Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Setrawa project in November 2007


News about the Setrawa project:

Setrawa Project has started, we have Amanda and Irene there helping us with volunteering. The project in two days has developed, the pictures are the witness of my words. Amanda and I have complication with the strength of the participants, she wants all to come and I want to reduce the size of the class to 75 participants only. I am limited to resources and I am unable to do sooo much that I wish was possible.

Pictures of our Setrawa Project:








Saturday, November 10, 2007

November 2007 - Diwali, Setrawa project and hectic schedule

Happy Diwali 2007! 

Sambhali:
Oh God, sooo quick, soo much happening, I don't know how to handel all of it on my own (I was saying one man's army since few days now I know what it means). Now Sophie in Jodhpur and Amanda in Setrawa are helping me a lot. Many people are interested in our NGO work and are coming forward to support us in every possible way. We will have more volunteers come through Global experiance and world wide helpers. We are in serious need of volunteers.

Here is a report from Setrawa by Amanda:
7/11/07, Wednesday

2nd visit to Setrawa,
confirmation visit, moving day part 1

We left at 9 am with an abundance of living goods. The car held Mukta dressed immaculately like a princess in aqua and pink, Mumy, Govind, Ayush, Sophie, myself and Virendra.

When we arrived we met Govind’s uncle and the moving truck and unloaded all of the goods. We seemed to be equipped with everything. Pillows, mattresses, canisters, 4 sewing tables and machines, cook top and gas cylinders, even a fridge.

The aim of the day was to bless the house and get things moving along quickly before I commence teaching on the 11th. I had the option of moving to Setrawa today, but felt that is way too soon. I need every last minute with access to a computer, so I can plan classes, draw up question sheets and admin forms, talk ideas through with Govind and Sophie.

I also have to get food supplies and pack up my luggage. I also want to spend more time with the Sambhali Jodhpur girls. That’s the main downside of moving to the village: I have only just started to settle here getting to know more about each girl attending and the children in the afternoons, and I have to go. I hope there are no feelings of abandonment from their part, however as last week they were absent, that created a separation in the bonding process at such an early stage that any relationships starting to develop between me and the girls were at a very basic level. It will be harder for me to leave the little ones though. They attended all last week without fail. They even came on Sunday!

Elka, who we are making slow progress with, Ekta who when you don’t understand enough hindi to decipher her swearing, is more adorable then what I was told to anticipate, Subvesh, who’s so smart, neat and recovering from a harsh dog attack (learning about how to treat a wound also), little Rikkas, he tries so hard and doesn’t copy the others when he starts making mistakes or is stuck….such an admirable quality, it shows he really wants to learn, not just get credit for having the right (but copied) answers. Anita, who shined the other day when there were only 4 children in the entire class, she knew most of the alphabet when I held up capital and small letters out of sequence. “f, x, c, y” were difficult and we revised them over and over. Little Salu is so sweet in nature, she likes the attention, so keep in mind when teaching to use a more praising approach, smile lots. She’ll copy what you say if you hold her gaze, and repeat it, hopefully starting to commit pieces to memory. She knew only the letters of her own name at this stage. Elka, did not know many more, but she gives up easily when she makes one or two mistakes. Then she gets impatient. With elka, u have to be persistent, very firm but gentle in your approach. She is a smart girl, but stubborn and refuses to try. Then when you make her follow what you are saying, step by step repeating slowly, repeating again and again patiently and demonstrating what the exercise requires, giving clues, cognitively leading answers etc, she sometimes, after a long and tiresome while starts to concentrate, even if only to get you off her back. When she starts seeing the reward in actually following the lesson and having knowledge, being part and keeping up, she might start concentrating for her own sake. Ajit is also one that tries hard and Suraj stands out as more confidence (like Subvesh.

