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...

  In order to spread awareness on the importance of protecting the environment, avoiding high expenses during celebrations and selling dry fishes on credit, 60 children at Uttan led a rally on 14 th June 2018. Children prepared motivating slogans such as paryavaranacha samtol rakhu,shudh hava, pani chakhu (Balance the environment for clean air & water), Udari masli deu naka,Dokyana santap geu naka (Avoid selling in credits avoid tension), Sohalyana karch karu naka,karjabajari hou naka (Avoid high expenditures avoid loans), and many more.  

On 17 th Jan 2018 CSA organized a training program on Paper bag Making & Basic Sewing for fourteen Community Centre women at Muktisagar Prabhodan Kendra Hall, Uttan. Ms Anthiya Dias, a freelance artist and designer from Vasai was the resource person for the session. The main objective was to teach & provide guidance to women for promoting an alternate livelihood. Fr. Peter D’cunha Director of Snehjyot CCO, Uttan motivated the women through his speech. The first half of the session covered topics such as; the effect of plastic on the environment, to make different types of bags and envelopes from scratch, places to source the material and sell the product. In the second half, women learnt to use scrap fabric for make bags and duvets, to make flowers from fabric clippings, to cut and make basic garments, and places to source different fabrics. Next these women plan on having an exposure visit to the place from where the materials can be purchased. 

The neighboring families of Ward no.4 Uttan were affected by the open and small septic tank which kept on overflowing. The (Core committee members) CC members of the ward took an initiative and had an emergency meeting with the Uncleanliness subcommittee on 2 nd Dec. 2017.  In the meeting it was decided that they would bring it to the notice of the Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation officer the Nagar Sevaks, and write a letter of complaint about the open septic tank, which was clearly unhygienic for all. They also discussed on the need to demolish the old septic tank and build a new bigger tank, because the capacity of the old septic tank was less and the residents were large in number.  On 5 th Dec. 2017 two CC members and two subcommittee members took the appointment of the Nagar Sevak and submitted the letter. After four days on 9 th Dec. 2017 two of the Nagar Sevaks visited the locality and decided to call the engineers, show the place and build a new ...

On 30th October 2017, 16 subcommittee, 12 society, CCO and CSA  members held a meeting at, Pali Ice Factory, Uttan to increase the number of tempos and solve the rising tempo fare issue. The meeting began with making a list of the total numbers of tempos existing and needs to be added. And these tempos would be sent to the bigger fish markets to deliver fishes. A request for additional small tempos was put across to which members did not agree as it would consume more manpower and require extra time. The timings of the driver for the bigger tempos are fixed whereas the same cannot be possible for smaller tempos as the stock of fishes arrive at any time of the day. The subcommittee stated their concern of the high prices of the tempos and not receiving a receipt in return. As the society members were now aware of the receipt system they demanded for the receipt henceforward. The members decided to list down the prices of the tempos across the society so that they won’t b...

On 27 th Oct 2017 a meeting on action plan was held at Uttan Church. Seventeen members from the subcommittee and core committee participated to discuss on the issue of extra expenses incurred during festivals and celebrations. The occasions highlighted were Festivals like village feast, parish feast, and Christmas. They decided to have a common social gathering to celebrate these festivals at a village. Since it would be difficult to stabilize this initiative from the start, it was decided that few festivals like the parish feast or village feast can be started through each village and later taken up to a common level gathering. Mr. Jude, CC member who has applied this strategy in his zone, gave the example of Mothagoan a village nearby which has a common celebration for the last 3 years. There has been a good response from the villagers for the same and has resulted in a lot of savings. Mr. Dayanand Patil, CSA staff guided on how to go forward with the issue and convince th...

A meeting with subcommittee members on the issue of stray dogs and how it was affecting the people was held at Uttan church on 27 th October 2017 with 17 participants. The corporator was among the 17 present for this meeting and assured his full support. After much discussion it was decided that by the 4 th of Nov, they were to gather the detailed information about the number of dogs in the vicinity, the area m ost affected and actions that could be taken to reduce the number. A signature campaign on the 20 th Nov 2017 was proposed along with networking with the MBMC(Mira Bhayander Muncipal Corporation). All the members of Sub Committee took individual responsibilities of the work and decided to involve the others too.  The meeting was concluded with much relief and satisfaction.

