Before leaving...
This is my last report before living India and I thought many times if I should write it or not. The truth is that I don’t want to start feeling nostalgic while I am still here, but it is getting more and more difficult to avoid this feeling.
During this last month and a half I continued, of course, giving English lessons to Elected Women Representatives, in Barrod village, and to adolescent girls, in Dughera village. However, now I am more focused in younger girls, between 11 and 12 years old because they are really eager to learn. In fact, they appear in my “class”, with their notebooks and pens, immediately after knowing that I am in the village. It is so nice to see how interested they are! And in the beginning of this week we did a mimic game, in order for them to guess the names of the animals in English and, in case they didn’t know, in Hindi. We had a lot of fun and I also participate trying to imitate…a bear!
Besides that, I organized a program about violence against women, in Barrod village, called “Bass or Nehin” (in English “It’s Enough”). I must admit that I faced some problems because I delegated responsibilities to four of my colleagues and I tried to be very easy going and flexible with them, but it seems that it doesn’t work that way. They need to feel there is an authority otherwise it can become complicated to make them work. So, I can say it was hard to organize this program, but in the end we did it.
Normally when the project organizes an event in a village it always starts with a school rally, but this time I thought that we should do something different, in order to catch people’s attention. So, I wrote a play about domestic violence and my colleagues were the actors. However, as they didn’t have rehearsed much, they invented a lot of things that were not in the script. Well, that was not entirely bad…In fact, one of them used the opportunity to talk about different laws that protect women.
After the play I did a speech about the life cycle of violence against women and its different forms having, of course, as special focus India (i.e. female infanticide, dowry deaths). Then it was time for three women to speak: our special guest, the Sarpanch from Gadoj village, Smt. Khajani Devi; the Sarpanch from Barrod village, Smt. Nirmala Devi and finally the Punch also from Barrod, Smt. Urmila Devi (to whom I give English lessons).
My idea was to involve both men and women in this program, but the truth is that only one man, a journalist, plus 45 women appeared. I was happy that so many women were present and my colleagues told me that their feedback was positive, even if not everyone understood completely the message. However, it is a shame that no man was interested in participating in the program…Without them I got a bitter taste because this program was definitely also made for them. My idea is now to try to organize this play in other villages, in order to create awareness about this subject, so I hope that next time some men will come.
From all the work I have done in these last weeks there is one that I am very glad to have had the initiative to go for it. In March we conducted a survey about malnourished children having identified a total of 24. However, the Anganwadi workers (preschool workers) didn’t report to the authorities these children, so basically everything was in the same situation as before. In other words, none of these children was benefiting from a Government scheme that consists of providing double food to them. I found it out because there is a child in Dughera that is malnourished: a girl with 22 months only weighting 6 kg. So, I told what was happening (or better what was not happening) to my project manager and he said that I should write a letter to the Child and Mother Department Office (CDPO) and give it to the responsible, together with the survey. First, I went to the office alone, but the person in charge was not there and, besides that, no one speaks English and my Hindi, as you might have a clue, is not that developed…So, next day I came back with Rinki (a DI) and we explained the situation to the officer. He said that he didn’t have any register of severely malnourished children (grade 4) from Behror Block. Why? Because the Anganwadi workers don’t want to be bothered with that, even if the health of a child is at risk.
In the end of our meeting the officer told us that he was going to Dughera to check the girl as well as the other children identified in the survey. And, in fact, he was there. He measured the little girl’s weight and made sure that the Anganwadi workers would, from now on, provide the double food (baby mix). However, the problem is that the girl is not eating it because she doesn’t the baby mix, so this week I went back again to CDPO and now he is going to give her a card, so that she can have free medical treatment in Alwar Hospital. Besides that, the officer is planning to go next week to Nangalia village to check the 9 children I had identified in the survey.
I still have so many things to know, to understand and to transmit to others…But the clock is not on my side anymore and only the ones more close to me know truthfully how I will miss this country and the people I am working with…They mean a lot to me. More than I could ever imagine…
Before coming here I said I don’t plan to change the world and that, in fact, I would be already glad if I could put a smile in a child’s face.
