=================== Sanctuary Conference Networking Session Day 3 - Dec 16, 2003 ==================== Venkata:There have been several instances of issue-based networks at various levels. There appear to be networks for anti-traficking efforts. Can we say that we do not need yet another network for anti-traficking? Is there a consensus? Ajeet: Why should we say that? By chance there might be an instance of traficking? Hansa: He (Venkata) is not saying that it cannot be done. He is saying that anti-traficking neednt be our focus. Venkata: Over the past couple of days, I have been talking to people. Each person seems to have idea of what is needed. I jotted down a few. You could add/delete to it. This is a starting point w.r.t what could be done. If there is sufficient interest then we can talk about what next. Key question: Do we need a network? Some people have listed the following areas of cooperation. 1. Information flow - knowing about counseling, rehabilitation etc techniques 2. Branding - Although women are trained in specific skills, it appear that they werent viable enough, i.e., they werent sustainable sources of revenue. Rehabilitation techniques didnt succeed for that reason. One idea put forward is the idea of a brand - a marketing channel for produce of the women. There are similarities to Lijjat. Lijjat is one brand. There is consistent source of revenue for the women. 3. Legitamacy for the ideas - many people say the same thing over and over again in different parts of the country the idea gets some legitamacy.It could remain within public discourse. 4. Spectacular PR efforts - coordinated PR campaigns. issue gets visibility in the mainstream media. Anita: We are talking about specific activities of the network. We can talk about broad areas instead of specific activities. Venkata: Thats a valid point but these are some needs that people felt. This is a starting point and the group here can decide about what they should do. Do we need a network? If so what should it do? Hansa: Are there any suggestions for what you would like to focus on - which fills a gap in the existing networks? Or we could do a better job? Anita: One topic that Anjali brought up was information sharing and awareness. [..inaudible...] ?? : ...creating a market for work by children can be valid item. Documenting such efforts and successful models can be useful. Venkata: Is it that people are not still aware of the options? chandravel: I dont think they are aware of all the options right now. Anjali: May be there are several options but they are not aware of them - boils down to information sharing. Anandit: I am not sure if this is something that the network takes up or not but IOM has done several projects in India. What are trying to create is models for businesses that will be eventually owned and run by rescued children. We are working through NGOs such as sanlaap, prajwala etc. We are looking at vocational trainging from the point of view of business or market viability. We dont want to focus on stitching etc [in isolation]. We are trying to bring in National Institute of Fashion Design, japanese sewing machine costing 9000Rs etc. We trying to setup something that is as close to the real world as possible because at the end of the day this girl has to compete in the real world. Successful exhibitions are mostly one time. It will not continue on sympathy. If quality, branding and marketing are not as good as those in the market, then public will not go for it. We have done it successfully with 150 girls already. It has worked very well - 2000-3000 13 business case studies can help. There are people working on this. This idea can be borrowed to other women - destitute etc. Venkata: What is the extent of capital requirements? Anandit: Depends on the business, how innovative you can get and how good the marketing strategies are. Vasudev: Prajwala's amul parlor is a great idea. Anindit: Government has given them property, Amul has given them their label and products, IOM has given them managing infrastructure and training. Venkata: What have other people's experiences been w.r.t. rehabilitation? Indrani(?): We have a block printing unit whose products are sold through the government emporium. About 10 girls can sustain themselves by this. They have definite marketing platform. They dont need the organization for that. Venkata: Is there a need for a formal network to share this information? Indrani: I think so. Stanly(?): As far as sharing information goes, there are existing networks that can be used to share information. Hansa: What about the quality of exchange that happened in this conference that may not have happened in other places? Did you all get something out of this? Did you all share more information? Stanly: We have benifited. One point that I would like to make in the context of socio-economic rehabilitation of sexually exploited girls - they need assitance, psychotheraphy more than rehabilitation. We have to create different activities that bring the girl out of traumatic conditions. One is cultural activities, learning in joyful manner, may be meditation. Then we come to earning. Venkata: Absolutely. There is no change in priorities. === Coming back to networking === Anjali: We could document or exchange certain ideas - e.g., the girl being able to compete in the market. Even a locally produced items - they may be even seasonal - successful models and why they succeeded. sharing that information can guide others. Venkata: Information flow is one way. One suggested way to pass on this information is visits by children or by staff to NGOs that have strengths in particular areas. Parashu: Individual economic activity can give good result for the upliftment of the children. Venkata: Will a NGO directory identifying all possible NGOs and their strengths help? It may not too general. It may consist of groups present here and possibly any body else that these groups recommend. There may not be a formal network but there could be some effort led by some of the groups here. That does not address the issue of whether there is a need for a network. Indrani(?): Network needs information. Three different areas with need. First, experiences with formal/non-formal education alternatives Second, as stanly was saying, we need to the child childhood back. and then have a process from the mental health point of view. Those issues need to be looked at in detail. Also this is the child that will enter into adulthood in 2-3 years time. We cannot just continue [looking at mental health]. She has come out and stand on her own feet. Then we have to talk about vocational training. There are experiences that must be documented and shared. Here I learned about Tomorrow's Foundation and how they working with the municipal school is creative. We need that networking. If the network was there, the information would have been available earlier. Information sharing on particular issues is necessary. We talked about cultural efforts. By chance one girl took interest and taught the girls to dance. That became a full time program and a therapy for the girls. They have registered their own platform and organization. They get calls. We didnt even realize that this can be done - used as a therapy. Other organizations can learn from this. [..inaudible debate...] Stanly: ...