| Champa Mahila Society | ||||
National Institute for the Orthopedically Handicapped (NIOH): I went there to find out various details on Sep 2, Tuesday. They told that each child will need a income certificate (of his/her family) signed by the BDO or MLA (only). If any child requires wheel chair or tri-wheeler they should bring 2 photographs showing the child from head to feet. It was interesting to see how the building was equipped with ramps. Gopal da called that very day & came to pick up the check, some children's clothes & games for the NFE centers on Sep 3, Wednesday. The following day I had a long chat with Amal da & we fixed the tentative date for my site visit & their NIOH visit with the children. Before this Amal da had informed over phone that construction of the SAC center (extension) has started. [More later] The Trip: This year my cousin & his wife accompanied us. We went to CMS on Sep 12, Friday & came back on Sep 16, Tuesday. Sep 12, Friday: In the morning I went to NIOH to help Baren da & Gopal da with the 6 special children. Then Gopal da & I came back & went to CMS with my mom, cousin & his wife. We reached CMS that evening. The special children had reached an hour before us. At night all the boys came to visit us from the home. Sep 13, Saturday: The morning started with a rally for Pulse Polio. Children & teachers from all sections of CMS (NFE's, Shibganj Primary, SAC program, boy's home, Tarun Tirtho - youth forum) took part in a big rally bringing awareness & re-emphasizing the need for polio vaccination. Some local doctors were also present. The rally started with small speeches by various people. After that we had a workshop with ALL the NFE teachers. Some crèche mothers also joined us. My mother helped them with math & languages while I made teaching-learning (T&L) aids during that time. The NFE in charges, Shekhar & Swapon, helped me through out & learnt how to make these. In the evening we went to a village called Harekrishnapur. Thanks to 2 spells of heavy rain the roads were horrible. We visited the NFE there & attended a program organized by the villagers & the children. It was cut short by another round of shower. However the local audience, mostly mothers, were ready to continue. The walk back was more difficult. We barely managed not to slip & fall. Sep 14, Sunday: One person (Swapon) came from Amla Methi, in a diff island Gosaba. We discussed a lot of things. Subhash da, just back from a workshop on mixed cropping, kitchen garden etc also joined & mentioned what all he has learnt. This Swapon had hoped that we would visit that place but time was too short for it. We are planning to open another center there for girls who have dropped out. After lunch the Ashram boys & I had a long chat where we discussed many things starting from how to study more effectively & interestingly to various things about US. Our "adda" ended with a series of songs. Then there was a program organized by them where they sang, danced, said (or did) action rhymes, recited poems etc. Sep 15, Monday: This was the most heavily packed day. The morning started with some survey & discussion with the head mason to get an idea & estimate of the cost of extending the home & building a ramp. We visited the NFE center at Shibganj Majher para with a new room. Parts of the road were in very bad shape. Another spell worsened the situation on the way back. After lunch, we paid a short visit to Shibganj Primary School & moved on to the SAC center. From there we went to Chandkhali to see another NFE center also with a new shade. The panchayet has made brick roads & it did not rain! On the way back we stopped at the SAC center where the new building is taking shape. In the evening, Shekhar & Nirmal helped me make some T&L material. NIOH experience: It became very clear that communicating from Sundarban & following up with the medical needs of the boys won't be a easy job for CMS. Though NIOH seemed very polite & helpful over phone, some of the doctors were rude & in general they seemed short of stuff. It was a big challenge to handle the leg work & keep track of everything for 6/7 boys with just 3 people. One of the rude doctors told us that we should have fixed an appointment but was not ready to listen to me when I mentioned that they should have said that earlier when I had come to enquire. Hopefully the same problem won't arise again. One boy turned out to be spastic, another needed operation (which is still pending), some others had no cure & few needed physiotherapy. We did a lot of measurements & plan for the extension of the existing hostel in such a way so that one ramp will suffice for the entire premise. The budget however looks really BIG. The good thing however is that they have started helping these boys & they mix perfectly with the rest. In fact among those present right now can do pretty well without any ramp. But there