Esp'errance

To content | To menu | To search

Wednesday, February 10 2010

Nai Disha

By Gabrielle on Wednesday, February 10 2010, 18:11 - The bringers of hope

In the courtyard of the headquarters of Sulabh in Delhi, a sign welcomes visitors: ‘Smile, you are at Sulabh’. That was a good start for the day. Soon after our arrival, Dr Pathak came to welcome us in person and invited us to the morning prayer. We were invited to go with him on the platform in front of a crowd of faces. The music started and they all sang in one voice. Then, one of the persons in charge introduced us to the audience and welcomed us. We were as much amazed as moved by this incredible reception. A group of women elegantly dressed in blue saris stood beside the committee of directors. They were the Blue Angels of Nai Disha. They came from Alwar, a town in the region of Rajasthan at a 4-hour drive from Delhi, for their monthly meeting with Dr Pathak. Later on, we sat with them to listen to their story.
 
One day, during a public awareness campaign in Alwar, Dr Pathak noticed scavenger women coming back from their daily duty. They carried on their heads buckets of faeces they had picked up in the early morning (so that the people living in the houses where they worked would not meet them). Dr Pathak went to meet them and asked them if they wished to change their jobs and have a better life. They were stunned by this man: was this Brahman teasing them? But when they saw his serious and determined look, they decided to trust him and gave an unanimous ‘yes’. That was in 2003, and Sulabh opened the training centre Nai Disha in Alwar.

They told us enthusiastically about the incredible changes that have happened in their lives since then. They turned their backs on the fields of refuse and the disgust that used to overcome them everyday when fulfilling those humiliating tasks. After three years of training in the centre, they learned the basics of arithmetic and writing as well as new jobs: dressmaking, preparation of food products, beauty care, etc. They now have bank accounts where they can deposit their monthly wages. With the help of trainers in the centre, they retrieved their dignity and the self-respect that they had given up very young. Progressively, they also won the respect of others.
                Usha Chaumar, president of Sulabh International Social Service Organisation.

They invited us to visit them and, the next day, we drove towards Alwar accompanied by Dr Suman Chahar, director of the centre. The Blue Angels welcomed us with their beautiful smiles of free women. Their representative, Usha Chaumar, put a dot of red powder on our foreheads. It is called the Tilak, it is a sign of welcome.

We visited the dressmaking workshop. Women bustled about on the sewing machines to produce an order of promotional canvas bags. As well as the series produced for the merchants, they also sew self-created patterns. Dr Suman Chahar showed us a few samples.


In another room, women rolled small cotton wicks destined for candles in the temples. This is not insignificant when one learns that they only gained the right to go and pray in the temple of Alwar on 21st December 2008. That day, they entered the temple altogether, led by Dr Pathak.
    Women of Nai Disha entering the temple Jagannath in Alwar for the first time (Photo: Sulabh)

We went up to the beauty salon of the centre. There, a woman of Alwar gave her face to the expert hands of a beautician of Nai Disha, while another gave her forearm for a henna tattoo. Further down, women in a circle were making noodles and papads (crispy and spicy thin pancakes) that have become greatly appreciated in the neighbourhood. This experience seems incredible in the Indian society where the slightest physical contact with ‘untouchables’ is traditionally treated like a stain by the superior castes. Some women of Nai Disha were even invited by their former employers to share a meal. It is the proof that an important psychological turn has been passed.
                        Activities in the Nai Disha Centre.

In June 2009, Nai Disha welcomed the last class of scavenger women in Alwar, celebrating the end of scavenging in this town of 400,000 inhabitants. The experience is now continued in a new training centre that was opened in 2008 near Jaipur (capital town of Rajasthan). It already welcomes 225 women.

The success of Nai Disha is the fruit of a long term effort led by Dr Pathak and his team for the freedom and rehabilitation of scavengers in the society. When Dr Pathak created Sulabh in 1970, he was one man against all. Dealing with a subject as dirty and taboo as toilets was the worst of disgraces for a Brahman, but nothing seemed to be able to dissuade him from his objective. 

The making and installation of toilets was the first step towards the eradication of scavenging. The final issue is to rewrite the rules of the social game in order to give untouchables the chance to start a new life, to be relieved of their labels. At the very start, Sulabh accompanied the professional retraining of families who depended on this activity to survive. Training was organised in villages to learn how to drive, mechanical engineering, masonry, etc.

In order to move the public conscience, Dr Pathak launched big public awareness campaigns. He organised the sponsoring of scavenger families by Brahmans and worked for their right to enter temples.

Dr Pathak also counts on the young generations that have the future in their hands. In 1992, he opened a school in Delhi. This school welcomes 50% of the scavengers’ children. During our visit, we followed the director through the classrooms, the general courses, then the technical training: dressmaking, electrical installation, computers, etc. The students welcomed us without being shy, giving us a general idea of their presentations and their work. There, the children study and play together without attaching importance to their castes.
                          Visit of the school (Photo: Sulabh)

The metamorphosis of scavenger women into Blue Angels sends a strong message. Through Nai Disha, Sulabh laid a new foundation that invites the Indian society to evolve in order to realise the wish of Gandhi: eradicate the scavenging. To be condemned from birth to thankless tasks and to the disregard of others seems more and more difficult to justify, as well as all the inequalities caused by the system of castes.

With Dr Pathak, the women of Nai Disha have become the ambassadors of Sulabh. Among the big events in which they participated, their best memory is the summit of the United Nations ‘Sanitation for sustainable development’ in 2008, in New York! When they spoke about this trip, the conversation livened up and their eyes shone. Their representative, Usha Chaumar, read for us the speech she had then delivered in English. We looked at the photos of the fashion show where models showed the clothes designed in the school and made in Nai Disha. Together, the 46 women had raised their fist from the bottom of the Statue of Liberty. The fairy tale has become reality.

              The Blue Angels in New York (Photo: Sulabh)


How to help

Nai Disha is looking for customers to buy their products, which consist of clothes, accessories or food products that the women can make on order.


Contact

Dr Suman Chahar 
Sulabh Gram - Mahavir Enclave
Palam Dabri Marg
New Delhi – 110 045
India
•    Telephone : +91 11 25 03 15 18
•    Mobile : +98 68 80 45 42
•    Website : www.sulabhinternational.org
•    E-mail : sumanchahar@hotmail.com


Gabrielle

Saturday, November 28 2009

Sulabh Sanitation Movement

By François on Saturday, November 28 2009, 10:23 - The bringers of hope

In India, they call ‘scavengers’  (dustmen) the people traditionally in charge of taking care of human faeces and carcasses of animals. They represent the lowest of the castes that form the Hindu society. They are confined to this job from birth. The job of scavenger itself is particularly degrading. It consists of picking up (by hand) the faeces of others, carrying them in a bucket on one’s head and throwing them out in the river. Add to that, the members of this caste, considered as impure, are subjected to unthinkable discrimination. They are the infamous ‘untouchables’, named this because other members of the society owe it to themselves to avoid direct contact with them.

The Sulabh Sanitation Movement’s mission is the eradication of ‘scavenging’.

                         The symbol of Sulabh: a bucket of faeces crossed in red

On 13th July, we were welcomed by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of Sulabh, in the headquarters of the organization in Delhi. Nothing about his past suggested he might one day take care of the untouchables’ difficulties. But the ups and downs of life took him to lead this fight.

As a young man, Bindeshwar Pathak wanted to become a teacher but did not manage to get a position. In 1969, when he was 27, he joined the Committee of the Celebrations of Gandhi’s Centenary. This organization was notably in charge of accelerating the fight against untouchability, one of the main concerns of Gandhi. Bindeshwar Pathak went to live with scavengers in a slum for a few months in order to immerse himself in the situation.

During this time, he was confronted by the daily drama lived by this population. One day, a child was attacked by an enraged buffalo. Men rushed to help him but suddenly, someone screamed ‘it’s an untouchable!’ and they all stopped instantly, leaving the boy to be trampled. Dr Pathak and a few good willing people picked up the wounded child and brought him to a hospital. There, the medical staff balked at approaching the little untouchable to heal him. The child died from his injuries.

Deeply touched by this experience, Dr Pathak decided to fight in order to stop the inhuman behaviours led by the system of castes. He founded Sulabh in 1970 with the will to eradicate scavenging. It was a choice with serious consequences for a Brahman (high caste) person: his family and step family temporarily turned their backs on him.

                               Dr Bindeshwar Pathak

In 1970, in India, only 15% of urban inhabitations were equipped with toilets, and practically none in the countryside. The rest of the population relieves themselves in open-air toilets that have to be cleaned regularly, inevitably by scavengers. On top of the problem of untouchability, this situation has serious consequences in terms of pollution and disease: each year, in India, almost 500,000 children die of dysentery or cholera. These infections are due to the lack of proper toilets. Dr Pathak is persuaded that in order to eradicate scavenging in the long term, people have to start by solving the huge sanitation problems in India because ‘as long as there will be a need for scavenging, there will be scavengers’.

Building a ubiquitous sewage system like in occidental countries is too expensive for India, and consumes too much water. The installations of septic tanks is not an answer either as it involves emptying that would be done by scavengers. Sulabh looked for a way to develop a technology that could be adapted to the economic and environmental situation of India, and that would allow them to solve the problem of scavenging at the same time.

In 1970, Sulabh inaugurated the first toilets built following the model of Dr Pathak. This model has two essential innovations compared to the classic installations. First of all, the evacuation system was improved in order to use only 1.5 liters of water thanks to a smaller bend (an ordinary flush uses 10 liters of water). Then, the faeces are drained towards a system of double tanks, each of which has a life of 2 or 3 years. Once the first tank is full, the evacuation is directed towards the second tank. The faeces that are in the first tank transform progressively with the natural action of fermentation. After 18 months, the tank left at rest is full of odorless and dry green manure, easily transportable and usable for agriculture.

