We have been very busy since our last post
a month ago, filling our time with training, work and getting more integrated
with our village, Boothalapuram. Our
initial accomplishment was the successful completion of our participatory rural
appraisal. PRA encompasses 5 different exercises to help us gather information
about our village’s infrastructure, seasonal calendar and history through the
mediums of social mapping, timelines and surveys. From this we learnt that the
village has been in existence for around 300 years, with electricity and
running water only being available for about 50 years and over that time
there’s been an increase from 15 households to 59, taking the village
population up to just shy of 500. Most of the inhabitants are agricultural
workers and day labourers (otherwise known as “coolies”). Like with all other surrounding villages,
ours is run by a leader who oversees day to day activities and is a valuable
asset for communicating with the community, in particular when it came to
drawing a map of the village. We have
found the information from the older members of village invaluable, especially
from one woman named Sidamma who is the oldest person here (110 years old and
still very much a part of the community spirit!).
The community based organisation committee
has also had a fantastic start by initiating a new female self help group with
the assistance of our local community managed resource centre manager, Pasuraj,
and the existing SHG. SHGs are a great
way for low income individuals to gain access to funds for personal loans as
well as encouraging a community spirit by investing in improvements that will
benefit their society as a whole. They have had their first few meetings and
decided on a name, Parvathi Mahila Sangha and have even discussed setting up
their own Facebook page! The committee are also looking to improve the existing
SHGs and try to develop their savings and abilities to contribute to
improvements and growth within Boothalapuram in the future.
Part of our mission statement in the Health
and Vet Camp Committee was to provide health camps and health awareness to as
many of the local populous as possible; so far we have reached roughly 600
people and counting! We have been set a goal to organise 1 health camp and at
least 3 vet camps and we combined our efforts with two other ICS groups based
in surrounding villages to hold a health morning at a school in another village
called KB Malam. It was a huge success as we had nearly 300 villagers seen by
specialist doctors in just 3 hours. The committee’s
main objective was to provide a better understanding of integrated farming
development methods and animal health through classes and vet events. Our camp committee has scheduled 3 vet visits
in local villages including our own for the coming week and are anticipating a
similar success with patients of the bovine and ovine variety. Part of
spreading health knowledge is to promote various aspects of well-being which
are needed in Boothalapuram and its neighbouring villages which include
nutrition, health and hygiene, women’s health, oral hygiene and basic first
aid, all of which we have drawn up lesson plans for and created props to use,
so far reaching over 300 people in schools and local rural settlements. We have also been actively trying to encourage positive practices of cleanliness within our
placement area by visiting a local tribal village called Orthi to give basic
hand washing lessons and spending a sweaty sunshine morning running a litter
pick, much to the delight of the inhabitants who even provided some gorgeous
home-made lemonade as a way of thanks.
Probably one of the most long lasting
impacts we will have on Boothalapuram will be IFD construction, these include
cow sheds, azolla pits which are economic sustainable pits that will use free
or cheap products to grow feed for the farmers’ animals, and vermi-compost pits
which will provide an inexpensive way for the recipients to make compost
utilising cow dung and the magic that is the digestive tract of worms which
they can either use on their land or sell for profit. We were given plenty of
training on these by our project partners MYRADA and were lucky enough to be
taken to visit successful projects in neighbouring areas where these structures
were being put to good use, where we even met India’s famer of the year.
In order to decide who would be receiving
these useful assets we referred back to the surveys taken during the PRA stage.
Our beneficiary committee were then tasked with narrowing down the lists based
on various criteria and spent many afternoons checking locations and assessing
interest, this was not without its perks, plenty of chai was involved! As soon
as we knew who would be in receipt of the structures we quickly moved onto
ordering the required materials and eagerly awaited their arrival. Once we had all the relevant supplies we were
keen to get started, once most of the sites had been cleared we arranged for a
mason to come and get us going.
The UK volunteers have also had a chance to
experience some more of the Indian culture, not only through the in-country
volunteers who have been extremely welcoming and a great wealth of knowledge
but also by getting the opportunity to visit some wonderful points of interest.
On a visit to field base in Karnataka we were all treated to a trip to Mysore
where we encountered elephants, plenty of silks and the delightful spectacle
that is the palace - we even got to see it at night lit up in its full glory.
We were also invited to join a local celebration of life when one of the local
residents passed away. There were several nights of continuous prayer and
songs, at the pinnacle several Hindu holy men visited the village and we were
asked along to be blessed and share a delicious meal which was served on sewn
leaf plates. Although a sad occasion, it was a wonderful insight into Indian
traditions we would not have been privy to previously.
Finally we would like to add some personal
messages for loved ones back home...
Steph: Hey! Big love to mum, Katie, John,
Grandma, Mick and Cookie, missing you lots and lots, thank you so much for your
letters and little gifts! To Jeff and Jessie I love and miss you both madly!
Happy birthday for the 5th, hope you liked your present and Jeffstock
went well, send my love to the coop and SSL too! Kisses and hugs to all xXx
Sarah: Hello everyone! Lots of love to Mum, Dad, Hannah, Rachel, Nanny, Grandma and
Grandad. Thinking of you all and Miss you all lots! I’m loving India though!
Thank you all for your letters and blog posts, I really enjoy receiving them J. Matt, Happy Birthday for the 28th Feb! Hope your had a
good one, Miss you lots too! Emma, Alice, Amy, Si and Wendi, miss you all
aswell! Sending love and hugs from
India.See you all in a month! X x x x x x x x x
Adam: Dawdy mush, big love to my old man,
my grandparents, and all of my mates. Dad, you’d better have some of my
favourite meaty foods ready when I get home! Really craving a full roast or
spag bol right now! I’d says more but why ruin a surprise?
Kenny: A big shout out to my fams! Hi Dad,
Mum, Bro Hammed, Bro Fatai, Aunty Funmi, Aunty Busayo and Taiwo. Pray you are
all doing great! Dad and Bro Ahmed Happy birthday in arrears! Thanks for
everything “Sis Lupe”! My love to the PCF
and PFPC family and everyone. What an experience it’s been for me so far, can’t
wait to share all the pics and gists with you all! Lots of Love! Bless! xxxxxx
Sarah
M: Really missing mum, dad, Jonathan, Brian and Ally and Christo
also! Loving India and looking forward
to sharing stories about it xx
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