While at visiting UNDP, I received a book called Human Development Report 2013 - The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World composed by the UNDP. Inside the book, there are a lot of REALLY GOOD quotes that I love!!!
I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my window to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any." - Mahatma Gandhi
We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." - John F. Kennedy
The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart." - Kwame Nkrumah
Each generation will reap what the former generation has sown." - Chinese Proverb
Here in Delhi today, we visited the United Nations Delhi office, in which we had discussions with the UN Development Programme for India (UNDP).
Fair Warning: This blog might be long and boring, but will open your eyes to working avenues of poverty alleviation. Here is a brief history on the UN and UNDP Partnership:
1945: At the conclusion of World War II, 51 nations came together to ratify the birth of the United Nations in 1945 as a peacekeeping organization of the world. At this time, the victors of WWII also created other economic, political, and financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
1949: The Expanded Programme for Technical Assistance (EPTA) was created to help developing nations with technical assistance by connecting the needs for knowledge and expertise that was useful for development. 1950, 1952: The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur was established by EPTA. EPTA started supporting the Government of India by agreeing to an appointment of a Resident Technical Assistance Representative. 1958: The Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai was established by EPTA and UNESCO and created a special fund to assist poor countries' in identifying potential to capital. Then in 1960, the Special Fund began operations in India. 1966: The United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) was formed by merging the UN Special Fund and the EPTA = assistance to developing countries in identifying large economically feasible development projects + technical assistance 1966-Present: Way too many things to record in this blog...but they range from Oil & Natural Gas Corps, Satellite Communcations, Nuclear Research, Agriculture including seed policies, Civil Aviation Training, Industrial Design, Human Development reports, regional basis programs, Gender Development and Gender Empowerment, Public Sector Reform, HIV programs, National Capacity Building Frameworks, Climate Change, and India Human Development, among many others. In India, there is accelerated growth followed by rising inequalities, constantly presenting old and new challenges to the face of human development. As the timeline shows, UNDP has partnered with the Government of India, civil societies, and the people of India for almost 5 decades now. Their goal is to help the people of this country to find their own solutions to global and national development challenges in a way that they will accept, implement, and maintain. Their main Poverty Alleviation unit looks at Microfinance and at Livelihood. They started the Microfinance program in 2006 as a community of practitioners that use e-discussions and e-consultations for members to raise issues, questions, solutions, experiences, etc. Essentially, it serves as a knowledge sharing hub and UNDP works as the 'interpreter' and creates syntheses of knowledge based on these e-forums. They call it a Solution Exchange. This solution exchange lays a platform for discussion on one issue, creates consolidated replies, and turns it into policy change by the Indian government. After 2008, they published a microfinance synthesis called "Ready Reckoner on Microfinance" which is essentially a resource about the resources of Microfinance. I looked through this book and it was really interesting. There are microfinance organizations all over the world...I noted two; one in Colorado and the other in Singapore, but there were many worldwide.
Within the Poverty Alleviation sector, UNDP has created initiatives for financial inclusion with focus points on Financial Literacy, Product and Delivery Innovations, Business Facilitators Model, and Mobile Banking. We were given a TON of reading and books on Microfinance programs here in India and it will take a long time for me to get through all of it and process what I am reading. I do feel significantly more educated after walking out of our meeting today and realize that there is a lot to learn about microfinance worldwide. Think about South America for example...there was maybe one or two Microfinance organizations listed in that part of the world, one being in Honduras. I see a major growth potential there and an avenue for the people there to establish their own microfinance programs and start breaking their cycles of poverty. In any poverty alleviation initiative, there will be supporters and skeptics...but sometimes, people have to take a chance and push past the skepticism to find breakthrough. I heard from a man who works with Street Vendors (NASVI) all throughout India that, "You cannot solve a hard problem with soft measures".
Reading Material: Planting Seeds of Change, Human Development Report 2013: Rise of the South, Consolidated Replies on State of the Sector Report 2012 for Microfinance, Regulations on Microfinance, UNEWS - November & December 2013 editions
Back last week sometime, we got to ride a camel. :) Video quality isn't very good but it's still pretty awesome! (Thanks for uploading it for me Carter!!)
