Initial report on the recent Study Visit to India

Participants in study visit

Laura Donkers: Coordinator with Connect

Barbara MacDonald: Manager of Cothrom Ltd., Opportunities for Learning

Angela Monk: Administrator with Wholefoods Coop

Project aims

1. To investigate areas of specific interest to each group represented on the visit, which can be passed on to a Uist audience in the form of: recording stories of other women's lives in video form; achieve a better understanding of the value of literacy; gain first hand information about 'Fair Trading'
2. Look into the possibility of developing an exchange programme offering young women from Uist the opportunity to work as volunteers in both an English Medium School in Vijayawada and the Stella Louise Children's Hostel which is supported by Uist based charity - Love and Share (Uist) SCO34443; and offer return visits to young professional women (teachers, health care workers, complimentary therapists) from Vijayawada to work in suitable placements in Uist.

Itinerary

17.01.06 Arrival in Vijayawada @ 18.00 Met and entertained by staff of hostel

Visit to farming area to see cultivation and production methods of a variety of vegetable crops.

                     Lunch to be taken under the trees in the field.

Evening visit to the children's hostel to inaugurate the 2 nd block of recently completed building, and to lay the foundation stone of the planned compound wall.

Visit to Farmers Market to see this innovative, government-sponsored project where farmers sell directly to the public in a carefully monitored environment.

Visit to Adult Women's Literacy Programme based in Eluru district.

Visit to Christ the King English Medium School - welcome by school children with tribal dances and singing

Lunch with Fr. Deva in his parish

Visit to Stella Louise Hostel to spend time with the children and distribute new uniforms to them, which is a gift form the people of Uist.

Take all 105 children to the cinema - North Uist children fundraised for this

Visit two other local orphanages

Farewell to children and staff of Stella Louise Hostel

Flight to Hyderabad @ 17.30

Findings

The study visit was a wholehearted success due to the careful coordination by our host Rev. Fr. Devadath Peram, Parish Priest and Correspondent of Christ the King English Medium School . Every aspect of our visit was perfectly planned to ensure that all our needs were met in both the quality of the projects we visited and in our own personal safety regarding accommodation, travel and food.

The myriad images of ordinary life that we were witnessing, whether it be of the daily labourers we met on the farms; the farmers themselves; the women taking part in the literacy project and the staff who ran it; the staff and children of the school and in the hostel, at times seemed so unfamiliar and foreign and yet much had a resonance with our own circumstances back in Uist.

Women's experiences of life are undoubtedly similar, regardless of where they live and what they do in the world, but the hardships borne by the ones who are living in archaic societies are undeniable. The inherent beauty of these women and their children belied the physical evidence of malnutrition both they and their tiny children had to endure. It was humbling for us to observe the conditions they had to tolerate -

• A mundane, menial life of twelve-hour days of hard toil.
• The 'dowry system' whereby the family of a girl is obliged to provide property or money for an intended husband, leaves destitute people, already living a hand to mouth existence, with no choice but to borrow money that they will probably never be able to repay, leading to their children being kept as slaves of the landowners.
• Their position in society as Illiterate means they will never be able to better themselves, and they know their children will meet only the same fate.
• The frightening, daily living and working conditions, which we could only guess at, as this was the coolest time of the year at 30 degrees - it gets up to 50 degrees by May!

And yet there were uplifting observations too. Evidence of change and opportunity - not for everyone, of course, but chances opening up for some to escape from the inevitability of grinding poverty.

•  Orphanages were prevalent. These institutions, mostly of charitable provenance, offer possibilities to the children of daily labourers. If one child in the family can get educated, be fed properly, avoid becoming a child labourer, their chances of moving into proper work and a good salary are greatly improved. And even a modest salary will give much needed support to the whole family.

•  Government sponsored schemes like the Literacy Project were also giving hope to some, but success in this required a high level of commitment and a certain air of aspiration on the part of the women that was only to be admired with some incredulity as they gathered on the floor of their stifling carpet loom shed around basic literacy workbooks. However, the lesson they were teaching their children was profound - that bettering yourself was a basic human right!

•  The visit to the vegetable market too gave us an insight into the value of fairness. The calm environment within the building and amongst the sellers expressed the way the initiative had been organized, with strict adherence to the rules. To avoid infiltration by middlemen vendors were obliged to pre book their produce and were allowed to sell only what they had registered they grew. The price for each variety was set at the beginning of the day and no one would be allowed to undercut the price, so the farmers, in selling direct to the public rather than by wholesale knew that they would get a good return for their produce, and the customers knew they would get the best value available.

Conclusions

We feel that we have successfully achieved our aims to improve our understanding of the value of literacy projects and of the direct gain to small farmers and their customers if new, fairer selling opportunities are created for them. Our personal experiences of meeting so many inspirational people, in particular the women, will probably never leave us. A short film will be produced over the next few weeks to communicate these encounters, and will be shown during International Women's Day at Liniclate School , on Saturday 11 th March.

Our second aim to develop an exchange programme will need a period of deliberation to consider the possibilities and responsibilities of undertaking such a potentially immense project.

Reporter: Laura Donkers

Written: 14.02.06