I have seen this smile… and now it is time to leave…
Research Period in Pondicherry
I had everything planned to go to Pondicherry on Friday, the 1st of June, in order to do my research period in the Green Post-Tsunami Action about SHG’s. However, in the beginning of that week, the Gujjars (Other Backward Castes) started protesting on the highway nr.8, which makes the connection between Delhi and Jaipur, creating insecurity and traffic problems. The reason for their behavior as to do with the fact that they want to be considered a Scheduled Tribe, in order to have access to job and school quotas.
So, on Friday morning the situation was still problematic to the point that there were no buses going to Delhi. So, plan B was to go with the project’s car, but again it didn’t work out because meanwhile the police closed the highway. Frustrated, I started planning my day in the office, but suddenly everything changed again…the highway opened for traffic and I could go to Delhi!
The train to Chennai departed at 10 p.m. and it would take around 34 hours to arrive to the capital of Tamil Nadu. Luckily, I was not alone because Pashupati, the headmaster of DRH Delhi, was also going to visit the projects Humana has in Pondy. Despite the fact we were in the sleepers´ class, I can’t complain about the journey. In fact, I thought it would be much harder, especially because of the heat, than it actually was. The train has fans and there is always people coming to sell chai (with sugar…) and food like chicken biryani (needless to say that is was not my choice).
When we arrived to the train station it didn’t take us long to find Peter, my team mate and good friend, and Isabel, also a DI from Norway school. It was nice to see him after such a long time! So, the four of us caught a bus to Pondy, that took around 3 hours, but at last we arrived to our final destination.
What can I say about my first impressions? The scenario is green and blue as it is typical of a tropical area. In fact, for me it was very special to see and smell the sea after such a long time…I missed it very much. Regarding my relationship with the local people I understood quite soon that the fact that I don’t know a word of Tamil (except “Vanakam” that is like the Hindi word “Namaste”) would impose a distance. It is not that I know Hindi that well, but it is already enough to make a basic conversation or to bargain with the people. But in Pondy or you know Tamil or you speak English. Hindi is absolutely out of question!
Already in the DI´s house I had time to rest, eat and update the conversation with my colleagues. Next day I went to the office of Green Post-Tsunami Action, in order to meet the project leader, Kussum, and also to start my work with the SHG’s. At that time I already knew more or less what was needed to be done because I had spoken before with Peter about that. So, basically I started preparing a document, like the one we have in my project, to be filled in with all the information about each group, such as the names of the members, rules and regulations, bank pass book photocopy and quarterly financial status. I also created an Excel table, so that the basic information about all groups can be quickly and continuously updated. Besides that, I wrote some ideas for income generating activities based, mainly, in coconuts.
On Tuesday I was once again in the office finishing the work I had started the day before and also planning courses to be given to the SHG’s, most of them based on Humana’s manual. So, in this file I wrote the title of each course and when to be given, topics for discussion and Internet links with information about the topic. However, I could only finalize this work on Saturday evening.
After spending two days in the office, I went to Chindambaram office, in Cuddalore district, to attend a trainee for stakeholders. It was supposed to begin at 10 a.m., but the guest of honor was late, so everyone had to wait for him for more than one hour. When he finally arrived he didn’t have any problem in accepting a phone call while he was being introduced to the audience. After that, he spoke for 5 minutes, spent there maybe half an hour more and left because he had other things to do…I couldn’t believe in what my eyes were seeing, but at least I could share this look with someone…Peter. Well, what I can conclude about this trainee is that I didn’t understand almost anything because they were always speaking in Tamil, except when was Kussum’s turn. Of course I was already expecting that, but either way I preferred to grab this opportunity, in order to see a different place. In the end we had a very nice lunch in the office with rice, chapattis (however they are not as good as the ones in Rajasthan, for sure) and different vegetables. When we left it was around three, so it was still very early (or late, depends on the point of view) to visit a temple. It was a little bit pity because they have a very famous one called The Temple of the Dancing Shiva, and also because the temples in the South are very different from the ones in Rajasthan. In fact, they are much more colorful and with many sculptures decorating the temple front.
On Thursday morning it was time to go to Kancheepuram district to meet with Isabel and three more Indian DI’s, Batma, Indira and Sendil, in order to have meetings with SHG’s. So, in the afternoon the five of us, plus an animator, went to Periya Kaalani village to meet with a Government SHG.
