Community Ownership and Development - Towards Sustainable Livelihoods!

Manori CSA with the help of CCO staff had a concept clarity session on Bal Sansad at Uttan, Dongri, Pali, Manori, Chowk and Gorai to form new batches for the current academic year 2018-19. These sessions took place from the 6 th  to the 13 th  of June 2018 and 12 - 40 children from various zones participated. Through different games and group activities they discussed the basics of the concept and the expected duties and responsibilities. The resource person interacted with the children and explained that by joining a Bal Sansad they would have opportunities to participate in various activities and through that develop their personality, improve communication skills, respect the view of others, build a sense of responsibility, enhance their general knowledge, etc. Further, the children were asked to suggest the activities that they wanted to be included in the sessions. The children responded they were content with the ongoing activities like awareness on environmen...

Fourteen subcommittee members assembled for a meeting at Chowk on the 23 rd November 2017  for repairs of drainages and a request to build new drainages. The objective of the meeting was to sort out these issue with the help of the people. Information of all the drainages in the village was collected to get a clear picture of the problem. Some drainages were left open while in some water was being wasted. The water from such drainages would run through the main road due to which people would   find it difficult to walk. Few drainages were filled with waste while others kept on leaking. An application was written to the official requesting them to repair and build some new drainages in the village. The work has begun and is already in progress in the zones 2-B and 7 along with zone debris being carried away. There has also been a gathering at the village to create awareness on cleanliness. The result of which is 2 nd October would be observed as ‘Cleaning Day’.

Villagers taking the responsibility of cleaning A list of seventeen issues was created, amongst the rest, one of the most concerning issues was the repairs of road and the pathways leading to the seashore. Fifteen CC and sub-leaders was present for the meeting. The main objective was solving the problem of the villagers. After Cleaning A survey was done and the necessary information related to the pathways of seashore in the Chowk village was collected. A corporator and a contractor visited the site to examine the pathways. A gathering at the village level also took place in order to create awareness of cleanliness at the seashore. Finally, the permission to repair eight of the pathways has been granted and the Core-committee has taken the responsibility to write an application to the corporator.  

Out of the 17 issues in the village unemployed youth was one of the major problems. Ten subcommittee members attended the meeting on 14 th Nov 2017. It came to light that many youths had completed the higher studies or did Hotel management courses but were still finding it difficult to search for a job. After a quick survey taken in the meeting in order to know the requirement of the youth, it was decided that courses on English communication will be conducted and sessions on career guidance would be organized. As some are even clueless with no guidance to help them choose a career path befitting them. CCO has already begun giving English classes to the youth and the session on career guidance is being planned. A seed of hope for a better future has already been sown.

The Bal Sansad children’s group named HOPE visited the ration shop at Chowk near Uttan on 27 th  October 2017. After a prior appointment with the officials of Chowk ration shop, the Bal Sansad met to understand the structure of the ration system and the rights of a ration card holder. There was a healthy interaction between the officials of the ration shop and the group of 50 children and a lot of questions were put forward. These questions were appreciated and were given satisfactory answers. The officers were amazed at the children’s initiative and interest in the subject matter.  Bal Sansad expressed their gratitude to the authority on behalf of Sahajeevan staff. With the help of this session, the children now understand the formation of ration and the rights of a ration cardholder in a clear and better way.

The Bal Sansad Hope children’s group met on the afternoon of 27 th October 2017 at Bangladesh, Chowk to convey a message of harmony to people of various faiths through a street play enacted by children. The topic was set by CSA and the idea of street play was facilitated by CCO staff and through their guidance, the children themselves took the initiative and prepared a street play on the given topic. With a prior permission of the Bangladesh residential committee, the 50 children of Bal Sansad visited the Bastis. The Bal Sansad welcomed the people and children of Bastis and performed the street play on Communal Harmony. Thus creating an awareness on harmony with people of different faith. The street play gave an opportunity to the elders and children of various communities to come together and watch the Bal Sansad children’s performance. People felt good and appreciated the children for the thoughtful message through street play. The skit helped the people of differ...

Every child has the right to reach their full potential, and gender inequality prevents this by limiting their aspiration. On 18 th  October, 2017, a session on gender equality, was held at Chowk with thirty balsansad children present. The speaker for the session was Ms. Suvidha Patil, CCO staff. The main objective was to encourage the development of positive identifications and promote the development of respectful relationship between boy and a girl. The children were enthused throughout the session. She highlighted various areas where discrimination takes place between a boy and a girl on the basis of economic, political, education, sports, toys etc.. During the explanation some children told that their mothers gave equal share to their children while others did not agree. Lastly the children said, “we will change the attitude, when we see any difference in our home, between our brothers and sisters”. It is the right of every individual, to get the same respec...

On the 17th and 21st September 2017, 31 Bal Sansad children from the various zones of St. Andrew's Parish, Chowk came together at Sahayog Samaj Kendra, Chowk for their weekly meeting. Each meeting begins with a short prayer conducted by one of the children. The minutes of the previous meeting was read and accepted by the group.  The Session on "Understanding the various levels of Governance" was led by Sr. Anita along with Ms. Suvidha from the CCO. The Session began with an ice breaking game where each child had to say one's name, the zone and their hobby. Each child shared these details very spontaneously without any fears. The children were then asked to select a name for the group. They decided on the name, "St. Andrew's Children Group" The topic of the Session on "Levels of Governance" was introduced by first stating the objectives of the session namely, the children would need to come to know their village (area) representative in the...

The Core Committee of Chowk got together on the 12th of September at Sahjeevan Samaj Kendra to discuss the various existing problems faced by the communities of Chowk. Using their knowledge on problem-solving the twenty CC members tried understand the cause of the problems faced. They identified fifteen such problems faced by the Chowk Villagers. Then they went through a process of prioritizing the various issues/problems and finalized on three main problems of the area.  The Core Committee then formed three subgroups  i.e. Sub-Committees. Each sub-committee then selected one leader to facilitate the functioning and discussion of the group. The procedure to address each of the issues was then discussed. All the members of each subcommittee took part in the discussion and discussed on the issue to be handled by them.  The CCO staff faced the challenge of eliciting a good response from each of the vibhaag (zone) of the community. The Core Committee hopes t...

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. ...