The toilets Sulabh: water and methane produced by the fermentation are absorbed into the soil thanks to spaces on the surface of the tank (photo Sulabh).

The Sulabh installations are adapted to all incomes and can be made with a large range of local material. As of today, the organization has built and sold more than 1.2 million toilets across India.

           The green manure obtained after 18 months of fermentation (Photo Sulabh).

For a lot of inhabitations, the simple and cheap technology of Sulabh remains inaccessible, notably in slums for reasons of cost and space. The only available toilets are often an open-air corner of pavement that scavengers have to clean.

In 1974, Sulabh installed the first paying public toilets in Patna, in the state of Bihar. Nobody believed it would work. However, the first day it opened, 500 people came to use it. The towns inhabitants are ready to pay 1 or 2 rupees to use the toilets in a clean and private environment. Today, Sulabh manages more than 7,500 public toilets across India, which welcome more than 10 millions users every day.

Sulabh continues to innovate and, at the beginning of the 80s, Dr Pathak had the idea to recycle the methane issued from the fermentation of faeces. The organization installed biogas plants in about 190 public toilets. Instead of escaping in the atmosphere where it contributes a lot to the greenhouse effect, the methane is kept and used for cooking, street lighting, electricity production, etc.

A Sulabh biogas plant and its different uses: electricity production, stove, heating, lighting, etc.

At the headquarters of the organization in Delhi, an experimental laboratory tests new simple technologies in order to improve the sanitation situation in India. One of the recent ideas was to use duckweed to clean up lakes and rivers. The weed can then be harvested and is used to feed livestock.

Each time, the solutions offered by Sulabh are simple and adapted to the Indian context. Moreover, in Hindi, 'sulabh' means literally ‘simple, easy’.

After the visit of the Sulabh installations, Dr Pathak invited us to the library of the organization. Among the numerous books, he chose a big volume of the bound editions of ‘Young India’, Gandhi’s newspaper, and opened it respectfully.

The work of Gandhi inspired the actions of Dr Pathak. During the conflict for independence in India, the Mahatma was already fighting for the abolition of the system of castes. What would be the use of independence if some Indians were still oppressed? He insisted on his disciples cleaning their toilets themselves, and taught sanitation basics in villages he visited. After they achieved independence in 1947, and the death of Gandhi in 1948, the new Indian government passed numerous laws to fight against the phenomenon of untouchability. It was not particularly successful.

By founding Sulabh, Dr Pathak tried to approach the problem from a practical angle, and it is probably the reason for his success. The organization estimates that it has managed to free more than one million people from scavenging. Commenting on the work of Sulabh when she visited in July 2008, the Indian president, Prathiba Devisingh Patil, declared: ‘no program in India would give as much happiness to Gandhi than this one’.

Today, 60,000 people work within Sulabh. The organization tries to spread its model across the world. 2.6 billion human beings still do not have access to proper toilets. The technology developed by Sulabh can contribute to solving this sanitation problem. Moreover, when facing global warming and water shortages, the Sulabh toilets are a first rate ecological solution.

Thanks to the money earned with the construction and cleaning of the public toilets, the organisation also leads important programs of rehabilitation for the scavengers.  To be followed...


How to help

The organization is self-financing and does not accept donations. The financial independence of Sulabh is the best asset for Dr Pathak in order to think and act freely.

Dr Pathak invites people to follow his actions: the technology developed by Sulabh is free of patents, and technical training can be given on demand. For example, 14 African engineers were recently trained in the different systems developed by the organization. New sessions are planned to extend the training to other countries.


Contacts

Sulabh Sanitation Movement
Sulabh Gram - Mahavir Enclave
Palam Dabri Marg
New Delhi – 110 045
India
• Telephone : +91 11 25 03 26 17
• Website : www.sulabhinternational.org
• E-mail : sulabh1@nde.vsnl.net.in


The International Museum of Toilets of Sulabh welcomes visitors in Delhi (same address). One can discover toilets of all ages and shapes, of which there are some surprising models.

• Telephone : +91 11 25 03 40 14
• Website : www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org



François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Tuesday, October 27 2009

SEWA

By François on Tuesday, October 27 2009, 12:08 - The bringers of hope

Saturday 4th July. We met Pratibha Pandya, one of the people in charge of SEWA (Self Employed Women Association), in the office of the organisation in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). For 22 years, she has been working for this syndicate of self-employed women.



In India, the ‘informal’  sector represents 60% of the economic income and more than 90% of workers. Most of the women are hired in this sector: these ‘independent workers’  are farmers, street saleswomen, dressmakers, they roll biddies (Indian cigarettes), etc. A lot of them also work at home for the manufacturing industry that pays them by the piece.

These women are often exploited by managers and suppliers who do not hesitate to take advantage of their professional isolation. Their income is very irregular and they must also face the vagaries of life without the social welfare from which paid workers benefit.
                A market in Ahmedabad

SEWA was founded in 1972 by Ela Bhatt, who was then an executive of TLA (Textile Labour Association) which is the syndicate of textile workers created by Ghandhi himself in 1917. She drew her inspiration from the work of the Mahatma to build a model that would help destitute women in the long term, without assisting them.
 
SEWA wants to regroup these independent workers in order to help them regain confidence in themselves and hold their heads up. By uniting within a syndicate, they learn how to organise themselves and break the vicious circle of poverty. SEWA has two objectives: allow these women to earn their economic autonomy through their work, and supply them with the same advantages from which paid workers benefit.

To allow them to augment their income, SEWA helps the workers of the informal sector to associate in cooperatives. The regrouping offers numerous advantages: pooling their money (for purchase of tools, of stocks, etc.), division of work (which makes these women more productive), sharing of risks, etc. And above all, it gives them real resilience against other economic factors.

We were invited to visit a cooperative of women fishmongers created by SEWA in Ahmedabad. Suruchi Mehta, the coordinator of the activities of the cooperative, showed us the work done since 2003. At that time, the women fishmongers of Ahmedabad worked separately and were not respected by the merchants supplying them with fish. They were badly served and had to do with varying quality fish offered to them at a fixed price. Once on the market, they engaged in hard competition between themselves, and at the end earned practically nothing.
                                Suruchi Mehta

With the help of Suruchi Mehta, the women fishmongers organised themselves in a cooperative and created a central buying office for fish. By grouping the orders, the cooperative was in the position to negotiate price and quality with the merchants. Out of the 200 women members, two are in charge of buying the fish on the central market in the morning, and transporting it back to the building opened by SEWA on the local market. The transporting costs are reduced, and the women fishmongers do not have to get up at the crack of dawn anymore. They buy better quality fish directly from the SEWA shop and at a lower price. The cooperative only takes 2 rupees (€0.03) of profit margin per kilo of fish in order to cover the rent, buy the ice and pay the two workers in charge of buying wholesale.

The results are palpable. In 2003, these women fishmongers earned an average of 80 rupees (€1.20) per day, starting their day at four in the morning. Today, they earn an average of 120 rupees (€1.80) per day, and up to 200 rupees (€3) on Sundays, only starting to work from seven in the morning. Even though the amounts seem derisory, it is an increase in income of more than 50%, in better work conditions. It allows these women to improve their quality of life and notably to finance their children’s education. Moreover, these women are not confronted anymore by the daily humiliation they suffered when buying their fish individually; they have regained their dignity.

                               Shanta Ben, one of the paid workers of the central buying office.

When buying fish on a market in Pondicherry, a month before, we had been shocked to notice how the women fishmongers were competing savagely between themselves. The quality of fish was poor, and the women cut the prices to sell their meagre merchandise and earn enough to survive. On the market we visited in Ahmedabad, the atmosphere was radically different. The women fishmongers, radiant, showed us big pieces of appetising fresh fish. Regrouped within a cooperative, and earning their life in a better way, they have become interdependent.

Suruchi Mehta has other projects to continue to increase these women’s economic autonomy. She wishes to take advantage of her experience to open SEWA shops on the other markets of Ahmedabad. She also dreams of building a real covered market that would allow more sales in better work conditions. She is already looking further: organising the fishermen and buying the fish directly from them without having to go through the merchants of the central market. The profit margin earned would then be redistributed between the workers: the fishermen and the women fishmongers.

                  The women fishmongers of SEWA

SEWA is the source of 102 similar cooperatives in different industries. They accompany the independent workers in the creation and the follow up of their jobs.

The organisation provides its members with training to teach them how to manage their cooperatives in an autonomous way. Sessions of personal development are also organised to help these women gain confidence in themselves and assert themselves in the economic world. Finally, other technical training is also offered and allows the women workers to increase their productivity.

in 1992, SEWA founded a federation of cooperatives: the ‘Gujarat State Women’s SEWA Cooperative Federation Ltd.’. The objective of this federation was to give the cooperative SEWA greater capacity by offering them specialised services in administration, marketing, labelling, professional training, etc. It did not however aim to create a big company: this ‘super cooperative’ posed as a service provider; the cooperatives kept their autonomy, and women remained their own boss.
                  A SEWA textile shop 

The other objective of SEWA is to offer the women workers of the informal sector social welfare and services that they were excluded from until now. 

SEWA organised a real social insurance for its members. After having paid a subscription, the workers of SEWA benefit from health insurance for them and their children, including maternity. Work accidents are also covered. A child minding service is available to allow the women to work in serenity.

The SEWA Bank, one of the biggest successes of the organisation, allows its members to avail of a bank account to save, and to subscribe for ‘micro credits’. Thanks to small loans, the workers can invest without having to use the outrageously expensive services of usurers. These micro credits can be used to buy tools or stock of raw material; it often consists of agricultural loans destined to buy seeds. 


