Why an EduCARE India internship won’t be what you expect; and why that’s ok

I find myself at the end of a six-month internship with EduCARE India. As I was saying my final goodbyes, finishing up the last monthly report and making travel arrangement, the Project Director, Mr B, asked me if this internship met my expectations. And I had to say no. Not at all.

Any undergrad, recent graduate or anyone at the “entry-level” of their career knows the importance of experience and how hard it can be to get that experience on your CV. Most of us know that to get that elusive first job, you need to put in a lot of unpaid hours. I had volunteered and interned with many organisations before EduCARE India, both international and domestic. So I’m used to that kind of role. I’m used to coming into the office one day a week and being given some simple tasks to complete. Or sitting in on team meetings to listen and learn. I’m used to being given a little responsibility, even whole projects to oversee, under the watchful guidance of a supervisor.

EduCARE appealed to me because they had a diverse portfolio of projects, offered on the ground experience and focused their efforts at the grassroots level. As I tried to get an idea of what my six months in India would look like, I eagerly read blog posts about successful women’s empowerment projects in a remote hill village called Naddi. I was excited to meet the project managers and pick their brains about what challenging things they debated in their Young Women’s Associations meetings. I search Pinterest and Google for feminist movements and personalities, specific to India, so that I could contribute and prove a useful team member in their operational projects.

I was prepared to watch, listen and learn, as I always had, from those who had done it all before. I wanted to find out what worked and what didn’t, from those who has tried it all before. I arrive in Naddi, with a blank notebook and an eagerness to learn as much as I could from those around me. To gain experience from the experienced.

I spent less than one week in Naddi then was sent 35 km downhill, to a little village clinging to a busy highway, called Rait. Venture beyond the main road and its shoe-box shops and you’ll find quaint clusters of mud rendered homes disperse amongst small wheat or rice fields. For EduCARE India, it was a new centre, which had only been operational for about a month, and whose most senior team member had been living there for little more than three months. A team of seven novice interns from different backgrounds were sent to live and work in a little house in the south of this village. Our goal was to establish the centre, engage the local community and begin projects. It dawned on me that this wasn’t going to be the usual internship.

I’ve spent the last six months learning by doing. I have gained experience, not from observing and copying those who are more experienced, but by experimenting, trying and - at times - failing. I have had the opportunity to develop plans, implement those plans and watch as completely unplanned and unplannable things have happened. There have been challenges and frustrations and obstacles and triumphs. I made mistakes, and witnessed first-hand the consequences of those mistakes. I also found ways to overcome those mistakes and get things back on track. No other internship or volunteer experience has ever given me so much freedom and autonomy over my own projects. With this flexibility comes responsibility, and an overwhelming motivation to make things happen.

Early in my internship, in a project management training workshop, the incredibly knowledgeable Ben Flemming told me “everything you planned to do here, you won’t do. And that’s ok.” At the time I thought that was nonsense.

“Ok” I thought, “so I might not be able to do everything, but surely I’ll achieve some of my goals”.

But as I’ve undertaken this internship, I have seen my plans constantly evolve and adapt. What I thought I could do, couldn’t be done, and other things that I never even considered possible, proved achievable. I have learnt so much professionally. And personally. Just not in the way I thought I would.

It’s true; this internship didn’t meet my expectations. At all. Instead, it presented me with something completely different but equally useful.

If you’re considering an internship with EduCARE India, a word of warning. Expectations can be dangerous. They can let you down or mislead you. Better to go in with an open mind, and a blank notebook, and learn as much as you can – yourself.

Katherine with Suman in the migrant camp in Rajhol

Katherine Woolnough - Australia

Young Women's Association project manager, Rait

Our Chicken Coup - A successful model

Chicken Coup 

One of the first projects of micro finance in Naddi was the Chicken coop started by Cecile from france with the support and help of the EduCARE India staff and local partnership of Lata during her international internship program in Middle of 2012. The initial concept was to have a henhouse with chickens and roosters to produce eggs that can sold. The main goal of this project is to help a local woman become more economically independent and self-sufficient. With this project, she can sell the eggs, make a high profit and save the money they would have otherwise spent on buying eggs from the market.