The villages in the South contrast from the ones in the North. They are surrounded by palm trees and its leaves are used to cover the roof of the houses. In the middle of the road we met with the women that have formed their SHG almost one year and a half ago. However, the Government official is not coming regularly to the meetings, so they don’t know what they can do with the money they have saved, how to get a bank loan or how to start an income generating activity. So, I tried to clarify them about that and I also gave them some ideas about what kind of work could they do considering also their skills.
Next morning we went to Kaalingar Nagar to speak with the women from a Humana SHG that was created one month ago. They already started collecting money (they have saved Rp. 1000), but the group still doesn’t have a name or have even chosen a treasurer. The reason is simple: lack of information. The Community Health Organizer as well as the animators started creating the groups, but they don’t know the exact procedure because nobody told them! So, I gave them some guidelines even if I am not an expert in SHG’s, but I think it is already quite something when compared with what they knew before.
On Saturday it was time to do some sightseeing after being in Pondicherry for some days and not seeing anything except a supermarket (which is already quite a lot!). So, Isabel, Peter and I went to a private beach that can only be reached by boat. The place is really nice and it was not crowded at all. The problem was that I didn’t have any swimming suit, but I couldn’t resist the smell of the sea…So, Isabel and I just went to the water with trousers and shirt. I am not exactly used to that, but it was nice to dive and feel the water in my head! It was so relaxing…
Time passes fast, so on Sunday it was time to leave because the train was going to depart from Chennai at 10 p.m. After saying goodbye to everyone, Pashu and I caught a bus to the capital, but the journey became longer than we had expected…We were already inside the bus for two hours when suddenly we heard the noise of a flat tire …As the mechanic was taking some time to appear with the proper tools to change the tire, some passengers decided to motivate the truck drivers that were nearby to help us changing it. In the end they did it, but either way we went straight to the next bus stand in order to check if everything was ok. It was not, so again we had to change the tire…By that time it was really getting very late, so some people tried to help us saying that we could reach the train on time if we left in a certain town (I don’t remember its name) and then catch a taxi to the train station. Well, that was what we did, but when we asked the taxi driver if he could reach the station in 30 minutes he said no…in 2 hours! So, we had some kind of situation…The only option we had left was to take a local train and see if we could manage…By the time we reached the station it was already 10.30 p.m. …Basically the only option we had left was to cancel the ticket and spend the night in Chennai hopping that next day we could get two tickets from the foreign tourist quota…In the morning we went back to the station, I asked for the tickets…and we got them! At 10 p.m. we were inside the train and ready to come back home. I missed Rajasthan…
At home...
I am in India for almost 3 months and now that Jenny and Raquel have left this country and that the new DI’s are coming, it seems a new chapter is about to start.
I didn’t have the opportunity to write sooner, because in April I started giving English lessons to Elected Women Representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (village councils), in Barrod village, and also to young girls, in Dughera village. I am only focused in these two villages because it is the only way I can create any change (hopefully effective) and, of course, I always go there with an Indian DI.
I really love my work because it doesn’t consist only about teaching English, but also empowering the women and young girls. For example, I am giving short courses in the beginning of each class, in Dughera village, about women’s rights, self-esteem and body image, among other subjects.
However, I still have some difficulties in convincing the women Punch to come to my lesson. So, last Tuesday I went door-to-door to motivate the women, with the help of the husband of the Sarpanch (head of the village council). One of them had talked with me before and when she knew what I was doing in her village she said “I don’t speak your language”. However, this time I had the opportunity to introduce myself to her. It is true that first she said she was too old to learn, but when I replied that my father always say we are always learning she agreed… So, now it seems that things are going in the right direction…In fact, I also went on Friday to the Panchayati meeting to present myself to the rest of the women Punch. I explained them the purpose of my work and we agreed to meet on Tuesday at 12 o’clock. However, they left the meeting after signing their name. In other words, they didn’t discuss anything with the other PRI members. Only the Sarpanch stayed and, even so, in a corner… I asked her why she was not getting involved in the discussion and she said she “felt hesitations”. I replied that it is normal to feel a bit insecure before speaking in front of many persons, but the people elected her because they trust her to represent their interests.
