Meeting Future Generations - Part IV

We drove to another village and I had dinner with the Future Generations staff. We talked of the various other projects they had running in the area over a few rice beers. It seems they have managed to create 60% self-sufficiency in vegetables through garden projects involving the local farmers, and in the village we were eating in (called Siro), 30 of 134 households had switched to cow dung fuelled bio-gas. They were also encouraging villagers to switch the central fireplace to a wood stove, which conserved wood, prevented fires and reduced eye problems due to smoke. They had also been instrumental in the creation of a wildlife sanctuary 30km away where a lot of hunting used to take place, again by getting the locals to take charge of the project. Similarly they had managed to stop some very dubious fishing practices, such as the use of electricity, explosives and chemicals, instead introducing a permit system for fishing, the proceeds of which were used by the community for projects they themselves decided upon.

We talked about the ways in which tourism could help, and I suggested they organise some homestays in the villages, as well as try to get these and the craft shop mentioned in the main guidebooks. I offered to try to help them out on this side of things and to bring all our tour groups that pass through Ziro to the craft stall, and to offer the homestays to our guests when this had been set up.

Leaving Ziro the next morning I was fully determined that we should do all we could to help Future Generations having been immensely impressed with the work they do. On the drive back we saw a car stopped by the side of the road. We pulled over to see if they needed any help but they were ok. As we drove off Dr. Kanno explained that the wife of the man he spoke to was a Village Womens Worker, the main one in her village. Then he proceeded to tell me their story. She was married to him at the age of six or seven (she wasn't sure but she knows she was losing her teeth!). At thirteen or fourteen she miscarried but fell pregnant again. She was working long days in the jungle doing manual work and one day on her way through the jungle she saw some women sat around listening to a talk given by some Future Generations staff. The topic was how to care for your baby during pregnancy and given her state she stopped at a distance to listen.

Later, after meeting the staff she decided she wanted to go on one of their training programmes in Itanagar. Her husband, who drank a lot and got into a lot of fights at this time was against the idea but she persuaded him to let her go for three days. The course lasted more than three days and when she did not return when she had promised he was furious. To make matters worse someone told him (completely falsely) that she was running around with some other guy in Itanagar which only infuriated him further and he vowed he would cut her in two. Hearing of his anger she stayed with a friend on returning to her village and went with a group of women to see him the next day. Unable to cut her because of the group, he went into the yard and cut a pig up with his knife, telling her this is what he would do to her. They eventually calmed him down.

Working with the group she learned about the problems of alcoholism and persuaded him to stop drinking. After this he cleaned up his act in a lot of ways and became involved in the community. Now they give talks together on the dangers of alcoholism and she campaigns against child marriage, together telling this very story, and he has recently become a village leader.

I was astounded by this, and wondered how many other similar stories there were due to this organisation's help. Sometimes little things, it seems, can really make a huge difference to people's lives.

For more information on Future Generations Arunachal, visit www.future.org/global-impact/india.

For more information on Travel The Unknown, visit www.traveltheunknown.com or call 0845 0530352.

- Dave

Meeting Future Generations - Part III

The next morning we drove to the edge of the town and from there we had a 4km trek through the jungle to the place where the workshop was taking place. The walk was beautiful, the scenery incredibly lush, flushed by the recent monsoon rains.

We arrived at the camp, set up by a natural ‘Shivling’, an image of the Hindu god's sexual organ! Apparently this one was the largest in the world!

The Future Club camp (organised directly by Future Generations) involved children from seven different schools and the topics were personal development, and the environment. The first exercise related to personality development, specifically about what makes a winner and what makes a loser, e.g. “A winner admits when he is wrong”, “a winner says it may be difficult but it is possible”, “a loser has a problem for every answer”, “a loser says it's not my job”, etc.

The next exercise was about developing speaking confidence, and everyone present was asked to pick a topic from a hat and speak for one minute, and were then judged on posture, volume, self-confidence, eye contact and energy. Short of volunteers at first they asked me to speak so I gave it a go. The children scored me well on eye-contact, energy, volume and posture (though one child said I stood like a singer. How wrong they were!). For self-confidence however they said I could do better, suggesting I was a bit nervous. It was a fair call. The children then all took turns and their peers were reasonably generous though not uncritical.

I then gave a short talk on the environment, trying to get as much participation as I could, and then a group discussion followed on the subject. Each school was asked to do one environmental project in the next month, whether it be to plant trees or clean up an area in their village. When the camp was over we walked back through the jungle and the boys scrambled up trees, being teased for their monkey-like skills, and hung up Future Club signs asking people to take care of the environment, not to leave plastic behind, etc.

In the evening I was invited to dinner with some of the Future Generations staff, but before that we stopped at their little craft stall in Ziro which was set up by the Village Womens Workers Self-help group, where jewellery, woven scarves and shawls as well as handmade bamboo and cane baskets were sold and the proceeds went to the villagers who had made them. I gave them a few suggestions I felt would help them appeal to tourists.

