Head Office visit

Isabelle Masters 19-Mar-2013

On March 9^th Laura and I, who both work in the Marketing and Communications team at Raleigh head office flew out to India to see what volunteers on the Raleigh ICS programme have been up to.

We arrived at Field Base just outside the city of Mysore after arriving in the early hours of Sunday 10^th (Mothers’ Day!) at Bangalore International Airport. Greeted with cups of tea and smiles from the field base staff, we were given the tour and met a few of the other inhabitants on site...

On Monday morning after the first of this week’s many hearty porridge breakfasts, we set out to Kalahatti to meet India Yankee 9, approximately 90 minutes drive from Field Base. Arriving at the gates to the small village school where the team have been living and working for the last six weeks, we were met by hordes of children as well as the team and several other members of the community.

We were taken on a short tour of the village, during which we were able to get to know more about the community, the volunteers and their reasons for getting involved with this programme. It is very important from our perspective as UK-based Raleigh staff to get a greater understanding of the different values, motivations and aspirations that led young people from both the UK and India to get involved with Raleigh ICS. Back at the school, the team split into its various committee groups and gave us information about the work they had done so far and what they have planned for the weeks to come.

In the afternoon we took a short walk to a nearby village where we helped the team give out leaflets and information about the health camp they would be supporting on Tuesday. One of the best ways, we discovered, of engaging with and having the opportunity to talk to the community, is by having a cup of chai with them. The team worked very well together, with UK and Indian volunteers pairing up and approaching different houses in the village to ensure that every person knew about the opportunity to access the free healthcare that would be available to them at the health camp. Already after just half a day with this team, we could see how beneficial the joint efforts of UK and India volunteers are, in terms of cultural understanding, communication and motivation.

We then had the chance to visit the location for the next day’s event, another school in the village of Agasanahundi Colony, just ten minutes walk from Kalahatti. After our first night staying in a village, we were up bright and early and ready to set up for the health camp by about 8.30am. The team organised a queuing area, a separate area for lady patients who wanted to be seen more privately, and a station for the pharmacist to use to give out medicines. The doctors and nurses, organised by Raleigh’s partner organisation, MYKAPS, arrived together in an ambulance and soon afterwards, members of the community began to appear and wait in line for their consultation. Before the camp began however, a short ceremony was held and thanks given by a representative from MYKAPS and also by members of the team.

The health camp was very successful, and the medical team saw over 120 patients which, in a village with only 55 households, is really quite impressive.

The next day, after another night in Kalahatti, we said our goodbyes to India Yankee 9 and got back on the road towards our next destination, Halsur, to see India Yankee 8.

This team were running a health camp as well, this time actually in the village where they were staying, so it was great for us to be able to see how a different team approached the event and how it worked in this setting with a different community.

Halsur is much bigger than Agasanahundi Colony so the camp instantly seemed quite lively and busy, but the team had had the great idea of running health awareness sessions with community members whilst they waited for treatment.

It was only a fleeting visit to Halsur, but still very interesting and useful for us to see. As the health camp drew to a close, we moved on to our next location – Chilakahalli – and another team – India Yankee 1.

We arrived to find the team engaging the local children and young people in a game of cricket, always a sure-fire way of ensuring popularity in India! As the evening drew in, we were given a tour around the village and introduced to several of the beneficiaries who will be working with the team and local masons to build leech-pit toilets over the coming weeks. Each beneficiary family is asked to dig their own hole, with assistance from the volunteers, and also to provide some basic materials such as sand, rocks and small stones. All additional materials and labour are provided by Raleigh’s project partners. In this village, many of the beneficiaries were so pleased about the prospect of their new toilets, that they had dug even deeper holes than was required of them, and showed us these with a great deal of pride.

Later, we observed the team’s review and reflection of the day, and enjoyed the Indian volunteers sharing some of their culture with us in the form of singing and chanting – a really calm and relaxing way to end the evening.

The next morning, the UK volunteers had the opportunity to share some of their culture, this time to energise rather than relax with an interpretation of the game of ‘Quidditch’!

The rest of the morning was spent preparing further for construction, finishing digging the last of the beneficiaries’ holes, as well as preparing for a health camp to be carried out later in the placement.

In the afternoon we left Chilakahalli for our final destination before our return to fieldbase: Hosavidahundi, and India Yankee 2.

Here, we were lucky enough to be shown around the village and meet the members of a Self Help Group (SHG) which has been running for over a decade. One of the secondary projects which this and many of the teams are working on is establishing new SHGs, giving different members of the community an opportunity to access resources to improve their livelihoods and their village.

Later we chatted to different members of the team and watched a really beautiful sunset.

On Friday morning all group 1 teams: India Yankee 1, India Yankee 2, India Romeo 3, India Romeo 4, India Romeo 5 and India Charlie 6 returned to field base to have their end of phase review. Since we left, there has been a new addition to the field base team!

So far this visit has been so useful and informative, and we have learnt so much about all of the young people on the programme. Thank you to all the teams who have hosted us and good luck with the remainder of your projects.