Jai Bhim Network

The greatest thing that the Buddha has done is to tell the world that it can not be reformed except by the reformation of the mind of man, and the mind of the world.
(Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Dalit Leader & First Indian Law Minister)

Vision

Get the Flash Player to see this player. Our vision is of a world without prejudice, in which every human being has the opportunity to fulfil their potential, regardless of their background or beliefs.

Mission

To support and empower the most disadvantaged children, women and men in South Asia to meet their needs, access their legal rights and participate fully in society.

Values

We are a Buddhist organisation committed to human development and to challenging the ignorance and prejudice that trap people in povert.

Through our work we aim to hold and express the following values:

• The fundamental Buddhist principles of compassion and wisdom.
• All human beings have the potential for growth and development.
• Individual transformation is crucial for effective social change.
• Tolerance, honesty, loyalty, transparency and clear communication.
• Professional competency and a commitment to education and learning.

Strategic Aims 2009-2013

As Karuna enters its 30^th year, we celebrate our success in supporting the movement of Dalit uplift, especially in Ambedkarite western India, and in preserving precious Buddhist cultures in the Himalayas. In 2008 alone Karuna helped around 375,000 women, men and children to transform their lives. Such is the scale and severity of exclusion and poverty in South Asia - over 250 million people are labelled Dalit or Tribal - that we need to radically increase our impact. To this end we need to expand the scope of our work to build a larger alliance of project partners and supporters. Our distinctive Buddhist emphasis, supporting individual transformation to energise effective social change, can then achieve a peaceful revolution.

Our priorities for the next five years will be:

1. To continue and expand the scope of Karuna’s work:

• Create a Dalit and Tribal program that builds on our shared expertise in addressing their communities’ social exclusion and includes even more deprived areas of India, such as U.P., Bihar and Orissa.
• Continue and develop work to preserve precious indigenous cultures that value individual and social change in Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Tibet.
• Encourage emerging alliances of our project partners that can collectively change their society more radically and rapidly than any working alone.
• Empower women to act as change makers and leaders in their community.

2. To enhance the effectiveness of Karuna’s project work:

• Encourage and promote the mind-change in attitudes, behaviour and confidence that enables our partners to bring about real social change.
• Promote capacity building for all our partners based on our distinctive approach of bringing together mind-change and social transformation.
• Ensure all Karuna funded projects and partner organisations explicitly address social exclusion on the basis of caste, ethnicity and gender.
• Remain loyal to longstanding partners such as TBMSG/Bahujan Hitay by assisting them to evaluate their projects and take their successes further.
• Help our project partners develop their fundraising capabilities so they feel empowered to achieve social change by being more independent.
• Strongly support projects led by members of the beneficiary community who can best model personal and social change within that community.

3. To finance this increased impact we will build stronger relationships with Karuna’s supporters:

• Only have Project Based Funding by 2010, creating full transparency from our supporters through Karuna to project partners and beneficiaries.
• Monitor and evaluate projects to provide robust evidence for the social impact of Karuna’s work and the value of our distinctive approach.
• Circulate this evidence to donors, the development sector and DFID.
• Find suitable new project partners and develop our existing ones to significantly increase access to institutional funding.
• Develop a more regular, personal, fundraising and care programme for existing supporters.
• Get the Flash Player to see this player. Invite the FWBO and wider Buddhist world to join in a unique form of socially engaged Buddhism to radically change people’s lives in South Asia.

4. To support growth we will improve our professional skills, teamwork and internal systems:

• Build a leadership structure that supports clear accountability and responsibility.
• Train in sector best practice for all the skills we need to be effective.
• Reorganise and automate our office, finance and IT systems by 2011.
• Implement a performance management system for all the team by 2010.

5. To develop the Karuna team as a context for ever-deepening Buddhist practice:

• Enhance and update Karuna’s distinct ethos of Team Based Right Livelihood as our team grows in size.
• Support community living for team members and develop policies to let those with diff ent lifestyles work as full team members.
• Help all team members to deepen their understanding and practice of Buddhist teachings thus supporting those training for Ordination too.
• Create a written human resources policy on pay, terms and recruitment by 2011 that complies with UK law and protects Karuna’s distinct culture.

Source: FWBO and TBMSG News