STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY TRAINERS

GROOTS INTERNATIONAL IN PARTNERSHIP WITH AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD SERVICE

Those who were present at the Grassroots Academy this summer know that the Groots International network in partnership with American Jewish World Service was embarking on an innovative global initiative. This unique initiative seeks to build on the expertise of grassroots leaders in disaster prone areas to create a global network of grassroots women trainers who ca n be called upon to support and teach other disaster-affected communities.

Across the Groots network there are grassroots women's groups who have done innovative work to rebuild their communities after disasters or build resilient communities that can cope with disaster. These innovators are disaster survivors themselves and are thus best equipped to train and teach other disaster hit communities on how they can shape resilience and recovery processes ; and how they can change government, NGO and donor led programmes to the advantage of disaster affected families and communities.

PLANNING WORKSHOP FOR COMMUNITY TRAINERS

On November 14-16, 2006 Swayam Shikshan Prayog hosted on behalf of Groots International, the first of a series of workshops to strengthen community trainers on recovery and resilience.

Twenty five grassroots leaders from drought prone areas of Tamil Nadu, earthquake affected Maharashtra, tsunami affected Tamil Nadu, and from cyclone and flood affected Andhra Pradesh in south eastern India gathered for three days to take stock of their skills and practices and to create a learning plan to strengthen their capacities to transfer their work to other disaster affected communities.

The workshop brought young leaders with a few months of experience face to face with senior leaders with more than ten years of experience. And the areas of expertise presented ranged from emergency response to organizing federations for enterprise and improving community access to basic services. EMERGENCY TASK FORCE MEMBERS FROM SANGHAMITRA SERVICE SOCIETY, A.P

Grassroots leaders from Sanghamithra Service Society who are part of emergency response teams said that at first men had been hesitant to let women joint these teams. But the women argued that men would often be away fishing and so it would be left to women to protect lives and homes during disasters. Once trained the emergency teams of men and women had gone out and trained a number of other villages including one of the tsunami affected villages in Tsunami hit Tamil Nadu where ROSE works.

TASK FORCE MEMBERS FROM ROSE, TAMIL NADU

The Task Forces or emergency response teams linked to ROSE were formed exactly a year ago with the help of the more experienced Task Forces from SSS, Andhra Pradesh. While at first women were hesitant to join they were soon convinced that it was very important to be part of the Task Forces to protect lives and property. ROSE Task Force members have collected savings to create a small disaster fund. They have also undertaken peer exchanges within Nagapattinam district with Ashaa women linked to SSP to learn how their task forces can improve health and sanitation while they train Ashaa women in relief, rescue and first aid.

MAHAKALASM MEMBERS FROM CCD, TAMIL NADU

Experienced Mahakalasm (federation) leaders from Madurai, explained how they have been managing federations of savings groups to undertake community enterprise in areas such as herbal medicine. There are 6 federations with 16,000 members across 6 districts of Tamil Nadu. Following the tsunami these leaders helped to organize tsunami affected men and women into livelihoods groups of farmers, fish vendors and sea shell gatherers to help them restore and upgrade their livelihoods. The next step is to support the tsunami affected groups to form federations who can leverage credit and access markets for their products.

ASHAA LEADERS FROM SSP,TAMIL NADU

Tsunami affected women working with SSP in Tamil Nadu presented their strategies for improving community access to health care and lowering health expenditures by building relationships with healthcare providers, monitoring the primary health care centers, raising health awarenss among women, encouraging the use of herbal and home remedies and improving sanitation and clean drinking water in their villages.

SAKHI FEDERATION LEADERS FROM SSP, MAHARASHTRA

A team from Maharashtra's earthquake affected region, explained how communities have organized themselves and worked with their village officials to ensure clean, 100% open defecation free villages, with toilets in every house. A village council president from Walkewadi,Maharashtra proudly explained that his village had good sanitation because of the women's self help groups that had taken the initiative to convince everyone that they needed to proactively build their own toilets without waiting for outsiders to help them. The community leaders from Maharashtra explained that they were part of community resource teams who were regularly called upon to mobilize other villages to take similar action to clean up their neighbourhoods.

At present grassroots women's leaders from Uplinks, Indonesia; Swayam Shikshan Prayog, Covenant Center for Development, Rural Organization for Social Education and Sanghamitra Service Society in India; Foundation for the Support of Women's Work, Turkey; Construction Resource and Development Center; Jamaica, Comite de Emergencia, Garifuna, Honduras; and Estrategia, Peru are involved in this global programme

Each of the grassroots groups at this workshop have created community based organizations to address different facets of community resilience and recovery: 1. Restoring and upgrading livelihoods 2. Protecting lives and property, 3. Building linkages between communities and government to improve access to healthcare, water and sanitation.

Participants analyzed the community improvements that had taken place as a result of women's efforts:

§ ORGANIZED COMMUNITIES When people are organized it's easier for them to take collective action and coordinate with others in a crisis. § MORE MONEY Women's livelihoods groups through which communities could increase access to credit and markets and thus increase their incomes. § BETTER HEALTH Health in their communities improved and health expenditures were reduced. § FEWER DEATHS, LESS DESTRUCTION Community Task Forces could save lives and protect property in a disaster. § MORE INFORMATION Communities had information and could access more government programmes. § BETTER ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES Strong relationships with the public health care system means that they can access better healthcare during in emergencies.

Swayam Shikshan Prayog, November 2006 www.sspindia.org

Delicio.us  |   Digg  |   NewsVine  |   Reddit                                                                                  Permalink