FSL India Blog

FSL India is hosting the 3^rd Global LMTV (Long/ Middle Term Voluntary Service) Conference in Bangalore. The program is scheduled for 10^th to 14^th February 2012. The program is jointly organised by FSL India, Network for Voluntary Development in Asia (NVDA), Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS-UNESCO) and Alliance. Altogether 27 participants from 18 IVS (International Voluntary Service) organisations from Asia and Europe would participate and deliberate on various aspects of prompting youth mobility and volunteering service. The objective of the program is to improve qualities of LMTV projects, share know-how and experiences, develop standards and action plans, establish common systems, tools and methodologies to promote Long/Mid Term volunteers exchange across the world and develop new partnership promote international volunteerism.

FSL India being an international youth voluntary organization is celebrating its 10th Anniversary which coincides with the 10^th year Anniversary of the International Year of Volunteers 2011. We are privileged to host the GLMTV conference in this special year. The management and staff of FSL India welcome the delegates of the 3^rd Global LMTV Conference.

“In our country, we just turn on a tap and water is available. We don’t really worry about it going dry - says Jacob, the environmental engineer from Germany

“Water is a precious resource. However, in cities like Bangalore, water is squandered without a second thought. Johan Saelens, Jacob Benisch and Antoin Borjnon, three FSL India volunteers did their bit to set right the imbalance by setting up a Rain Water Harvesting system in a Hebbal school. While and Jacob are from Germany and Antoin is from France and like most of Europe, they don’t really have problems and water shortage is an alien concept to them

These three young volunteers of FSL India set up a rain water harvesting system in a government school near Bytarayanapura by mobilising almost an amount Rs. 15,000. Their trip across rural Karnataka made them feel how dire the situation is. The trio whose ages range from 19 to 24 years are high school/college students who are with FSL India for field service and inter-cultural learning. Jacob is an environmental engineer, Antoin a telecommunications engineer and Johan is just the high school student.

They are placed at Rain Water Concepts and Water Literacy Foundation, a Bangalore-based NGO. It was a new concept for them. But what they had not realised how important rain water harvesting was in a country like India where the demand for the life-giving liquid was more than the supply. In France and Germany, people just turn on a tap and water is available. People don’t really worry about it going dry. It was only when they came to India that they did realise how dire is the situation. They were surprised that in rural Karnataka, people walk long distances to fetch drinking water even in this day and age. Still amount of water is being wasted in Bangalore.

After the trip to drought-ridden Gadag district in North Karnataka, they decided to do something to stop the waste of water around them. Therefore, they chose the government school near Bytarayanapura in Hebbal. The school has 525 children and used about 300 litres of water daily. Initially they had no proper method of disposing the used or grey water. This used to flood the roads and it was an unhygienic mess. There is no Cauvery water supply in this part of town and people rely on bore-well water. B Sumithra, the school principal says, that when these three came up with the idea of rain water harvesting in the school, it was a great relief.

These FSL India volunteers came up with three-fold strategic solutions. They set up roof rain water harvesting, grey water harvesting which led to underground recharging and open catchment harvesting. The entire roof became a catchment area for the children to use for their water requirements including bathrooms and for washing vessels. The grey water that came out of the bathrooms is used to charge the groundwater after intense filtration. They also created a method to ensure drain system so as to prevent roads from flooding. The entire cost was about Rs 36,000.

People who supplied the raw material gave at a cost reasonably low price. They did not want to ask anybody for help and wanted to do this by themselves. There is no water shortage for them in their country. But no one ever knows how bad the situation can get around the world. Water is a precious resource it needs to be conserved. This is the lesson one has to learn from these young volunteer.

“Change your mind” was the title and topic of a skit which the International volunteers and staff of the homebased ecoclub project of FSL India performed during an ecoclub meeting in Kundapur. The meeting was organised by the Flora and Fauna Club Kundapur and attended by about 200 students from the 8th to 10th standards of Kundapura High Schools. The children got a lot of information about the wildlife in the Western Ghats.The main character of the play was a very selfish person who didn’t care about anything but himself. Without hesistating he polluted the environment and didn’t care for the living species. But his mind completely changed when he got to know about the consequences of climate change. He nearly died through a natural catastrophe and he only survived because he was rescued by some dolphins. The skit could show the children that the changing climate is a universal problem which concerns all of us and therefore needs urgent attention.

We can already see the consequenses of the Climate Change such as more climatic catastrophes. Even if the governments and big companies have the power to diminish the emissions of greenhouse gases, everyone should be aware of this. The main character completely changed his mind. We hope that the responsible persons all over the world will also change their minds.

Among the public it is very important to create awareness even through small events like the Eco-club meeting. Every participant and the audience had at least a lot of fun joining this event. International volunteers of FSL India such as Caro, Lisa, Venus, Arther, Morten, Mia, Maria, and the staff members such as Basavraj, Steffi, Manjula, Manjunath, and Shalini participated in skit. As a token of appreciation, Dr. Malli, the organizer presented a memento to the volunteers and staff of FSL India.

