What was worse was seeing Nepalis living in poor makeshift shelters on the way to Sindhupalchok, a mountain district located to the north of Kathmandu. And this is two years after the 2015 Nepal earthquake, also called Gorkha earthquake. The 2015 Nepal earthquake of 7.8 magnitude that killed nearly 9,000 people and injured 22,000 people. According to the National Reconstruction Authority, barely five percent[1] of the destroyed houses have been rebuilt to date. This data is discouraging but there was a gleam of hope from the Center of Research and Sustainable Development Nepal (CREASION) team, whom I was traveling with to Sindhupalchok. This NGO shared with me their initiative, ‘Rebuild For Change (RFC)’ that helps rebuild communities following the earthquake disaster. RFC takes on a symbiotic rehabilitation model whereby the beneficiaries are actively and highly involved in the process of rehabilitation. The organization builds affordable earthquake-proof homes using the Compressed Stabilized Cement Block (CSEB) technology, which are sourced locally, low cost and eco-friendly. On most construction sites I have come across, it is often male dominated. And so I was pleasantly surprised to see at RFC’s project site, both men and women involved in the construction of the school. Women were involved in the making and drying of the bricks while the men worked on putting together the structure of the school. A delight to see the communities working closely together and I commend RFC’s efforts. However, the process of rebuilding Nepal after the earthquake that happened two years ago seems to be painstakingly slow. What can be done to expedite this process?
[1] http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/04/nepal-earthquake-disaster-years-41bn-170412110550808.html I traveled to Gujarat, the ‘Textile state of India’ which remains the largest producer of cotton in the country, producing cotton fabrics that are made into sarees and unstitched printed fabrics to be made into kurtis (tunic) and salwar kameez (long tunic work over a pair of baggy trousers). In Gujarat alone, there are more than 1500 medium and large textile units and this industry is estimated to be around USD25 billion[1] in 2017. This state is also the largest exporter of cotton in the country and particularly in Jetpur town, produces khanga and Kitanga – African wear fabrics which are exported. Jetpur is a town renowned in history as a center for block printing and dyeing. My business host who is based in Jetpur, runs a printing and dyeing textile business that does saree printing and explains that the saree making process goes through various stages: Sorting. Receives bales of bleached white cotton fabric, ranging from 1,300 to 2,200 meters. The bale of fabric is assorted into two forms: lump form for automized machine printing process or manually cut 5.5 meters fabric for hand printing. Printing. The printing process uses reactive dyes for both its automized printing on flat bed machines and hot table printing. The other ingredients used in the printing process are guar gum paste and hot water. The automized printing on flat bed machines offers secured production efficiency (less mistakes) and requires less labour. Approximately 2800 sarees are produced by three flatbed machine per day in a 12-hour shift. The manual hot table unit produces 2000 sarees in a 24-hour shift. Finishing. Upon receiving the washed sarees, the fabric is applied with starch to produce a stiff feel. Starch is the main ingredient for getting the desired results although other chemicals such as Fevicol, Waxol, fabric softeners may also be used. There are two ways of doing this i.e. automized and manual way. In the automized system, the fabric passes in a loop form in a machinery which passes through the chemicals mentioned and dries up in a heated chamber. This is the faster process as compared to the traditional way of natural fabric dying under the sun after chemicals is applied, and water is poured on the fabric and tightened onto bamboos. Silicate process & washing. Sodium silicate is used as a color fastening agent on cotton fabrics. The fabric is passed through temperatures between 40 to 45 degree Celsius and is laid overnight for 18 to 20 hours. The fabric then undergoes washing at Bhatgam village in a Common Effluent Treatment Plant. This plant was built by the Jetpur Dyeing & Printing Association and has the capacity to purify about 1 lakh cusec[2] water. The average printing production in Jetpur is approximately 50 lakh meters per day producing major volumes of African print fabric and sarees. Folding & ironing. The dried fabrics are iron pressed and folded as per customer requirement. The fabric is passed in a loop form and then sprinkled with water before being passed through a hot blanket roll at the temperature of 150 degree Celsius. The temperature is controlled by a thermic oil transmission boiling system which is installed in all textile premises in Jetpur.