- Dave

Meeting Future Generations - Part II

We arrived in Ziro and he brought me out to Hong, the largest tribal village in Asia to meet the Village Women Workers (VWWs). On entering the village I was ushered inside one of the village houses and greeted by about twenty Apatani women, all voluntary members of Future Generations, and a couple of men.

We sat around the walls and introduced ourselves. I started in Hindi but was soon forced into English as my Hindi was not up to the job. Jada, one of the senior members translated between English and Apatani and the other way around. The women started to take turns explaining how they had got involved with Future Generations and what they felt were the main benefits, both personally and for their communities. The first speaker talked of when she first got involved with Future Generations the other villagers used to mock her as she used to try to clean up the village, removing waste from the fields and rivers. They thought that this was the lowest of jobs and couldn't understand why anyone would do this voluntarily. Much of the learning they received was also initially resisted by the community, such as allowing a baby to be weighed, which was considered bad luck and disclosing at what stage of pregnancy a to-be-mother was at. However, these and many other barriers have since been broken down and the women are now trusted by their communities. The women explained that they are proud of the work they do and the benefit their communities derived. They all spoke very highly of Future Generations and told how much they appreciated the changes it had helped them to enact. Simple hygiene has improved, with water being boiled before being consumed, stagnant water not allowed to build up and mosquito nets being used. This has resulted in fewer epidemics, particularly in regard to malaria and dysentery. There have also been fewer issues regarding births, as the women now prepare properly for a birth and have learned what they need to do to take care of themselves before and after the birth. The benefits of immunisation had also been accepted and the women had learned to administer injections. Family planning was also becoming the norm and the women learned how to make simple home remedies for smaller ailments such as rehydration solutions for those suffering from diarrhoea. A register of births, deaths and illnesses is also now kept in each community allowing for better planning.

The women also explained that a Self-Help Group had been set up and each family contributed twenty rupees (about fifty US cents) a month which was put in a special bank account. The fund was then used as a form of micro-finance allowing people to start up small weaving projects, fish farms and vegetable gardens, with very low interest rates being charged. The fund was also used to help needy members of the community such as those who had a sick family member or whose house had burned down. The Self-Help Group also run a small craft stall in Ziro, the proceeds of which go back to the community fund.

One woman spoke with pride of how she had learned to read numbers, something that had proved very useful at the market and to write her name instead of signing with a thumb print. She said sometimes she couldn't believe that it was herself who had written what she had, and that this small thing was like a ray of light. She compared being illiterate to being blind and now felt that she was learning to see. She then fetched a pen and paper and started to meticulously write her name. Three more ladies followed suit with such an air of pride and defiance. It was very moving and I began to realise that possibly the most important contribution of Future Generations was the belief and confidence that it had given these women, and many more like them and as well as their communities.

They were not shy about asking me questions either, some which I struggled to answer, such as what we did in my community (I could think of neighbourhood watch schemes!) and what I was hoping to do for them, and any advice I could give them. Later Dr. Kanno told me that only five or six years ago these women when meeting a guest used to sit in the corner as far from the guest as possible, and would only giggle when asked to speak. That much had certainly changed, and there was more than a little willingness to speak their minds!

We had dinner and then the ladies started to sing some songs and enjoy themselves. Apparently they were very keen for me to sing too, and after deflecting the attention once or twice it became clear I wasn't going to be let leave without some sort of an attempt. So after an advance apology for my singing voice I sang (if that's the word!) the Irish National Anthem and they very generously applauded. We arranged to go out to one of Future Generations children's projects the following day and I somehow got roped into giving them a small talk on the environment. At least I wasn't going to have to sing again, I was pretty sure they wouldn't be asking me a second time!

- Dave

Meeting Future Generations - Part I

Let me please tell you about this fantastic organisation, how we met and the work they do. I went down to Future Generations' office in Itanagar and met with Dr. Kanno, their Executive Director. I explained that we were a new UK-based tour operator called Travel The Unknown, and that we wanted to support some local community projects in the areas where we ran tours. I told him that we had identified Future Generations as an organisation we would potentially like to support, through contributions but also through promotion and in any other ways we could. Our idea was to spread the benefits of our tours and ensure that tourists would become a welcome feature, an arrangement whereby everyone could benefit and not just the tourists. He liked the idea and explained that their nearest projects were based around Ziro, a five hour drive away, and the heartland of the Apatani tribe (a place we visit on our tours). He agreed that he could bring me on Tuesday.

So early on Tuesday morning we set off. As we drove he told me about the history of the organisation, how the founder had been given the task by the UNDP to examine development projects around the world and determine which factors most influenced the success of projects. After an extensive research programme he discovered that by far the biggest factor was community participation. With this discovery he lobbied governments and NGOs around the world, citing the research carried out. Response was slow and often little more than lip service was paid to his findings. So, frustrated with this, he decided to pursue this avenue himself and set up Future Generations in 1997, initially in Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet.

The concept was to provide skills and education to a voluntary section of the community who then act as local specialists. They then dispense advice and in turn run workshops in the villages to transfer these skills within their communities. He explained that Future Generations in Arunachal has 13 full time staff and around 1,000 volunteers. I was very impressed by this fact and keen to see their work in the field.

- Dave