Community Response was there before the facilitators
As I wake up in Dimapur, Nagaland, after the best two days of rejuvenating Community Life Competence Process (CLCP) that we had in the nearby Maova group of villages, it is time for a quick reflection on what we soaked in before other waves of incidents wash away impressions of the last two days from the shores of our minds.
Having done a couple of Knowledge fairs before, I had expected something similar, but what I saw and experienced made all my previous knowledge fairs seem like mud-water! I learnt yesterday that you could have a great knowledge fair, but the competence process in the community after that could be nothing or at the best lukewarm. On the other hand what happened in Maova by comparison is you have an unplanned, free-wheeling, and very flexibly-structured knowledge fair, but the quality of participation by the community guarantees that it will only be waves of competence that will spread out from Maova village, long after the facilitators have left for their homes.
To start at the begining: the very journey to Maova village was a feast for the senses. After the raod snaked itself through low hills and rolling plains, we burst upon the invigorating smell of ripening paddy basking in never-ending rice-fields swaying to the gentle breezes in the late autumn sun. Munching on organically grown pine-apples, that Rituu had bought loads of, completed for us the titillation of all our senses! Discussing my favourite topic, namely the numerous advantages of CLCP over Targetted Interventions, with Joma who was sitting next to me, was the feast for my mind.
The welcome banners that greeted us at the New Maova village, the numerous new sign boards directing us, the fresh repairs to the roads, the clean green villages with not a speck out of place, the freshly white-washed spacious community hall built by Assam Rifles, with its cute green-painted windows, brand new plastic chairs, and the largest banner I have ever seen; the anganwadi (creche) which was done up so much it looked as good as new, the all new stalls put up for the knowledge fair on the edge of the ground by the side of the hall, behind which ran a gurgling stream, only showed the painstaking preperation that the community had long been doing in anticipation for these two days.
After a welcome brunch at the Maova Church, we gathered quickly in the community hall where we introduced ourselves in the customary competence fashion by stating our names and the location from which we came. Aided by stalwarts like Father Joe, Sanghamitra, Maii, Rituu, Joma, Sana, the sessions rolled out well. The first one was where all of us in small groups had to tell one short, signifcant incident, or experience, thought, or happening, that made a great impact or change in our life, or in someone else's life that we knew of. Thus in the next one hour, I picked up five more stories to the one on Pimjai that I recounted to the small group that I belonged in.
After a sumptous and tasty lunch we did a panel where a representative from each of the small group presented to the whole floor one story selected by the group with a couple of learning. GB, the village headman and an epitome of simplicity, recounts how Maova village was reduced from a flouriishing clan of hundred houses to about ten houses a decade ago, by a bloody strife. Then, with their own resources, they had over time rebuilt the community. Consequently, the village got a Government Middle School, that soon became a High School, a Church, a spacious football ground, the community hall, while the ten families were strengthened up to the present hundred houses knit strongly together by a common love and bond for their village and all its people. GB concluded that today, the arrival of CLCP teams from as far as Bangalore, Delhi, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, and the many far-flung districts of Nagaland, was beyond his wildest dreams, and therefore the zenith of their achievements. Later, I privately disagreed with GB, saying that we who had come to his village were just ordinary human beings like any one else from his village, and therefore we did not deserve all the special attention, and treatment!
Jahanbi, makes her appearance at the village late due to an indisposition that she was recovering in the morning. The audience warmly welcome her, after Fr. Joe introduces her. Meanwhile, Ankita her sister had more than made up for her by way of contributions to the discussions.
Next, representatives from other small groups presented their selected stories. Thus, the gleanings of the best strengths from some of the members of the community, was begining to shine on the listeners. Slowly, helped by the facilitators, the audience found out the effects of appreciation in revealing strengths, in increasing motivation, and the wonders that motivation could do in terms of achievement. At a leisurely pace, the deft hands of the facilitators steered the discussions to other components of CLCP's Ways of Working (Wow) and ways of thinking. To me this natural flow styled by Sanghamitra was inescapable. Thus, in such a natural fashion was the concept of SALT introduced to the day's new comers.
Obviously, what followed was the SALT visit, made after sunset, so that the village folk would have enough time to be back after the day’s work of harvesting paddy in the rice fields. We split into three groups, one going to Maova, New Maova and Khaibung villages respectively. There is a half-hour delay in our New Maova group as we assemble at the New Maova church, but the audience has not come cause some how they were not informed. Frantic efforts to get the church mike and loudspeaker alive are of no help. Finally, Thinga the church leader rings the church bell as we suggest. Therefore, we start our SALT visit discussions with a motley crowd of hardly seven people.