After my conversation with the Sarpanch, I decided to present myself to the male Punch and then I asked them what they were discussing today and what they thought about the participation of the women Punch in the meetings. They said that they put themselves apart because they feel insecure and I told them that it is important if they encourage them to speak because everybody’s opinion is important and it is not by chance that they were elected… I also talked about the importance of women having equal rights in their society and I contrasted that with the situation in the West. I told them that some rights are universal such as freedom of choice, something that is still a dream here. Then they asked me if I liked India and I answered that I like their culture (music, dance, food, clothes…), but I was not very happy about the situation of women… So, when they inquired me if I would like to live here I told them that I was born with many rights taken for granted and I can only live where I can exercise them…In the end I told them that I admire very much the village women because they work a lot, in the house or in the field, and they can still have a smile in their faces by the end of the day.
It was the first time I attended a Panchayat meeting and that I spoke to so many men, and older than me, about the situation of women in their country, I can conclude that we had an interesting conversation and I always tried not to impose my point of view, but share it in a friendly way, even if they told that women still have to have restrictions, in other words, a limited freedom because that is part of their culture… However, I continue thinking that dehire dehire (slowly slowly) it is possible to make small changes…As a matter of fact, at least I made them think about the situation of women and something must have stayed in their heads.
Besides the field work, I wrote two reports (a quarterly and an annual report) about the “The Hunger Project” that consists of strengthening the women’s participation in the Panchayati Raj Institutions.
Regarding my daily life, everything is quite the same except for the fact that now I can take a true shower (not from the bucket!) and I am trying to improve my chai and chapatti skills, even if I am not a cooking expert (J).
I also had the opportunity to travel, so Jenny, Bao and I visited the Taj Mahal and even if it took us many hours to arrive there, it was worth the effort. It is simply unbelievable! And, last weekend, I went with Raquel to Jaipur, so we had a nice time seeing some monuments (i.e. Ambar Fort, Hava Mahal and Birla Temple) and also buying some souvenirs and, of course, we had to bargain!
All in all, I like my life here, even if it continues being a challenge, and my work really fulfils me in such a way that now I can call this place my home.
One month in India
Time is a tricky word…I left India one month ago and I feel I am here for a long time because life here makes me live every single moment with an inexplicable intensity. In fact, my five senses are very active and my brain has a lot of things to process.
Since I am here I still didn’t have time to visit anything, not even a temple! However, I had the opportunity to participate in the Holi festival and, of course, I got very colourful! There was even a very funny episode. Jenny (German DI) and I were going by bike to the DRH and some kids tried to stop us to throw coloured powder. It was my second time riding a bicycle here (the first time had been in the previous day and before that,10 years ago…), so I was not very fast. One of the kids jumped to the back of the bike and emptied 2 litres of coloured water down my trousers! I don’t know how we didn’t fall! Well, I arrived to the DRH very wet as you can imagine…
Concerning my daily routine, it is basically house-office and office-house, with a short stop in the market to buy food. The people in the working place are very nice, but there is also the problem of the language, even if I am trying to improve my Hindi as much as possible. Besides that, I am giving English and computer lessons to my colleagues if I am not doing field work.
As I wrote in the first mail, the people in the villages fulfil my heart because of their strength, simplicity and care. Whenever I have the opportunity I go there or, if not, I create the opportunity. That is what happened in the beginning of this month when I gave the idea of organizing the International Woman’s Day in a village (Dhundaria was the chosen one). It was the first time that Community Development Project Alwar (CDPA) celebrated the day in a rural area and now they will continue doing it in the following years because people already requested that. In fact, the women had a lot of fun in the 8th of March with the games we had prepared for them and, besides that, we also transmitted information about the importance of empowering women, for example, through education and better knowledge of their rights. I was the responsible for the inauguration speech that consisted of explaining the reason why we celebrate this day.
I also did two surveys in Nangalia village, with Santosh, an Indian DI. The first one was about the government preschools (to see if they are working properly) and the second one, which I did yesterday, was about malnutrition of children. We identified 9 children with bad weight, but we want to go back to check every house and not only the ones registered in the centre. I think that the main reason why these children have a weight problem is because of the quantity of food they eat and not the quality. In fact, they only eat two times per day (in the morning and in the evening). I know that that is common here in India, but it is not healthy, especially for children, to spend so many hours without putting some food in the stomach.
