Our primary area of focus in Gujarat is water resource management. Since Kodinar is a coastal area, has suffers from chronic salinity ingress for many years. To deal with this problem, we continuously develop innovative techniques, which are extremely successful, and are appreciated by the Government of Gujarat for replication in other areas. Water bodies have been interlinked, check dams built and wells re-charged to stem salinity ingress. Recently ACF began the construction of a new dam, Bhakeshar (under the Shingoda Water Resource Project-II) in partnership with the Irrigation Department, Government of Gujarat. Water from the dam would benefit coastal villages and would increase area under irrigation. In partnership with the Salinity Control Department, a project for construction of Ogee spillway at Muldwarka tidal regulartor was also undertaken recently . This project is expected to prevent ingress of seawater and create a fresh water barrier. The increased availability and improved quality of water has had a positive impact on agriculture, and a better quality of life for the villagers.Water saving techniques like drip and sprinkler irrigation have been introduced in agriculture. Additionally roof rain water harvesting structures have been constructed to deal with household potable water problems. ACF is a member of the Salinity Prevention Cell of the Government. Water resource management initiatives that address the local needs Surat and Sanand are also underway. For example in Sanand, the limited availability of water in the villages of Sanand had been forcing the farmers to cultivate only one kharif crop. To improve availability of water, ACF deepened ponds at Khoda and Iyava villages. The additional water available is utilised for irrigation as well as domestic purposes.

In agriculture, integrated practices - including animal husbandry - have been encouraged. Villagers have been encouraged to take up horticulture, mixed and multi-cropping, plant high timbre trees and start growing kitchen gardens. Krishi Vigyan Kendra or Agriculture Science Centre was set up in Kodinar as a result of a public-private partnership between the Government and ACF with a 16 member team of experts in agriculture. It provides multi-disciplinary services to farmers from 45 villages and has organised 92 on and off campus training sessions on various topics for 2,500 farmers. Forty-seven demonstrations of various crops like groundnut, wheat, mustard and gram were organised
Village Health Functionaries have been trained to provide basic health care to the villagers. These tais play a key role in providing effective preventive and primary healthcare in the villages of Kodinar. Mobile dispensaries and conduct health camps with professionally qualified doctors to cater to the curative and preventive health needs of the communities in all the three locations.

The self-help groups for women formed in Gujarat have been going from strength to strength, leading to social and economic empowerment. They have been successful in persuading villagers to save regularly and dispense loans to group members, to initiate micro-enterprises like detergent and candle making, agarbatti manufacturing, running grocery shops, nurseries, dairy farming, trading in agricultural produce, tailoring etc. We help them with training to improve their skills, take them on exposure visits to small entrepreneur initiatives run by other self-help groups and help them find both finance for their efforts and markets for their products.

In Surat, a non-formal education centre is being run by ACF catering specifically to children from the Harpati community. These children from disadvantaged /impoverished backgrounds and have no access to formal education due to their financial condition. The centre offers a comfortable learning environment where these first-generation learners can learn the three Rs in a participatory and interactive manner. children are taught All essential subjects and assessed periodically to ascertain their level of understanding and learning. Some of the children at these centres have been admitted to Government schools.

Awareness on HIV/AIDS was created amongst two of ACL’s primary stakeholders --employees and the community - through the workplace intervention programme and community-based awareness generation and prevention programme in Surat. Multiple media, such as one-to-one interactions, group meetings, movie screening, street plays, puppet shows and condom distribution, were used in an integrated manner.

A new development in Surat has been the initiation of interventions in agriculture and horticulture in six villages. Many households started kitchen gardens for cultivating vegetables that would improve the nutritional intake of their family and augment incomes through the sale of surplus produce. Two drip and sprinkler irrigation demonstration plots were developed to give the farmers an opportunity to observe how micro irrigation systems work. A wadi plot, a kitchen garden and a herbal garden were developed as demonstration plots. Capacity building sessions were organised on a regular basis for the farming community. Farmers have begun setting up vermi-composting pits.

At Sanand focus is on water management and agriculture. Use of hybrid varieties of seeds, which provide higher yields without causing any environmental damage, has been encouraged. To provide the farmers with the right kind of inputs on these hybrids, demonstration plots of these seeds have been developed by ACF. Similar experiments in kitchen gardening and horticulture have also been promoted by ACF.

Despite to the proximity to Sanand city, people in the villagers are hesitant to access health services offered there. Awareness on public health & hygiene has been generated through numerous village-level interactions undertaken by ACF. General health camps dental and eye camps were organised for the villages.

The establishment of mason training activity at Dahod was a step in this direction of giving focused attention to capacity building of village communities with an overarching objective of equipping them to access better employment opportunities and to improve their standard of living.In 2008, Tribal Development Department of Government of Gujarat invited ACF to partner its mason training programme for Dahod taluka. Several tribals migrate from Dahod to cities to work as construction labourers. The training improves the skill levels of tribals enhancing their earnings. ACL's technical support team helped design the curriculum and conducted the training while ACF built rapport with the local people, generated interest in the programme, mobilised them and made the necessary arrangements for the training programmes. Six training camps have been held so far that have benefited masons several of whom have already found employment.