might be more serious cases. Also I'm not sure how much this will help since there will be no ramp outside CMS for a long time. Also CMS seemed not so comfortable with residential facilities for girls under their responsibilities. They mentioned that it might be better to collaborate with the other girls' hostels in that area & house the girls there. We (Asha) need to follow that up. Ashram/Boys' Home: With the years these 'brothers' are becoming more & more friendly. This time they wasted no time in visiting us. I spent a lot of time with them discussing almost everything under the sky. Later Amol & we were discussing more options & activities for them - both in terms of games & vocational activities. E.g. the soil in this region is excellent for clay modeling. So in addition to carpentry they can also try their hands on that. SAC: The girls were very lively, vocal & had things their way. They made sure everybody took part in their program. The 3 teachers were more friends than anything else. I saw a lot of similarities to Urmul Jyoti. One of the teachers, Jayanti, grew up thru Tarun Tirtho - CMS's youth forum. Archana, has some basic training in primary education & Basanti is great with crafts. The girls are learning to make "agarbatti" & they are selling like hot cake in the local market. The SHG moms also by a lot. But I was really surprised to see many girls to young to be drop out in the center. It turned out that the local people don't differentiate much between a govt school & this program. In fact they prefer this since the teachers are much better & the children get individual attention. Amol da later told me that these girls come from families who have no experience of ever going to school. So these girls are pushed into formal school gradually. 10 of them have been placed in Shibganj Primary. They attend classes there thrice a week & at the SAC center another 3 days. They also get the tiffin from SAC. They are reluctant to leave this for the govt school, which is understandable. We (Asha) need to make sure that in the long these SAC does not turn out to be replacement for govt schools but forces the govt schools to improve the quality of education they are providing now. Shibganj Primary: This year I was rescued by CMS people from some boring speeches by the old teachers. We did saw some performances & met the 2nd teacher (we are supporting), Hriday. Amol da told me later that one of the ashram boy has graduated to high school. He used to take care of many things at Shibganj primary & the school is finding it hard to go on without him! NFE's: Finally the biggest program of CMS. I feel this is a classic example of broad based quality education. All the teachers are from the community & have got trained. Each year they get some reinforcement thru my mom. All the schools have strong village committee comprising of the moms & dads to make sure everything runs smoothly + ensure accountability. Also the 2 supervisor had matured a lot than I had seen last year. Some teachers also mentioned that they (supervisors) make absolutely sure that there is no slack. Due to time crunch we visited only 3 centers this time & 2 of them had new sheds. Needless to mention there were inauguration ceremonies at both places. It was interesting to see that the money was distributed village wise & each village decided what type of shed they want to build. The children were as bright & prompt as ever. At Majher Para one of them told me a story which we had told in some center last year! At Chandkhali the teacher had incorporated drawing (as suggested by my mom last year) into her regular teaching & added more to it! In fact even after the inauguration program was declared over the children kept coming to the mic & continued saying rhymes etc. - a great example of children's empowerment: "Our school, we decide when the program will be over". It was also interesting to see the role of local panchayet. At Majher Para the panchayet members don't do anything & hence try to avoid the local people. So the roads were horrible & we got a request to make the NFE a primary school!! In Chandkhali the panchayet works & was present at the ceremony. No need to hide. It was also heartening to know that a lady came several miles to request CMS to take her land & relocate the NFE there. Also this is the place where the moms have successfully made sure they take turns to provide the tiffin once a week. The only request they had was for a tube well since there was no source of drinking water - I nicely passed it onto the panchayet's table. The other NFE we visited was Dhas Bhanga/Harekrishnapur. This one has a pakka building & the children were as good as ever. There is absolutely no doubt these children are getting good education. But there definitely is room for more improvement. As part of that, every year my mom has been doing one day workshops with