Today we visited two organizations here in Delhi...but I wanted to focus on the second one called MESH. This organization really struck me and the lady behind it is amazing. Another true Mother Teresa. MESH stands for: Maximizing Employment to Serve the Handicapped and is a Fair Trade organization run by this lovely British woman. Her story is quite unique...she came to India back in the 1980s as a young nurse where she served in a hospital treating Leprosy. She worked there for several years while those patients created their own Leprosy community in which we was asked to live there. During her time, the medicines for leprosy advanced. Initially, the lepers would have to take pills for their lifetime to keep the disease at bay but were not very good at it and it was easy for re lap. But while she was at the hospital, a three-fold medicine cure was introduced that killed the disease all together and only had to be taken 6 months to 2 years, dependent on the type and level of leprosy. Anyways, she took the opportunity to live at the village level while continuing to treat those with leprosy. She lived there through the 1990s and was a true part of the community, loved and respected in every way. Just a few years back, she finally moved out of the village to Delhi where she joined the team for this Fair Trade organization. She molded the shop to be one that continues her work and buys and sells the goods of leprosy and disabled people at a fair price so that they can make a decent living. She told us several personal stories of the people who make some of the goods in the store. To me, this is the heart of Fair Trade and the heart of a good woman. She has dedicated her entire life to this cause of bringing life (and good life at that) to leprosy victims that are stigmatized here in India and often times feel a burden to their families and never return once being cured. It's funny to me, she first took in the Indian people and in turn, they took her in. She became family to them and them to her. She made me happy when I heard her speak...she was so full of compassion and understanding. And she was a tad bit goofy, which I'm sure must come from living in India for the past 30 years...she even has mastered the side to side head nod...haha, she was really wonderful. In the store, the cashier was a very disabled man, yet he was so able. He was so kind and friendly, but he was crippled and jerked so quickly in all of his movements. His speech was slurred and I could not make out a single word, however, he understood when people talked to him and he could count money and work the computer. I couldn't even believe my eyes watching this man do his job. By eye-sight, you would not think he would be able to be a cashier and do the job accurately, but in reality, he was competent and fully able. He also emanated so much joy and he did his best to smile at all of us. The items that I saw in the store were cool...but the stories behind the items..the faces behind each stitch...that's what I long for. Needless to say, I much appreciated this woman and I much appreciated the story.
Today was a sight-seeing day. We left around 11am and spent the day exploring some of the older parts of Delhi.
Qutb Minar Tower - built in 1200 A.D.
(left to right) Micah. Bhawuk. Dakota. Uyen. Brandon. Kenta.
Here we are in front of the tower.
I thought the exposure on this photo was cool!
Red Fort - Delhi (So many people, we didn't even go inside!)
Old Delhi from a Rickshaw
I got a video from the ride too but I can't figure out how to put it on here. I can either put a YouTube video or Flash but I don't know how to do either. (anyone can feel free to help me)
Yesterday, we ventured through Lucknow for a few hours visiting old ruins and had lunch and then we boarded a 7 hour train ride back to Delhi. I slept most of the time, I could not keep my eyes open! We got to Delhi about 10:30pm and got back to our hotel around 11. This morning, we are getting to finally relax and are leaving at 11am, so of course I've spent the morning talking to Carter. Fortunately, between email and skype, we have gotten to talk every day. We are here in Delhi for our remaining 6 days until we part ways. Our professor's wife (who is from India) has now joined up with us and will be with us for this last week. Thanks to everyone reading my blogs, I love all the support. I hope you are learning something through my blogs and are getting a taste of another place so far away from home. My cold is okay, still pretty bad cough and stuffy nose but it could be worse! Lots of love! Kota
Yesterday and today, we underwent a 2-day international training course called: Facilitation & Self Help Towards a Paradigm Shift in Social Development here in Manavodaya, Lucknow, India. I am actually way too tired to write about it today..but I am going to post some of the pictures for you all to see. We learned a lot and it is a lot to process. We had one and a half days in the classroom and then half a day in a village with three self help groups ...so more to come...haha
Happy New Year!! Today, we left our hotel in Agra at 4:30am to catch a 6.5 hour train ride to Lucknow. It was a long ride. I also have a bad cold that kicked my butt today. Uyen and I sat next to each other on the train and across from us sat these two super cute little girls that were thrilled to talk to us. They especially loved Uyen's long straight black hair and her really fair skin. The girls were 4 and 9...the 9 year old's english was really good. Another little girl, also age 9, from a different seat in the bus joined in on the fun and squeezed into the seat next to Uyen. We got to Lucknow and were greeted by our new hosts. We piled into two taxis and drove to the India Institute of Management (IIM) where we are staying in the faculty guest house. We ate lunch here and then left to SEWA, Self Employed Women's Association. They make really impressive sewing and embroidery goods predominately all by hand. The pieces we saw were beautiful. It is also a fair trade organization. Right now, we came back to the hotel around 6:45 and are resting until dinner at 8:30. We are all in a little lobby of our room doing our own things but being together. India has brought the 5 of us close together. Hopefully all our sicknesses will go away quickly! So much traveling and cold and different...our bodies are exhausted!