Mr. C. Doreswamy, the Joint Director of FSL India and Miss Manjula the coordinator of Home Based Project participated in a two-day workshop on Sea Turtle conservation in Chennai on 12th and 13th November 2011. The workshop was hosted by Turtle Action Group (TAG), a national level network organisation. It was an annual event where many organisations working for Sea Turtle conservation participated. Delegates from about 80 organisations across the country, representatives of different states and wild life and forest department officials participated and deliberated on issues pertaining to Sea Turtle conservation. The TAG workshop was organised with a view to building a strong network and enhance communication between different organisations and address issues and problems collectively that are encountered in Sea Turtle conservation.

One of the prime objectives of the workshop was to get to know each other and share experiences and best practices of Sea Turtle conservation. On behalf of the organisation, Mr. C. Doreswamy and Miss Manjula shared with the participants the approaches and strategies of FSL India in Sea Turtle conservation. It was appreciated by other organisation. Dr. Kartik Shanker, Mr. Naveen and Miss. Arati took sessions on data collection system and proposal writing. Mrs. Banumati who is an expert in puppetry facilitated a session on how puppet show can be used as an effective strategy to create awareness on the importance of Sea Turtle conservation. The session on puppet show was very interesting as the participants got to know more about puppet show which will help create awareness among children and the local community. The participants also visited Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (MCBT). The strategies used by MCBT also can be replicated for Sea Turtle conservation.

It is a fact that increasing commercial fishing, loss of nesting habitat and climate change has become the cause of concerns for Sea Turtles conservation which leads to reduction of their ability to fulfill vital functions in ocean ecosystems. FSL India’s participation in the national level forum is another stepping stone and effort for Sea Turtle conservation and promotion of sustainable eco-system.

On december 5th the world celebrated International Volunteer Day, from FSL India we want to thank all the volunteers that have worked with us through our 10 years. We thank you all for volunteering with us or anywhere. Volunteering can make the difference. Lets keep working for a better world!

On the 30th of September the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and the Coordinating Committee for International Voluntary Service (CCIVS) along with FSL India the hosting organisation held “Health on Stage” Open Day in Bangalore. One and a half month lasting project concluded with the closing session in which participants shared their thoughts about the results and experiences of living and working closely with local communities in Bangalore, Chennai and Mysore. A group of 21 young Eurasian Volunteers with linguistic and cultural diversity facilitated Health on Stage and engaged in intensive dialogue with local community by using “forum theatre” as the medium for communication.

A host of local print and electronic media, NGOs and civil society organisations participated in the open day programme to get an update on Health on Stage and appreciated the efforts of the young volunteers. Each group represented the most popular performance that was implemented in the community. The audience could get familiar with how public health dialogue was being implemented by linguistically diversified group and witnessed how forum theatre can be an effective means for communication.

While addressing the inaugural function Rakesh S. Soans, the President of FSL India appreciated the young volunteers and reiterated that health is a global issue and global community need to work together to improve the health status of the people. Participating in the panel discussion Dr. Sanjay, the Vice-president of FSL India emphasized the need of forum theatre as an effective tool for information dissemination and public health dialogue. Forum theatre attempts to identify local solutions to the local health problems.

In the sharing session Ms Jaya Iyer (Indian forum theatre trainer) together with the participants Mr. Nagoor Kani from FSL India, Ms Rubini Raghunathan from the local community participant and member of the Chennai group, Mr. Felimon Blanco the volunteer from The Philippines and member of the Bangalore group, Ms Suzanne Prak the volunteer from The Netherlands and member of the Mysore group shared their views on the impact of the programme on the local communities. Most of the participants agreed that the Health on Stage was very successful and forum theatre worked successfully as a way of encouraging and engaging people in discussion about the public health issues. Some of them said that they already have plans for the future cooperation with other partner organizations in their respective countries. Other volunteers too agreed to use the newly gained knowledge and skills in their future course of action.

Addressing the participants, Amb Nguyen Quoc Khanh the Deputy Executive Director Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) expressed his delight and appreciation with the outcomes of the project as well as expressed possible future cooperation for public health dialogue. Responding to the queries raised by media and NGO delegates, Mr. Rakesh said “we will take this agenda forward and reach out to the people of India and engage them on public health dialogue.” Few NGOs and civil society organisations have expressed their willingness to collaborate with FSL India and integrate forum theatre to address water and public health issues.

As follow up of this intervention, ASEF has been documenting the impact and learning of Health on Stage. ASEF plans to bring out training toolkit and evaluation and recommendation of the 10th AEYVE: Health on Stage. It is expected that these publications would serve as resource and reference documents for others to learn and replicate the model.

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On September 23, 2011, I completed 5 years of work in FSL.Working here has helped me broaden my horizons and expand my mind. Apart from communicating, I learnt how to use ms office, email and the internet. However, it is the people of FSL who have made the deepest impression on me. Working with FSL staff has made me a better person and interacting with FSL’s international partners has been very inspiring.