SEWA’s vocation is to be self-financing in order to remain viable and independent. The syndicate is organised in cooperatives whose beneficiaries are shareholders (the SEWA Bank has 100,000 shareholders). All the services offered (including training) have to be paid for, and the objective of the cooperatives that run them is profitability. The members of the syndicate also pay a subscription of 5 rupees (€0.08) per year to cover the costs of structure, and the organisation also deducts a percentage from the sales of the cooperatives.
                                     The 10 objectives of SEWA for its members.

Today, SEWA has more than one million members across India (500,000 in the Gujarat and 500,000 in the rest of the Indian Union), which means as many households, making it the biggest Indian syndicate.

Now, SEWA is spreading its activities to Afghanistan, in Kabul. In 2005, the Indian government appealed to the organisation to train more than 1,000 Afghan women in horticulture and agriculture. This is an official acknowledgement of its work in India.


The success of SEWA may be explained through its philosophy: the organisation does not look to assist people in difficult positions, but counts on the unused capacities of the workers of the informal sector. By giving them the means to earn a decent life through their jobs, SEWA helps these women to gain confidence in themselves and use all their potential.


How to help

The best way to help the women of SEWA is probably to buy their products. The organisation is interested in potential buyers aware of the approach of fair trade.

Donations and volunteers are also welcome.


Contacts

Website : www.sewa.org


François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Sunday, October 25 2009

In The Country of Gandhi

By Gabrielle et François on Sunday, October 25 2009, 11:28 - Journey stories

On our way towards the north of India, we stopped in Ahmedabad, the capital town of the state of Gujarat. This is where the famous Indian independent leader Gandhi was born, the apostle of non-violence.

We followed in his steps to his ashram, that he founded in 1917 when he returned from South Africa. We entered the house where he lived until 1930. After that, he left for the Dandi Salt March, making the wish to only come back when India was freed from British domination. He died on 30th January 1948, a few months after independence was proclaimed in 1947. In the museum, we read the tributes paid by other important men (Einstein, Martin Luther King, etc.). They repeat the accounts of the bringers of hope that we met and whose actions are inspired by Gandhi.

            In Gandhi’s house

Two days later, we let ourselves be guided into the world of the old Ahmedabad. We got lost in the lane ways and entered the pols (‘door’ in Gujarati): they are small areas typical of the architecture of the town. They have only one entrance to better defend itself in case of an attack, and secret passages to flee more easily.

             The Hindu temple Swaminarayan Mandir Kalupur

Initially, Hindu, Jain and Muslim people each had their areas, and the town was organised in such a way that they never had to meet each other, except on the main square of the market. Each religion rivalled each other to show the most beautiful sanctuaries to visitors.

            Temple Jain (top) and mosque Jumma Masjid (bottom)

In the afternoon, we went to see the step-well of Dada Hari. We played Indiana Jones in this huge water reservoir of the 15th century, six levels underground, among sculpted columns and bats.

            Dada Hari

On the other side of the river, Ahmedabad looked more modern. The famous architect Le Corbusier had gone through here. We contemplated one of his works and two Korean architecture students shared their marvel with us. We were more skeptical in front of all this concrete, even though some of the layout did not lack harmony.

             The ATMA building - Le Corbusier

We had arrived at Ahmedabad by chance, as we were coming to meet the members of SEWA. The town is not really known by tourists. However, in addition to its old (and less old) stones, Ahmedabad also has the quiet kindness of its inhabitants on its side. It was a nice surprise.

Gabrielle and François
(Tranlation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Wednesday, October 7 2009

College of Social Work Nirmala Niketan

By Gabrielle on Wednesday, October 7 2009, 14:58 - The bringers of hope

The College of Social Work Nirmala Niketan was founded in 1955 following Les Filles du Coeur de Marie’s initiative. The latter is a religious society that came to Mumbai to work with the disadvantaged population. With the aim to organise quality help on the long term, they created this school to train professionals of social work among the Indian youth. Since then, the institute has been relying on its experience to adapt itself to the evolution of the society and anticipate tomorrow’s needs.

The principal, Dr Mary Alphonse, emphasises the characteristic of the institute which endeavours to pass on not only knowledge, but also the necessary passion and conviction to work in a social environment. The students gain professional discipline while leaning on strong human values. They develop both a critical viewpoint and a global vision to apprehend the problems they are entrusted with solving. By training this ‘army of social workers’, the institute wants to contribute to the construction of a new social order based on human dignity and social justice.

            Dr Mary Alphonse, principal of the CSW (College of Social Work)

The CSW is affiliated to the University of Mumbai. Each year, about 250 students are awarded bachelors degrees and masters degrees. A PhD is also offered to social workers that have at least 3 years of professional experience. The institute also runs short-term training and correspondence courses. This is for adults looking for a job or who are working with disadvantaged people.

We followed the headmistress in the corridors of the school. She showed us the audiovisual laboratory, the computer room, and then we entered the brand new library where big volumes of social law and numerous books fill the shelves. These different forms of media are put at the students’ disposal to allow them to do research that will serve as a basis for their classes. The teaching team is also called upon for its services by the government or NGOs such as UNICEF. They do so within a university department that studies social problems. Faculty teachers and outside contributors share their thoughts in a quaterly publication. 

                            The library of the CSW

To be fruitful, this research spirit has to be confronted with outside realities. The institute gives an important place to training out in the field: the students devote two and a half days each week to their field work. This approach gives them a critical view through practice. It is in the heat of the action that the students acquire their know-how and reveal their inter-personal skills.

Curriculam for the subjects offered is decided and reviewed by the teaching faculty in collaboration with the field NGOs which are seen as partner organizations. Thanks to the experience gained with the years, the school and the teachers have become privileged observers of the social problems in Mumbai and in the region. Since 1974, they have launched many projects to tackle certain social problems with an innovative approach: interfaith dialogue, education of Commercially sexually Exploited Women's children, work with the street children, etc. When Dr Mary Alphonse showed us these programmes, we were impressed by the diversity and the scope of the actions.

The school acts as a breeding-ground for social projects. The projects are accompanied by the teachers and financially supported by the CSW for five years. The people in charge, chosen from the former students, are in charge of the coordination, the communication and the research for financing. At the end of the five years, the project has to fend for itself, in an independent way or under the supervision of another NGO.


The people in charge of the two projects initiated since 2004 came to introduce their work to us.

Manisha Desai presented the project AROEHAN (Activities Related to the Organisation of Education, Health and Nutrition), led in Mokhada. This region of the state of Maharastra accumulates all the diseases, including a big problem of malnutrition that affects 3 children out of 4. The team has decided to tackle the problem at its roots to restore Mokhada to life. Moreover, AROEHAN means ‘resurrection’ in Mahrati language.

            Manisha Desai, person in charge of the project AROEHAN

The girls married very young often have their first child as early as 13 years old, when they are not ready to be mothers. The association gives them health and nutrition classes in schools to help them take care of their children as well as themselves.
Moreover, the deforestation led to dryness and impoverishment of the soil, then made unsuitable for agriculture. The lack of food and work forces some families’ exodus and the region is impoverished accordingly. In order to stop this vicious circle, the association teaches, with the help of experts, agricultural techniques that are simple and respect the environment. This will help enrich the soil again and fight against the dryness.
Finally, there are laws to help the disadvantaged rural areas in matters of work, health services, subsidies to buy food, etc. AROEHAN plays an important role informing the inhabitants of their rights and encouraging them to join forces to make these rights recognised by the government. At the start of the project, the inhabitants feared that such an approach would lead to the retaliation of corrupt agents of the state. By dint of public awareness and support, the inhabitants organised themselves and obtained important help, opening the way to a better life thanks to their courage.

The 14 members of the team continue their fight with the help of the school, the government and partner NGOs.


The following day, we had a meeting out in the field with Greeshma Francis, the person in charge of the CHIRAG program (Community Health Initiative and Research Action Group), created in 2004 to help people living with HIV and AIDS. India is the region of the world second most affected by the epidemic after Africa (2% of the population is infected). The sick and their families suffer from strong discrimination, which adds to the weight of the disease itself. CHIRAG, which means ‘lit lamp’ in Hindi, want to restore sick people’s hope for a better life and the means to reach it.

Greeshma Francis, person in charge of the project CHIRAG, and Kamlakar, member of the team

It was pouring with rain, we went on a suburban train in the direction of Dharavi. This area contains a large population of immigrants and more flock there everyday by the hundreds. AIDS is one of the numerous diseases that strikes here more than anywhere else. We left the train station in the middle of rows of prematurely aged buildings. We followed Greeshma through the maze of streets and into one of those same buildings where the CHIRAG office was. Children played, neighbours greeted us. Immersed in the life of the area, the project office welcomes the sick and fights for their rehabilitation within the community.

The first contact with the sick is more often established through the support unit in the hospital, where 300 to 500 sick people come everyday to receive their treatment.
In Dharavi, CHIRAG offer different workshops to teach sick people how to take care of themselves, to control their disease, and above all, to overcome the shock and to be self-confident again. Once in a month, a support group gathers 50 to 60 people to share their problems, doubts or questions. CHIRAG visits the families to give them information about AIDS and encourage them to support their sick family members.
The team leads the important work of public awareness with the community to stop the discrimination. It leans on the network of existing public structures: schools, administrations, hospitals, etc. There, they have trained more than 200 community kindergarten teachers and helpers in order to pass on the message of the organisation. Activities are also organised with festive events: cricket tournaments, painting contests, street theatre, etc. These are all occasions to speak about AIDS and defend the cause of the sick by going beyond the fear.
The reinstatement of the sick also includes finding a new job as most of them are unemployed. The project CHIRAG offers professional training to allow them to create their own business at home. In the same view, a micro credit program dedicated to women was launched recently.
Finally, when resorting to justice by legal means is necessary (domestic violence, unfair dismissal, etc.), CHIRAG fights for the sick with the help of specialised lawyers. Encouraged by the success of the project in Dharavi, CHIRAG opened a second office in the area of Bhandup in 2005.