We rose this morning and departed at 6:30am for the Taj Mahal. We arrived in perfect timing, before most of the big crowds arrived. They are very very strict about what you can bring in with you. No pens, markers, nail polish, books, food, etc. I was a little upset about the book part as I had been planning to take a picture of May I see the King in front of the Taj Mahal, but I said okay no worries, I will leave the book and just take the cover. I went through security and got a full body pat-down and the lady took my book cover!!!!!!! She took it and crumpled it on the table. I was SO MAD! So unfortunately, I was unable to take a picture of Vince and Julie (Carter’s parents) book at the Taj Mahal. But, I will find another place to take the picture here in India and bless some kids with the book. On the bright side, the Taj Mahal was beautiful! It really exceeded any expectations I had…however, I had very little. I am trying to live without setting expectations, and really learn to live with people in the moment and enjoy life and its many blessings and challenges. (Pictures will come when my internet is better, sorry! )
After Taj Mahal, we came back to the hotel to eat breakfast and then we left for Agra Fort. This was another very large and extravagant fort. 75% of it is still actively used by the Indian military. (Pictures soon...)
After Agra Fort, we visited the Pushpanjali Fair Trade Organization. This was really interesting. We have been learning a lot about fair trade on this trip, and it is a really outstanding idea. Fair trade has 10 basic principles that it follows, in conjunction with the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO).
1. Creating Opportunities for Economically Disadvantaged Producers 2. Transparency and Accountability 3. Capacity Building 4. Promoting Fair Trade 5. Gender Equity 6. Ideal Working Conditions 7. Payment of Fair Wages 8. Protection of Environment 9. Protection of Child’s Rights 10. Trading Relations
This organization, Pushpanjali, works in conjunction with Fair Trade Forum India (whom we visited earlier in the trip, check earlier blogs for details). We had a great time of education and asked a lot of questions and got to see samples of many of their products they create. I am quite moved by fair trade and its purpose. It is a risky business for everyone involved, as it is not yet a very established market. Europe and the US do engage in fair trade...but I truly believe it needs to be introduced in our education systems so that we are aware of it and then we need to engage in it and promote Fair Trade and pass it on to future generations. After our discussions, we left the office for the field. Our first stop was a little room that had 4 working men, part of Pushpanjali that were sewing and embroidering. One of the men had been working for Pushpanjali for 42 years…earning fair wages and working in decent conditions. Granted, their ‘decent’ conditions were in a small room that was freezing cold and they sit on the cement floor on top of these dirty rugs and do their work. But…at least there was 4 walls, a ceiling and a floor, decent lights, and it was not a sweatshop…and the men are earning enough money to live a decent life. Our next stop was at Pushpanjali’s director’s house where his wife and 11 other village women work. They make scarves and many other hand made goods. Their working conditions were much better. The house was decently warm and the floor was made of marble. The women were all happy and smiling. They worked near their home so they could still watch their kids and cook and clean, and earn a small living to supplement their families’ income. Their village was pretty rugged with lots and lots of kids running around. As we walked down the street, (let me remind you we have a very diverse group…a professor from Nepal, a Vietnamese girl, a Japanese guy, a super tan half Japanese guy, a super tan Hawaiian guy, and myself….and the Japanese guy continues to wear his turban which seems to crack up everyone we pass!). So needless to say, as we walk down the streets, everyone is watching us and staring. Some of the kids chase us as we walk. I find myself making eye contact and smiling at all the women and girls that I see…something about them examining me and then making eye contact with me and smiling makes me feel as though we just had a whole conversation without any words. Some of the kids giggle as we wave at them. And some are brave enough to approach us and practice their English.
