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Terry Brown
National Twinnage Organiser
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TWINNAGE WITH INDIA
The idea of Twinnage was first raised in 1958 by President-General Pierre Chouard who urged members to seize the opportunity to help establish Conferences in missionary countries. The idea being to help indigenous members set up the Society and run it locally for the benefit of the Poor and Needy. It was the Holy Father, Pope John XXIII who proposed the Twinnage programme in 1960 whereby financial support could be given from groups in the developed world to members in developing countries. India was a country allotted to the Society in England & Wales to support. It should be noted that similar support to the Indian SVP is given by Scotland, Australia, Netherlands and Germany. Even today there are around 700 million Indians living on or below the poverty line and according to UN figures this is more than the whole of Africa in total. An Indian Conference must achieve Aggregation before it can apply to be twinned.
By 1961 23 Indian Conferences were twinned with England & Wales; since then the number of Twins in India supported by England & Wales has grown steadily over the years and now stands at nearly 1,500. This figure also takes into account a few hundred Indian Twins that have become self-sufficient and surrendered their grant in favour of a Conference awaiting twinning.
 The Indian SVP has continued to grow rapidly throughout India and national membership currently stands at near 60,000. The latest area of growth is in the north eastern states of Assam and Meghalaya. There is therefore always a need for support to new Indian Conferences to help them establish themselves and so that they can assist the local poor and needy. However, it is also the policy of the Indian National Council to encourage their own Conferences who have become self-sufficient to twin internally with other Indian Conferences. Complete self-sufficiency is the ultimate goal of the Indian SVP but this remains a distant target in reality.
The grant is £30 per quarter from England & Wales to India per twinned Conference and this money is specifically designated for the local Indian Conference to use for the welfare of its “adopted” families. The “adopted” families are those poor and needy given regular support by the Indian Conference. Support can take many forms but in the main are food, clothing and medical. The amount of the grant is set by the Indian National Council and while it may seem small to members in England & Wales, it has purchasing power in India far in excess of its western value. The grant is sent as a total sum from the England & Wales National Twinnage Office to the Indian National Council and it is accounted for meticulously as the Indians are subject to careful audit by the Indian Government with whom there is a special arrangement to transfer monies from overseas.
It should be noted that all Twinnage monies sent to India are exempt from any deduction for expenses – what is given, is received by the Indians.
Indian Conferences who are twinned are able to design and submit projects for support from the overseas twins. Projects such as Cow Banks, Goat Banks, self-help schemes, house building and even coffin-making are examples. (For more information on Projects, click here.) |
