Model Village Initiative
Transforming marginalized communities through a holistic, integrated, and sustainable development blueprint.
Our Vision for Model Villages
Case Studies: Villages in Transformation
1. The "Golden" Harvest: Livelihood Transformation in Kandhamal, Kandhamal
In the Kandhamal district, Adivasi farmers struggled with low income due to the low quality of their turmeric (Haldi) produce.
2. Bridging the Digital Divide: The Entrepreneurs of Rayagada, Rayagada and Gajapati districts
The Challenge: A severe lack of job opportunities forced rural youth to migrate, while their villages remained cut off from essential digital banking and government services.
The Intervention: Through Project BridgeIT, in partnership with TCS and Development Focus, PREM trained rural youth in Rayagada and Gajapati districts to become e-entrepreneurs.
The Impact:
• Banking at the Doorstep: Entrepreneurs like Ajit Sabar (Padampur Cluster) and Mr. Narayan Sabar now provide cash withdrawal and banking services directly to their communities, eliminating the need for villagers to travel long distances.
• Women in Business: Young women like Sabitri (Mohana Cluster) have received laptops and established their own e-enterprises, breaking gender barriers.
• Education: These entrepreneurs give back by providing functional literacy training to adults and academic support to school children.
3. Defending Childhood: The Daringbadi Initiative, Daringbadi
The Challenge: In the Daringbadi block, poverty and lack of awareness led to high rates of child marriage and school dropouts. 35.5% of girls in the district were subjected to child marriage.
The Intervention: In partnership with Educo, PREM mobilized 96 Adolescent Groups comprising 4,497 members. These groups took oaths to report child marriage and refuse early marriage themselves.
The Impact:
• Return to Education: We successfully motivated school dropouts to return to their studies. In a spectacular success story, 7 girls who had dropped out passed their exams, and one married woman returned to join college.
• Infrastructure: Through "Women & Girl Friendly Panchayats," communities constructed/repaired school walls, built 51 dress changing rooms, and installed 20 solar water tanks to ensure girls could attend school with dignity.
4. Resilience in Crisis: The Dantaling Village Response, Dantaling Village
The Intervention: PREM mobilized immediate relief efforts in Dantaling village (Sorada, Ganjam District) and surrounding areas.
The Impact:
• Survival Support: We distributed ration kits, clothes, and seed packets to 386 migrant and vulnerable families in Dantaling, ensuring food security and the ability to restart farming.
• Hygiene & Health: Across our operational areas, we distributed 7,000 sanitary kits to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) families in Gajapati and Rayagada districts.
• Community Awareness: Our "Achhi Aadat" campaign reached over 12,000 people to promote hygiene and prevent the spread of the virus.
5. Preserving Heritage: The Herbal Garden Initiative, Kandhamal
The Intervention: PREM organized workshops for traditional herbal physicians from five tribal academies (Mundari, Santali, Lanjia Saura, Kandha, and Saura).
The Impact:
• Documentation: Treatments and medicinal plants were documented and translated into Odiya and local tribal languages for posterity.
• Sustainability: To ensure long-term access to medicine, we established herbal gardens at the Panchayat level under the operational blocks of the tribal academies.
