI supporting charities have
already been set up in the UK, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and the
USA. Further branches are due to be opened in Australia and other
EU countries. See Contact Us for
details.
An
NGO can do nothing without funding.
CINI relies on the generosity and
kindness of the many organisations and
individuals who support it.
CINI’s funding
comes from a number of sources:
Aid
organizations, Development Agencies and NGOs
CINI
has been a recipient of major donations from Indian
trusts and foundations, and a
wide variety of national and international
development organisations including Save the
Children, UNICEF, CARE, and DFID.
Most recently, the World Bank gave CINI a
grant of US$
40,000 towards its Nutrimix Project.
The Indian Government
CINI has received
substantial governmental support at both national and regional levels
from the Government of India and state governments. In particular, the Government provides funds for CINI’s
Chetana Resource Centre which has trained over 25,000 workers from the
government sector.
Individual and Corporate Donors
So many individuals and
companies have generously given their time and money to help the people
CINI supports. Whether donations are small or large, they
are always gratefully received.
Please see our Key
Partners: National and Key Partners: International
lists for more details.
Over the years, CINI
has been officially recognized, both in India and abroad, as a leading
authority on mother and child nutrition, healthcare and education.
Some of the many accolades CINI is proud to have received are:
2008 Annual
Rotary India Award (for making the most significant contribution in
reducing child mortality)
2008 Ellis Island Medal
of Honor, USA (to CINI’s director and founder, Dr Chaudhuri)
2007 World of
Children Award (to CINI’s director and founder,Dr Chaudhuri)
2005 Parliament prize
for infants from the
Italian Parliament Commission for Infants (to CINI’s director and founder, Dr Chaudhuri)
2004 The National Award
in the field of Child Welfare (CINI is the only NGO to have won this
award twice)
1994 Allen Feinstein
Hunger Award, Brown University, USA
1991 Jal Modi Grant,
Rotary Club of Calcutta
1991 The
“Liguria” prize from the International Centre for Development of
Culture of People, Genoa, Italy
1985 The
National Award in the field of Child Welfare
90% of all money received goes directly into programmes with only 10% being used for administration and fundraising. This is a very high proportion compared with many other NGOs and shows the benefit of giving to a local organisation which has lower overheads and can readily channel donations straight into projects.
Click here for latest
report and accounts.
CINI has approximately 400 staff; around 300 work for CINI full time with the remainder working on short term contacts or fixed term projects. Additionally, CINI has over 100 community based workers who are trained by CINI but work on a voluntary basis.
Click here to see information
about the Govering Body .
Click here for Frequently
Asked
Questions.
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