them. This time all NFE teachers & some crèche mothers joined us. We also worked on making teaching learning aids. I had taken many old boxes & one side empty color papers (retrieved from recycle bins) with me. Those came in very handy in making the materials. The last evening was spent just on that. Asha Kolkata volunteers are working with CMS & Vikramshila to make sure the 2nd round training gets done early next year. My mom also suggest making small models with clay as part of regular NFE activities. This will also be a good pre-writing exercise for the fingers. It was interesting to know that people prefer the CMS NFE's over the govt sponsored "anganwari's" even though the later provides tiffin & the former does not in most cases. People know very well where children will get the education & make the choices accordingly. However CMS tries to make sure that the poorest of all get priority at the NFE's. Clearly education has become a movement. Last but not the least I was "gherao-ed" by the NFE teachers who are not supported by Asha with the demand/question that how come they get tiffin & our schools don't? So Asha Seattle: we need to push Support A School as hard as possible. Health: The doctor stays for 2/3 days per week & during that time he see 60-70 per day. He is doing MD in anesthesia while in service. & when he graduates he'll start charging Rs.1000 more. Now CMS is paying him Rs.6000 per month. There's 1 PHC & 3 secondary ones (in Jharkhali, Maheshpur & Kathalberia). Other discussions: Amla Methi: 14000 people in a 8km by 5km island surrounded by forest & rivers. Tigers pay some visits when winter draws near. There are 400 women involved in SHG's. Education: high school (V-X) - 1, primary (I-IV) - 3, +2 - 0, NFE - 5, ICDS - 3 (but very irregular, children come only as long as there is food) Kitchen garden: It was interesting to hear about the training Subhash da (Kitchen garden wing in charge) recently took. This provided by CARE with assistance from Service Center. He admitted that coming from farmers family sometimes people like him think that they know a lot about agriculture till they are shown things they didn't know. E.g. how to mix diff types of plants in mix cropping to prevent root competition, maintain crop cycle, prevent harmful insects. He also mentioned how they were taught to relate the Indian tricolor with the 4 basic food groups: saffron - fat, white - starch, green - vegetables, blue (wheel) - protein. I mentioned the pyramid to him & how nutritionists here say that more colorful = more healthy. I mentioned Debal Deb's work wrt indigenous rice varieties rather than the high breed ones. Swapon from Amla Methi was very keen in such a training/workshop. He seemed very eager to learn how to farm better. I'll follow up with Debal da on this. PPI's funding for the kitchen garden is coming to an end this year? Have to double check. Pulse Polio: Mostly covered thanks to the SHG's. Still around 272 families do not participate yet. Other: Since forest has reduced in size, its difficult for the tigress to find a safe place to bring up her cubs. So she comes to human habitat for shelter. But often we don't understand them & irritate the animal. So she tries to defend herself & in the process injures some. Moreover there have been 7 people attacked by tigers in a single year from Jharkhali. Basanti block: population - 278543, male - 142487, female - 136056. 704 tube wells, 523 by govt, rest by diff NGO's. CMS took training in a business development program organized by Service Center on 25-27 Sep. Another potential workshop can be on local governance i.e. how to make panchayet more accountable, take active part in the process & get things done. Last year I had attended a very interactive workshop on this by Manob Sen. I contacted him & there was a meeting in Sundarban by another org Shabuj Sangho. CMS was invited there & hopefully have met Mr. Sen there. I also tried to discuss rain water harvesting, since Sundarban is surrounded by water - but salty water. Everything is fine & doable except that where to store that much water. Unlike other areas there is no land left in Sundarban which is neither habited nor farmed. Also underground tanks are not viable due to the geo-physical nature of Gangetic Delta. Overall Impression: Lack of email & uncertainty of the phone service remains to be problems of communication. Need a lot of help from Asha Kolkata on this. Other than that CMS can really use some training/help in documenting - again something that Asha Kolkata should try to help with. CMS is also eager to learn. So over & above the Vikramshila training next year, have to follow up on kitchen garden/farming related training & something on local governance. The 2nd one is important since there is a lot of people involved & wanting to take action i.e. awareness is there, but need to know how to proceed. CMS home |
||||