The five Central Zone Province coordinators along with the Bagaicha team, Frs. Ignatius Minj and Stan Swamy, and JESA Secretary met together on July 15 and 16, 2011 to share, to discuss and to plan for the coming year. After a whole day of sharing on the activities of the Province social centres and also the common activities of Bagaicha the members listed out some of their common concerns, especially with regard to Bagaicha and its needs.

Fr. Stan Swamy mentioned that Bagaicha had 60 different programs, of which 15 were by movements, 25 by NGOs, 7 by Jharkhand government, 9 by Bagaicha and 4 by other Jesuit groups. Involvement with the guidance of Peoples’ movements against displacement and land acquisition has been continuing during the last few years. He also reiterated that Bagaicha is involved in search for alternative development models together with other Jharkhandi organizations and people’s movements. This search for alternative has evolved into a forum under the name of “Jharkhand Alternative Development Forum”. Efforts are on to identify individuals, groups, villages who have taken some innovative ventures in water conservation, better farming techniques and to advocate these to other villages. Ignatius Minj, Director of Bagaicha, presented the financial statement for the year 2010-11.

The members also discussed on the initiative of Global Ignatian Advocacy Network, particularly on the network on Governance of Natural and Mineral Resources. The Province Coordinators appreciated this new venture and in order to make the venture more participatory, they agreed to call for a meeting of their respective Province JESA team and explain in detail about GIAN and GNMR. This can be done with the help of Solomon or Xavier Jeyaraj.

On the second day, the participants met with the 5 Provincials of the Central Zone. A lot of clarifications on the origin and objectives of Bagaicha was made before the Provincials as some of them were new. They also discussed on some of the administrative matters that are of importance for the effective functioning of Bagaicha, including finance, investment and personnel.

Everyone expressed a deep concern on how to make Bagaicha truly an effective coordinating centre for the Central Zone.