The project started on 21st August 2012, with the arrival of 25 chicks, 19 hens and 6 roosters to the community. The animals arrived courtesy of EduCARE India  - ViKAS Centre - Young Women’s IDEA efforts and MicroEmpowerED’s loan to Lata. After 6 months the hens began to lay. In the beginning we found only one or two eggs per day, but as time went on the hens started to lay more eggs with increasing regularity. Around the 10th march 2013 Lata sold their first eggs. She decided to sell the eggs to the other families in the community. It has been easier for her, and the community is happy to consume eggs from a local, free range production.

Making a new chicken coup for the laying hens >>

Two months after the first egg, after the business has become fully established in the community and has proven to be lucrative, Lata will start to refund the loan for the initial investment. We decided together to apply a 0% interest for the loan. In fact, we aim to apply integrated microfinance, meaning that the returns for the loan will be reinvested into other social empowerment and micro-finance projects.

Elodie Duvivier
Micro-finance intern
France – 2013

Education will lead to empowerment of Migrants community in Janauri village

Education will lead to empowerment of Migrants community in Janauri village

On the outskirts of Janauri village lies a small migrant camp that has all to often been overlooked by the Indian society. The cast system does not only limit access to basic provisions but also stifles children’s opportunities to dream to strive for a better way of life. Many children here are unable to comprehend that they can improve their lives, as they do not know any different. Through education the prejudice from society can be challenged, and the children can attempt to break free from the societal pre-determinations of how they should live their lives.

Learning English improves the children's self esteem

Education can lead to empowerment. This is our firm belief at EduCARE India and can be seen on the ground in Janauri. Currently the 4 interns as part of EduCARE India's international internship programme undertaking their volunteer work in India providing basic English and Math’s classes which Erica Vass from US and local beneficiary group believes will “serve them well into their adult lives”. These skills taught to the children will aid them in basic money management and also allow them the opportunity to compete for more jobs in the future. The classes currently are running twice a week and according to Erica are “of the utmost importance in terms of promoting empowerment for these children.”

The children are highly attentive during lessons and always enthusiastic. Currently the children receive 2 after-school English lessons a week, however this number may improve due to the demand for learning. The children’s willingness to learn in the migrant camp is staggering. Despite having significant other concerns such as access to basic amenities they are still determined to learn and we are therefore determined to teach.

Learning through games

Education therefore is being used as a tool of empowerment that can result in long-term tangible benefits for the migrant children in Janauri. Sydney J. Harris stated that the whole purpose of education was to turn mirrors into windows and this can be seen through the work in Janauri. Rather than the migrant children assessing their limitations and believing they cannot improve their lifestyles, education shows them what they can achieve.

Monsoon rains help our organic kitchen garden

 

It has been monsoon times in Naddi. Through September, the drops of water did not stop, and had cut the sun’s time to shine to 5 minutes every once in a while. Rainbows did not miss that opportunity to show up and add up to the already colorful village in the Himalayas.

Rainbows sneak in when rains stop for a minute

Clouds came and went around the surrounding mountains: sometimes a small cloud sat in between the hills, like a giant marshmallow, while some other times, these gas formations managed to hide entire mountains. Humidity and moist became the daily weather forecast. Clothes got endlessly wet, umbrellas the essential accessory for the season, and at night, the outside lights from the houses magically lit up the mist.


Organic farming

India depends on the monsoon to feed its ever-growing population, that reaches more than 1.160 million people now. While most of the country is dry and hot the rest of the year, non-stop monsoon rains through June to September provide the crops with just the right kind of climate to grow: at least 55% percent of India’s land depends on these rains, due to the lack of irrigation systems.



                                      Local organic cucumbers and beans

And although this year’s monsoon India had suffered from lack of rains in the initial phase but caught up so,me of the deficits in September. The late rain lead to difficulties for the population that saw how their crops withered before growing.

Initiatives like our kitchen organic farms aim to help sustaining villagers food production capacities. The motto is simple: why buying vegetables at the shop if you can grow your own? The first cucumbers, beans, carrots and pumpkins have grown and have been enjoyed by our community.

Bobby holds the first vegetables from the organic farm

Establishment of a Self Help Group

Establishment of a Self Help Group

by
Cecile Poulain, France

The women of the Naddi Self Help Group

One of the our micro-finance initiatives is aimed to create a Self Help Groups within the village communities.

