Posts Tagged ‘GRAVIS’
Susan Kahn and David Kaskowitz
When Susan Kahn came home to San Francisco after travelling extensively in Guatemala and Mexico in the 1990’s, she came home invigorated with the sense of wanting to give back to the international community. When Susan first learned about IDEX, she offered to become a volunteer in a bid to satisfy her passion for grassroots development and supporting local initiatives.
Reflecting back on the time she spent at IDEX, Susan says she was most impressed by the “really close and personal connections IDEX shares with their local partners.” Read the rest of this entry »
Sep
21Voices from The Field: Student Perspective on IDEX Partner GRAVIS in Rajasthan, India
2011
Posted by IDEX
The following was written by Adithya Balasubramanian, a Rice University sophomore student and a recent intern at GRAVIS.
Photo by: Robert Wallace, MHA
This summer I conducted an independent study with Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS), a long-standing IDEX partner, on the social impact of tuberculosis and malnutrition. As part of my study, I visited GRAVIS field sites to gain firsthand experience with their various development projects. During my field visits, I was immediately struck by the disparity of the societal standing of women in rural and urban areas. I sought to analyze this divide and understand how GRAVIS is mitigating gender disparity in the region. Read the rest of this entry »
The following was written by Suzanne York, IDEX friend and blogger at Taming the Tiger, a blog on India, Climate Change and Human Rights.
We need to hear more about the numerous heroes and heroines in our midst, along with successful grassroots projects, and less about partisan politics and the like. Read the rest of this entry »
IDEX Executive Director, Rajasvini Bhansali, is currently traveling in India on evaluation field visits with IDEX partners, and potential catalyst grantees.
Gravis SHG Member with her Daughter
Rahul Mishra, GRAVIS Program Coordinator, shared his journey of working in rural development. He explained that what he learned theoretically in a rural development program was less useful than the practical application of working in 15 villages with their unique conditions, cultures, circumstances and people-led development.
Rahul works with a team of 2 other field workers who employ participatory methods to build trust and relationships with the villages they serve. Natwar, one of the field workers, could have worked in the private sector for a lot more money when he graduated with a MBA. But coming home to his village and getting involved with the women’s self help groups (SHGs) motivated him to get involved in community driven development.
Natwar explained that initially the men in this rural community of Hemapura were reluctant to let the women in their households group together. But after witnessing the success of women’s self help groups; they have begun to create more opportunities for women to participate in the village’s planning processes.
I was able to join a meeting of the Bismillah Self Help Group. This is a group of Muslim women who have saved more than 10,000 rupees in less than a year. They have managed to support each other in buying goats, sewing machines and even send their girls to school. At this particular meeting of the Bismillah SHG, the women discuss their concerns about not being able to recruit a teacher for the girls’ school that they’ve just established.
Bismillah SHG has worked with the local Madrassah (mosque) to offer a room to start this school. But this may not be the best solution. There is some discussion between the SHG members and the GRAVIS field workers about whether or not holding a secular school on the Madrassah premises might give the impression that the school is non-secular. The women suggest approaching the local panchayat (governing body) to ask them to donate land to the budding school. This way the school will be clearly non-denominational. The school would then be more accessible to people from all communities and castes.
There is much discussion amongst the young and old and everyone gets to express their opinion before a decision and a plan is made. A small group of women will approach the panchayat for support.
It’s the first day of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting in Islam. The chairwoman of the Bismillah SHG speaks to us about how all people are one under Allah’s moon and sun. This is what the group celebrates. The women warmly share with us their ritual of cooking special foods to break fast daily.
Over my now sixth cup of chai today, I learn about how the group overcame initial dissensions to build greater unity with each other. They now work together on meaningful projects, both for their homes as well as for the community at large. They talk about sharing crops, water and just as importantly, insights about their children. And so begins that important time of the year and as the sun slowly sets over the desert. I am grateful again to celebrate grassroots action in all its glory.