Once we left the village, we drove to another area and got out. It was very hectic here, lots of carts and bikes and cars and people and traffic and noise and chaos. We pulled ourselves into a little shawl shop and sat down. Bhawuk, Uyen, Brandon, and I looked at at least 15 different shawls. I chose two beautiful wool shawls, one a dark purple and the other a dark green. I think I will finally be warm!!!!
We ran a few more errands and made a few more pit stops and then came back to the hotel. We sat and had dinner for almost 3 hours, engaging in great conversation. This one of our best conversation nights. It was pretty fun and we all learned a lot more about each other, it was nice. And now, here I am. Reminiscing and reflecting on the past 3 days as it approaches midnight here, on the last day of 2013. It has been an amazing year, so packed full of life. So many life changing events, so many blessings and lessons learned. Hard work, persistence, determination, passion, love, obedience, and blessings beyond measure. Donald Miller challenged his readers by asking, "What kind of story are you living?"
I has been a few days since I have had the chance to get on my computer and write about our days. Last I left off, we were in Jaipur, the Pink City. Jaipur was really crowded, the traffic was so bad. From Jaipur, we drove about 3 hours further east to visit a very famous Muslim mosque. I have no pictures because we were not allowed to carry cameras. It was a very interesting experience. We parked and walked about 15-20 minutes through the streets, passing hundreds of people selling things in little shops and on pull carts. There were lots of beggars and lots of deformed beings. There has been this other places on our trip so far, but on the way to the temple, I saw the most I had yet. Men whose legs appear to have never worked that sit on little wooden roller planks and use their hands to move. My classmates and I actually didn’t realize we were headed for a mosque until we got there. Our professor bought little head coverings for the guys to wear, and Uyen and I shared my scarf. Once we had our heads covered and our shoes were off, we made way for the entrance to the mosque through what was the closest thing to a mosh pit I have ever been in. Barely squeezing by and being pushed every which way by people going in every direction. We made it to the official entrance and continued on for the main door into the inner part. This door was short and small and people were supposed to form a single line to get in…rather, it was around 6.5 lines jamming as many people through the door at once as possible. Once we were jammed through the door, we faced an even worst mosh pit full of people trapped in a little space. There was no breathing room, no moving room, no figuring-out-what-the-heck-was-going-on room either. As Uyen latched on to me, I gripped onto the coat sleeve of my professor as he made his way through the people and to the exit. This was a crazy experience that I couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Instead of being patient and considerate at this Muslim place of worship, people were completely the opposite. I cannot say that I have ever been squished into so many people at one time before. Once we got out, we made wishes on their wishing wall…I do not know the proper use of it but I just made a wish that we would make it out without being squished again haha. Finally, we got completely out of the mosque and back to where we stored our shoes. After stepping on the dirtiest ground trampled upon by millions of people, my feet were black and I decided to wear my shoes barefoot and save my wool socks for once I washed my feet. We walked back down the road and stopped at a restaurant to eat lunch. Most of us were silent during lunch, still trying to comprehend what the heck happened in that crowded mosque.
Once we left, we drove another half hour to a small town/village (pretty tourist dense) and walked along the street amidst the shops to a lake and another temple. We have visited a lot of temples on this trip, which has really helped me understand the Indian culture. We again had to take off our shoes, but this one was gross again because there was cow and bird poop everywhere. I must admit, I was really ready for this day to be over haha. On our way back to the car, we all took turns riding camels. This was super fun!!! When we finally got back to our van, we began our 3 hour car ride back to Jaipur where we would stay one last night. We stopped for dinner around 10pm on the way back and had a really yummy dinner, but it was hard for any of us to eat…very little appetite. We finally arrived at our hotel and ran inside to our warm blankets and heater.
Aloha from Jaipur, land of the Pink City. We left bright and early to travel by car to Jaipur...including a lunch stop, it was an 8 hour journey to arrive. We did some sight-seeing and walked around the city, including the King's museum. There is really pretty architecture here.