All this work is done by a team of 8 people under the flagship of the College of Social Work and of the NGO Rangoonwala Foundation India Trust.

            A beneficiary of CHIRAG


These two projects are a good example of the philosophy of social work taught by the CSW. They are led willingly and with talent by young enthusiasts who make sure not to confuse empathy with sympathy.


How to help

In order to accompany the current projects, and launch new ones, the CSW constantly looks for funds with NGOs as well as private individuals. Volunteers are also welcome within the AROEHAN and CHIRAG projects (Greeshma Francis is looking for people to maintain and develop the CHIRAG website).


Contacts

College of Social Work Nirmala Niketan
38, New Marines Lines
MUMBAI 400 020
India
Telephone : +91 22 22002615, +91 22 22067345
Fax : +91 22 22014880
Email : colsocwk@mtnl.net.in
Website : www.collegeofsocialwork.in

AROEHAN
Email : aroehan@gmail.com

CHIRAG
Email : chirag_nn@yahoo.com


Gabrielle
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Saturday, September 26 2009

Selco

By François on Saturday, September 26 2009, 12:18 - The bringers of hope


27th June. We were in Bangalore, high-tech capital of India, in order to visit Selco. Selco is a company that works in the field of solar technology.


Selco is not an NGO but a private company, and more precisely a ‘social company’. Unlike a normal company, whose primary objective is the maximization of profits, the main purpose of a social company is to serve the general interest. Profits are sought after, but only to allow the realisation of their social objective, as a means rather than an end. Selco’s mission is to supply the people excluded from the standard power distribution networks with solar electricity.

In 1993-94, Harish Hande continued his Engineering studies in the USA in the field of energy. During a trip to the Dominican Republic, he saw that people with low income had the choice to be supplied with solar energy and paid the cost of the installation rather than not having any electricity. He made the electrification of the rural environment the subject of his thesis. In 1995, once he obtained his PhD, he went back to India and founded Selco in order to put his theories into practice.

                               Harish Hande

Why did he choose to create a social company rather than a normal company?

Harish Hande’s answer was that the present model of a company, which aims to increase profits for itself, is not viable. This race for enrichment uses a short term vision and generates a fake richness, a fake comfort. In India, the retribution for the present growth (8-9%) is the accelerated deterioration of the environment and the augmentation of the number of poor people, which destabilises the society. Harish Hande quoted Mahatma Gandhi: ‘a business started with the sole aim of making profit is not sustainable’.

Money is a bad master but a good servant. Gandhi also explained that profitability is the only way to make an organisation viable. For Harish Hande, who has always wanted to work in the field of development, the layout of a private company is more efficient than one of an NGO. While a standard NGO has to be constantly supplied with funds, a social company tries to secure a return on an initial investment in order to offer its services in the long term. Harish Hande is convinced that it is possible to satisfy the electricity needs of people who lack it and at the same time remain a profitable company.

             Gandhi

In India, 57% of the population have no access to electricity, especially in rural areas. These people, excluded from the distribution network, are poor and have to pay more than well-off city dwellers to have electric light. For example, for a street peddler or a villager’s family, the use of a simple oil lamp (which pollutes) costs 40 rupees (€0.60) per day for fuel, while a middle class family in Bangalore pays about 20 rupees (€0.30) per day for its electricity bill, all inclusive.

Harish Hande naturally turned to solar energy, a clean energy particularly adapted to a rural environment in a tropical country. The start of the company was difficult: for the first five years, Selco only sold 500 installations. Rather than slashing prices by diminishing the quality, Harish Hande continued to give real long term solutions to his customers. This is another aspect of the shift in priorities in comparison with a standard company: the search for customer satisfaction is an aim in itself, and not a simple question of image. He set up an after-sales service, and all the Selco installations have a 5-year guarantee.

A solar installation needs a substantial investment, but in the long term, the electricity produced is free. In order to allow its poor customers to access this technology, Selco formed some partnerships with financial institutions that let the customers finance their credit investment. Selco is not a manufacturer of solar equipment, but it deals with different suppliers selected for the quality of their stock. The role of the company is to listen to the specific needs of the customer and evaluate his ability to reimburse. This type of company gives him greater freedom to offer each customer an answer adapted to each case: technical installation and method of financing.

The job is carried out by small experienced teams scattered in the large Indian state of Karnataka. They are particularly motivated by their ‘mission’. ‘Mission’ was the word used by Sarah Alexander, one of the managers of the company. When she detailed the activities of Selco, her eyes twinkled. Visibly, working for a social company gives a different perspective of work, and she told us that her motivation could not be compared with what she experienced in her former jobs.
              Sarah Alexander

The efficiency of a social company is not measured by the amount of profit, but by its ability to fulfill a ‘social’ objective: for Selco, to provide a maximum of houses with quality installations. Harish Hande makes a point of choosing investors who share the same vision. At the moment, all the shareholders of Selco are non-for-profit organisations who find Harish Hande’s approach cheaper and more efficient than direct assistance to the target population.

And it works! Statistically, Selco customers with low income reimburse their lenders more often than well-off people do. They realise the real contribution that electricity gives them: most times, a simple lamp helps these people earn more money as it allows them to work after sunset. Once a family has been canvassed by the Selco teams, the rest of the village usually asks progressively to be equipped thanks to word of mouth, which is the best publicity.

             A solar lamppost Selco Solar

Today, Selco has 140 contributors and continues to grow. Since its foundation in 1995, the company has sold more than 100,000 solar installations.

Originally only based in the state of Karnataka, Selco is trying to break into the state of Gujarat with the help of SEWA. SEWA is a syndicate of independent women whose cooperative bank will serve as financial partner in this state. The company plans to extend its activities in other Indian states, depending on the financial partnerships that are concluded locally.

Harish Hande wishes to extend his company model to other technologies. Selco is looking for simple and cheap answers in order to allow its customers to improve their day-to-day lives while respecting their environment. Recently, the company formed a partnership with an innovative wood-burning stoves supplier. The stoves retain the maximum of the heat produced by the combustion. Customers need less wood to cook, and it is better for the forest. It is the same for solar energy. Selco is partner to an environmentally friendly technology supplier and to a financial institution in order to give the most appropriate answer to each customer.

Contacts

Website : www.selco-india.com


François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Friday, September 25 2009

La Boulangerie, story of a young entrepreneur

By Gabrielle on Friday, September 25 2009, 10:24

We enjoyed the coolness of the hall in a luxury hotel in Chennai, where one can find...a French bakery! It exposed to us appetising pastries as well as an assortment of small bread rolls and beautiful baguettes. Was it out of the ordinary? We met Alexis de Ducla, the young French businessman who had opened this shop during a quite peculiar adventure.

When Alexis was ready to enter business school and already imagining his career in finance, he had a crucial encounter that disrupted his plans. Father Ceyrac, who is a very active person with the poor in India, had come to give a lecture about the Dalits’ cause in Alexis’ high school. The latter did not attend the lecture as he preferred to take a break in a neighbouring cafe. Destiny is sometimes persistent because it was exactly where they both met. Father Ceyrac was convinced that Alexis had human qualities to help him in his fight against poverty and invited him to come to India. The next day, Alexis bought his flight tickets. Then, he organised cultural events to collect money before his departure. A few months later, he was in Madurai, in the region of Tamil Nadu, where he worked for two months in an association founded by Father Ceyrac. He got bitten by the bug...
                                  Meeting with Father Ceyrac

When he came back, he got into ESSEC, a prestigious French business school, where he specialised in social entrepreneurship. His degree course allowed him to go back regularly to India over the five years. He could alternate courses and trips to Madurai. During this period, he worked with an association that supports the Dalits in their villages by giving them education and professional training. There, he met a French baker who had come to teach. That is when Alexis had the idea to open a ‘bakery-school’ in Chennai to train young people coming from underprivileged backgrounds, and allow them to find a job in luxury catering. The profits from the sales of the bakery would finance the functioning of the school. The adventure was launched. He created an association and found financing to start his project. He had the opportunity to practice what he had learned during his studies and to create a structure in which profit is not an end, but a means to serve a social objective.
 
In 2006, La Boulangerie ('The Bakery') was born. The training personnel consists of a head baker and six employees. The welcoming capacity is of 24 apprentices per year, all on block-release training. They are recruited on poverty and motivation criteria. They get bed and board and their laundry done for them, and they receive wages to help them start their professional lives once the training is over. The first two years came off successfully, La Boulangerie was self-financing at 50%. Unfortunately, the global financial crisis occurred and the funds dried up. Alexis tried to get things back on an even keel by augmenting the self-financing rate, but the continuous support of the school suffered because of it. When realising the limits of his model, he restricted the number of admissions in 2008, before closing the school at the start of the new school year in 2009. It allowed him to end with a positive assessment: out of 35 trained apprentices, 30 already have a job, and Alexis is helping the last ones with their job search.
                                  Alexis de Ducla and one of the employees of La Boulangerie

Alexis did not give up. He went to visit numerous associations across India to study their functioning and understand their strengths. He saw that the organisations that work are those who adopt clear and coherent rules, without ‘romanticising poverty’ according to one of his mentors. Most of the training on offer has to be paid for, and it gives merit to those who get involved. Alexis gave the example of an organisation that offers ultra specialised training, for three months, at an intensive rate. The manager worked on the principle that the poor do not have the means to stay any longer without a job and need to be able to make their training profitable quickly.

Alexis is now thinking about a new project, where he will be able to make the most of the experience he gained. He turned away from an ordinary career in order to engage his talents in that which he believes. We believe him to be one of the people who has invented and will lead the way to social entrepreneurship, which gives priority back to human values.