This week I started to gather information to write the annual report about a project that we have in Thanagazi block (2 hours from Behror), called Poverty Alleviation. So, I spent five days there and everyone was very nice to me (the DI´s, the office staff and so on) and they made me feel very well there. I even slept in Sima´s house (the coordinator of the project), so it was my first time spending the night with an Indian family. She is married and has 3 children (one of them is handicapped). Her husband and her daily wake up around 5 a.m. and do the house chores together. I also decided to participate (not at 5 a.m., but 8 a.m.) and who knows me well should not be surprised: I can’t be relaxed while seeing other people working.
It can sound weird, but there I got along better with men than with women and I even learned how to cook Indian food with them! Well, at least my impression about Indian men is changing, little by little, because after what happened with my Chinese friend I felt very revolted.
Has you can imagine life is not pink here. Sometimes it can be really tiring to be observed by everybody, to have to answer to the same questions and to struggle with the language. Plus there is work to do outside and inside the guesthouse and, even on the Sundays, we can’t sleep until late because the children who live with us start making a lot of noise, in our floor, around 7 a.m. However, I am still here: alive and kicking in this country of superlatives!
The lack of spare time is one of the reasons why I am not communication much with any of you, even with my parents, and also because it is always a movie to go to the Internet. But you know that I keep you in my heart and your love gives me strength!
Now I started making chapatti! They are not perfect, but eatable . Before going to sleep I am reading a book written by Osho (Indian master) which is giving me some peace of mind.
Norway and I...at a glance
When I decided to join this program I thought that spending six months in Norway, to prepare myself to go to India, was too much. I just wanted to go to that mystic country as soon as possible…Finally I am going there and it seems that time flied here in Scandinavia.
My team started in August (Mozambique/India team) when the weather is nice and the landscape is in tones of green. We were six people in the beginning: Roman, Petr and Lenka came from Czech Republic, Andrzej from Poland, Petya from Hungary and I from Portugal.
Basically, we were all completely different from one another and none was willing to “sacrifice” his or her own personality for the sake of the team. That is one of the reasons why we never had a team spirit, for example. We were only a group of people trying to figure out a way to go through the program. However, it took me some months to realise this…
During our preparation period we attended many courses that had the purpose of giving more information about the country that we are going to and also to transmit knowledge about other subjects that can be useful in our projects such as HIV/Aids, poverty or street children in Brazil. Besides that, I also hold some courses, for example about HIV/Aids in India, the positive and negatives aspects of becoming a vegetarian, women empowerment and leadership and capacity building.
Regarding the self-studies, my priority was to know more about India, women empowerment, education of children and to learn Hindi. However, we only had a Hindi teacher in the first weeks and soon we were left with a book and some tapes to listen. I still can´t speak fluently in Hindi ( ), but I know some things and in these last few weeks I am trying to develop my skills in this area. Even if I still don´t know much, the truth is that I really want to be able to communicate with the people that I am going to work with in India because it is the way that I can reach them and maybe start gaining their confidence.
Besides the studies and courses, each of us had a responsibility area and mine was the studies. So, I had to keep on track the points that each of us had, update de DmM and agree with the teacher about future courses to be held by us. Sometimes it was a headache to understand the so called Modern Method, but in the end I think I got it somehow. However, I had always my Excel file, so that I would have a guarantee that all the data was saved.
So, during the first three months our team had more time to be focus in the studies and courses, but after the midway meeting we suddenly realised that we had still a lot of money to fundraise. So, I did a plan that included, besides the fundraising, working in clothes collection, hotel, promotion and doing sitefinding.
I am not a very strong girl (well, my muscles are not very developed yet), so clothes collection was really hard work for me. In the end of the day I was just sick of clothes and bags…
In fact, sometimes I thought it was too much for me and that I was not going to be able to finish this program. This feeling grew when I was doing, more or less at the same time, clothes collection, working in the hotel, preparing the info meeting in Portugal and trying to study a bit!
Looking at the past, I can say that the biggest problem in our team was the money because we had decided to have half common and half individual goal. It never worked out due to the fact that not everybody was doing an effort in the fundraising. Of course it is hard to be on the street selling a magazine. However, it becomes even harder when we are fundraising while others are doing nothing and, in the end, the money was meant to be divided amongst all!