After a quick tour of the city, we visited a Boys Orphanage for several freezing cold hours. Bhawuk did most of the talking in Hindi, but at the end we got to interact with the boys some...they were cool. They taught us a new handshake haha.
Afterwards, we went to dinner around 9:30pm and got to our hotel in Jaipur close to midnight. I am doing good, but we are all getting sore throats and coughs, probably because were cold all the time. I am currently wearing long john under my jeans, a t-shirt, 3 jackets and my scarf and I still manage to shiver throughout the day, especially in the evenings. Starting today, I have permanently added wool socks to my outfit!
Today we had the opportunity to visit the headquarters office of the Tara Projects, an offshoot of Emmaus International. It started in 1960 at Jaima Millia University in Delhi focusing on community development projects and local income generating initiatives such as stitching, embroidery, etc. "TARA is dedicated to the development and empowerment of grassroot producers and marginalised sections of society. TARA strives for social equity, justice, and environmental sustainability whilst promoting Fair Trade." We learned that Tara's main goals are for social and economic empowerment, capacity building, and work against child labor, domestic violence, and oppression of migrants, gender inequality, and communalism. They are dedicated to SUSTAINABILITY -> long term impact. Tara is a member of the World Fair Trade Oranization, WFTO-Asia, Fair Trade Forum India, and Emmaus International. After the morning educational and informational sessions, we went to the field today and visited one of the communities where the TARA projects have really taken root.
Our class with the some of the leaders of the TARA Projects.
In the office, TARA has several production sites where they make goods like jewelry on a made-to-order basis. Below is a picture of two of the women packaging earrings.
In the Field: TARA has created a health center for this community and has served over 20,000 individuals in the last 2 years.
TARA has created a Learning Center for students.
TARA has engaged in numerous micro-finance loans to help the men and women make a living. Below are some images of several individuals that make jewelry right in their own village that are exported. Other individuals with micro-finance loans sell food, have opened little stores, and offer other services.
Now you have seen these great initiatives that look nice and dandy...below are pictures from the slum in which these people live...It is actually illegal land because it used to be a water waste treatment place that was abandoned and no people lived there. These people came to this place and each man staked out for himself a small piece of the land to build his house upon. Many of these houses are one layer of brick with many holes. Large families cram into tiny spaces and share of what little they have. The sewage system just flushes out right next to their houses. It was hard for me to call a 'slum' because many had brick and cement houses, but when you look around you can see why it is labeled as a slum.
I thought today was a really interesting day. I enjoyed going to this slum, we called it the concrete slum, because the people seemed happier here. Everyone smiled and greeted us as we passed. The women would make eye contact with me. The kids were playing. Everyone just seemed happier here than some of the other villages and slums we have visited. The micro-finance program, health center, learning center, and skills training centers seem to be working great and have slowly but surely made a drastic difference in this community. We finished up the day with dinner around 8pm and it is now 10:17pm and I am about to go to bed. We leave Delhi tomorrow at 6:30am for Jaipur, and in the next week will travel between Jaipur, Agra, and Lucknow for 8 days before returning to Delhi for the last week of our stay.
