My Story: Nitin Patel, Local Representative Vadgam, India
My real name is "Nitesh", but people have always called me "Nitin". I was born on the 5th of May 1971 in Vadgam. I grew up in Saghankshetra (Chitrasani) village, which is 30km away from Vadgam. When my parents retired from their jobs I moved to Palanpur with them. Palanpur is 14km from Vadgam. Now I live in Vadgam again. I moved back because I like to live in the village, and I want to do rural progress.
My vision for Vadgam is that every young person has a good education, good work opportunities, a clean village, no health issues, better knowledge and awareness. I would like our village to be like Amsterdam in the Netherlands. A place where people can live a better life.
The main business of Vadgam is agriculture, dairy husbandry and diamond cutting. The education level is low, but we have a strong group of youth in the community. If we want to something better for the village, I believe we need to use this young generation.
VADGAM SOCIAL & WELFARE TRUST MEMBERS.
Total 11 Ttrust members in the Vadgam Social & welfare Trust.Three members are not present during photographs due to they are out of village for there personal work.we will update all members photographs in sort time.
Name of The Trustee:-
1) Bharatbhai S Prajapati 2) Raghnathbhai S.Uplana 3) Satish J.Nayak 4) Hitesh P.caudhary
5) Shailesh H.Chaudhary 6) Nitin L.Patel 7) Dineshsinh V.Solanki 8) Atul R.Joshi (All are in Picture)
9) Dr.Maheshbhai Mevada 10) Muskesh R.Mevada 11) Moghaji G.Dhuliya (Not in Picture)
A moment of inspiration
One Sunday, I was playing cricket with a group of young people from the village. I started thinking "How can I use this young group for village progress?" I said to my friends, "We can't just play, we need to do some noble work for the village. We need to grow. We need to change. We need to work."
But how could we use this strength to do something good for the village community, as well as for the young people? How do we combine self-development with community development?
That's when I got the idea to start a youth and sports club. The whole group agreed. They told me, "Nitinbhai, go ahead. We will support you." That made me feel really great. I am very proud for my village youth.
Dreaming big
Recently, we organised a tree plantation on the grounds of the sport club. All the youth gathered and took part. Some older village people also came to show their appreciation for us. Our first priority for Vadgam is to develop the Sport & Youth Club. Once the club is fully established, we want to do something good for the village community, like organize awareness programs on various subjects like rain water harvesting, education, health & hygiene and how to live better.
I would like to invite professionals to Vadgam to increase the community's knowledge with information regarding various issues and problems. We would organise a meeting with the local people, and publish advertisements in the local newspapers. That’s one way we can make Vadgam community a beautiful and model village. . We will also look for businessmen who can help our youth gain training and employment in diamond cutting. We have a large group of youth who are interested in finding work in this area. We want to do the same thing for the local farmers, who are interested to learn more about agriculture and dairy husbandry.
I worry about how we can pay for all these activities without a big fund. The Neighbours helped us make budget sheet for funds, and the youth club has a normal balance, but our dream is very high
A day in the life
I'm a volunteer as the Local Representative for Vadgam village. Besides that I am a Senior Clerk in the purchasing department at a milk co-operative. I purchase instruments and raw materials for the processing machines. I am married. My wife's name is Hansha. We have a son named Dhaval. He is 11 years old.
I generally wake up early in the morning, 5 to 6 am. My favourite breakfast is biscuits and roti with tea. At lunchtime, we eat vegetables with roti. I also enjoy poha, which is ground rice which has to be soaked in hot water. Then it is fried with unions, garlic, chilis, spices and peanuts. I work from 10.00 am to 18.00 pm at the office. After work, I read a newspaper, magazine, books, watch T.V. or listen to music. I generally go to bed around 11.00 pm.
I spend my full time with the youth and village people on Sunday playing cricket, sitting with youth and discussing what happened in the village during the week. Sometimes I go to the library or work at home. I also play sport on Sunday evening. I like to exercise, read and meet people. I love to spend time with my family and friends.
I learn lots of things with the help of the internet. I found Nabuur through the internet. To work on my project I go to a private internet cafe. The cost is rs.25 to 35 (approximately 0.54 euro) per hour. I would love to buy my own personal PC and connection someday, but now it is too costly for me.
A message for Neighbours
My Motto is "Never be hopeless." Whatever you do, do it honestly and be helpful to other people. I always try to take a positive approach towards life. I like self-development and I like to learn and know things from around the world. I like to share my knowledge, whatever I learn, with the village community. I believe in truth and trust. I believe good friends and good people are always helpful to you. Never forget someone who does even a little bit for you. I never forget the contributions Neighbours have made for us. We are thankful to them. I would like to invite more Neighbours to join our village.
ON NABUUR
I found Nabuur through a search engine. I was looking for someone online who thought like us and could support us to reach our goal. Someone who could share ideas how to make development. Nabuur is really a dream word for me. A best friend. Nabuur has helped me learn and develop myself, increased my self-confidence, given me knowledge and information on how to write, how to speak, and how to do something better for my village community. My local community would never have thought to try to develop if Nabuur didn't exist. Now the local community has hope. I ask the Neighbours to trust in us and also to trust the Vadgam youth. We will never forget the Neighbours who give their contributions to Vadgam's development.
