At a regular day in my (Ayushi Shukla at extreme right) work
The google says –
fellowship ˈfɛlə(ʊ)ʃɪp/ noun
A group of people meeting to pursue a shared interest or aim.
The month of November arrived to mark the beginning of my 9th month in the fellowship. My time in the fellowship defied the rule of professor Slughorn’s hourglass in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Eight months passed in a jiffy, it seems. The realization prompted me to look back and I felt compelled to share my experiences with the world.
The fellowship started with the induction training in Udaipur. We started with getting to know each other.
From strangers to friends. Matching the steps and trusting blindly, literally!
Jump and the net will appear they said … guess what! It did.
Aligning our values, with India Fellow’s values of Authenticity, Openness to Learning, Humility, Flexibility, Adaptability, Perseverance and Commitment to Social Change.
We spent some time in the villages near Udaipur, as part of our rural immersion.
My first encounter with migration; little did i know that this was the start of a long relationship. You will soon read how …
The first of the many conversations with women. When I learnt about the challenges of education, healthcare, finance, livelihood and interconnection thereof.
Some clicks during the intense brainstorming and learning sessions – introducing us to the concepts of development and project management.
We bid adieu, and head to grassroots organizations across the country.
I landed in a village in south Rajasthan to work for social and financial inclusion of the seasonal migrant labor and the family. Learn more about my host organization Shram Sarathi. First few days at my host organization were adventurous at par with bungee jumping. I talked about it in my blog.
Shram Sarathi offered me the opportunity and flexibility to learn various aspects of lives of tribal community. I get to learn (and contribute?) to healthcare, livelihood and majorly, access to finance. Some snippets from my days at work.
In Financial Literacy meetings, I get to interact with women at Chaupaal. Toddlers accompany the women and goats often hijack our meeting.
The images above are from ‘Anokhi’ – a program for Women Entrepreneurship development in high migration area. The image that follows is of ‘A-kshay’ – for the patients suffering from tuberculosis, Basic Health Care Services provides them treatment and Shram Sarathi provides consumption loan for their nutritional requirement. By the way, have you read my co-fellow Pranoti’s blog on challenges with tuberculosis and tribal population yet?
Meet 14 months old Deepika*. She has been diagnosed with Tuberculosis. Her mother and father are already under treatment for the same.
I get to learn about lives of different tribal communities like Gameti, Garasiya, Meena, and Raika. Read my piece on Raika community.
The one time when I got stuck in the coolest traffic jam ever!
‘Mahua’, locally known as ‘Mahuda’ is a found in abundance in the area. It is used to prepare an alcoholic drink.
‘Ratanjot’, scientific name Jatropha Carcus, locally known as ‘Lediya’ is used to make detergent soap.
At times, my work take me to the places, where child labor exists.
Read story of a young boy and my incapacity to help. Things aren’t always always cloudy. I get to spend fun time with children too! like this one here :-
Climbing a tree with community children on one summer afternoon, while their mothers attend the meeting.
The next milestone (and the final in this journey) is the Travel Workshop to ‘Kutch’, where my cohort will spend 10 days with the grassroots organizations there and learn design thinking. If you appreciate our work, please contribute and make it happen! To support the learning of us 10 India Fellows, follow the link.
*Induction training picture courtesy – India Fellow Team
*Names changed to protect identity
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