Jan 11 Meeting with Daniel Lala

Today I started back at work at Mobile Creches. I was sad to have missed two days of work and felt a bit disoriented, but last night I created a lesson plan to teach colors to the 3 to 5 year olds. It truly is difficult to communicate because the teachers do not make much effort to understand us. Jackie said that while I was gone she tried several activities which they did not approve of. They would simply take back the math worksheets she passed out or tell her to sit and take control of the class. I reminded her not to get discouraged so today we tried again. With the 3 to 5 year olds I brought flashcards with colors on them and had them repeat the colors over and over. I would then point to other objects of the same color and repeat the color over and over and ask them to repeat. "Mere baad bolo" means repeat after me. I said that countless times. It didnt seem that they fully understood, but I hope that after sticking with the theme of colors all week they will get it. I had them color rainbows (I drew outlines of a rainbow on pieces of paper). They loved this and when I gave them crayons I would say the colors. As they colored I would also point to the colors and repeat them to the children. Hopefully I am pronouncing things correctly because I wouldnt want to teach them wrong. Now I am trying to come up with an activity for tomorrow.

This afternoon I met with Daniel Lala who had spoken with us earlier last week. He has worked with NGOs in several countries and has been in India now for 3 years. He was a costume designer for films so to move into this type of work he had to gain experience first so he would work on a project and then use the money to volunteer for 6 months. He volunteered with CCS for 3 months (the max amount of time one can volunteer) just to get introduced to NGOs in the area and got linked up with Vidya where he now works. He is a project manager, meaning he actually sets up the programs they use for women's empowerment and for children. Vidya has been around for 25 years and its focus is on women's empowerment. To do this they must also provide services for children so they teach children from the slums. Their goal for children is to give them opportunities so that they can move out of their situation and get a good job. Many children drop out of school to work for their parents and then never return so there are also remedial programs to get children back into school. Some of these chidren are able to go to college. It seems that Vidya sees a problem (women with no opportunities) and then analyzes all of the little factors that come into play such as; dealing with the children as well, supporting women who become ostracized from their family for gaining an education, providing cheaper and better education, health programs etc to address as many aspects as possible. They choose realistic solutions to problems.

He discussed with me the way the Vidya works, the type of work he has done and is doing now, and general information about NGOs. When I asked if the presence of NGOs is well-known by people in New Delhi he said yes; that almost everyone knows what an NGO is in the city and most have encountered them. They see that these provide services that the government cannot or does not provide for well. Many give extraordinary opportunities. There are many NGOs present which work with a number of issues with many different approaches. Daniel mentioned several times that it is precisely because the government does not provide adequate services that other means are necessary and thriving today. He recommended a book to me The Beautiful Tree which talks about the parallel education in India today which has resulted because the government does not ensure education to every child and it is not very good. He spoke with me about many dimensions of the problems in India and some of the solutions which exist. After spending a week here and seeing what I have... the entire city is foggy, brown, gloomy, run down, littered with trash, and swarmed with people (many in terrible circumstances) it was encouraging to see that in some cases there is progress being made and there are people who care.

He highlighted one theme that Dr. DeMars addressed in his book; that NGOs are a blend of complex connections, differing motivations and goals, and contradictory aims at times. He advised me not to the the CCS staff too much about my project because he said that they would discourage me from doing this. He said that while I am here I should do what I want and not make it known because they would not really support it. He also criticized that they run this organization for volunteers but very rarely go to the field themselves so they have little knowledge about it. He said that after interviewing them about what CCS is all about I should talk to a staff member from CCS in the US and find out what they say. He said that the perspective would be different. Within Vidya he also said that what he was telling me would be different than what an Indian staff member would say. There are different approaches that people attempt to accomplish the mission of the organization.

Daniel is going to try to set up meetings for me with the vice chair of Vidya who is an Indian as well as one person who attends a program. He is also going to try to put me in contact with a man who sells at his store products that people who recieve microloans from NGOS produce. I think this will be very interesting. After talking with him for some time and expanding my connections I am excited that my research is taking off and curious about where it will go. At the moment my topic is broad. After gathering more information I will see what direction to take with this project and how to make it more specific. I think it is good to begin broad when approaching a topic I don't know too much about. I am going to follow the leads I get and the information I find.