After a brief orientation on Recurring Account(RD), the trained members of Financial Empowerment program facilitated by CSA approached the CCO staff. They requested the CCO staff to accompany them to two of the well known nationalized banks in India so as to open a RD account for the interested women at Uttan in order to make them independent in future and be benefitted by the facilities these banks provide. On the 9 th of October 2017, the CCO and CSA staff approached the bank managers for both these banks and seven women have already opened their accounts individually which has helped them build self-confidence and feel proud about themselves. They are enthused about having their new RD passbook.

One of the prime concerns in our society is of gender inequality. It is important to educate children on matters as such. On 21 st September 2017 a session on gender equality and the importance of respecting women was held at Uttan Church Campus for 38 Balsansad children. The resource person for the session was Ms. Sanjina from Uttan CC O. A video clip based on the topic was shown to the children to make it easier for them to understand the objective of the topic. Furthermore, a detailed explanation was given emphasizing on discriminations made on the grounds of food, education, work, games(toys), treatments and things between a boy and a girl. At the end, the children had an interactive session where they discussed what they learnt and what they can do. They responded well to the activities and had a healthy participation.

On 15 th Sep 2017, 28 members assembled at Durado Hall Uttan for the Core Committee and sub leaders meeting. In the previous month’s meeting leaders were appointed, and as per the responsibilities allotted all completed their work. The meeting was facilitated by the leader of the Core Committee.  Various issues which were already listed in family group meetings were presented by the leaders at the session. In all there were 29 issues out of which three main issues were prioritized like Low fish rates, Stray Dogs and high expenses during celebrations. Based on this, three subcommittees were formed and leaders were assigned. They decided to meet again next week for work to progress quickly. There was an active and healthy participation from members. The group showed interest in taking responsibilities and were happy to work on the issues. 

Snehajyot Samaj Kendra Staff - Ms. Valencia and Ms. Sanjina planned and facilitated an Orientation on Livelihood for nine prospective participants who want to enhance their current Livelihoods.  The Meeting began on the 11th September at Snehajyot Samaj Kendra Meeting Room with the CCO staff giving a brief on the purpose of the facilitation process. Motivating them to take the required steps she asked them what they were currently doing and their status concerning their current livelihood. She then posed the question - What they wanted or desired to do in the future? This set the participants thinking and they responded with enthusiasm sharing their different interests. Mr. Dayanand facilitated the group to deepen their understanding of how they perceive their current livelihood status. There were many clarifications sought by them on the process involved and their current livelihood challenges. They expressed a desire to meet again we was a good motivating factor to take th...

I n Uttan as per the decisions taken in the Core Committee, the CCO Staff along with CC Members on the following dates mentioned below took village level meetings in order to get the community involved in the process of Issue Identification and Prioritization.  Date Village Name Total Families Participants 22 nd  August, 2017 Mothagaon 31 34 29 th  August, 2017 Patan 500 123 31 st  August, 2017 Devtalao 119 21 1 st  September, 2017 Bhatodi 27 The meetings in the villages began with a brief on the situation of the Uttan and questions addressed to the group on their assessment of the current situation in their village and what they could do about it. The group was introduced to the process how they would need to work as a team. Some villagers came forward as volunteers to be leaders of the family groups and take the responsibility of organizing the meetings that would disseminate this in...

The Core Committee (CC) Members revisited the first Issue of Sanitation and Uncleanliness caused by Garbage in Uttan leading to unhygienic conditions affecting the health of locals. They also decided to review the second issue of Unavailability of Water in Uttan. They decided to collect sufficient information so as to then come up with clear steps of action to deal with these issues.   On the 17th and 24th July, the CC members along with the CCO Staff and SHG women visited two villages - Mothagaon and Devtalav and collected information through a survey format on information points concerning use of dustbins, their methods of garbage disposal, their access of water through taps, use of toilets in the house or in common places and their suggestions on the information sought. In Mothagaon 281 families and in Devtalav 108 families were surveyed.  As a result of this survey, the community has certainly grown in their knowledge of the issues and have expressed th...