Community Ownership and Development - Towards Sustainable Livelihoods!

"There is no action if there is no awareness"; this seems to be the situation of the two villages of Tarodi and Palkhadi in Dongri. The Core Committee found it very hard to involve the local community in resolving pressing issues faced by all. So they decided to meet together at the local village level and first create an awareness about the causes of their current problems faced.  Mr. Dayanand the facilitator of the discussion spoke of the link of the Core Committee with the CCO and clearly explained to the villagers the purpose of meeting in Palkhadi (on the 24th Aug - 55 members present) and in Tarodi (on the 31st Aug - 60 members present). The response in Tarodi  village was very encouraging. The list of issues mentioned are as follows: Need for a Vegetable Market Police Protection from Druggist Uncleanliness on the sides of the Roads Cleanliness and Maintenance by Government Sanitation Workers Need for a Bore well Information related to Farming.  The ...

On the 27th of August 2017 at Pali CCO 65 participants consisting of the newly constituted Core Committee and the Ward Sub Leaders met together with the objective to classify and prioritize on the three issues as a CCOs from the commonly identified issues of the Nine Wards and to form three sub committees on the three identified issues.  The Agenda covered the reporting of the 8 ward level meetings conducted and the objectives to Prioritize the three issues and formation of sub committees.  The meeting which covered the span of a little over two hours from 7.30pm to 9.45pm began with a  short prayer by core committee member Mrs. Leena D’souza. The previous CC meeting report was read by the secretary Mrs. Ranjana Patil and agreed by all the CC members. Then Ms. Carol Munis welcomed the participants. Sr. Nisha shared the agenda and then appreciated the CC members and ward sub leaders for their co-operation for making arrangements for the meeting and gathering the heads...

Taking the Participatory Strategic Planning Process further the Core Committee members have interacted with the heads of the households at the Ward Level with an objective to identify, list out ward level issues and get more commitment at the Ward level.  The CC members visited each of the eight wards on the 13th, 22nd, 25th to 27th August and oriented them on the process of issue identification, handholding them in the process of identifying issues that emerged from the local community (ward). 294 participants across eight wards actively engaged with each other as they were divided into groups of 8 to 10 members.  They discussed on four questions: 1. What are the small and big issues at the Ward level? 2. Which issues can be solved by the people at the Ward level? 3. Which issues cannot be solved by the people at the Ward level? 4. What are the ways and means that issues can be solved with people's participation at the Ward level? As a result of these discussion...

“Hope”, the Children’s Balsansad meeting was held on 26 th Aug. 2017 at 11 am. The meeting began with a short prayer by Ms. Carol who then welcomed the participants. The secretary of Children’s group read the previous meeting report which was accepted and agreed by all. Sr. Nisha appreciated her for writing the report briefly in which all agenda points were in the report. Sr. Nisha started the session with an example on the topic of good manners and discipline in a story form. Children have understood well. The moral of the story was that each person’s behavior and personality is on good manners showing respect for the elders, teachers, and parents and also own classmate. A well-disciplined life will help to facilitate communication with others; they allow you to get much more than by using authority. After the session, all the Environment & health ministers took an active part in planning for the Cleanliness that on 1 st October they will go for a Rally ('Prab...

The Pali Bal Sansad Group (36 children) met on the 25th August, 2017 at the CCO from 10.30am to 12 noon with the purpose of giving a name for their Bal Sansad Group, to choose the Council of Ministers and explain the duties and responsibilities of the various Ministries and the Ministers who would be responsible.  Ms. Carol began the meeting with a short prayer and welcomed the participants. Sr. Nisha explained the objectives of the meeting. Then she asked the children to suggest an attractive  name for the Balsansad. Few names were suggested by them but the more inspiring name was “Hope Children’s Group ” decided by the children. She then explained the concept of children’s parliament and their activities.  Through a process of voting by show of  hands, the following Council of Ministers were chosen: Monitor-1 President  & Vice President -2 Secretary & Vice Secretary-2 Finance Minister- 3 Cultural Minister-3 Education Minister-4 H...

Swatch Bharat Mission lays emphasis on bringing about improvement in hygiene, quality of life and cleanliness in the village. With this objective of ensuring a clean and garbage free village, an awareness rally was organized by the Core Committee of Sahayog Samaj Kendra of Chowk in collaboration with the women and school children from the community.  Nearly 450 students and women participated in the Swatch Bharat Abhiyan rally on the 16 th August at 7.15 a.m.    The Rally was led by school children and women who walked through the lanes and by lanes of the village in Chowk. During the procession which began early in the morning, the children shouted motivational slogans.  Addressing the participants of the rally Mr. Dayanand Patil from CSA began with lots of motivation thoughts for the participants and the villagers to keep their surrounding clean that will definitely result in a community that would become free of any diseases in the future. ...

The Pali Core Committee's motivation was getting charged during their monthly meeting on the 10th August, 2017 as they gathered at the Hall in the evening to discuss on their Ward Level Strategy to discuss and prioritize Issues.  The 31 members were interactive as they reviewed the previous meeting minutes, presented reports (which included a list of the names of the families from their ward) from their respective wards and went on to plan the Ward Level Strategy to elicit commitment and participation of the families at the Ward Level. The CC members planned to meet the sub leaders and the heads of each of the families as per the dates they were available. They actually planned and fixed the dates for the meetings The CC members took up the responsibility to facilitate the meetings at their Ward Level and follow up with reports and providing the finalized list of issues to the CCO office. Each Ward level list of families too was provided to the CCO. 

Sahjeevan Samaj Kendra (Pali CCO) Nine Ward level Meetings with Core Committee (CC) members and local community Objectives: v   To mobilize the community and strengthening the local community at ward level. v   To discuss the PSP and PLE process with the community. v   To sustain the process of People Led Empowerment. Resource persons: Mr. Dayanand Patil, Ms. Rasika Bandhari, Ms. Carol Munis & Sr. Nisha Lobo Background: Last year (July 2016 to June 2017) through PRA (Participatory Rapid Appraisal) process the CC members have understood the importance of problem-solving techniques which helped them to realize the importance of Perspective Strategy Plan (PSP) / Micro plan of Pali village. The CC had taken up to resolve three issues namely the lack of unity , lack of financial planning and lack of knowledge (about ration card, pan card, caste certificate, income certificate etc.). In the month of July & August-2017 during the Core C...