The environment during the time we were outside the school was not very good. Well, to be honest it already started in the school when we had to find out a place where to sleep (and nobody wanted to do that!) or when we had to divide the team to hitchhike. In other words, it was a crucial moment when we would know with who we were going to spend the next twelve or more hours…
Hitchhiking, clunsing and fundraising were big challenges for me who had never done any of it. It seems it was yesterday that I was with Andrzej trying to get a ride to Bergen being wet until my bones...That I was selling a magazine in the streets of Orebro…Or that I was taking a shower in a kitchen of an Adventist church in Trondheim…
I had many experiences here in Norway that go beyond the ones that were included in the program. Of course I will not forget the Survival Trip or the TCE Action. The first one because I learned that there is some limits in the things that we can do and, sometimes, we have to give up. The second because it was the only time that I felt, even if it was just for a moment, that my colleagues and I were a team.
All these experiences were difficult in a way, but at the same time they made me feel more prepared not only for the obstacles that I may find while I am in India, but most important of all, it made me stronger to face life and its challenges.
However, there are also those small experiences that have a special meaning to me, like touching the snow for the first time, walking in the frozen lake, driving in a foreign country…And, of course, there is also the time spent with my friends.
We meet so many people in this program, but there are always those ones that touch us in a special way and with who we share our laughs and frustrations. I know that without their support it would have been very hard to continue. It is true that we came alone to this program, but soon we need someone that will listen to us and understand us because I think it is only like that we can keep going…
Special moments that only who is part of this program is able to understand…We don´t have so many material things here, but we learn to live without them. In fact, we are separated from the everyday life and that is why sometimes I had the feeling that I was from a different planet when I went to Lillehammer or that I had just “fallen” in the middle of a movie. That is also why we start giving importance to small things like, for me, to be able to drink a café latte or enter in a shop just to buy a postcard and, for a moment, feel that I have a normal life. It is not that the so called “normal life” is appealing to me, but sometimes the feeling is good.
Now I know that I don´t need much to be happy because here in Norway I had moments of pure joy. However, as Petya said, the feelings here are like roller coasters. So, I also felt miserable many times, but I was able to look at the end of the tunnel, with the help of my friends, and see a light…India!
Has a developed country a moral obligation to assist developing countries in its development?
Man is a social being, but in the last decades this idea seems to have little meaning. In the Western societies, individuals are more concerned about their needs and ways of improving their lives, even if that can negative affect others. Their existence is determined by the clothes they wear, the restaurants they go or the car that they have. It is only a question of appearance and not of being.
However, in the other side of the world, people are struggling to have a piece of bread on the table or a roof where they can put their heads. Sometimes these images enter in our house, through the magic screen, while we are seated at the table. Then, we loose our appetite or we just decide to turn off the television trying to pretend that is not our business. We are just sick of the same problems in the developing world (hunger, wars, diseases) and, by the way, where is that?
We feel that we live in different dimensions, in separate worlds, but it is not true. Of course our living standards are completely different and maybe that is why we tend to forget that we are interconnected. In other words, our actions, good or bad, can have a deep impact to the ones that live in the other part of the world. For example, many of the recent so called “natural disasters” had man’s hand involved. It is predicted that more floods, draughts and earthquakes will occur due to climate change. In 2004, the global insurance Swiss Re reported that “there is a danger that human intervention will accelerate and intensify natural climate changes to such point that it will become impossible to adapt our socio-economic systems in time”.
If nothing is done, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that there could be 150 million climate refugees, by 2050. UN scientists believe that, by 2025, droughts will mean that five billion individuals (two out of three people) will lack sufficient water and millions will starve and, by 2080, 290 million people will be at risk from Malaria.
The developing countries are particularly vulnerable and unprepared to deal with these disasters. According to the Natural Catastrophes and Developing Countries Project, from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria), less than 2% of the costs of catastrophes are covered by any kind of insurance compared with 50% in the United States. In other words, the poor countries don’t have enough internal resources to meet the demand for reconstruction.
