Community Ownership and Development - Towards Sustainable Livelihoods!

To evaluate the activities of the three sub committees and follow up with it, a monthly CC meeting was held on 7 th May 2018. The quarterly review was evaluated where one of the members shared her experience working with CCO. The work at Pali through the approach of a People Led Empowerment with the cooperation of Bishop Barthol Barretto was shared by her. The work taking place at the grass root level by them was appreciated by Fr. Mario Mendes, Mr. Cletus Zuzarte and the DI staff members. Activities related to public issues were evaluated. The supply of water was very irregular and so 2 common wells were cleaned on 7 th and 8 th May 2018. The follow up for digging up a bore well has been taking place with the official of MBMC. The repair of the broken pipeline at ward number 2 will be in process. The common public hall is locked by the ex local co-operator who isn’t allowing the opening of the hall. This complaint was taken to the current local co-operator. CC will be visiti...

  As an input session on skill enhancement program, CSA organised a Home Nursing session for the domestic workers at Manori with its networking partner Savdhan Samaj Kendra. On 8 th February 2018, a team of 15 nurses from Hinduja Hospital visited the centre at Manori. Ms. Seema, field supervisor at Hinduja nursing interacted with the nine participants present. The nurses from general ward gave a First Aid demo on home nursing, ways to take care of sick patients at home, care for elderly, babies & young children. The Nurses explained simple tips like bandage & body massage techniques, taking medicines as prescribed by doctors, taking care of sick patients while shifting them on bed, checking the expiry before purchasing any medicines, the right method to put ear & eye drops, which can be easily practised  at home or on work place. It is our responsibility to educate and train grassroots ensuring that this knowledge helps in giving them basic health awarene...

After the interaction session on communal harmony the Bal Sansad children’s group decided to present a skit to the children of other faith on 27 th January 2018 at Manthanpada. These were the tribal children from the English Literacy Class.The objective was to spread the message of communal harmony amongst the villagers. The ideas on the topic were given and through guidance the children took the initiative and prepared a street play. With the prior permission of Manthanpada’s English Literacy Class, Balsansad visited the Bastis. They welcomed the thirty children gathered, and after a brief introduction on the topic the skit began. The children created awareness on harmony with one another through this skit. The play also gave the children from the village an opportunity to come as a group and witness the activity and performance of Bal Sansad. Children have become aware on respecting people from backgrounds of all faith and live in harmony.

After many discussions and follow up meetings, on 7 th January 2018, a rally starting from Manthanpada village lower pada to upper pada, Khadi area Sonmai Talav right up to the main road was conducted by the English Literacy class students, Women (Subcommittee) youths, and Core Committee members. The rally was held to create awareness for Manthanpada villagers on cleanliness and shortage of water issue. All the sixty participants actively participated at the rally displayed creative posters. Slogans were sung and banners were displayed to create awareness of cleanliness and water issues. The planning and preparation was a huge success and the people in the ward have decided to keep their surroundings clean.

Group discussion on environment On 7 th Dec 2017, a session on Preservation Of The Environment was conducted at Church New Hall, Pali for 30 Bal Sansad children. The resource person for the session was Mr. Tennison Belu, CCO staff who educated the kids to know that in order to benefit and enjoy the natural beauty of the environment every individual must play a vital role to protect the environment. It is very essential to save our planet and therefore be kind to mother earth and her surrounding; to make it a better place to live for us and for the future generations. Mr. Tennison then gave them an interactive activity to find out the causes that pollute the air, to discuss the effects of pollution on water, and to find out the solution to protect the tree from pollutions. After the discussion, the group presented their report by acting out the causes, effects and measures/solution to preserve the environment i.e air, water, and trees. It was decided that each child will ...

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...

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...

On 17 th October 2017, a session on violence towards children was held at Uttan by the CCO staff for 41 Bal Sansad children. It emphasized on the various types of violence one could face at home or in school, its ill effects and how The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act ) could benefit them. The session began with an icebreaker to gain the attention of the children. The speaker briefed them on the topic of Child Abuse. They learnt to be alert in such situations and ways to overcome it. The children were provided with Child Helpline (1098) and Police Complaint (100) numbers. Two documentaries namely Kamal & Shruti, which were based on this topic, were shown, after which the children were asked questions to make sure they understood the topic. They answered them aptly. The children learnt 3 important things that they should do if faced a situation of child abuse that is, shout out loud, run to a crowded or safe place and inform someone with whom t...