Samarthak

Vision:
Big dreams are hidden in the dreamer!

Mission:
To work of the poorest of the poor children’s empowerment.

Samarthak, the benefactors’ department of the province started informally in Satprakahsan by Fr. Mathew Chennakudy SVD in 2003 and was set up by the decisions of the Provincial Chapter 2003 to be set up in collaboration with the Word Among Us magazine, a venture to run the hostels in the interior villages of North India. It was set up at Satprakashan Sanchar Kendra on September 8, 2004 to generate fund to the Central Province. Within a few months the office was shifted to St. Joseph’s Home. Fr. Joe Vaz SVD was appointed as its first Director. He was asked to take help of the Mission Secretary, the Director of the Word Among Us and District Superiors and wardens of the hostels. Since then the department has reached out to educate about 2000 poor children studying in our seven hostels in three states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan through the donation from the people across the country. In August 2007, Fr. Nicholas Martis SVD took over as in charge of the department as Fr. Joe Vaz SVD fell ill and was unable to continue the work. Various methods have been employed like personal contact, advertisement mainly on the Word Among Us, email contacts and website. Once the sponsor has sent donation to Smarthak, he/she receives a photo of a child to know who they are supporting. We find boys and girls of our hostels are lively and every active in our apostolic endevours. Now this department is more popular because it has website, namely smarthaksvdinc.com. For more details, please log on to www.smarthaksvdinc.com. This office is now run by Fr. Joe Vaz SVD, who corresponds regularly with the benefactors. The response of the benefactors has been very generous and encouraging.

Miles Stones:

01/08/2007           Fr. Nichoals Martis SVD, the Vice Provincial takes over as the Director of Samarthak due to illness of Fr. Joe Vaz SVD

27/01/2010          Fr. Joe Vaz SVD, the director of Samarthak asked Br. Raju Soosai SVD to help him out in bringing a Brochure or Website materials. There are 6 hostels run by Samarthak (Divine Word Society) among them 3 are in the state of Gujarat and in the state of Rajasthan. In view of this, together with our driver, Mr. Mukesh Bhuriya, Fr. Sania Surin SVD, and Br. Raju Soosai left for Gujarat at 6 am on January 27, 2010.

28/01/2010          Hostel Visit in Rajasthan. We reached Udaipur (Maitri Sadan) at 10.15 am. We refreshed ourselves and proceeded to Madri where our confreres are looking after the boys and Sisters are taking care of the girls.

03/02/2010          Website was launched. The Samarthak Department has its own website, namely, www.smarthaksvdinc.com

05/01/2013          Fr. Johny D’Souza SVD takes over as the director of Samarthak due to long absence of Fr. Joe Vaz SVD.

15/11/2013          Fr. Joe Vaz SVD returns and takes over as the director.