Eka is an offshoot of Media Matters, a non-profit trust based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. A branch office of Media Matters was initiated early in 2009 which had operations in Central Indian states, with a focus on Participatory Development Communication. When the organization wound up its operations in the state, the Madhya Pradesh team decided to continue its work, by registering itself as a new entity, a non-profit trust with similar focus on Participatory Development Communication and intensive Community Development work. It was with the encouragement and support of many of our partner organizations and friends in Madhya Pradesh that we moved forward and registered our trust deed in 2012 April.
We acknowledge the support of Amitabh and Leena from Debate, Asha from BGVS, Umesh from Ekjut, Suresh Tomar, Shaleen Sharma, Nisha Jain, Ashutosh from WCD, Bhai Shaili from UNICEF, Actionaid Team and Bachpan teams, Ram Narayan Syag, Uttara Banjare, Jayashree Belawade, Uma Nair, Sajana Jayaraj,Krishnadas, Hema and many others who were part of Eka’s inception process. We received (and continue to) several contributions for setting up office and continuing our work in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Our journey continues with more friends joining us in the process of creating enabling spaces for learning, sharing and collectivizing on issues that concern us as a civil society. Amod & Chitra Khanna, Anjali Noronha, Asha Pathak, Nupur, Gagan Sethi, Naveen Gautam, Roshan have provided critical technical support building understanding of the team as we took up intensive work around Access to Justice issues. UNICEF, Save the Children, TRIF, WCD, WRD, National Foundation of India and Azim Premji Philanthropic Foundation (APPI) were and are our development support partners playing the key role of not just ensuring funding support, but also building capacities of our team.
Eka is also supported by a large group of well-wishers and friends especially in our ground initiatives like Samvidhan Live and Shakti. Crowd funding continues to be our prime source of contributions.
As a team of facilitators, activists, designers, artists, journalists, field workers, we continue to be inspired by our community engagements with young people, with women, daily wage earners, survivors of violence and working children. Our community intervention is rooted in urban poor communities of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. As Samvidhan Live we work across states with volunteers, people’s movements and civil society organizations to bring people’s issues to the fore.
Led by a youth team, Eka is currently exploring community engagement more deeply even as it collaborates with other civil society groups on demonstrating participatory development communication practices.