Chapter 8 : When All meet
21/12
It is Bakreed today , We woke up with commitment that we need to purchase datacards as without internet connectivity most of the software engineers are useless , the panacea to all problems today is Google. Reliance communication ran out of datacards so we had to enquire in Tata Indicom , They had it available but we did not have local address proof with us at that time so we returned back to office.
This afternoon Mr Gopinath Menon who heads UNICEF Maharastra operations was coming to meet with NGO representative in Latur. Zia had one preparation for this meeting in context to Ead . Mr Gopinath and all representatives arrived at 2 and after lunch we started with the meeting . The meeting started with presentation from Girish on whatever progress has happened till now , the list was huge
1) Training of Adolescent girls
2) Convention and rally in blocks for 10 days
3) Training for volunteers.
4) Workshop with govt officials and Yashda representatives
5) Strengthening of SHG
6) Documentation work done so far
7) Assessment done for different projects
There was participation from every one present in the room as and when these points were discussed . After this presentation some of the key challenges faced by Volunteers and UNICEFF alliance NGOs were discussed. One of the key challenge was the resistance by other NGOs or some of the local groups who either think that we are penetrating their area of work or we are gaining credibility and trust from villagers. Mr Menon asked for more suggestion as how can these groups be made alliance . The idea of further strengthening self help groups was also raised and discussed . SHGs needed constent followup without which they can not sustain plus there is a nother problem with SHGs , women below poverty line are still not able to understand the core concept and philosophy of SHGs for them SHGs mean an instrument which can help them getting some subsidies from government. People above poverty line and with some literacy rate were able to internalize SHG concept well and take it to next level. In many villages women have collected lacs of rupees in SHGs and also started many new businesses . This indicated that again this process was helping people who have all resources available and do not need any external help , whereas people below poverty line who should be helped by this concept were not able to get benefit out of it because of their mentality.
Myself and avdhut got lots of time to discuss our project with Anu but one more time we got a different scope , so effectively this was 5th new project plan we were hearing in last 4 days , As we have been meeting different people in isolation so everyone was putting forward his / her point of view and concern , that is why we were getting so many ideas about the data being collected during microplanning. Anu discussed two different scope for our projects but we needed more clarity so we decided to talk about this once the meeting gets over.
Towards the end of the meeting Mr Menon mentioned one of the main agenda for coming days which was to concentrate on the integrated and holistic growth of children . He wanted to convert Aganwadi centers into real child development centers which can provide nutritious food , good learning experience and environment to children and all this with dignity . People should not feel that they are being helped because they belong to a certain category or class but they should take it as their right
What a conflict , at one side in SHG people are not ready to help themselves but expect government to provide funding and subsidies and on the other end at Aganwadi centers where government is providing free facilities , people don’t come forward to take benefit of it as it makes them feel that they are beggars. I pondered over this for long time , trying to find out some solution , the only thing which I could think of was words mentioned by Baba Ampte when we visited to Anandvan , “ Work with people and not for the people “. Unicef is also trying to apply the same concept “ From counting people to count on people”.
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