We can make a difference !
Trip Start
Feb 24, 2007
1
7
14
Trip End
Mar 09, 2007
Morenaa District, Madhya Pradesh,
India
Sunday, March 4, 2007
We visited two rural community projects in Morena district. The first village Mahadev Ka Pura is a real success story. We were told that out of all of the villages we have seen this village was the most similar to Mudhkheda, where we spent our first day and saw no hope. I will have to trust Maria and Johnson on this because its impossible to believe that the vibrant, clean, healthy community where we received one of our warmest welcomes so far, was ever anything like Mudhkheda
A kitchen garden
. After welcome speeches, flowers and more colours we were given a tour of this now, Open Defecation free village. Everywhere was clean and all the households were keen to show us their latrines and good hygiene practise. The school latrine, which I frequented, was cleaner and more pleasant to use that most UK public toilets. The progress being made in the community, through the self help groups and education within the school is amazing. Two families have invested in bio gas technology, and we were given a demonstration of how 20kg of cow dung a day can produce enough methane to supply a large family for a day. I pity the small boy in the family who's job it is to hand mix the 20kg of cow dung each day - but it was brilliant to see such progress and innovation. The village is still very poor and especially isolated, but they are planning for the future. Their land is of poor quality and un-irrigated, but they are asking and saving for an electricity connection, which will allow them to use pumps to irrigate the land. Once they have irrigation they will be able to grow more and better crops and work their way out of poverty. The solutions adopted by WaterAid and Darty are so simple, but the groups within the village are now so empowered they are asking the local government for more and getting the help they are entitled to. After a lovely lunch prepared by the village during which we were fanned as a sign of respect, (it is still very humbling to be treated as special guests everywhere), we celebrated the village's success with frantic music and dancing and were given the honor of signing a register of our visit which had been painted on the wall. It is brilliant to know that Darty will soon be able to withdraw from this village and work elsewhere, safe in the knowledge that the work will continue and that this village is driving changes in neighboring villages which have been to look at the progress
Celebration!
. In the second village, Sarpanch Pura, it was hoped that our progress would be a catalyst for the changes. Work in this village is not so advanced and progress on latrine construction and usage has been slower. We divided into teams and helped with different construction duties. Vin, Angie, Dan and I were tasked with latrine painting (painting a Dunny, for any Aussie's reading). Using locally made brushes and natural paint we attempted to show our enthusiasm for latrines by painting two within the village. The success of this is difficult to measure! We certainly drew a crowd, the painting standards varied within the team and we found out a lot about each other (Dan is apparently a starter but not a finisher!), but much to the amusement of the locals (Vin was sure they didn't like the colour) we painted both latrines and all really enjoyed giving back something to a community which had welcomed us go warmly. The
We ended our time here with more singing and dancing and joining the community when they jointly made a pledge not to open defecate any more and to all use latrines. Being part of the pledge was a very strange experience, firstly to the casual observer it must have looked like a Hitler youth rally, with lots of people holding their hands out and chanting
Clothes washing point
. More unexpectedly it was a strangely emotional moment, this community of individuals joining together and pledging to change, what for them is a perfectly acceptable way of life and making a huge commitment in the presence of 12 westerners who have come to visit them for just a few hours. It was also really satisfying to know that just by being here, helping and talking to people we have shown our support for the work in the village and been able to give something back to the community. We stopped at the Darty office on the way and learnt about their other projects which include working to end the horrible (but increasing) practise of female infanticide, and AIDS awareness work. Having eaten our way through the fantastic local snacks prepared by the partners wives and discussed the day we started out Holi celebrations early and ended on a real high. The rest of the journey back to Gwalior was filled with animal noises and Useff attempted to teach Dan more Hindi, I think the Camel was my personal highlight! :)