Gabrielle
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

one comment

Thursday, September 24 2009

Janodayam

By François on Thursday, September 24 2009, 06:12 - The bringers of hope

On 23rd June, we had a meeting with the organization Janodayam in Chennai (Madras).

In the Hindu tradition, society is organized into different castes. From one’s birth, each one belongs to a caste that gives him or her a specific role. In decreasing order in terms of ritual ‘purity’: the Brahmins are the priests and men of letters, the Kshatryas are the warriors (and policemen), the Vaishyas are the traders and agriculturists, and the Shudras are the artisans. What is left is all the ‘outside caste’, called Pariahs or Dalits (or ‘untouchables’), who are confined to the tasks considered as the most impure.

Each caste is itself divided into a large number of sub-castes (there are about 3,000 in India), corresponding to specific jobs. The Arunthathiars have inherited the job of ‘scavengers’. These Dalits’ task is to take care of everything in relation to garbage and human faeces, in conditions that are often degrading (in particular, they are in charge of cleaning the toilets and the sewage bare-handed). There are about 1.6 million of them in India. They are despised by everybody, even by other Dalits. The objective of Janodayam is to help these ‘scavengers’, the pariahs of pariahs, in the state of Tamil Nadu.

We were welcomed into the offices of Janodayam by G. Israel, who is the director of the programme. All the people in charge of the association were gathered for the occasion. Jayanthi, one of the organizers, welcomed us with a song. Altogether, the association has 22 full-time and 30 part-time workers.
             The team of Janodayam


Janodayam is an NGO founded in 1983 by the reverend Claude D’souza, a Jesuit. G. Israel joined the organization in 1984. Himself son of a ‘scavenger’, his studies allowed him to escape the destiny attached to this caste, and he wants to lead the rest of his community behind him.

The organisation counts on the education of children to put an end to the ignominious conditions of the Arunthathiars. It is with this aim that Janodayam supports almost 1,000 children by giving them free evening courses. In addition to that, each year, the children from 10th and 12th grades can follow a month of intensive classes before the exams. Thanks to this programme, about 70 children each year join the neighbouring Loyola College, one of the best universities in India. With a diploma in engineering or a doctorate, their social condition changes automatically. Since 1983, 2,000 Arunthathiar children have thus been joining this university.

                     Loyola College in Chennai

Janodayam also leads actions for the Arunthathiar women. In 2000, the organization created the APMS, whose objective is to help women reach social and economical autonomy. Support groups meet every week to help these women gain self-confidence. The APMS organizes short professional training (3 to 6 months): dressmaking, embroidery, computer science, medical care, etc. Thanks to this programme, women can find a job and increase the family income. And above all, they regain their dignity within a society that considers them ‘untouchables’.


The same year, G. Israel founded a citizen movement, the TAAMS (Tamilnadu Adi Andhia Arunthathiar Mahasabha). It has for its objective to organize the Arunthathiars in order to put pressure on the government to satisfy the most important needs of the community and make its rights respected.

In 1993, a federal law was promulgated in India to eradicate the scavenger’s manual work: human faeces could not be picked up by hand anymore, and every offending employer exposed himself to a year in jail and a fine of 2,000 rupees. But this law was easily bypassed by the companies, and the administrations often resorted to ‘independent’ scavengers who do not have social welfare. In 2002, the TAAMS spoke in favour of the Arunthathiars to the governor of Tamil Nadu. The payment of the ‘independent’ scavengers, who are hired from time to time in the administrations and schools, was increased to the same level as the legal minimum wage.

The TAAMS continued to campaign with other organizations for the defence of Dalits. In 2007, they managed to obtain social welfare for the ‘independent’ scavengers in the state of Tamil Nadu. As soon as 2008, public funds gave these workers insurance for health and accidents at work, as well as help in case of pregnancy, marriage or funeral (funerals are very expensive in India). Janodayam is setting up the new administration created to run this system.

In India, 18% of the places in universities and of the jobs in administration are kept for the Dalits in order to encourage their social integration. However, within the Dalits, the Arunthathiars are discredited too much to be able to benefit from it. In 2008, the TAAMS obtained from the government of Tamil Nadu a quota within the quota. 3% of the places are now kept solely for the members of the community of ‘scavengers’.


The interview was over, and G. Israel offered us to stay for lunch. Which we did with pleasure! While waiting for the trays of dishes, we were invited to participate in a small improvised songs concert. Why not? The song ‘Les filles des forges’ was successful.


How to help

The resources of Janodayam come mainly from international NGOs, especially the CCFD (Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development) in France or Coordaid in the Netherlands.

To help Janodayam, it is better to contact these organizations directly. Financing and school equipment are welcome, as well as volunteer help.


Contacts

CCFD
Website : http://www.ccfd.asso.fr
Telephone : +33 1 44 82 80 00

Janodayam
122, Sterling Road
Nunggambakkam
600 034 Chennai
INDIA
•    E-mail : janodayams@eth.net


François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Tuesday, August 25 2009

Auroville

By Gabrielle et François on Tuesday, August 25 2009, 07:42


It is a pretty spot of nature and calmness in the shade of a huge forest. Electric vehicles drive without a noise on roads lit by solar lampposts. Strangely shaped buildings stand out here and there in the middle of the greenery. Restaurants serve delicious meals cooked with the organic products from the neighbouring farms. When pricking up our ears, we can hear the crystal-clear notes of a wind-chime. And to start the day well, people can practice yoga or meditation.

We discovered Auroville somewhat by chance. This name called vaguely to our minds hippy people, a certain utopianism. But the enthusiastic description given by the ‘Guide du Routard’ (French guide book) aroused our curiosity.

We arrived at Repos Beach, called this because of its location on the seaside, eight kilometres from the centre of Auroville. We settled in a small ethereal hut made of palm leaves from coconut trees. It was open to the four winds thanks to an ingenious system of natural ventilation, which was really nice. 

           Sunrise on Repos Beach

It is the custom to travel around by bike or motorbike. We chose the latter to explore the huge area over which Auroville spreads. There were no fences, no entrance gate: the setting is completely open and integrated with the neighbouring Tamul villages. We started by going to the center especially dedicated to the visitors. An exhibition taught us more about the area.

Auroville is a ‘universal city in the making’. This utopia was born in the 1960s from the influence of the Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo and the fervour given by the Mother, a French woman who joined him in Pondicherry in 1914. For more than 40 years (they started building in February 1968), a handful of men and women from each continent joined to realize the dream of a united mankind. The town was built slowly in the shape of a galaxy, in order to welcome 50,000 inhabitants on the long term.

                         The project Auroville  (image www.auroville.org)

The first Aurovilians started by making the soil, with which they were entrusted, fertile. Numerous dams were built to collect the rainwater and prevent erosion of the ground, and more than two million trees were planted. The arid and fissured original plateau became a magnificent forest, where numerous species of trees shelter increasingly diverse florae and faunae.

With a view to realising an ideal city, where mankind would live in harmony with its environment, the Aurovilians are also pioneers of alternative energy. Since the project started, Auroville has counted on the wind and sun for its electricity. Hybrid modes of transport are used or in development in order to reduce to a minimum the carbon dioxide emissions. The competency of the Aurovilians in the fields of reforestation and solar energy are renowned and in demand all over India and beyond.

All these projects are led by different work units where everyone puts in a lot of effort depending on their abilities and their personal tastes. The work is above all understood as a source of fulfillment for the individuals, and at the same time as a service for the community. Thus, education, health, culture and numerous other services are free for all the Aurovilians. This system reduced to the minimum the circulation of money, which was originally going to be prohibited from Auroville. For the time being, everyone receives an income in order to cover the needs on an egalitarian basis. According to the Mother, a greater talent must correspond to a greater responsibility, and not greater privileges. The absence of ownership is a rule. We understood then that becoming Aurovilian is a choice of life that people commit to for the long term. 

   Gabrielle in front of the Tibetan pavilion that was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in 2008.

The heart of the city houses the most beautiful of the Aurovilian achievements, fruit of the colossal work of the first inhabitants: the Matrimandir. This harmonious construction, round and symbolic of the ideals of the town, is the meditation centre for the Aurovilians, the place where they come to recharge their batteries. The monument is impressive and surreal.

Beside it is the amphitheater where citizens gather when there are important decisions. In its center is buried the ‘Charter of the City and the Earth’ signed by the 124 countries that were part of UNESCO when the city was founded. From the start, the project received the support of this agency of the UN and of the Indian government. It was a time when mankind used to dream with no shame of a better future and of trying to build it...

           The Matrimandir

This ‘unity in diversity’ was made possible through the sharing of a common spirituality. It is not a religion. The Aurovilians do not have a spiritual leader, but they join together in the practice of the ‘integral yoga’ that was developed by Sri Aurobindo. This practice allows everyone to find harmony within oneself and with the others, and to access the truth by freeing oneself from the tyranny of the ego. Perhaps it is this philosophy that gave the strength to so few people to realize such a big project.

Today, Auroville is inhabited by 2,090 Aurovilians (of which a third are Indians, and a third are Europeans). About 100 newcomers join the city every year. This phenomenon tends to accelerate and the community must face the ‘lodgement crisis’ by focusing its energy on the construction of housing. In the town hall, articles about different transport systems are displayed. They show the Aurovilians’ vision on the long term and their faith in their project. The utopia builds itself slowly, on many generations.

Gabrielle and François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)


To know more about it, have a look at the website of Auroville: www.auroville.org

Monday, July 13 2009

Pondicherry

By François on Monday, July 13 2009, 18:09 - Journey stories

On 12th June in the evening, we arrived at Pondicherry. We had reached the Bay of Bengal, a name full of exoticism. However, we rather had the feeling we were back on familiar ground.
             Beach Road, Pondicherry

The city was calm, and the pavements were wide and clean. We made ourselves at home in a little house in the Muslim quarter. It has a reputation for being the most peaceful area of the city. At afternoon naptime, it felt as if we were in a small city in the south of Europe: not a hoot, not an engine sound. We quietly discovered this city, built from both Indian and French influences.
 

