MY NAME IS RAMANI.
I have been an AID volunteer for about 7 years.
In Bangalore, there are a few of us – myself, Prem, Vaishu – who have come back from the US and we wanted to continue the same level of enthu and motivation that we had in our experience as AID volunteers in the US. We wanted to develop a committed group of volunteers who could support the AID plan in India. In Bangalore, we did not have any people who were working full time for AID and we felt there would be a need for those who were working full time to have access to resources like funds and awareness-raising among those living in cities, among Indian middle class, students, working people.
So we identified a group of villages in Kandhili block where Balaji and people from TNSF were active and we decided to support their health care and income generation work. We decided that at least one of us would visit these villages once in two weeks and meet with the health activists and try to understand what the programs are, and how exactly the health of a village an be monitored and measured. So we are meeting with the health activists in the villages and finding out how we can help them. For instance, each of the health activists has a large amount of data on each family, how many children, health status of the children. It is difficult to keep track of all this info so we are trying to computerize that. We are still evolving, so we are not yet at a state where any of this can be shown to you.
So our goal was to find out what people in cities can do on a volunteer basis.
For our savings program, in which groups of women meet weekly and deposit money in a joint account, we are trying to develop a simple accounting program which can make the savings program more effective. We also support village volunteers when they go to talk to bank officials etc.
Income generation program: you will see there a packet of sattemavu, which is a nutritious mix, we want to sell this in cities and this can be used to fund the activities.
Now I will come to how the group in Bangalore got together. Vaishu sent out a message on the Infosys bulletin board, we put up some slides from the AID US work. We got a very enthusiastic response, 20 people said they would be interested – about 10 of those people are now attending weekly meetings. Sukumar is one of them. We also had people who showed interest on the internet. Meera saw AID web page and responded. Arvind directed her to me and she found that her colleague at the next desk was already attending our weekly meeting.
Another thing that we thought we would do with these village programs is to provide material support to projects AID is supporting. Volunteers felt that ladies bicycles were needed. Each health activist is responsible for a number of villages. It is very difficult on those women to travel from village to village, especially when weather is not good. There is no communication or good transport between those villages. They identified a need for bicycles, so we put out a message on the bulletin board raising money for this specific purpose. We raised Rs. 4000 and purchased 4 used bicycles which we loaded on a bus and took to the village on Gandhi Jayanti.
All the village volunteers expressed the need for a slide projector. This was not only from the villages where we were working, but also villages that Balaji, Ravi and Aravinda have been visiting. Prem had info on an NGO in the US which specifically produced slide projectors for use in third world villages, where there is not necessarily a constant source of electricity. So we wrote a project proposal and submitted it to AID Milwaukee, which approved it and we have the projector now. We will use this in our villages.
So we felt that sitting in Bangalore, though we are not doing full time work in villages, we can be of help to those who are.
Computers – we have contacted Infosys and Wipro and other companies for used computers. Many companies do have computers no longer in use. We are trying to figure out what government regulations are for getting these computers and distributing them. Volunteers can train themselves on these and use for income generation as well as for their main program activities.
We have always focussed on city people visiting villages to experience village life. We thought we would also try the reverse, and invite some of the people from the villages to Bangalore, just to get a bigger interaction between village volunteers and those in the cities. These are some of the ideas we are working out in AID Bangalore
The other thing we are trying to do in Bangalore is visiting projects which different chapters of AID US are considering for funding. Sukumar has visited a school for mentally retarded children in Bangalore. Our role is to raise questions that would be helpful in the funding decision.
Our own fundraising – our tapping all possible sources will help our work, and fundraising is also a way to involve people, both in action and in spirit. We do feel that the Indian middle class wants and needs to get more involved. We are going to companies to set up fundraising through paychecks. Our fundraising target is Rs. 5000 per month for the next 6 months.
I have been a volunteer in Maryland, Madras, now Bangalore. Speaking from my personal experience – no matter what ideas we try, such as sending emails to our friends to introduce them to AID, we find similar results everywhere. People are alike and we should try all means possible
Anshu: How did Sukumar send this e-mail, what did he put in it?
Sukumar: Well our CSH’s happen on Sundays. But there were only a few people coming. I know that a lot of people do want to get involved, but don’t know how, or with which NGO, etc. So I started sending mails to my own friends. So one fine afternoon I just sat and wrote an e-mail on what AID is, what we are doing. One thing that we must realize is that people who want to participate, do so for their own satisfaction, not that I am concerned with some other people somewhere, but that I want to spend my time in better ways. That is the message that I want to convey. I can send this mail to anyone who wants. About 5-6 people responded
Shrinaath: have you tried to talk to students in Bangalore?
Ramani: There are IISc students on our mailing list.
We have yet to do a presentation in a college. We are planning to
though.
Question: have you developed any linkage with any other organisation
in Bangalore?
Prasanna: Well I met with one trust in Bangalore, school
for mentally handicapped. They are interested in setting up a vocational
training center. A lot of such schools do make products, but the
problem is that they don’t get sold. So we thought we could set up
some kind of market for all of these things. Maybe an exhibition
once a year.
Question: What are the volunteers in the villages doing?
Who are they?
Ramani: They are all health activists, women in early
20s. Each monitors the health of one village. Balaji will talk
more about it in the TNSF effort.
Kiran: what is the volunteer profile of AID Bangalore?
Ramani: 100% professional, all except me are in software
field. We meet once a week, haven’t missed a Sunday since August.
Question: How did you develop health activists in the village?
Ramani: These health activists are already working in the program,
not motivated by AID. They are volunteers of TNSF to some extent.
We are working with them.
Madhubhai: how can one become a volunteer?
Ramani: we have publicized our information, and if you called
any of us, we would just invite you to the next meeting and that is it.
No set requirements for being considered a volunteer. We have minutes
and we send out agenda of next meeting to everyone who contacts us.