As time goes on with us mentioning the various things we found appealing to us in the village, people trickle in to fill all the rows in the church. Jahanbi and Thinga help me in trying to enumerate with the audience the evidence for the inherent and innate resilience that New Maova has. Accordingly, they recount how they had accessed various Government schemes for income generation, in agriculture, livestock, health, and infrastructure. In addition, the village people narrated that while the local Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) built the New Maova church, it was the community itself the built the Maova church. Subsequently, we learn that it took an year for the people to complete the task of building the church. Thoughtfully, I ask the audience how much the land value and church building would be today. Thangin and a few others estimate it to cost around Eight hundred thousand rupees. Thus, it dawns on us that the village has the potential to generate resources of around eight hundred thousand rupees in a year. Some one adds that the amount generated would depend on the cause, and so the church being close to a majority of the village population, there would be more funds generated.
Presently, the wife of the village headmaster states her dream of the village becoming a good town in about ten years. With a good road, probably with the help of the Border Roads organization, this last village in Dimapur district would be closer to becoming a town. I suggest a community radio to help in this transformation to a town. Others chip in with their suggestions to strengthen and flesh out with sketchy details, this common dream.
Soon, it is time for us to leave, and we wind up with a quick After Action Review (AAR). Dinner over, we retire to unknown homes and sleep.
Inspiration forcing the Response - Maova village, Nagaland, India
Waking up in a house whose owners or occupants I did not know, had never seen or heard of, after a warm and restful sleep, was for me a maiden experience. For, the night before a couple of our good friends from the village had led Joma and me after dinner and shown us to this cozy single room. Now in the morning, it was both singular and pleasant to sit with Athein and her husband sipping the warm spicy tea she had made, unable to comprehend the dialect that Joma was talking to them.
For Joma, there was a pleasant surprise in store. Actually, he had guessed it the day before. Sitting then in the bus as we had neared the villages, Joma had recognized the language of these Naga villagers as the same as his from Manipur. Now, he had found that Athein and her husband shared the same sir name and the same dialect as Joma’s family did for they shared the same ancestors. Moreover, Joma discovered that he was the paternal uncle of GB, the headman of Maova village! I taunt Joma that luckily he was married. In addition, the uncle was younger than the nephew was!
So, to GB’s house go Joma and me, some more cups of tea, and while Joma explores more familial ties, GB relates from memory the address of his friend in Kallar of Iddukki district in Kerala, once he came to know that I am from Kerala. Here was another instance of this simple yet great man who liked another so much that he remembered his friend’s address though he had not written to him, or seen him for more than a decade!
As we sit and sip thus with GB, from the group of houses in the Headman’s compound emerge Jahanbi, her sister Ankita, Rituu, Sanghamitra and Lucy. Only then, it dawns on me that GB had offered his hearth and home to five of our people. Certainly, his heart was as large as his houses were!
Rituu ever conscious of the time, goads us to breakfast at the church grounds, where we meet Khreibu President of N-Naga Dao, acronym for Network of Nagaland Drugs and AIDS Organizations, Chenithung Executive Director of Bethesda Youth Welfare Center, and James Murry, who everyone likes to call cowboy because of his stark resemblance to one!
At the Community Hall Viki and her team are distributing sealed cups of Yoghurt and Samosas. So, I allow myself the treat. The morning sessions begin with a quick recap of the SALT visits through narration of the three AAR from the selected representatives. Maii’s and Sanghamitra’s facilitation helps by highlighting the strengths that would otherwise not be seen, exposing the nuances and subtle connections of cause and effect of inspiration that actually provides fuel to both own and force the community response onward, as well as spread all over the community.
Thus, the AAR provokes more sharing. Some of these, as Rituu had commented on my earlier blog, were of, Thanggin Gangte fighting his battle with drugs, and how we kicked the drugs habit the day he was chosen as a Church Leader. Thanggin Gangte changed and did not revert to the drug habit just because some one accepted him and saw his potential, and had faith in him. Have a look at Thanggin’s video and listen to his story as they say from the horses mouth, thanks to Joma who has uploaded the video at:
http://tinyurl.com/2vzwmx4
Lucy's passion for working with children brought out the same theme of acceptance when she took a small girl home and offered space to sleep next to her, as there was no other place. This simple act turned the girl into an advocate for the response.
Uncle Houlai's armamentarium of CLCP stories can never be exhausted. Preparing to tell yet another one, he digs both his hands into his pant pockets, probably selecting the most appropriate one, before he starts narrating them, ones like the plastic bag story, and others that Rituu has already recounted on his behalf in this forum.
Jahanbi and Ankita's story on family support is practical, to the point, yet penetrating, and piquant. Similar is the story of how the competence process galvanized the women of Molvum village to guard the village to check the inflow of drugs; how the men chipped in with support to these brave women, and thus make immune their village and community from the otherwise entrapping tentacles of the drug mafia.
Joma makes a request for a role-play, which Rituu and Sanghamitra accede to. And as Sanghamitra said later the play was actual visualization of how the competence process by involving the whole community brings in non-discrimination, acceptance, appreciation and sustainability. Moreover, Joma’s rendering of it by displaying the stark difference with similar Targeted Intervention scenarios would have been enough to change the stoutest skeptic’s heart. Therefore, in my summing up of the session I had to confess that I would be robbing Joma’s role-play as an apt tool to reinforce my pet theme of revealing the lacunae in our Targeted Intervention programs.