And then, we enjoyed the somewhat peculiar local gastronomy and rediscovered with pleasure some familiar flavours: pasta with cheese, moussaka…and even some baguette for breakfast!

François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Saturday, July 11 2009

The Great Living Chola Temples

By Gabrielle on Saturday, July 11 2009, 10:18 - Journey stories


When leaving the Kerala region, we crossed the Tamil Nadu region from East to West to reach Pondicherry. On the way, it was the chance for us to discover the huge Hindu temples built by the Chola dynasty around the 10th century.

Our first stop was Madurai, where the temple Sri Meenakshi is situated. When we arrived, the colourful shine of a big tower stuck out a mile. I was as amazed as I had been in front of the big silvery Shiva in Honnavar, except that this temple is much older. We were fortunate that the restoration of the paintings, that takes place every 13 years, had just been done. We discovered the architecture of the Chola temples, which consists of a big square enclosure with four doors topped by huge pyramids (the gopurams) adorned with statues. Gods and goddesses parade, surrounded by their guards. Some of them spread out their arms, red with anger or purple with rage, and some of them sit in the lotus position raising their hand as a sign of appeasement. 

Inside, a maze of yards, corridors and big halls leads to the two gold temples that house the god Shiva and his spouse Parvati. The eccentric colours of one temple jarred with the uniform black stone of the other, and the light from outside entered weakly through the high columns decorated with legendary dragons and elephants.

The statues of numerous deities stood on all sides, covered with powder and clothes offered by the faithful. The atmosphere was saturated with incense and the smell of the butter burning at the feet of the idols.

            François being blessed by the sacred female elephant

In the evening, we followed the procession that accompanied Parvati to the residence of her spouse. The goddess was carried by the priests to the sound of the musical instruments and songs in a cloud of incense. The people crowded behind her and hovered around the stationary throne forming a strange dance, and then Parvati joined Shiva in his temple. We went out a bit stunned.

            The nocturnal procession

When arriving in Thanjavur at the front of the Brihadisvara Temple, we were amazed once again…by the absence of colours this time: a beautiful sand-coloured stone gave a pretty ochre tint covering the whole building. There were no big doors. The immensity awaited the visitors inside, where a 70-metre high gopuram stood above a Shiva temple. This tower was an architectural and sculptural masterpiece. When listening to our guide, we pictured the flurry of thousands of human beings working, and hundreds of elephants pulling huge wagons of stones and sand. This ‘big temple’ (in English in the text), as renamed by the British, also houses two colossal sculptures each cut from a single block of granite: the Lingam that symbolises Shiva’s strength and, in front of him, the bull Nandi which is his mount. Shiva is the god of destruction; he annihilates demons to purify that which needs to be purified. Shiva is considered to be the most powerful of Gods ahead of Vishnu the preserver and Brahma the creator; together, they form the Hindu trinity (the Trimurti).

            Thanjavur Temple

The temple of Srirangam that we went to visit in Trichy (Tiruchirapalli) is dedicated to Vishnu, the blue God. Behind the first door, watched over by a 73-metre colourful gopuram, we discovered an alley bordered with shops of all kind, and dwellings…a genuine small town where the profane and the sacred mix among the stalls. This temple was built over centuries by the Cholas and the dynasties that followed. Only Hindus can go through the seventh enclosure in order to enter the gold temple where Vishnu rests. The fourth enclosure indicated the entrance of the sanctuary, where the shops stopped and we had to enter barefoot.

            Tiruchirapalli Temple

Our guide led us through this maze to the door of heaven! A few contortions were necessary to see it.

            François attempting to see the door of Heaven.

We admired the representations of Vishnu and his wife, the beautiful Lakshmi. On our way, we passed the diverse reincarnations of the god Vishnu; Krishna among others. The Don Juan was perched on his tree, waiting for the ladies (whose clothes he had hidden) to come out of their baths naked…so much for asceticism!

            Krishna hidden in his tree.

Gabrielle
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

one comment

Thursday, July 9 2009

People's Watch

By Gabrielle et François on Thursday, July 9 2009, 13:33 - The bringers of hope

On Wednesday 10th June, we were in Madurai, in the state of Tamil Nadu in the southeast of India. We had a meeting with Henri Tiphagne, who is the founder and executive director of People’s Watch. People’s Watch is an organisation that works to promote Human Rights in India..

Henri Tiphagne explained to us the origin of his commitment by paying tribute to his adoptive mother. This woman born in Normandy came to India in order to devote her life to treating people suffering from leprosy. She passed her sense of moral values and action on to him.

            Henri Tiphagne in his office in Madurai

During his studies in Chennai (Madras), Henri Tiphagne joined a students’ movement where he reflected with other young people about the origin of inequalities and about the way to fight against it. When devastating floods hit the south of the Tamil Nadu in 1977, words were no longer enough. The group went to Madurai to take action with the disaster victims. This experience left its mark on him in the long-term: he saw that despite the extreme conditions the population was facing, discrimination between castes persisted at the heart of the disaster.

He decided to take action against this discrimination and specialised in law studies. He became a lawyer and got involved in the defence of victims of Human Rights violations within the PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties). During this experience, he faced the lack of goodwill from the Indian judiciary administration to apply the law.

A turning point occurred in 1993 when he went for the first time to an international conference about the Human Rights in Vienna. There, he met participants from other continents (Africa and Latin America in particular) who were taking action in different ways to defend the case of the Human Rights. Instead of only dedicating themselves to the defence of victims, they performed the rigorous work of collection and analysis of the recorded violations. This was then used to confront the State to its responsibilities and to force it to modify its functioning.

Henri Tiphagne came back to Madurai with the firm intention to develop a similar program of Human Rights monitoring in India, and People’s Watch was born in 1996.

            People’s Watch office in Madurai

At the start, the action of People’s Watch was focused on the state of the Tamil Nadu region. Henri Tiphagne put his victims defence work on hold in order to focus entirely on the organisation of his monitoring work: he needed a new way to grasp the question of the Human Rights. This work consists in connecting together isolated facts in order to bring out repeated cases of elementary rights violations and to make institutions react at a national or international level. In this way, People’s Watch brought the attention of international organisations to the discriminations against the dalits (formerly called untouchables) in India. In 2000, the UN added the discrimination on the grounds of ascendance or profession on the list of violations of human rights.

When Henri Tiphagne resumed his victims’ defence work in 1999, he understood that the refusal of the judges and authorities to act came partly from their insensitivity to victims’ suffering. He launched a big campaign for the rehabilitation of people and also applied this idea within People’s Watch: the appearance in court and even the compensation obtained are not enough, life must return to normal. Henri Tiphagne created two reception centres where teams of doctors and psychologists give support to the victims in order to help them go beyond their traumas and regain their place in society. Help is also granted to assist victims’ orphan children with their studies. His biggest hopes were born when he saw these men and women recovering, and themselves becoming defenders of Human rights. Today, four former victims work within People’s Watch. Some others are training and ready to join the team.

The ideal would be to avoid all these violations: discrimination between castes, domestic violence, torture, bad treatment in schools, etc. For this, People’s Watch put its effort into a long-term prospect: promoting a Human rights culture in India, guaranteeing for peace and freedom, of which all the citizens would be actors. In accordance with this principle, People’s Watch initiated a Civilian Human Right Movement (the CHRM) that today counts committees in hundreds of villages in the Tamil Nadu and nearly 25,000 members. These volunteers are the intermediaries of People’s Watch in the field.

The Human Rights culture must also build itself through the education of the youngest. From its early stages, in 1997, People’s Watch launched a program of Human Rights education. First limited to a few experimental schools, the system spread quickly across the state, and then started its development in the rest of India from 2005. The figures speak for themselves: 3,786 schools participate in the program across 13 states in India, more than 5,000 teachers were trained, and more than 300,000 children between 11 and 14 followed the program. Henri Tiphagne believes in the ability of young people to make things change. He recalled the courage of this little boy who confronted an old woman and made her promise in front of the other villagers not to kill her newly born granddaughter. This little boy reported the events to his teacher, and the whole classroom worked out a watch program for pregnant women in order to prevent infanticides of girls, which are numerous in India because of the weight of tradition. The teachers who teach Human Rights have become referents that the children trust, the message communicates well!

After all these years, and despite the threats and intimidations People’s Watch have to face, Henri Tiphagne is still determined to pursue his fight.

He explained to us how the respect of Human Rights is essential to establish the social peace and democracy, which is its political expression. Conversely, its absence leads to violence and disorder. He gave us the example of the elections in India, where the dice are often loaded: the lack of respect for democracy leads the political opposition to express itself through violence and terrorism (which themselves also constitute Human Rights violations).

In a more general way, Human Rights are the rights for all mankind to live decently, freely, and in peace. Countries must unite to promote these rights together as a system of universal values, both within international organisations and with their citizens. The destinies of the different populations are becoming more and more connected, and Human Rights represent the common legal basis on which they will be able to agree to face the challenges of today.

Comment aider ?

En tant que structure indépendante, People’s Watch n’est pas soutenue par l’Etat. L’association dépend des dons financiers pour son fonctionnement et la poursuite de son action. L’échange est une des valeurs de People’s Watch et les volontaires, les stagiaires sont bienvenus pour partager un bout d’aventure avec Henri Tiphagne et son équipe.

How to help

People’s Watch
6A, Vallabhai Road, Chokkikulam
Madurai – 625002
India

Website : www.pwtn.org
Telephone : +91 (0) 452 – 2539520
Fax : +91 (0) 452 – 2531874

Gabrielle and François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Saturday, July 4 2009

On The Road to Madurai

By François on Saturday, July 4 2009, 16:31 - Journey stories

On 7th June, we left Munnar to go to Madurai, via Theni. It was our first long trip by bus since we had left Iran.