I am truly amazed by the process of saree making and fortunate to get the exposure to witness the entire process, although I must admit, to say which of the two i.e. the art of saree making or saree wearing is the more complicated process…
Ganjam district is predominantly an agriculture-based economy. However due to the lack of irrigation facilities in most of the smallholders’ land, TSRDS is making interventions to help achieve socio-economic development in the surrounding areas of their operations. My takeaways from their efforts: Being strategic through understanding the status quo. The company understood the demographics, geographical landscape, local politics, existing resources and expertise. Build relationship and trust over time. This effort takes time and cannot be done overnight but once established makes it easier to work with the relevant stakeholders. Start from the low hanging fruits. Work with communities who were willing to come on board. Education, awareness and practical on-ground training. Work around the main challenges such as cultivating farmers’ awareness and adaptability to learning new methods. Most on-farm trainings are done so farmers can see and practice – this is especially effective for those who are illiterate. Demonstrations are done on small plots. Assist, showcase and make comparison. For every one acre of farm land, the company only gives assistance to half of the land as so to allow a visible comparison between methodologies between the old vs modern method i.e. ‘seeing is believing’. Having a plan, even if it may fail. The company comes up with action plans, penning down the challenges AND mitigation plan. This mitigation plan may or may not succeed but this is proposed and tried out. Seeing real (profitable) impact. After years of intervention, the villagers have developed and earned profitable income e.g. the fisheries earned INR1 lakh (approximately USD1,500) in the last year. Out of this amount, INR30,000 (approximately USD450) were expenses with the balance as profit. I am so happy I had the privilege of going on ground to see the work TSRDS is doing. I am well aware that a lot of blood, toil, tears and sweat have been put into these livelihood projects and that there is still a lot of work to be done but I commend all those involved for having the patience to pull through to this stage. And thank you for the generosity and sharing. We, GISTers had the opportunity to visit India for our mid-rendezvous to work on ground with Parinaama Development Foundation (‘Parinaama’) – what a precious experience! The East-West Center's news center reports on our week where we volunteered our technical assistance with the organization. One of the first things we did was to engage with the stakeholders of the organization i.e. village women and children as well as local government representatives. I have always enjoyed engaging with stakeholders as this is an opportunity to learn and understand circumstances from the beneficiaries’ perspective or learn directly about what they may need or want. Although this seems to be the sensible thing to do rather than making assumptions about the stakeholders’ position, here are some challenges (and some suggestions to meet those challenges) which I picked up from my experience of engaging with Parinaama’s stakeholders: Listening can be physically and mentally draining for the person managing the engagement. I found it very taxing to listen to all ten village women who were trying to voice their frustrations at the same time. What more in a language foreign to me and I was highly dependent on a translator who was doing his best to be the bridge.
Stakeholders may have experienced fatigue from the many previous engagements. The village women at the Parinaama Centre were more than welcoming when we arrived. As we sat down and warmed up to each other, I also heard their frustration of having spoken to many others. ‘We have been spoken to so many other people already but there is still no solution to our problems! What is the point of telling you my challenges over and over again?’
Stakeholders may not always know what they want when they engage with you. In this instance, many village women approached the Parinaama center which was originally focused on health programs. These village women felt they had no one to turn to but knew they needed to fend for their livelihood.
Find out more about about Parinaama Development Foundation’s efforts through Parinaama's website or Facebook page. |
Esther Tehis a Chinese Malaysian, an Asia-enthusiast, and a global flâneur. She believes in the role of business in driving sustainable development, as well as the need to build a peaceful, just and prosperous world through cultural understanding. Archives
May 2017
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