IDEX Executive Director, Rajasvini Bhansali, is currently traveling in India on evaluation field visits with IDEX partners, and potential catalyst grantees.
A biodiverse household garden in Rajasthan
After a 4-hour journey from Jodhpur, Shashi Tyagi, Rahul Mishra, Abdul (all GRAVIS employees) and I arrive in Kolu Nimbyat village in Western Rajasthan’s rural desert area. It’s good to be back in my home state. I’ve spent most of the trip marveling at the effects of abundant rainfall this July and August. For the first time in almost 3 years in Rajasthan the monsoon has brought enough water. While I cannot describe Jodhpur’s landscape as “lush,” relative to past years there is green everywhere. Cows, buffalos, goats and even dogs that are usually skin and bones in drought-ridden Rajasthan now have some fat on their bones.
Sandstone mines abut the road in Kolu Nimbyat. Each mine has a long line of daily-wage workers mining, cutting and shaping stone with their bare hands. Village women walk in groups wearing bright orange, pink, red and yellow ghagras. But they are no longer carrying pitchers of water on their heads. After many years their homes now either have a taanka (underground water storage container) or are built close enough to a neighbor’s taanka. IDEX supported taankas have been built, and horticultural gardens with drought tolerant crops have been planted by GRAVIS in this village since 2007.
GRAVIS works with the Village Development Committees (VDCs) in this area. With the guidance of the VDCs, GRAVIS works to support local households with food and water security.
Our first stop is at the home of Poonam Kanwar. Poonam planted her garden in 2007 with sesame, lemons, watermelons, cucumbers, moong (a nutritious Indian lentil), moth (another Indian lentil), cluster beans or guar, bor (desert fruit) and millet or bajra. She demonstrates her homegrown drip irrigation system made with earthen pots. Poonam also uses natural pesticides that she makes with cow dung and indigenous herbs. The garden is beautifully tended to and the whole family has seen their health improve since they started eating this nutrition rich diet from their garden.
The Government of India has many agricultural programs for desert areas. One of which is to provide families with 50 units of seedlings and plants. This can be counter-productive for many rural families who simply do not have access to sufficient water to take care of household needs. Let alone tend to animals, and manage a large food garden.
GRAVIS supports families with 4 main crops and no more than 16 seedlings. This is a more manageable amount. It allows families to experiment with growing drought tolerant and indigenous crops. As they adopt more sustainable farming methods they are able to yield more food for their families. They can also use conserved water to gradually increase the size of their gardens. It’s another indication of how holistic, integrated approaches to rural development recognize that water and food security are deeply connected.
Next I joined a meeting of the Ramdevji Self-Help Group (SHG). 14 women were meeting to go over the group’s finances. Not only has this multigenerational group saved over 30 Rupees ($0.65) each per month from their meager earnings, but they have also managed to support 2 women in the group to buy goats. The women have been able to increase their earnings from selling dairy products from the goats.
The women also save seeds. I am struck by the connection of ecology and economy in this group. They explain to me that financial self-sufficiency and food security go hand-in-hand. They can’t possibly save money to give to their daughters and pay for household goods, if they can’t save seeds, that which gives sustenance to their entire household. They delicately undo the lids of their earthen pots, sealed to keep out insects, and show me watermelon, sesame, moong and moth seeds. These were saved from the recent crop and will be planted next season. In the meantime, the president of the group proudly explains how the group has saved over 7000 Rupees ($150US) this past year from their own earnings. They plan to support more members to buy goats.
Right as the sun is setting, we arrive at the tail end of a Village Development Committee meeting in Hempura Village. The 11-member committee is comprised of 5 women and 6 men. I sit with the visionary chairman, dynamic vice-chairwoman and quieter secretary as they share their recent victories.
I am told how the 11-member committee protested the lack of electricity in their village even after pre-paying three months of bills for non-existent electricity. They also share with me how they joined forces with GRAVIS field workers to build water taankas for the most vulnerable in their communities.
