Arunodaya - Tribal Welfare

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Trible Welfare

The concept was something very new and did not convince the tribals initially as they are used to heavy subsidies, there was resistance from the male members. The reason for this was basically oriented to receiving charities in cash and kind. It took some time for them to get convinced and come out of the charity concept. Today the strength in the villages has swollen very significantly with formal meetings, maintaining records, dialoguing, questioning, thrift and credit, representing to the concerned authorities etc.

At first we had some difficulties in retaining the staff, as they could not adjust with the local situation. However we were able to overcome by going for a new in the end of first year. Gave them regular orientation and training, organized visits to the neighboring NGO’s and gave inputs on the various development approaches. Out of 10 team members 8 of them belong to the tribal community. Today the team is fully set and able to understand and relate with the project objectives and activities.

For this coming year we will be intensifying our efforts to consolidate the activities initiated and major inputs will be on to sustain the development process through optimum people's participation. As per the scheduled work plan Self Help groups have been formed in all the project villages, with active thrift & credit, revolving fund established and around 146 members have accessed credit, for farm and off farm activities. Loan recovery responsibility is also very encouraging as per schedule.

Capacity building programmes were conducted for different levels of people. The staff, volunteers, women leaders, Panchayat members and farmers. The topics ranging from communication skills, participatory approach, Local Governance, Leadership qualities etc., impacted to tremendous change in their attitude and behavior towards development trend.

Exposure camps were organized for women leaders, farmers and the staff. This Programme enabled more clarity to their development thinking, especially dialoguing with the Government officials, police department and other NGO’s. In all the consultations with the community video Programme were shown on different development themes, which was one of the attraction and educative for target audience.

Regarding Natural Resource Management with focus on organic farming has been initiated during the current year, with initial sharing of the concept and its advantages. This will be further intensified with more inputs in coordination with the respective self-help groups in all the villages. This year of interventions with the tribal has facilitated a larger hold on the development concepts especially in Adilabad, Sreekakulam and Rangareddy District tribes in A.P.

Our project Child Labour Education Scheme (CLES) among the tribal of Andhra Pradesh has intensively facilitated us in linking up with the Government Programme titled Continued education for the Children out of School. Arunodaya remains ever grateful for your kind and timely support and encouragement in initiating the concept for Child Labour Education Scheme (CLES) especially in the region where child labour prevalence is very high. This concept in action initially had some skepticism in terms of viability and consistency in their learning’s. Gradually with the involvement of the parents and the community enabled to streamline the learning system resulted to increased interest in learning.

The inputs planned as per the schedule was something interesting and a breakthrough in nurturing consistency in the students’ participation.

Tribal Craft Initiative

Tribal Craft Initiative facilitates local people to value their tradition and allows them to bring money into their local economy. The local Lambadi tribe, They have their own distinctive dialect, costume and traditions. Their tradition of embroidery was very nearly lost being remembered by only a few of the older women. This tradition has now been revived by the Craft Initiative, with the older women teaching the younger women. They have decided to call their work "Porgai" which in their dialect means "pride", reflecting the pride they feel in their work and in rediscovering the tradition to which they belong. We are giving them training in the above aspects; These women are vibrant and highly motivated.

The Motivating factors were

The educational material given for the students consisting of a schoolbags, books, pencils, slates etc was something they owned and used it. The parents seeing this also got inspired and motivated to send them to education center. The Games indoor and outdoor was also a major attraction for the students to participate, share and learn. The prizes given to all of them were an added motivation to compete among the peers.

The four days camp was a major highlight in linking up communication with the surrounding village students and the parents. The Cultural performances, group discussions, singing competitions have enabled the parents to appreciate their children’s talents and potencies. The visitors to the camp were from the local media, local Government officials, village leaders and the women leaders. Their participation was more a solidarity, encouraging and thought provoking messages for their children. The monthly review meets among the children and their parents / community has made this unique educational Programme highly visible and talked about in the villages. The very concept of working and learning applied to their day-to-day routine and sharpening their skills. Around 20% of the children have been main streamed on to the regular education system by giving up their child lab our work.

The capacities of the teachers locally picked up and the community leaders in shouldering increased responsibility especially towards up bringing of their children in terms of education health and their environment. The contribution from the parents and the community in the form of school fees, kind, food and labour has been very amazing especially in terms of developing good linkages and convergence to development activities in the village and owning the development projects. The local self-government i.e. The Gram Panchayat played a vital role in strengthening local governance and discussing education as one of the important agenda. Some of the students from our center are also helping out the women self-help groups to maintain the books of accounts and writing the minutes of their meetings. Overall the community participation and management has relieved us from day to day follow up as the parents committee in the respective villages was more of a self regulatory body, reinforcing the educational system from within the community.