Finally, My Very Own Blog: The KI Villages

Here are a few shots from our arrival in the villages, on the first day of the project. It was one of the most memorable moments of the whole trip, being swarmed by kids and showered with marigold petals. That was when it all suddenly became real.

April, Kids and Me

Tina, her ajumma hat, and a really cute little girl

The Kothasatram and Indiranagar villages where we were volunteering are located along a long road that runs between the city of Kavali and the coast, in the Andhra Pradesh region of southeast India. They are surrounded by other villages, which are also fairly poor, but not of Dalit (Untouchable) status. The difference is noticeable - the other villages have concrete buildings and several vehicles and are clearly a bit better off.

All along this road you can see prominent blue signs announcing the government Tsunami Rehabilitation Project, but there are no signs in either the Kothasatram and Indiranagar villages - they did not get any government money because they are Dalit. About a year and a half ago, someone from the locally-based Association of Relief Volunteers (ARV), heard about these two villages. ARV paired up with the non-profit organization Longitude, which is based in Rhode Island, and the Building Communities project was born.

I won't go into the history of the caste system here, if you want to read about that, it can all be found online of course, put into better words than I would come up with. The important thing to know is that the caste system is a system of discrimination that goes back thousands and thousands of years, and is very deeply embedded into the fabric and psyche of India. So the fact that it has been legally banned doesn't really make a huge difference - putting a law in place won't exactly change the way people think. (Look at the history of slavery and racism in the US as another example.) There are lots of individuals and organizations working to create more equality in India, but undoing thousands of years of thinking is a very slow process.

A few examples - Ravi told us that when he brings doctors out to see a sick villager, the doctor won't even touch them. A DOCTOR! I couldn't believe that. And Lauren, one of my fellow volunteers, was once approached by some local people while she was playing with the children, and they asked her, "How can you touch those dirty kid?" I also read a story in the Delhi English newspaper that talked about discrimination against Dalit children in public schools. The children have to be allowed to attend according to the law, but they are often made to sit separately and ridiculed by their teachers classmates. Some schools even use separate sticks to beat them with. They are not even considered good enough to be beat with the same stick. That is sad.

When I joined this volunteer project, I went expecting that our main purpose was to raise the money and lend a hand with building the houses. But I realized that the message we were sending - to the people of the villages and the surrounding communities - was in a way the most important thing. A large part of what ARV does is empowerment - to teach people how to lift themselves out of poverty. But it is hard to convince people who have been so oppressed that they are worthy of something better, and bringing in volunteers from outside really helps to get the point across -- your own country might not help you out, but there are lots of others in the world who think that is wrong. Furthermore, it sends the same message to the rest of the community and brings attention to the fact that these people have been grossly oppressed and neglected. And sure enough, this year the local government has pledged a very large amount of money to help out the ARV project. That is the sort of effect that our time spent in the village had.

One of the things I found most surprising is that although these two villages are both Dalit, and regarded as equally low status by everyone else in the community, there is a difference in status between them - in their eyes at least. One of the villages is clearly a bit better off - they have more skilled wage earners, more space to grow crops, and more livestock. And because of this, they consider themselves to be better than the neighboring village. One of the main goals of the ARV project is to create unity between the two villages and encourage them to help each other. Before the project started, children from the two villages would not play together, and people from one village would rarely go into the other village. The two people in our group who also went last year told us that they observed a noticeable improvement since last year - now the children wander freely between the villages and there is a lot more contact between the people from both sides.

ARV is hoping to eventually completely unite the two villages and rename them. And the name they are considering - the JET Village - in honor of the fact that most of the volunteers have been part of the JET Program. I think it is a little odd though ....

Alright, more photos!

Ravi

Ravi, who works with ARV, was the man responsible for us while we were in India. He is an incredible and selfless person, an inspiration to us all. His birthday happens to be on January 2nd. Last year, the volunteers asked him what he wanted for his bday, and he said he wanted them to hold a New Year's feast for the village. So they did, and also used the extra money to buy new sarees for all the women. This year, they decided to budget the New Year's food into the work camp. So when we asked Ravi what he wanted for his bday this year, he asked us to buy new clothes for all the men and children. How much do you think it costs to buy new outfits for an entire village of men and children? Once the math was all done to split the cost between 16 people, each of us contributed about $40. To think that we spend twice that on ONE pair of jeans for ourselves.

Washing Hands

After last year's work camp, they also started a children's feeding center - every morning each child gets one egg and one glass of milk. Doesn't seem like much, but you have to remember that these kids would normally eat only rice and and a tiny bit of veggies. One morning they had us come and help out with the food.

Sid, who is actually Canadian, looked like he was recruiting for the US Military.