Here is a picture of me and my love right before I left....just so no one forgets what we look like ;)
Aloha, Over the past 2 days, we left our little new found comfort zone of Delhi and traveled about 3 hours by car to an all girls school called Pardada Pardadi Education Society in Anupshahr. This place was really amazing. It started 13 years ago merely as a school for girls with little support from the community. No one wanted to send their daughters to school when instead they could stay home and watch the kids, cook the meals, work in the field, etc while the parents are working to earn money. It was at that point that PPES had to re-evaluate their marketing strategies to figure out how to make the community better and fight for the equality and rights of women. Before I continue the story, I wanted to intertwine it with our visit. We first arrived at the school roughly around 10:30am to 7 beautiful young school girls greeting us with flower leis they made. As they escorted us through the long driveway to the entrance of the school, they were very intrigued to meet us. The steps at the front of the school had been beautifully decorated:
After our warm welcoming, we sat in the office of the executive director as she told us the history and the purpose of PPES. It started 13 years ago with only 43 girls and today, has 1201 students. Part of the deal is that each girl receives 10 rupees a day that she is in school into an account that she will receive when she graduates 12th grade. With this system, the girl now becomes an asset rather than a burden to the families and it helps to empower the girls to receive social and economic freedoms. The school is K-12 and does not accept married women which is meant to discourage child marriages, and has done so. The two biggest questions that the mother's of the girls often ask is: 1. How will they get a job after graduation that is worth the time of going to school? 2. How will they get married? (most of the girls are married off between 12-13 years of age) The answers to these questions are as follows: 1. PPES guarantees the girls a job once they graduate the 12th grade. Guaranteed. 2. With the 10 rupees they receive each day, they girls can use that accumulation upon graduation to pay for a wedding and they can also use the school grounds on a Sunday for the ceremony if desired. At the school, the girls are on rotation on who cooks for the 1200+ people in attendance each day. They learn not only the skills of math, science, English, Hindi, among others, but they also learn to cook, clean, and take care of one another. Once a girl reaches the 4th grade, a tree is planted on campus in her honor and it is her job to take care of that tree until the day she graduates. When she graduates, a stone plack is made engraved with her name and placed in front of the tree. The young girls also receive a blanket that they are supposed to give to an elder woman of their village (not in their family) and are to take care of that elderly woman. Each school year, the girls receive a uniform including socks and shoes. At school, they receive breakfast and lunch, a tooth brush and tooth paste, sanitary bathrooms, and their designated classrooms.We sat in on many different class sessions of all the ages. It was so neat! One of the older girls' classes was a humans rights class in which the girls discussed their (and everyone's) right to equality, right to protection, right to play, right to education, and right to __?___. It was really interesting because these rights had to be engrained in the minds of these young girls as they are not often practiced. We sat in on an English class too and we each took turns reading aloud a part of their book and they would recite it to us. They are so good at reciting things in perfect unity. The point of educating these girls is so that they can become a positive role model in their own homes and communities. The little girls were so cute. We played a game with them where everyone sits in a circle with your hands placed upon your neighbors and you go around the circle stating the numbers: 1,2 3,4,.....30, 31, 32...etc all the way to 100. For at least half an hour we played this game. When someone messes up or forgets what number comes next, they are out. It got to 4 girls left plus Uyen and myself that made it to 100 two times. These little girls killed me, they were so cute. During the two days, we watched them as the prepare and assemble and eat lunch in such an orderly fashion. 1200 students are in and out with incredible ease. It is really impressive. They loved to get their pictures taken. They are all so polite and disciplined. This school has a call center that some of the girls that have graduated now work at. These girls have worked so hard to get to this position and it was really cool to see them at work. The school also has a manufacturing center in which women earn a living my making pre-ordered goods such as suit carrying cases. The precision and speed of these women was impressive. Below are an accumulation of lots of pictures I took from around the school...some of the girls, some of the school, some of the women in the production center, the way they assemble for meals, etc.
Pardada Pardadi Educational Society also does a lot within the community. They have helped to establish 84 women's self help groups consisting of 10-16 women each. These groups meet individually once a week. They are fully women led, managed, and organized. At the meetings, the women each contribute 150 rupees to their 'bank'. This money is saved and can be used as loan for the families when needed. This system charges a 24% interest per year (2% interest per month) compared to other lenders that charge 6% per month. It is also fully their money and is the first time that most of the women have ever handled their own money. The one women's group we visited struggled to count their own money individually because they are not normally in charge of their own money. The point of these self-help groups is to empower the women as a strong united group that can have a voice. The money is incredibly useful when a family needs to take a loan. One women keeps the box full of money. Another woman keeps the key to the box. A third woman keeps the records. This ensures that no one steals/falsely contributes money and that everything is properly documented. At this meeting, the women were particularly interested in Uyen and I and they wrote our names down in their log book as guest at the meeting. It was really cool. This was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
In addition to the school and the self-help groups, PPES has also built a bathroom and shower facility in one of the village communities. This seems great in itself, but there is so much behind it that makes it really great. Having a place for women to use the bathroom vastly increases their self-dignity and allows the mother's to help their young girls get ready for school. It is a requirement for the girls to come to school clean with their hair braided in two pigtails. Below are a few pictures from the village where the bathroom was built:
Since we were here for Christmas, on Christmas Eve we took a small boat ride on the Ganges River.