Nisa is also getting there. She tries. Angelique, Tina and the other little one Cusu (?) are only new and often learn the ABC with Sophie when I start the lesson with the older group. They do try too. Asha is accomplished and older than the others, ive noticed she also needs reassurance and credit when she has done something right. She does not like being told ‘no’ when she wants a sticker. When they all understand that a sticker means top marks that will be great! Cormal is such a gorgeous girl…always bright an smiling/shining! She is quick with her answers too and naturally witty. Confidence is one word you could use to describe her. Vandana also joins in from time to time (sometimes she skips school and comes to the day class). She is a bright kid and has a strong and confident voice.

Anyway as much as I’ll miss them, I will have 20 more kids to get to know and who also will benefit from my company and help. I have to wait to weigh up who is more in need of this project. Even though I instantly thought the village would be less advanced in education, it seems I was wrong. I asked Rekha (I will introduce her to the report later) a little about the village statistics (I need more info by the way at this stage) she said 90% of boys go to school and 80%of girls go to school. That is amazing figure. And It was definitely not expected. Help is always welcome though and we can add to their schooling with some different qualities from overseas at the very least. I am .looking forward to doing arts and craft activities with them. This will be a handy area to teach in particularly at the start, as it requires little language to communicate and therefore will be non discriminative. It is also a tactile medium, and sensory, so it will open up an instant communication means among us. Plus its fun! And once I start getting to the stage of showing and teaching them about famous artists it will be like showing them different views of the world. It will be a great means to teach them ways of expressing themselves too, outside of language barriers and dangers. Sometimes it is too risky too say or write outloud your thoughts. Art gives you a safe and harmless way of therapy too, if need be.

Also I’ve had the advantage of reports from the other volunteers and their teaching methods. I will start with the abc, seeing how popular and effective a learning tool this will be in future more difficult English lessons.

Today I met two women who were interested in the teaching assistant position with me at Setrawa. Rekha as I mentioned earlier, was one of the two women and we chose her to take the job. Although she didn’t know as much English and wasn’t going to college (like Jyoti the other candidate) she was easier to communicate with, funnily enough. We both figured out what the other was saying/intending by body language, more or less (and of course Mukta’s translating help) but Jyoti, even though she knows English she cant understand my accent, nor me hers, and her facial expressions and body language were not telling me anything. Her strong, proud nature would be fitting for the girls in some ways, particularly with the aims of the project in mind. However I believe and I stick by it in many ways, more feminine qualities of warmth, care and generosity are much stronger qualities and I would like to promote positive more feminine qualities like these when aiming to empower women. And that they should embrace these qualities. A balance is necessary, of course, but im sure the women and girls we will be working with will have the more quieter natures to start with and there is no point making them more shy by being proud and dominating. Sometimes how a woman endures hardship is an invisible form of power, a quiet and loving form of power that lets a man feel like he is reigning and lets the woman be, content enough with herself not to have constant reassurance that she is bigger and better than others, a belief that some men (and women I guess) seem to fool themselves into.

I feel very excited about the whole Setrawa project. At this stage my only fears are that I don’t have as many as I should before embarking on a new project. I always take time to weigh up the pros and cons of things, but with Govind I think it seems thinking of the cons is forbidden and we are in a rush to do things due to the positive time on the calendar (also funding deadlines). Today is a very special day in Hindu, before Diwali. I’ll go with that method as this is his project and he is more aware of the situation of the village and India as a whole in general and religion brings out some beautiful positive qualities in people.. Mukta seems happy too…I need to have assurance from her that she agrees with the project, I have so much respect for her and her opinion matters. Govind will do well with this project. His connections with the village give it a special purpose and seem to influence a positive response from the villagers all round.

I know some basic language tools, and have navigated my way around the streets with a degree of ease…I know how to catch the bus (in theory) and where to catch it, the chemist, veg store, police station are all on my mind map. I will move in on the 11th November 07 after Diwali.


Diwali 2007:

Amanda, Sophie and a few other guests getting interviewed
Mukta and other guests in traditional costumes praying Godess Laxmi (Godess of wealth)
Randgoli (pattern on the floor by Amanda)
Guests dancing in the courtyard


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Maharaja_m2k_4u@hotmail.com

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Reports by volunteers in November 2007

Hello dear friends!

