Ranchi YMCA

Kat, Alison, and I spent the last 5 days on a YMCA exposure visit to Ranchi in the state of Jarkhand. Mr. Sircar was kind enough to organize this trip for us to visit another YMCA and become familiar with their programs as they differ from Y to Y across the country. After a 9 hour overnight train ride we were greeted in the morning by the General Secretary of the Ranchi YMCA, Mr. Sanga. He was a very jovial man with a likable personality who spoke perfect English. He fulfilled the description of what a Y Secretary should be in my opinion. Confident, personable, humorous, incredibly hospitable, knowledgeable of all things Y related, and very relaxed, surprisingly relaxed in fact considering the vast number of programs under his supervision I was soon the find out about. The Ranchi YMCA consists of 5 Secretaries all responsible for various sites and programs and then Mr. Sanga, General Secretary of the central branch. Considering that Ranchi is the capital of Jarkhand, though a newly established capital in 2000, and that is has only begun to see large population growth in the past 10 years, the level of programming that the YMCA has established in this small city is extremely commendable. Since 1969 the Ranchi YMCA has been able to take giant steps towards the betterment of the community and with each step has left a large footprint. I couldn’t possibly explain all the programming that is going on because it would be too much so here are just some vague examples of the programming established by the Ranchi YMCA. The YMCA established, maintains, and oversees hostel services, nationally affiliated high school youth groups, nationally affiliated university youth groups, Religious Emphasis Committee, English Medium School, Sports (table tennis, volleyball, badminton, soccer, field hockey), Urban Slum Development Program, Village Reconstruction Program, Social and Economic Development of Tribals, Health Care Center, Youth Access to Reproductive Health Services, Family Health Clinic, and Vocational Training Centers (computer, typewriting, stenography, tailoring and embroidery, stitching, spoken English, banking, fabric and oil paining, fine arts, etc.). I could go on for pages about each program specifically and the incredible impact it is having on the community. In many ways this YMCA can really be seen as a model for how things should and can be done effectively through YMCA programming. All in all the impact the YMCA reaches to many thousands of students, patients, and members in a given year providing those people a service they otherwise would not be able to receive due to lack of availability or lack of money. It was really a pleasure to experience the YMCA at its best here in India and get know other types of programming aside from those familiar to me through the YMCA of Calcutta. My hat goes off to the Ranchi YMCA and its leaders.

See Photos Below