And for Christmas, we got to ride on a bull pulled cart in one of the villages...
Yesterday was our Christmas Eve here in India. My 4 classmates and my professor and I had the chance to go to Rajendra Place and visit NABARD, a local organization that works towards poverty alleviation here in India. NABARD was founded in 1982, and is 31 years running strong, with over 350 offices and one regional office in every state. They have over 4800+ employees and their overall goal is to strengthen the cooperative structure, work as a public policy instrument, create models across the states to be replicated, and to promote best practices. They started 31 years ago with an initial capital pool that has been wisely used and invested and has expanded greatly to this day. Essentially, NABDAR is a development bank that works in 4 arenas:
1. Supervision: they supervise rural financial obligations including commercial banks, private sector banks, and public sector banks. 2. Business: they give loans to state garments for creating rural infrastructure such as roads, medical initiatives, schools, etc. (They are independent but are a part of the government of India) They also give loans to banks for activities that are revenue-demanding. 3. Development: they fund development ideas that will transfer into bankable skills, such as the invention of one man to grow rice not in standing water, saving lots of water. They are not a venture capitalist, but do promote projects that have developmental function. 4. Advocacy: they advocate for the 60% of India's population that has no link or a very informal link to a bank by creating the "Self Help Group Bank Linkage Model", in which they now have over 8million self help groups. Within India, there are 630 political districts. NABDAR has district officers in 415 of those districts, which is quite impressive. They make policy real by working at the ground level. NABDAR is a rural people oriented bank and takes on lots of risk when it loans out money through its regional rural banks (RRB), its rural financial banks, and its district cooperative banks which serve as the middle man/connection to the farmers, to give loans such as crop development loans or rural infrastructure loans. There is a lot of impact this organization is making, and it is hard to directly tell all of its facets because it has to be so diverse to cover the entire country of India in all of its expanse. However, I thought this organization was really intelligent and is definitely encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit.
NABDAR
After visiting with NABDAR, we drove to the Defence Colony (which is just the name of an area) and we had lunch here.
After lunch, we walked over to the Fair Trade Forum India office which was also really interesting. Their mission is to "alleviate poverty and ensure sustainable development through Fair Trade." They try to create visibility, marketability, acceptability, and sustainability to the Fair Trade movement in India. united with World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), they try to help artisans, farmers, and workers within the unorganized sector make fair wages, so that the parents can earn enough money without the kids help so that the kids can go to school and break the cycle. Currently, this organization has over 150,000 producers/workers at the grassroots level. Fair Trade Forum India is registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860, was initiated in 1998, and was formally registered in 2000.
Afterwards, we drove in ridiculous traffic to a super high end mall in New Delhi. I think the point was to realize the massive range of wealth distribution and the huge income gaps. One thing I noticed was that of all the Indians at the mall, most seemed like they had become westernized in the sense that they were not wearing traditional Indian clothing (the women were not wearing sarees) and they were just consuming so many items. Yet right across the street from this huge fancy mall is completely run down ruts and people peeing on the dirt. It really baffles me. Here in Delhi, there is so much uneven distribution of wealth.
I wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone!
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My feelings of Delhi are torn...some moments I like it and some moments I don't, but I guess that is the same with anyplace. During the times I like it, I see the emotions of the people, beautiful smiles, colorful clothes, amazing craftsmanship, yummy food, family bonding, and hard work....and the times I don't like it, I see dirt and filth, way too many people in one area, violence, obnoxious honking, homelessness, and overall poverty-stricken realms. And these moments go hand in hand and are often combined into one overall feeling at the same time. Today, we visited the USAID office (United States Assistance of International Development) at the US Embassy here in Delhi. This was interesting, a lot of security to get it. We learned about some of the projects they are working on, money allocation from Washington, sustainable practices of working through local NGOs, etc. It was insightful and could maybe be a cool job one day! After that, we walked down the streets of another festival (these are very common). We visited SEWA which stands for Self Employed Women's Association which is a member based organization of poor self-employed women workers. It was established in 1972 and is registered as a trade union and has 1,347,305 women workers within 9 states of India. SEWA's main goal is to organize the women workers for full employment and self-reliance. SEWA is also working in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
This is the SEWA store that we visited.