We had been advised to wait for the bus at the depot, to be sure to have seats on the bus. It was rather a good idea: at its first stop, in the centre of Munnar, men flocked to the bus and filled it before it had even stopped completely. Women and children followed, the luckiest joined the seats reserved by the fathers.

For our connection in Theni, we had been promised there would be departures for Madurai every minute. Not wrong, buses left the station bumper to bumper, quickly filling up with the great flood of travellers. We had to force the young ticket inspector’s hand as he balked at letting us get in the bus because of our big backpacks (they were taking up space without having tickets paid for them).


The bus left, jam-packed. Probably not enough though: as the stops went by, new passengers came to stick together in the central aisle. In the bends, these newcomers almost collapsed on the seated passengers. Bam! A bag of mangoes flew and hit my head. ‘They’re fine’, the smiling young lady, struggling against the centrifugal force, seemed to tell me. Our backpacks were probably being used as seats in the front…

We were seated next to the central door, in a very good position to enjoy the show of people getting on and off the moving bus. It was so full that it overflowed. A cluster of people had built up outside the bus, hanging on the bars of the glassless windows. One of the suspended men noticed us. ‘Hello!’ his smiling face told us. He started a conversation with us, only taking a quick look from time to time to see if the bus was not going too close to a tree or a road sign. When he learned we were French, he gave us an admiring ‘Oh’. ‘France, no cricket, only football?’ (In English in the text). We had only just answered him when it was time for him to get off, or rather jump. He made big gestures to us to say goodbye.

François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Tuesday, June 30 2009

Mountains of Tea

By François on Tuesday, June 30 2009, 14:27 - Journey stories

After Kochi, we went towards the mountains in Munnar. Around us, plantations of tea stretched out as far as the eye could see, interspersed with eucalyptus copses. It was a country atmosphere in the middle of a bright and colourful landscape. We rented a small motorbike to drive among the plantations until we reached Top Point where we gazed at the Tamil Nadu.

            Driving in the tea plantations

We took advantage of being in Munnar to push as far as the nature reserve of Chinnar. After a walk in the bush where our guide made us pursue antelopes and admire grey monkeys, we had the chance to catch a glimpse of wild elephants. Before going too close to them, our guide mimed to us what to do in case of an attack: run. He held a stone in his hand to throw at them if they charged… reassuring!

            On the trail of the elephants

Our last day in the Kerala region, on 6th June, was in the hotel. The monsoon season had definitely begun. The next day, we would go east in the direction of the Tamil Nadu, behind the chain of the occidental Ghats, in order to escape the rain.

             Walking in Hydel Park – Munnar

François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Thursday, June 25 2009

Missionaries of Charity – Kochi

By Gabrielle et François on Thursday, June 25 2009, 08:51 - The bringers of hope

On 19th May, we went to the centre of the Missionaries of Charity in Kochi, in the Kerala state. Outside, a statue of Mother Teresa showed us the entrance. This famous nun founded this Catholic order in 1950, in Calcutta, in order to help the ‘poorest of the poor’ (the dying, the handicapped, the sick, orphans, etc.). Since then, the order has expanded and now counts 4,500 nuns spread over more than 600 missions across 133 countries.

We were welcomed by the Mother Superior of the centre, Sister Rosyline, to whom we volunteered our help for two weeks. Why not? Volunteers are always welcome at the Missionaries of Charity. She answered our questions briefly: this centre is an orphanage for mentally handicapped children and we could take part in the housework, the meals service and play with the children. But when she saw our backpacks and our tired looks, she advised us to get a room in town and to get some rest in order to come back fresh the following day. We were to learn during those two weeks that before helping one’s neighbour, one should help oneself in order to be in the best possible shape.
                 The centre of the Missionaries of Charity in Kochi

The following morning, we went back to the centre for our first day of volunteering. As soon as we arrived, Sister Rosyline welcomed us and invited us to follow her. With a broom and a scraper in our hands, our services were called upon for the big daily cleaning of the dormitories. The buckets of soapy water were poured out between the beds. Then, we went to do the laundry: the 35 children’s clothes are changed many times a day, which means a lot of dirty laundry. There was no washing machine, everything was hand washed following a precise schedule: after the soaping, each piece of laundry went successively into three big washtubs. We were stationed for rinsing, we had to follow the rhythm! Once washed, the laundry was brought upstairs in big baskets in order to be hung out on the big terrace. Once the housework done, we were invited to take our morning break with tea and fortifying biscuits.

Then came the first contact with the children. It was the first time we were confronted with such ‘different’ people. The children were mentally handicapped, most of them profoundly. And lots of them also had physical handicaps that did not allow them to walk. We were not really at ease facing this reality that is usually far from us. What could we bring them? We had to put aside the games we had thought about and find out how to establish contact with these children. It was time for lunch already. Most of them cannot eat on their own and have to be spoonfed. Some of them, who cannot remain seated on their own, are fed lying down. It was hard…were we going to be able to help?

We hung on and came back the following days. Bit by bit, our perception of these children changed, we left our normality references behind and entered their universe. We understood the character of each of them, which made them laugh. We explored new ways to communicate: with sounds, gestures, and touching. The children also got used to us. The most mischievous claimed all our attention as soon as they saw us: Kala asked for cuddles and Rincy, the gossip girl, always had something to show us.
                 Rincy and Gabrielle

In the end, we did not see their handicaps. We saw the life these children carry in them, the young (e.g. Sopna, 9) as much as the old (e.g. Maria, 32). Beyond their physical suffering and the drama of their abandonment, they catch every little moment of happiness that comes their way.

Francois used to shake Alok’s bed every time he passed in front of it. This little asthmatic boy, for whom breathing is suffering, had bursts of laughter when he felt his little world shaking. There was also Sopna, the little music lover. She could spend hours listening to the noise made by an object against the ground. But what she really loved was the ‘plane’, when we took her in our arms and made her spin.
                    Alok, Cherry, Krupa and Anila

Then there was Subash, the star of dormitory B, who communicated only with singing and laughter. He listened very attentively when we whistled ‘Singing in the Rain’ to him (it was a day of monsoon), then started singing again.
                                Subash

The atmosphere that reigned there was cheerful and serene. It is the fruit of the work accomplished everyday by the seven sisters and the twelve laywomen of the centre who love ‘their’ children and take care of them.
                 The laywomen


Despite our lack of experience, the sisters and the laywomen integrated us and soon trusted us to take care of the children. Neither of us would have imagined one day helping handicapped children have physiotherapy. Gabrielle learned from the physiotherapist how to touch the children’s limbs and joints to make them supple (fingers, hands, feet, etc.). The children appreciate these sessions of ‘home gym’. We improvised a little classroom with the most studious of them. Within a few lessons, Anita learned how to write her and her best friend’s name in the Latin alphabet.
                 François, Anita…and Sikoti’s legs

The days went by and it was already the end of the planned two weeks. The goodbyes with the laywomen were warm (more sober with the sisters, because they are more reserved). We did not have the feeling we had only arrived recently. Then it was time to say goodbye to the children. Anita, when she learned we were leaving, asked us to come back. Amongst the others, who realised we were taking them in our arms for the last time? Some of them would probably realise the next day. For us anyway, we realised immediately…we were going to miss them.

How to help

The Missionaries of Charity need financing to pursue their action in the world. All the donations can be sent to the headquarters of the organisation in Kolkata (Calcutta). Donations of clothes are also welcome, even though the cost of transport from overseas can be more expensive than buying clothes on the spot.

Volunteer help is also welcome. The centres of the Missionaries of Charity are generally organized in order to welcome volunteers for long or short periods of time. The organization has centres all across India (Ahmadabad, Mysore, Chennai, etc.) where it is possible to volunteer on the spot. It is better to offer help somewhere other than Calcutta where the volunteers are already numerous. The best way is to go there and ask a representative of the Catholic Church for the address of the closest ‘Mother Teresa’ centre.

Contacts

Centre in Kochi
Missionaries of Charity
Eraveli Road
Kochi – Kerala

Headquarters in Kolkata
Mother House
Missionaries of Charity
78 A.J.C. Bose Road
Kolkata 7000014
West Bengal
India
Telephone :
•    +91 217 22 77
•    +91 33 224 97 115

Gabrielle and François
(Traduction: Yolene Dabreteau)

Saturday, June 20 2009

New Sponsor

By Gabrielle et François on Saturday, June 20 2009, 12:38

Good news!

We won the support of a new sponsor. Esp’errance was accepted as a winner within the framework of the program ‘Paris Jeunes Aventure’ (Paris Youth Adventure) of the Mairie de Paris (Paris town hall).
 
A big thank you to Manuel for having defended our project so brilliantly in front of the panel of judges!

Gabrielle and François

Wedding Day in Honnavar

By Gabrielle on Saturday, June 20 2009, 12:36 - Journey stories

No sooner had we arrived in Honnavar than Maria announced some good news: the next day, Lycie’s brother (Lycie is a member of the team) would get married! Everybody would be at the party, and of course we were cordially invited. As is the French courtesy, we made sure it would not bother them, but we did not wait to be asked twice as we were delighted to go already.

The following day, at 9am, we were ready to leave for the church. On the square, people gathered gradually. The brass band arrived, escorting the bride and groom: white dress for the lady, black suit for the gentleman…how beautiful they were! Lycie introduced us to them. They were not surprised and rather happy to see surprise guests coming from Europe. The ceremony took place in Kannada, the language spoken in the Karnataka region. The priest must have had a sense of humour because we could quite often hear laughter amongst the congregation.
                  Mother Teresa Band


At the end of the ceremony outside the church, the brass band ‘Mother Teresa Band’ went back to work amid the general jubilation. The rest of the ceremony took place just in front of the church in a long building converted into a banqueting hall. Rows of chairs were lined up in front of the platform where two big golden thrones stood under an arch that bore the names of the newly-weds. The latter entered to great applause and went towards the cake that was already awaiting them. They shared a bite, without forgetting a spoon for the witnesses, and let’s get the party started! Was it the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end? They danced in couples and farandoles, and then the bride went out accompanied by numerous girls. The DJ started the first hit-songs and men took over the dance floor. Each had a tremendous time and did not worry about the glare of the audience. We were then invited to join in the dance.
 
