13C Programmes

Hi All

I'm Paul, the Country Programme Leader for Raleigh India and I'm responsible for running the programmes over here. 

I know everybody is really interested in exactly what it is the volunteers have signed up for, so below is a brief synopsis. I'm really excited about 13C, its our third programme here in India and there are some amazing projects already well under way. Keep watching for updates here, we will try to get as many posted as possible along with videos and photos. It can be difficult for us to get information from groups as we rely on field base team members visiting the villages and collecting information. We send out 2 teams every three weeks for 4-5 days at a time. With everybody being so remote and with 12 teams in total out there we have a lot of mileage to cover! 

Keep sending your letters, everybody looks forward to receiving them and we also hand out your personal messages from the blog to individuals when the field base team are visiting the villages.

The groups are coming back to field base very soon, IY1 & 2, IR3,4 & 5 and IC6 are coming back on the 22nd Fed for 3 days and then IY7,8 & 9, IR10 & 11 and IC12 are coming back as the first group leave on the 25th Feb for 3 days. There will be more training, a chance to grab some shopping and catch up with how the other projects are doing. 

Keep watching for updates!

Thanks

Paul     

Raleigh India ICS programmes.

Raleigh India ICS’s first programme was delivered in August 2012 and 13C is our third and largest programme to date delivering 12 projects in two categories; Health & Sanitation (6 projects) and Rural Livelihoods (6 projects). The two programmes have been developed from our existing community and environmental projects and in collaboration with our long standing Indian NGO project partners MYRADA, MYCAPS and CTRD.

The aims of both programmes is primarily to deliver awareness training to remote rural villages (tribal and non tribal), which have little or no access to government funding and education programmes.

The 10 week programme is designed to give the volunteers a full understanding of development issues in rural India and to fully participate in delivering measurable and tangible outcomes through awareness raising, health and vet camps, the setting up of self help groups (micro finance & social) and construction of relevant sanitation and farming units.

The first 3 weeks focus on development training and the volunteers integrating into their villages. After a short induction at our field base, where the volunteers are trained by Raleigh staff on key Raleigh concepts and including communications, health and safety and cultural awareness, the volunteers head to their villages. The 3 weeks are interspersed with village integration and project partner training. The training has been developed to teach the key elements of village structures, development needs and then practical tools needed to help volunteers deliver strong inputs and outcomes into the project villages. Volunteers fully participate in village life, arranging meetings, sports days, attending festivals and visiting schools are just some of the activities.

Key Training:

·         Community based organizations and their role in a village – these include self help groups, unions, political bodies, NGO’s etc

·         Participatory Rural Appraisal – This is a tool to help understand the community’s needs through various practical exercises, such as social mapping and timeline

·         Community health issues & sanitation or Integrated Farming Development. This information enables them to create awareness training.

The volunteers set up 8 committees within their group to help project manage their time and resources, enable delivery and create full reports on their activities.  Volunteers are expected to chair and manage these committees, reporting to their Team Leaders and ultimately these reports are utilized by the project partners as part of their ongoing work to ensure sustainability and continuity.    

Following another 3 day visit to field base, where we review and consolidate their learning and give them further training (and a short break!) the volunteers head out and begin work on delivering awareness training, start setting up health and vet camps (for the livelihood programme), self help groups and also begin construction.

The next 40 or so days, the volunteers will work tirelessly delivering awareness training, setting up and running camps and self help groups and also spend a maximum of 21 days in a construction phase. We expect that our current volunteers with be able to deliver awareness training to over 10,000 people, ensure over 3600 people attend health camps and receive free medical care and over 1500 livestock animals will be checked. We aim to also set up a minimum of 12-24 self help groups and one has already been set up!

The volunteers will travel around their locale visiting other villages to enable them to raise awareness and promote the camps and possibly helping other villages apart from their own in setting up self help groups. The impetus that the volunteers give the villages means that there are a lot more intangible outcomes, the reinvigorating of collapsed self help groups, cultural awareness, friendship and new understandings of the world at large for both the volunteers and villagers!  

Programme objectives

Awareness Raising

The Health & Sanitation teams aim to provide health awareness lessons on and not limited to;

·         Nutrition

·         Hand washing

·         Diarrhea & vomiting prevention

The Livelihoods team aim to provide information on and again not limited to;

• Organic farming practice
• Environmental issues
• Farmers groups

Health/Vet camps

The H&S teams will deliver three health camps, one in their village and 2 in the surrounding villages, the Livelihood teams will deliver one general health camp as a whole group and 3 vet camps separately, one in their village and 2 in the surround villages.

Construction:

India Yankee 1,2,7,8,9 (MYCAPS)

We will construct standard sanitation units, 20 in each village. These are called leech pit toilets and are standard throughout the country. They are called leech pits as the way they are constructed, the sewage tank is dug underground and bricks are laid in a way to allow urine to leech out and the solid waste to degrade naturally. The pit normally gets dug out every 5-7 years.

India Romeo 3,4,5,10,11  (MYRADA)

Will construct the basic elements of integrated farming development, Cow shed, vermi compost (worm composter) and azola pit. These utilize the waste from cows (dung and urine) which are then used as either pesticide (urine) or fertilizer (dung). Each team will build up to 15 units (1 unit comprises of the 3 elements)

India Charlie 6 (CTRD) (H&S)

Will construct community toilets, in blocks of 4 or 5. Their village is tribal and has no sanitation. We have to provide the whole village with something rather than individuals, so groups of 5 families will be responsible for one toilet, and a group of 20-25 families will be responsible for the unit as a whole.

India Charlie 12 (CTRD) (livelihoods)

Will construct about 50 vermi compost units for the land owning villagers and also kitchen gardens to help with nutrition.