Sambhali Trust:
God, don't ask me, I have again done something quickly, but I am happy it has started slowly, I am sure this will fruit, there is a good team of people involved in this and we just need good volunteers to participate. If you are intersted in joining this, please hurry up and let us know and be part of the change we will bring in the lives of the people.


"Welcome in Setrawa" Project Report by Ms. Amanda

Sambhali Project: Setrawa











Very exciting news: we are starting a new school! Here is an excerpt from our report we are compiling
We have a time frame of about 6 days from the initial decision to the day we run our first class so excuse the formal nature of this entry. Please keep yourself up dated with the news blog.

Aim: To establish a free school for the local children
in Setrawa Village and self sustainable art and craft program

Some major goals:* To aid children already attending school with extra English classes. Before and after school hrs.

* To initiate schooling practices and opportunities for the children who can’t afford school.

* To create classes teaching self sustainable practices such as arts and crafts, products that can be sold to help run the project and for future independence for it’s participants.

* To demonstrate basic hygiene and etiquette practices such as washing hands, wearing long hair tied back, neat and clean clothing etc. That will help alleviate misconceptions about different castes’ cleanliness and presentation and also aid in self confidence and promote more job opportunities in the future.

* To integrate castes. Setrawa project, unlike Jodhpur Sambhali will be promoting mixed castes. This is more possible to try here because the village is small and free schooling is a unique possibility for all children regardless of their caste.

* We are looking forward to promote practices for eco-friendly livelihood. Such as recycling of old used materials, and by using household water to grow a kitchen/vegetable garden.

* Future possibilities may include improving general infrastructure and appearance of the village. For example: plantation, providing shade, drainage systems, building roads, street lights, awareness programs on health, hygiene, aids, education to help stop child marriages, equality etc… in the form of a council or community assembly group.

Observations about Setrawa
Setrawa is a small village 1 ½ hours (110 KM) drive west of Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The village has a population of approximately 3000 people. There are several communities in the village, the Sarpanch is an elderly woman of the Dalit community (Meghwal), she is officially the head of the village Panchayat, however she is a widow and uneducated so her eldest son assumed the position. His education level also influences the change as he had completed 5th or 6th level of schooling.
The strange thing is that a Dalit woman is elected as a leader in the community. This is allowed because the Indian government has reservations for untouchables in their system. It was an unusual circumstance when we were invited to her house, and told that if a Rajput individual was to visit that it was considered indecent to drink the water being offered. We were concerned over whether this is common practice, or only in certain areas. We were offered Chairs and she would not sit in front of us on the chair and a carpet was placed on the floor for her to sit.

The town seemed to operate quite efficiently. There were plenty of small neat little shops with all the basic requirements for living, such as a chemist, stationery supplies basic food stalls, even clothing stalls.

Other industry associated with people residing in Setrawa included farming and mining of the sandstone quarries.

The mining has also had a negative impact on the town by disrupting the soil stability in the most historical area of the village, the result being collapsed houses and dangerous waste land. The damage has increased in the last 2 decades.

There were so many children filling the streets when we arrived. It was soon established that this project would be very welcome in their village. Within minutes of suggesting our Ideas, the local leaders and respected members of the community were sweeping us around from place to place that were available for rent. We also were told around 30-50 children were already interested. This was meant to work.
The local people were very happy that the village name would be internationally recognized.

The level of education in the village is not very different here in comparison to Jodhpur (at first glance). We noticed quite a variety of levels. But this may have been because we were meeting mostly the higher caste children at this time, given our impressive introductions. One major difference is that most kids speak Marwari, so all of that good Hindi we practiced will have to be replaced by a new language!

This is a wonderful idea and a wonderful project. It is a beautiful area. The fresh country air and brighter skies are enchanting, and naturally after meeting the community this project has become more alluring then we first anticipated. Apparently this is nothing compared to the amazing star filled skies we are promised by Govind to witness at night!