The music stopped because the bride entered in traditional clothes: a magnificent dark red and gold sari and a flower headdress that covered her hair entirely. It was all very beautiful! The meal was then served. Each person stood up once their plates were finished, then went up on the platform to greet the newly-weds and give them their presents before leaving…amazing! Our guides made a sign to us to indicate that it was also time for us to leave.
                                 The ceremony of flower garlands

The day was not over. Maria had planned for us and a few other visitors a little trip to discover a Hindu temple not far from there. We were already imagining falling under the spell of old stones…what a surprise when we discovered a huge concrete complex overlooked by a gigantic Shiva (the second biggest in India). Shiva was in the lotus position on top of an artificial rock. We felt really small beside this giant covered in silvery paint. We strolled amongst the diverse representations of the same kind of mythological characters.
                                 Shiva

In front of Shiva, there stands a freshly finished breathtaking tower. It has numerous divinities cast in concrete and PVC windows where pieces of sellotape have remained stuck. This tower gives access to the temple (which is all golden). We entered along with the flood of numerous Hindus who had come to pray and bring an offering. The sun was already setting and by chance we took part in the ritual of the offering of light: the priest offered the five elements to the divinity amongst the deafening noise of the bells shook by the faithful.
 
The mix of fervour and kitsch that reigned in this colossal complex left us doubtful but we dove with pleasure into the lively and popular atmosphere of the occasion.

Gabrielle
(Traduction: Yolene Dabreteau)

Institute Maria Nilaya – Honnavar (Karnataka)

By Gabrielle on Saturday, June 20 2009, 12:29 - The bringers of hope

We left our beautiful beach under the coconut trees to go and visit Maria Fernandes, an Indian woman I had met in Burkina Faso six years ago (hard to believe it was six years ago). We went to Honnavar, a small town northwest of Karnataka. There, Maria runs the Institute Maria Nilaya that was created 30 years ago in order to promote education in this rural region of India. While walking among the pretty neighbouring houses, it was difficult to imagine the context of the times described by the most senior women of the team. Through its struggle, the institute has been both witness and actor of this development. It first created a boarding school, and then developed vocational training.

Eulalia, the administrator of the centre, took us to visit the boarding school that each year welcomes about 45 girls born of destitute families. It allows them to study in good conditions. The boarding school guarantees them board and lodging: the younger (from 11 to 16 years old) and the older (after high school) sleep in two big separate dormitories and full meals are served every day. Moreover, they benefit from continuous support that helps them progress, and they can focus on their homework without the everyday familial tasks taking up all their time. The parents contribute in their own way to the costs. As a good administrator, Eulalia explained to us the tricks to make good non-expensive meals, and all the things that allow saving money without harming the welcoming quality of the centre.
               Eulalia showing us the activities of the Institute Maria Nilaya

In order to allow some young girls to quickly practise a job that does not require many years of study, the institute also developed two three-month vocational courses that lead to a recognised diploma. The centre has a big room equipped to give sewing training. Each training course welcomes about 30 young girls who leave the course at the end with a sewing machine each and can then be self-employed. Another course for medical aid was created then with the same objective. The courses (treatment, wellbeing, nutrition, hygiene, etc.) are taught by a doctor from the hospital of Honnavar, outside teachers and members of the team. The next objective is to install social worker training.

In India, the educational improvements resulted in an increase in the demand for training and jobs in subjects that are more fashionable, like new technologies and computer science. The students all dream to go to Bangalore with a successful start-up, and abandon the traditional subjects. A lot of them become disillusioned when they cannot find a job at the end of their studies, especially the girls that tradition often prevents from going alone far from their families. For Julali, the short-term qualifying training, as they are offered in the centre, must be developed and encouraged. On one hand, they are adapted to the education level of the great majority. On the other hand, they lead to jobs where the need for labour is important. Quite a few young girls who decide to follow their programs find a job or are self-employed. In this way, they give themselves the chance for a more independent and fulfilled life.

How to help

Julali has worked in the centre for ten years. She saw the education becoming an important and everyday feature of life in Honnavar, especially thanks to the consciousness-raising work led by the institute. By supporting it financially, you can help it pursue its action with the poor and develop its training programs.

Contact

Institute Maria Nilaya
Church Road – N.Kanara
Honnavar 581 334
India

Telephone : +91 8387 220392
E-mail : mnilaya@yahoo.com

Gabrielle
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

Saturday, June 6 2009

Gates of India

By François on Saturday, June 6 2009, 12:32 - Journey stories

We landed on 27th April, early in the morning, in Mumbai (the new name of Bombay). When leaving the air-conditioned hall of the airport, we were surprised by the tropical stickiness of the air despite the early hour (it was 6.30am). Our Sikh driver invited us to climb in his yellow and black taxi. Off we went, towards the old Bombay where our hotel was.

The city woke up softly; lots of those who sleep in the street were still lying down. The city was full of colours and was bursting with vitality: huge trees were growing between the lanes of the suspended highway, already kids were running around, and animals were wandering freely along the road.

The driver accidently gave us the present of a detour by the famous ‘Gates of India’, which are a national symbol!
                  Gates of India, Mumbai

We discovered Mumbai during the following days. We strolled quietly between the Victorian buildings, which have a strange architecture with a mix of British and Moghol styles. We found Mumbai relaxing and that really amazed the Indians and other tourists we met. The Indian anarchy contrasts with the Iranian harshness and order. The mind like the body felt freer.
                      Mumbai (Bombay)

We then went off to Goa. This little state of India still belonged to Portugal less than 50 years ago. We made a cultural stop in Panaji and Old Goa (Oh! The beautiful Portuguese churches!) before we set our hearts on the beach of Palolem for a week of idle life. Fine sand and coconut trees…what a delightful picture!
                   The beach of Palolem

Our batteries recharged, we went south towards Honnavar and our first ‘bringer of hope’ in India.

François
(Traduction: Yolene Dabreteau)

Monday, June 1 2009

25 Days in Iran

By Gabrielle on Monday, June 1 2009, 17:31 - Journey stories


25 days in Iran, that was as much as our visas allowed us. We thought we had plenty of time, but it was already the end of our trip there. We had just gotten the hang of it and with so many places left to explore, it was already time to leave.

Despite our good intentions, we have to admit we had not arrived in this country filled with serenity. Our first hotel was grotty enough. In the early hours, there were screams in the corridor. We were panic-stricken, jumping out of bed at the idea of a possible raid from the vice squad. Actually, it was rather a simple argument about the priority to use the communal showers.

A few days later, we went to Masuleh in a small van improvising as a taxi. Our bags were in the trailer of straw. There were three of us in the front seats, the police stopped us. There it was, they were going to cart us off! It was actually passport control. They gave us the passports back with a big smile and a ‘Have a nice trip’. 
                  Masuleh

In another town, we hailed a taxi (official this time) to go to the bus terminal. We were driving, driving, leaving the town…where was he bringing us? I was not reassured but we finally arrived safe and sound. That was one of the small things to know: all the bus terminals and train stations are located really far out of town. In the same vein, the collective taxis that connect the towns to one another do not go further than the entry of the towns. The town taxis take over from them there. Each one has its territory! We learnt that as we went along, when we were let out without any explanations in the middle of a crossroads.

We did not understand Farsi, and we got often mixed up between rials and tomans (the currency there). It sometimes made things difficult when we asked for directions or to negotiate a price. Taxi drivers were the toughest businessmen. We were patient; we just had to wait a little until an English-speaking or German-speaking guardian angel would come to help us, translating and negotiating for us, happy to meet us and to do us a service.

In general, Iranians are happy to see foreign people coming to visit them. They insisted on giving us souvenirs from their country; we received presents every day: a cup of tea, a meal, an ice cream, a helping hand, a stroll, a bus ticket, a museum ticket, etc. Thanks to all that, we started to relax.
                                 Naptime in Yazd

We spent our last days there peacefully in Yazd, one of the oldest towns in the world at the doors of the desert. The first hot days pushed us to adopt the local rhythm: rest between noon and 5pm. We liked the atmosphere of the narrow streets in this all brown old town. We strolled between the earth and straw walls, in the shade of the covered alleyways, always thinking we were getting lost. Here and there, tall wind towers stood. For hundreds of years, they have been cooling down the interiors of houses and the water from wells. The last rays of sunshine added a lovely golden colour to the scene before the night fell and the town came to life. It was then time to do some shopping. We felt at ease in this peaceful town that has a shock asset: an incredible ice cream maker and its absolutely fabulous pistachio ice cream!
                                  In the streets of Yazd

We adopted the tea ritual. Iranians drink it at every hour of the day and everywhere. On the dashboard of a bus, you could inevitably find a small china sugar bowl and a cup: the vacuum flask was not far. In the calm of the hotel courtyard, we sat down with other travellers on big carpets around tea, and exchanged our impressions. No surprise: women spoke about the veil tied up on their heads, just to say it was unpleasant not to be able to go outside without putting it on (even to go to the communal bathrooms). They knew they would have the opportunity to take it off soon. The conversation went on, evoking the magical cities, the incredible landscape, the unlikely encounters, the discoveries, the good times, etc. It is impossible to remain indifferent to Iran.

                   Yazd

Gabrielle
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)

(More pictures of Yazd in the photo album)

- page 1 of 3