K. Virokunuo Veronica 

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On the 14^th September the international volunteers of FSL India had a great entrance and reached out to the people of Kundapura. Every year a youth club called JCI organizes varieties of cultural programme. But this year’s event had a special feature and an attraction to the audience as the international volunteers of FSL India too participated in the cultural programme. From 9^th to 15^th September people of Kundapur witnessed the celebration of different culture and cultural programmes.

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FSL India has been part of an international movement on climate action. The international volunteers associated with Home Based Projects (Eco Club and Environmental Project) of FSL India at Kundapur organised an event on International Climate Action Day 2011, which is initiated by the Organization 350. On the Climate Action day people all over the world moved together against climate change with the motto of “Moving beyond fossil fuels”.

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Public health dialogue on public health issues is becoming increasingly important today in the world. Health which is the most buzz word today in the domain of global development agenda remains largely the principal factor for human progress and prosperity. If we look at the Millennium Development Goals, out of the eight four MDGs such as: 1) reduce child mortality rates, 2) improve maternal health, 3) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, and 4) ensure environmental health and sustainability; fall within the purview of health. And global partnership for development (MDG 8 ) is the synergising factor for realisation of all MDGs.

 If one analyses this reality, it would not be inapt to state that health is not only the local issue but also the global phenomenon, the improvement and attainment of which would determine the local as well as global progress. Nationally and internationally the UN bodies, governments, aid organisations, local NGOs and civil society organisations employ different strategies and deploy sizeable amount of financial as well as human resource to address numerous health issues. “Health on Stage” spearheaded by Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF) and implemented in India in partnership with Field Services and Intercultural Learning (FSL India), is one of such local and global efforts to mobilise community efforts for public health dialogue on public health issues.

What is Health on Stage and how does it relate to public health dialogue on public health issue is the question one needs to raise. “Health on Stage” is nothing but the 10th edition of the Asia-Europe Young Volunteers Exchange (AEYVE) programme, and is the theme promoted by ASEF. Although Health on Stage as a developmentally appropriate strategy is not a new conceptual framework for enhancing the health status of the people, the theme promoted by Asia Europe Foundation (ASEF) in partnership FSL India is certainly a unique and new people-based development paradigm innovated for development actors to replicate. It is a unique model because, a group of young Eurasian Volunteers with linguistic and cultural diversity facilitated Health on Stage and disseminated information and engaged in intensive dialogue with local community by using “forum theatre” as the medium for communication.

Hosted for the first time in India, Health on stage was implemented in three different locations such as the slums in Bangalore, rural areas in Mysore and the eight model villages promoted by FSL India in Chennai suburban. Water, water related issues and water borne disease are important components of Health on Stage programme. Working in three groups, the 21 Eurasian Volunteers visited the slum-dwellers in Bangalore, workers in an industrial belt in Chennai and villagers in Mysore and performed forum theatre and promoted Health on Stage.

After a week-long inter-cultural exchange and learning the applications of ‘forum theatre’, these young volunteers of “Health on Stage” performed for one month. They were trained by Jaya Iyer, Indian forum theatre trainer. Health on Stage volunteers focused on public health, with all its social and cultural dimensions in the specific locations. The performances were indeed unique and enriching and above all original in its creativity. Its impact is significant as it opened up new avenues for health seeking behaviors of the local community. Under the broader framework of Water and Public Health, a wide range of local issues were taken up for dialogue and seek solutions. Hygiene and sanitation, waterborne diseases, preventive and curative aspects of health, water and environment, water conservation, indigenous water purification measures etc. are some of the issues dealt with.

They did not speak the local language. They were not familiar with the local issues and the local culture. How did manage to make a significant impact? But surprisingly language and cultural issues did not pose a formidable challenge for these young and enthusiastic volunteers. The forum theatre was not so much with language based. It was predominantly body language and action based communications. Initially the young development artist used to spend time in social mapping to identify the local water and health issues and through forum theatres analyzed the issues with the community to design locally available solutions. People did not take initiative to find the local solutions. They did criticize the government and someone will come and do – this was the kind of mind set. But this has triggered the thought of the people and now they have realized that it is the people who are principally responsible to find out locally available solutions to their numerous water and public health problems.

As these volunteers assembly in Bangalore for a three days evaluation which culminates in addressing the international media on 30th September, Miss Debasmita the Media Coordinator form Singapore says that the movement has created a ripple effect and the global issues are converged with the local issues and the local issues with the global. With a scaling up measures these volunteers as they return to their respective countries, would mobilize the local mass and continue to identify and address local issues pertaining to water and health.

Whether Health on Stage or health off the stage; sustainability is supremely important in any development intervention. This is only the pilot phase and it is expected that with replications and ripple effects this effort will continue to make the headway to address water and public health issue. Mr. Rakesh S Soans, the President of FSL India says that “now it is the responsibility of FSL India to take this agenda forward and reach out to the other parts of the country for engaging the people on public health dialogue.”

In India there has been overwhelming response. NGOs and civil society organisations have been approaching to integrate Health on Stage strategy to address water and public health issues. And therefore, Health on Stage and public health dialogue is a new people-based development paradigm for the global community for applications and replication to address the community issues and problems.