The lack of opportunities in the Third World is one of the main causes of illegal immigration, for example, from Africa across the Mediterranean Sea, especially via the Strait of Gibraltar . Europe is seen as the land of dreams (due to higher wages and better living standards) and that is why many individuals are willing to risk their lives to reach that continent. In October 2005, dozens of Sub-Saharan emigrants died trying to bypass the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta. What happened was that Morocco's authorities expelled them, leaving hundreds in the desert, without water or food. A clear violation of human rights, criticized by Europe, but forgotten with time. If the Western politicians gave more support to the developing countries, instead of scratching their heads in the parliament, situations like this one could perhaps have been avoided.
However, many can argue that is up to each country to develop itself and find solutions for its problems. In theory it is true because it is only when people are together facing their unique challenges and disadvantages that they can give enough value to the things they achieved and also feel they are a part of a nation, in the sense of having an identity. However, they need things that for us in the West are basic like food, clean water, medication, education and democratic governments. So, the help they need is more than a question of giving money once in a while or forgiving their depth. If it was only about that we would enter in a vicious circle of them spending and us trying to cover the holes. It is about thinking in a sustainable way: not simply giving them the spade, but teaching them how to dig. That is how we can give them wings to fly.
In conclusion, from my point of view the developed countries have a moral obligation to help the ones in need. I am talking about moral which is something very subjective, but we can´t be indifferent to other people´s suffering. Closing our eyes will not hide the problem. By doing that we are dismissing ourselves of our condition as human beings. It is time to show that the term “globalisation” is more than opening borders for trade. It is about having the same opportunities.
Development Conference
After travelling for almost 17 hours, loosing Peter on the way and not having much sleep, we arrived to Lindersvold, Denmark, where the Development Conference was going to take place. It was around 8 o’clock and we were tired, but we had a nice meal waiting for us. We chat for a while and, as time was running, we decided to go to bed because we had to wake up early next day.
On Saturday all the schools from Denmark and DRH Norway had breakfast together. I had the opportunity to talk with some of the people with whom I spend 4 months in England, doing GAIA. It was good to see them again! After a while we all went to the conference room. Tina Whittington, the headmaster from Holsted, introduced us to this year’s theme “Necessities facing solidary humanists in the 21st century”.
After that we were organised in groups to discuss the changes we need to promote in the world. I was the team leader of the Mozambique group and I was quite surprised because they were very pro-active. So, we concluded that everyone should have access to food and clean water, education, medication and the same rights as human beings.
In the afternoon, it was time to hear presentations from the different groups about the most important issues in the world. For example, our school had the theme “Peace and Security” and we gave the example of Angola.
After dinner, we had a guest speaker. His name is Jan Oberg, from the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, and he talked about “The challenges and possibilities facing the world and its people in the 21st century”. He spoke about the USA foreign policy and the invasion of Iraq, despite the opposition of the United Nations. That is why he thinks that USA empire is ending as it as the conditions mentioned by the economic historian Arnold Toynbee for civilizations to fall.
On Sunday we started the day talking about Humana People to People, its charter and its projects. After that we discussed in the groups the most important qualities a DI should have (patient, persistent, hard working, flexible, solution finder and so on). In the end of the morning it was time to talk about HIV (facts and figures) and the TCE (Total Control of Epidemic). For that we had two guests that visited the project in Zimbabwe.
After lunch we talked about how a DI can take part in the fight against HIV and then it was time to prepare our TCE Action that it was going to take place on Monday. In the case of my group, we did posters, prepared a couple of songs and also a short play.
In the evening it was time to relax. So, we all gathered in the dining room to drink coffee/tea and sing.
On Monday morning each group went to a different city. The goal was to collect 60000 kronas, more or less, but it was raining a lot and many people didn’t stop. After dinner the results were announced. We reached half the goal, but if we think that 1 dollar is enough for a person to have access to this program for a year, then it is quite ok.
The Development Conference finished and it was time to say goodbye. However, it took us almost 24 hours to arrive to our school, due to a small incident (our bus lost two wheels on the way to Copenhagen) and also because we waited seven hours in Oslo.
In the end, I think that the highlight of this conference was the speech from Jan Oberg that was able to catch everyone’s attention and made us think more widely. Besides that, I was happy to see some of my friends and to know how everything is going on. Who knows when am I going to be with them again? The future is a question mark for all of us, so it is good to be able to enjoy some time with the ones that shared with us moments of joy and also frustration during this program.