We window-shopped at a lot of places along this alleyway gazing upon the different styles of the states within India. The sarees were quite beautiful, and so were all of the designs and sculptures. There were a lot of food stands and performers out too. Below are a few pictures:
This is what we ate for lunch. I don't know what any of it was called, or what any of it was for that matter. The green one on the far left was good and so was the orange one next to it. The white ones were really spicy. The curry in the bowl on the right has these rice/bread puffs in it and was interesting.
After lunch and walking around for a few hours, we visited a Sich Temple (a branch of Sechism...Muslim Religion). This was super weird! We had to cover our heads and take off our shoes and wash our hands and feet and then we quickly walked through the temple, trying to keep up with our Professor, Bhawuk. There was LOTS of people, some that had traveled from other villages and were 'camping' outside the temple in the freezing cold.
After the temple, we crazily drove through traffic. Here, the driver sits on the right hand side of the car and drives on the left side of the road. The language of driving is horns and flashing lights and a lead foot. Then we went to dinner around 7pm and after that, we came back to our hotel and are crashing for the night.
This is the most ghetto McDonald's I have ever seen
This is called Lassie and is a yogurt drink that we drink with almost every dinner.
As I am sitting in my room now writing this blog, I can hear so much horns and yelling outside. The street is packed with cars and people, I have no idea why! Well, that's all for today. I'll do my best to keep updating this well on the rest of the trip. :)
Today is December 22 in Delhi, India. We started the day pretty early, around 8am. We got in earlier this morning, around 3am... so not very much sleep. We walked around the area of our hotel and saw some interesting things, a lot happening. The memory that haunts me the most is of one of the street dogs biting a young boy and then that dog getting brutally beaten. Great first impression huh? The day did get better though.
First, we went to Hamayun's tomb "which has been inscribed on the world heritage list of the convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage. Inscription on this list confirms the exceptional universal value of a cultural or natural site which deserves protection for the benefit of all humanity."
They asked so nicely if they could take their picture with me...I couldn't deny them!! haha
Then, we went to a festival and got our first really yummy Indian food lunch. While we walked around, two of my classmates bought these beautiful scarves and we all bought some spices to take home. I got some curry powder in hopes that I will be able to make some really good curry for me and Carter when I come home. :)
After the Festival, we visited the Lotus Temple. Of the thousands of people coming into this temple, everyone was required to take off their shoes.After that, we attempted to go to a Food Streets Festival but it had either been shut down or closed early... but either way, we were unable to go in. So instead, we went back to the hotel (about 7pm) and are resting for a few minutes before we go out to dinner.
After leaving Honolulu International Airport on Friday, December 20th 10:55am, I flew 9 hours to Tokyo where I had a two hour layover and then I flew another 10 hours to Delhi. I flew on ANA and it was nice, each passenger with their own little movie players. On the first flight, I got so lucky as to have a window seat and no one sitting next to me!! It was a long day(s) of flying. My 4 classmates and I met our teacher at the Delhi Airport and finally got to our hotel at about 3:00am on December 22nd. We slept for a few hours and woke up to a 'breakfast call'...so I quickly hopped on here to let you all know I arrived and now were off for our first day in India.
After MUCH trouble, me and two of my classmates got our passports with our Indian visas the day before we were to leave. One of our classmates got his at 8:30am the day of!
Carter and I went backpack shopping to find me a new backpack!
My bags for the next 4 months and 3 weeks of my life!
Our final goodbye...sure was a hard one! Good thing he will come visit me in a few months.
Welcome to my new blog site! This page will be used for me to tell of my time while studying at the National University of Singapore for the Spring 2014 semester. I will be traveling to India for 3 weeks prior to landing in Singapore on January 11. I leave on December 20 for Delhi. I am going with 5 other students and our professor to engage in 100+ hours of field work for a Poverty Alleviation Course.
I am in my final semester as an undergraduate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. I am studying International Business & Marketing and was blessed with the opportunity to study abroad at the National University of Singapore.
My Other Blog
For my time in India and Singapore, I will be using this blog. But before this trip and after this trip, my regular blog website is: victoriouspursuit.weebly.com