Sanghamitra and Maii introduce a mouth-watering feast both for the mind and tongue as they unfold the rest of the day. Accordingly, we looked forward to the knowledge fair, the lunch at Seiboy the GB’s house, the traditional Naga wild-boar hunting dance, the North East Support team meeting to plan the way forward and finally after sunset the grand cultural show by the youth of the village, followed by dinner and farewell.
At the knowledge fair there are stalls by Kekhrie Foundation, People in Need Foundation, and DNP+, which are spread out in front of the stream, as well as in the aganwadi. Onlookers glance at the knowledge products on display. The poster about the before-and-after-ACP-scenarios, adorn one wall of the anganwadi. On the opposite wall of the Anganwadi are photos put in a divergent beam from a torch showing photos depicting the evolution and growth of ACP. The story of the IDU who turned because of faith, the wife who discovered herself positive in a testing centre, and her ability to deal with the after effects because of the support from her family and an accepting community, are yields that any human being can replicate elsewhere. One engrossing poster was about the timely averting of the mass-testing and ex-communication programme thought up by the GB of a particular village, but due to the GB-headman understanding at the last-moment about competence, good sense prevailed with a consequent change of decision not to have the compulsory testing.
Viky, and Mezea, of Kekhrie Foundation, Kohima, are manning the stalls, and I have come away without thanking any of them. Like Jacinta a staff member of People in Need Foundation, whom I had only spoken to for getting my tickets; the ever-present and ever-helpful Bijoya of NEDHIV, who volunteered for ACP in People in Need Foundation. Moreover, there are hundreds of unseen faces and unknown names, from the villages, who worked tirelessly and with enthusiasm for these two days.
Lunch was preceded by a short ceremony of honouring the visitors to the village. The wife of the GB, namely, Seiboy’s mama adorned every visitor with the customary Naga shawl bearing the state emblem. After another tasty lunch, we settled into the large circle of chairs in front of the Community Hall. The traditional Naga wild-boar hunting dance began with the male dancers dressed in black and red, and blowing bamboo whistles, the female dancers with braided hairs and white tops. They spun themselves in a whirling fashion forming a constricting spiral to the slow rhythmic beat of the lead dancer tapping on a drum.
After the dancers had left, the meeting of the North East Support team where everyone recounts what take away they had as well as the way forward, especially plans to spread ACP in other states of the North East. Jahanbi and Ankita state how they would involve INP+ and ANP+, as well as spread CLCP to other positive networks within India. Sana outlines how he would use Malaria competence in Manipur, as well as how to get the Manipur and Sikkim SACS on board the ACP ship. Fr. Joe and Rituu talk about the proposal they had put up with Nagaland SACS. Also, Fr. Joe ekes out a plan for spreading ACP to all the districts in Nagaland. Next stage is linking up teams within Northeast especially Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland. There is talk by INP+ of presenting CLCP for a hour or two in their upcoming meeting for three days at the end of Nov 2010, with the funding agencies, and key government functionaries and partners.
There are discussions for the Northeast participation in Karnataka Knowledge fair in Feb 2011. Fr. Joe speaks of Central Government funding for CLCP in Nagaland. Sanghamitra and Rituu propose how in the NACP-IV consultations, we can bring in CLCP and what are the entry points. Rituu and Fr. Joe remind us of the NNP+ proposal and the plans for Nagaland Legislative forum meeting respectively.
Plans keep pouring, as the evening sky pours out darker shades across a deep sunset painted against the tree tops and hilltops. Soon, under a brightening new moon with the football pavilion now decked up as the well-lit stage with symmetrical bonfires in its foreground, and a good portion of the huge football field filled with chairs the village gathered for the grand cultural show organized by the Youth Club of the Maova village. A second standard child from the village sang a lilting welcome, so sweet she looked her clear young voice floating over the crowd. Fr. Joe, Uncle Houlai, are not spared by the master of ceremonies and have to give short speeches. Every speech is interspersed with a good song. I find myself reciprocating the warm hug of Thangin sitting next to me. He knew that we would be leaving soon. Therefore, he takes my card. The cheers become the loudest when the MC invites Rituu to sing. It was apparent by the cheers that Rituu more by singing a song became that night a star to the crowd than how she sang it. Neither is Ankita spared, and she sings a few lines of an Assamese song. I feel bad when we have to leave this program suddenly, for a quick dinner.
Saying farewell to the nicest, simplest folks I have known in the shortest time are the last moments. These are special ones with Athin the church’s community cook whose hand had fed us, Thangin and GB. The bus drive back to Dimapur passes swiftly as I was next to Maii and we discuss the strategies of complementing TI programs with CLCP as well as spirituality and HIV. Thus, quickly we reach Hotel Nagi, where we had left two days ago.