A self help group is a socio-financial organization of villagers based on mutual support both in finances and other areas also. Each of its members save each week or month a small amount of money which is gathered in a common “box”. It thus encourages savings, and can provide its members with small loans at a reasonable interest rate for business purposes or in times of financial stress. 

The self help group of Naddi counts 14 members, all being young women from the community we work with and relatives from the area. They all contribute to the SHG giving 50 Rps on the 10th of each month. Each week they meet to discuss various issues in their community such as health and environmental issues. Many of them have expressed a desire to further their education and learn to read and write Hindi and/or English. They have then been able to support each other from within the group and some have stepped up to act as teachers for this purpose. They are really motivated and receptive, and enjoy coming to the group to ask constructive questions and learn more about various topics that interest them.

Enjoying different educational activities each week

This self-sustaining business model has the power to give them a total control and a structured mechanism to support each other and empower themselves. Through their own independence and open choice they decide to be SHG members, to save and to take loans and to pursue various livelihood opportunities that are of interest to them. They decide how they should use the money they earn and how it can serve health, environmental issues and their community. They are an autonomous group and as such independent from banks or MFI’s with high interests rate for lending. Thus, the main output of Naddi SHG is individual women empowerment, as well as social, human and financial community empowerment and sustainable community economy development.

Progression

A support and empowerment network for the village women

The SHG was created in June 2012 and since then meetings are conducted every two weeks. So far, we have had 3 main meetings: the first one to explain the principles of a SHG to the members, the second one to get the money collected, and the last one to choose the management committee and discuss the internal policy. The next two months will be devoted to the proper settlement of the group and for them to decide and develop their own business plans.

From October, till December, we aim to let the women to accumulate money. Nevertheless, we agreed on the fact that the money that they would add in the SHG bank shouldn’t come from a brother or father, but should be earned from their own additional income generating activity. This is the transversal link between the SHG and the other microfinance projects which help the women to earn their own money. As the SHG won’t deliver any loan during this phase, if women need money to start a business for example they can address their project directly to EduCARE India which can provide them a micro-finance loan (as has already happened for one member, Lata and the chicken coop). 

The SHG also involves a lot of fun activities like dancing!

Then, from January 2013, the women should be ready to start the internal group loaning process. They will also be able to register themselves as a SHG for mutual support and to be able to apply for grants and other external assistance from the government.

If everything goes well, they will become totally independent in 2013 and act as good role models for other community members to initiate more SHGs.

by
Cecile Poulain
France

Waste Management - rural Himalayas

Waste-Management-village-hills-Himalayas

by
Morgan McIntosh, Australia

A problem evident throughout India, improper disposal of waste and a lack of required facilities is a challenge also facing the rural communities in the hills and mountains in northern India state of Himachal Pradesh. The adverse affects of waste being frequently thrown on the side of the road and piles burnt when collected is extensive and reaches to not only environmental concerns but also health. There are various organisations working on waste-management and environmental issues in the region but there is still a very long way to go. With no effort or project underway at our project site before our arrival in the village, Morgan McIntosh from Australia started her internship on the project SWASH village (Sanitation of Water, Air and Soil for Healthy village) with a 3-month implementation plan for the community focusing on both resource and facility development as well as educational activities designed to generate interest and awareness.  

“Here in this hilly village near Dharamsala my primary objective is to firstly introduce a system to collect and relocate the rubbish so that it is not burned in the vicinity of the community. With the community initially very receptive to ideas about waste-management projects I anticipate this step to be well received. I believe challenges will come from the transportation of waste from the community and possibly maintaining interest and enthusiasm in the project once the novelty has subsided. Having completed the research and planning part of my project, I hope to at least have achieved this first step before my departure.  

I hope to help the community understand the harms of the toxins produced from burning rubbish and assist in providing an initial alternative. I also hope to help the community feel a part of the extensive regional and global environment conservation movements. In the long term I visualise engagement with the community through a routine rubbish-pick up walk, placement of the waste collection bins near the shops in the village or neighbouring communities and engagement with the local school. In the future, there is also need to for work in water sanitation and management. However for now, with support of other team-members I will focus on achieving some small steps within the small part of the village community. At the end of the 3-month period we will be able to evaluate the success of the project and re-assess our strategy and activity plans as well as the community’s needs and attitudes to move forward for a community based sustainable solution and a working model. “