Things just seemed to fall into place when we arrived on Saturday 3rd (This was both volunteers first Visit to the village). We are planning at this stage to move in to the project after Diwali celebrations 07, at this stage on the 11th November 07.

It should also be mentioned that the village holds much significance to Govinds’s family as this is the village his father grew up in. In light of the success and joys of the Sambhali project in Jodhpur he was encouraged and wanted to do something of a similar vain for his own village.

We are all very excited and are looking forward to the possibilities and challenges that lay ahead!!! Once again, please keep up to date with our developments on the blog.















Report on the Fashion Show by Ms. Sophie Haensel
Over all impression of the fashion show

When Govind told me that Soniya could have the chance to participate in a local fashion show I was so happy for her. This, in my eyes, seems to be the thing she is born to do. She is so beautiful and first and foremost she has the attitude to be a model! I thought it would be such a big proof for what has changed in the last year. We couldn’t even imagine that something like this would happen for one of our girls and finally there were four of them walking the ramp! (and I did it too, which is a little wonder as well =) )
We hoped that this will show them other world that they will learn a lot of things from this experience and that maybe, some little doors will open, not only for them, but for the NGO as well, by being in the news paper and having such publicity.
So we went for our first practice on Tuesday the 10th to the NIFD (national institute of fashion design). Oh my god, we had such a hard day. For the girls modeling sounded like fun and glamour, but actually it is hard work. You have to walk up the floor and down the flour, without eating more than a little breakfast for the whole day and you won’t believe it, but for those girls, who work at home as if they are slaves the hardest thing was to wait. Wait for the beginning of the practice, wait for the collections, and wait to change, wait for the choreographer…
Anyways, we had a lot of fun too, off course. We had fun while walking, fooling around making jokes and dancing. I think it was good for the girls to get to know the other models, who were very nice and understanding.
It was wonderful to watch the little changes in the girls: the first day, dressed in western clothes, the girls were so uncomfortable sitting in the rickshaw and being watched by so many men. The 5th day we sang all the songs of Kabi kushi kabi Gamh(sometimes happiness and sometimes sorrows) so loud, that I’m nearly sure that the whole street heard us, on the way back home (with hand movements, of course). No hiding any more, no fear or insecurity. This was wonderful.
But the thing the most important was the fashion show itself of course. We were so happy, that nearly all the girls, Govind, Virendra and even Mukta were there to see us!
We had a pretty long day, with practicing the whole morning, getting make up and dressed, practice again and than waiting, waiting for the show to start. The girls were surprisingly chilled and relaxed. There was a little excitement, when they noticed that Govind will watch them, but they talked to him at the phone and after that everything was fine. I was so proud of them, even more, when we started walking, because they did such a great job. Can you imagine some girls from the untouchables, about whom normally nobody cares whether they are alive or dead, which arrived at Govind’s project and did not even look in anybodies eyes, to walk as professionals? I couldn’t, but now I can.
They kept relaxed while the uncontrollable chaos backstage and were cooperative, no problems while changing or waiting!
After the show, we were so happy to have our people around me. Some family members of Pammi and Chandni were there as well, and they loved the work of the girls, which made them even happier! Chandni started crying, and they were so grateful for this experience and all the other girls seemed excited about this too!
Thank you Govind and Kamlesh, that they made this come true!
But still there are some problems after that, and I’m unsure whether it was such a great idea after all. Now the girls are back in the project, they are not fulfilled by what we are doing here any more. Especially Soniya for who a dream came true, seems to be lost, but even Pammi is unmotivated. We showed them an other world, which they can not reach even after being part of it for a while. More over there were some problems with the other girls as well, it seems that now there are two groups… our models are not able to find their place in the community from today to tomorrow again.
But I hope after some time passing, they will be able to keep this as what it is: a great experience, which showed and teached them a lot and which they could keep in their memory and tell their children, one day!