Finally they introduce me to the poorest couple in the village. This is a disabled woman in her thirties who used to depend on neighbors to fetch water for her family having been struck by polio in her childhood. Her husband cannot look for daily-wage work since he has to care for her. She is unable to do much more than sit and cook or walk to the tiny shack’s outdoor seating area. One night, while trying to make the most of the rains, her husband went out to collect water and was bitten by a snake. He too is now disabled. The VDC has decided to support this couple in soliciting a pension from the government due to their disability and has plans to build them a water taanka.
The members of the VDC are not that much better off, but I am struck by the kindness, resilience and universal love that they exhibit to ensure that those who are even worse off, have a way to live with dignity.
IDEX kicked off 2009 by encouraging staff, and volunteers to read development oriented books. The plan? To better inform ourselves, and just as importantly to get together after hours and review issues we work on daily. What better way to review and share current thoughts on international issues and development!
Last week IDEX held our inaugural book club discussion. For our first book we chose Making Globalization Work by Nobel Prize winner economist Joseph Stiglitz. Stiglitz argues that we can make globalization work for both developed and developing countries, but changes have to be made.
What stuck out was his acknowledgment of the need to take the environment into account, while also preserving traditional indigenous knowledge as corporations are trying to patent natural resources. Preserving traditional knowledge is something we do focus on at IDEX. Many of our partners practice sustainable agriculture. Our partners GRAVIS, in India, and ASHA, in Nepal, encourage local communities to save seeds to conserve local varieties.
Stiglitz dedicates a number of pages to the role of community. He says in his book: “what makes programs (such as BRAC and Grameen Bank) so successful is that they come out of the communities that they service and address the needs of the people in those communities.” (p52) Stiglitz’s book also provided us a good platform to have discussions on the role of the IMF and The World Bank in poverty alleviation and the impacts of so-called free trade.
If you have read the book, or have comments to share with us about how Stiglitz’s book is relevant to supporting community development, we invite you to share your thoughts with us.
For more thoughts on globalization in 2009, a recent blog posting by Zarah Patriana discusses views on the future of globalization as a result of the recent World Economic Forum in Davos and World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil. What do you think the future holds for globalization?
We’ll be reading the book Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel for our next book club in March.
Photo credit: Jan Stürmann. Members of ASHA in Nepal demonstrate seed-saving techniques.
Yesterday, Saturday, Nov 15 was the first day of field visits. But I should introduce myself. I am Gillian, the Communications Director at IDEX. This is my first trip to visit the work of IDEX’s partners and I have been amazed at everything I’ve seen so far.
I need to be brief this morning as the connection is haphazard here and we also need to head off soon to see more of GRAVIS’ work.
GRAVIS took us to see their hospital which serves the community within a 75km radius (a little under 50 miles). The hospital was founded in 2001 and since then is has expanded considerably, adding an eye care unit in 2005. This was critcal as cataracts are an issue for everyone here. Even young children get cataracts as a result of poor nutrition and the harsh glare of the sun.
From here we headed off to visit a woman community leader and see her small craft business that she has grown with the assistance of loans from her self-help-group (SHG). SHGs are the model used here build women’s skills as they provide a venue for women to come to together and talk about their problems. This has not been traditional in Rajasthan. The women in the SHGs go on to learn a variety of skills that benefit themselves, their families and communities. They also save 50 rupees each month ($1) and the group can loan funds this to each other to start small business initiatives. We sat with the rest of her SHG asking questions and responding to their questions. We drew a large crowd of children wanting us to take their photos over and over again and squealing with delight as they then saw their images on the digital camera screens.
Taanka’s (water storage devices that collect rain water) are also critical to women’s empowerment as women spend many hours a day walking to collect water. I believe we are seeing more water storage methods today. But after seeing photos of taankas, reading and writing about them for several years it was a thrill to finally see one, and peer into the water below and discover lots of frogs! The communities introduce frogs to the taankas to ensure unwanted insects that could damage crops and bring disease are managed.
I hope to post more later, and maybe even photos if I can upload them on this connection.