[because of their experiences] they have a borrowed personality that is not theirs. Once removed, their childhood comes out. That atmosphere has to be created by those thinking about rehabilitation. I suggest psychosocial theraphy. Ramesh: Lets focus more on networking. Anita: One thing that comes to my mind is if we distill these experiences... each NGO has a strength. If each NGO can document that things that have worked well for them in their area of strength Venkata: what seems to be missing here the channel that fosters communication between the organizations. it appears that this forum achieved some amount of it [communication]. Would it be reasonable to conclude that you will be interested in more of these meetings? at different levels on different topics. Vasu: One persistant model is child helpline 1098 - started by TISS. Thats one good experience in terms of recording several solutions that are available in one location e.g., Mumbai. They have also systematized interms of a protocol also. How to rescue a child, prior to that what are all the things you do etc. I am not going into the operations. Looking into spreading of the message through organizations and Govt., and putting them together, they will try to see that the child gets some "justice" (used cautiously). You can learn together. The orgs in Mysore can together and ask how fast they can rehabilitate the child. If you look at examples..some time back what happened was: some 85 girls were rescued. they were simply dumped into the railway compartment and sent to bangalore. 30 dropped out at Raichur. Saathi was asked to take care of them. Rest of them came to Bangalore. They were angry and upset. I am thinking aloud here: If we can train the educated youth (apprenticeship) in handling such situations....May be Odanadi can take up some of that. People like Radhamma and lakshmi who know the techniques of talking and pacifying..you(?) can initiate training programs for them [educated youth]. Meenakshi: He mentioned about childline which has support from top levels, collectors had their roles, and everybody did their job. It does not happen always. Hansa: What would happen if we create a network is that you all will have to do it in your own capacity. Is this something that you would like? There is no role for us out there. Vasu: There is hope. the central govt has passed the law. The state governments are passing the state policies. once the policies are in place, the HRD will be compelled to take up a largescale program. a national study has child traficking has just been completed. We will have to be prepared to take the programs forward. [...coming back to networking...] Anita: Anjali brought up a good point about sharing. There are always new ideas, perspective and approaches that can be shared. Would groups be willing to take time and effort to write? It should happen regularly. Thats one way of starting the collaboration. Venkata: Comebody would have collate information and send it out. There are already people who have experiences - saathi, sanlaap. Can this done in a scalable and stable fashion? Their efforts appear to be driven by their own efforts. There is also certain homogeniety to who they are dealing with. Sophia: We are going to publish a booklet. e.g., traficking. We are in the process. Anita: Is there a need for something more "living"? Preeti: [Paraphrasing..] We need to have more rigorous documentation effort. I sent Hansa a bunch of documents, one of which is on the camps that we conduct. It is well documented and can be replicated because it has a lot of detail - time, people, cost. What helped us is some training in documentation. It helps a lot. Many notes get lost. Julia: ...Sometimes the state policies change. We dont come to know or come to know of them late. It is not only what we are doing. Venkata: Moving on to structure. Should we have a new banner etc. or should we build upon existing infrastructure such as the documentation center of Sanlaap. Indrani: There should be atleast one group of 3-4 people who can bring in different discussion. I may not understand that I should share something specific. Anita: Is this something that people require this regularly or once a year? Indrani: ...we can do it on a regular basis... Anita: Are there not forums that exist already for this? [...somebody said there exists and email list...] Hansa: Cant we just use them? Anjali: Over there(?) things which have been put up [get lost]. They have to documented somewhere. Venkata: You are saying that they are not archived. They can be. Meenakshi: [It is not convenient]. It is not in booklet form. Sometimes electricity goes. Venkata: Sometimes the policies change. Hard copy is necessary. "Sharing information with the objective of improving creating awareness and improving efficiency". ??: Can this be a space for information about training? Anita: Sure. But some information might be time sensitive. Venkata: There could be different ways - news letters, email etc. A suggestion was a smaller group can coordinate this effort. A few organizations can take the responsibility. Hansa: We are looking for volunteers to take on responsibilities. Anyone? Anita: We need to define what the responsibilities are? Only when people have some idea, they are going to be able to say yes or no. Venkata: There are a spectrum of possibilities. It will evolve over a period of time depends on what we want to do. Hansa: Consider documentation. PReeti pointed out the need for better documentation. Is that going to change with this newsletter. [addressing the audience]. Preeti: I will take responsibility to document Prerna's effort. Hansa: All groups can send the information to a central place. Is there somebody who can collect? Anita: On the web or in other forms. Venkata: Once the information is collected, it can be disseminated in different forms. As a starting point we can do some of this compilation effort. Even if we are not clear what needs to be done right now, can a few of come forward to brainstorm over the long term? Volunteers: Preeti Indrani Anindit Vasu Stanly Typically in such exercises, everybody comes in with a proposal. Can we expect some proposal from each volunteer so that they can debated. Preeti: Can we have somebody from Asha coordinate this effort for one year? Hansa: We were ready to do it as long as there was an exit strategy. If we grow, who would be partners and how do we grow? In this case misuse is not possible. would you all refer organizations? Venkata: Thats probably jumping ahead. Once we have a proposal we would need to assign responsibilities. How do we do it? Anjali: Is everybody on email? Venkata: More or less. Hansa: Lets do it on email. Anjali: For one year you do. Hansa: Responsibilities can decided later on. Any open issues? Venkata: How do we encourage everyone to participate? Vasu: That will be decided once we have the proposals in place. [Break for lunch]