Monitoring Visit of May, 2011

Survey Questionnaire

My May visit became shorter than I planned.  This time, I took Classical College’s students team who are studying Social Work in Bachelor Degree. They had to make a report of a rural camp; and they choose our programs to Tharu communities.  Before visiting the field, we drafted a survey questionnaire, which these students were going to ask our beneficiaries.

This questionnaire was mainly focused on the socioeconomic and health condition of the families and the results of the survey will assist in deciding the future of the CP –IWEN program, that is, does the program need to shift or have modifications or corrections or continuity as it is.

It took two days to finish the survey.  The students were very impressed by the communities. They did not face any problems and the families answered friendly. On the other hand, these Kathmandu students were shocked by their grim realities. The IWEN families have no toilet, the old family members could not tell their age or birth dates, and it seemed that still the so-called development had not touch them besides most houses there was a mobile phone set.  The students were impressed by activities done by the CP-IWEN projects because every household praised the work. 

New Mothers’ Group: Gobardiya Mother Group

While facilitating these college students, I attended the 1^st meeting of the mothers’ group of Gobardiya; this is a new 8^th group of CP-IWEN. The mothers were very happy because up to now there were no organizations to back them up.  This community is getting a hard time because of the 10 year prolonged Maoist war from 1996 to 2006 and current unsteady government, which isn’t helping them.

As our other community village clusters, they are living under the poverty line, struggling for to make two ends meet. They are very hopeful on CP-IWEN’s support to their daughter and being a member in the mothers’ group, which will help their lives and make them self-dependent in future. The whole village encompasses around 400 houses.  From 400 houses, we have chosen 31 of the poorest.  Per month the mothers individually raise Rs. 10 for their micro-credit.  I am very happy on their good beginning.  The mothers groups’ intervention as a tool of micro credit has been able to generate fresh perceptions of one another, which has resulted in the revitalization of the social bond between the mothers and has heightened their collective will to act for the betterment of their families.

Hope for the Destitute – One Example

This small hut having 2 rooms inside accommodates four family members.  The family was doing ok up to 4 years ago. But the father, the sole income earner became sick and finally became lame due to his problem on his spinal cord.  His left hand and leg cannot work. The mother was desperate for the support because the children were on the verge of dropping out from school since the mother could not pay the school fees.

Now, the condition has changed. The mother has joined the mothers’ group and her beautiful daughter gets total support for education. I still remembered her tearful eyes with happiness, as she knew that her daughter would get the support. Her burden has lessened.  Not only her, around 200 mothers’ burdens have been decreased through CP-IWEN.

 Deepening   Roots

CP–IWEN has become a metaphor of support to the locals. Why??? The answer is very tacit: Because of its:

·         Continuation and quality work,

·         Creation of a new sense of unity and mutuality for the communities’ future through the village clusters

·         Engagement in dialogue with the mothers seeking to create a common vision and  a positive image of a collectively desired future

·         Liberation from the paralyzed economic and illiterate  condition

·         Solution of local’s problems one by one and being on hand with Dang staff

·         Usage of an appreciative context with both staff and mothers rather than the traditional problem-solving context

Establishment of the contact office in working zone, Gadawa Dang, makes CP-IWEN more effective and popular. It gives the beneficiaries easy access to our field staffs.  Besides the regular meeting, the mothers and students come to discuss on various issues at the office.  And the two dedicated staffs have been working passionately on their given responsibilities. So, CP-IWEN’s activities have become distinct and slowly it has become a role model in this area of Dang.  In my next visit I will meet with SWAN, [Social Welfare Action Nepal] the major Tharu NGO to chat with them around how the CP-IWEN beneficiaries view our work in comparison to other NGOs.  We need to be careful not to put CP-IWEN into a competitive stance.  I will explain to SWAN how IWEN works long-term rather than on a project or short-term base.

 Holistic Approach

 From the beginning CP-IWEN applied distinct approaches rather than set traditional approaches of the development field. It has changed, corrected, added and modified its approaches according to the need of its beneficiaries. CP-IWEN believes on working and learning.   It has been working out with the beneficiaries’ problem one by one making and using an appreciative context from bottom to top approach.   Support to the needy girls/daughters, forming and facilitating mothers’ groups and literacy classes has shown its holistic approach to liberate the village clusters from the vicious circle of poverty is slowly working.

Strengthening the Approaches

These holistic approaches or requisite activities will be more effective if we could work on health problems.  Our beneficiaries still have strong belief on traditional healer or they are very traditional, which has blocked them from visiting the local health centers. In our mothers’ group meeting, we talked about health issues but it is not sufficient to awaken them from their superstitious beliefs. For example, Sita chaudhary, student of grade 8 was sick and almost up to 6 months and her mother regularly took her to the traditional healer. Luckily, we knew it and intervened.  We took her to Kathmandu and did treatment. She was suffering from dizziness and fainting from the parasitic disease.  Sita would have died without CP-IWEN intervention. If someone becomes sick, their 1^st priority goes to the traditional healer. [PRA =’a Participatory Rural Assessment, a way of quickly assessing the needs of a group]

The steps for Health Service Educational Approach are listed below. Except for the last two items the list in essence is life skills training which falls within IWEN’s mandate:

• Educating on Maternity and child care through an awareness health workshop
• Education on what the Health Posts offer and help on the first visit
• Training and health classes to the traditional healer
• Education on the home’s sanitation
• Educate on preventable diseases in developing networking links with the local health post
• Support in making toilets.
• Strengthen the local government health posts

Emerging Issues – Two Future Funding Proposals

On my visits, every time I encounter some different issues that the local people think and believe, CP –IWEN tries to deal these also. So my job is to determine the most burning and encroaching problems and try to solve them professionally.  Ninety percent of our beneficiaries have no toilet because, they don’t feel its importance and 2^nd they need money to build them.  Now, they want after my discussion they want toilets and are ready to match the cost of the toilet building. According to the locals, one cemented toilet costs around CAD$ 90 to $ 100.00.

Another issue is the orphan and abandons boys that we found in the CP-IWEN village clusters. We are supporting the girls but in these clusters there are boys also and they are in very critical conditions.  So its seems confusing for the locals why only females/girls are getting help while these boys have critical conditions and yet don’t get any support from anywhere. According to the local organization of Dang district, there are 300 orphan and abandon boys in Dang district. 

 The Road Ahead

CP-IWEN has some challenges and opportunities on the way ahead.  How will the community village clusters get significant transformation from poverty and ignorance? How can we translate their difficulties into opportunities? For example, “How can we scale up the innovative mothers’ group’s activities or practice or apply the mothers’ group concept in other social and family areas within the community so that we can achieve even greater impact?” 

The continuation and instantaneous support given to our beneficiaries makes the impact more profound and practical. So, I think we have few professional challenges in terms of that we don’t have confusion, we are very clear on what we are doing and we have opportunity to be a noble booster in the community as we have dedicated staffs and a cooperative community. At the same time we have very friendly and understanding Board in both Canada and Nepal. The very fluid political situation of Nepal can affect the activities but the staffs know how to adapt to such condition.

In the End

Like many times before I encountered an unannounced one and half day “strike”.  I was paralyzed but this gave me time to wonder about and think on how we can make the beneficiaries self-reliant. This Dang sun set foretold the golden tomorrows of our beneficiaries.  

Dinesh Raj Sapkota