ARV Staff Trip 09-10

Longitude Staff Members’ Trip Update

INDIA PAGE LINKS:

UnCaste India

UnCaste India Projects

Volunteer India

UnCaste India Campaign

Emily Haydock and Michelle Hua

Read What Our Volunteers Are Saying
Throughout this trip, I’ve realized that returning to India to volunteer with Ravi and ARV is like going home to your family. There is so much love in the air that it’s hard to believe that you were ever away in the first place....MORE

LONGITUDE STAFF MEMBERS’ TRIP UPDATE

We arrived in Andhra Pradesh, India in early December, eager to volunteer as Field Coordinators for Longitude and the Association of Relief Volunteers (ARV) during the next few months. Since we previously came to Andhra Pradesh as Longitude work camp volunteers and spent our time here building houses for the Dalits in Kothasatram-Indiranagar village (KI), we weren’t sure exactly what our work would consist of this time. We knew, however, that Ravi Kumar, the secretary of ARV, would have plenty for us to do, given that his organization accomplishes an incredible amount of development and advocacy work with just 3 full-time staff members.

After catching up with Ravi and meeting his lovely family, we went over the projects that he had in mind for us. The first task that he wanted us to do was to create 2 presentations about ARV and its work in the Kolleru Lake region. While researching the latter topic, we learned a great deal about the issues facing the Dalits in the region, including the lack of both safe water and adequate employment opportunities.

We completed the presentations in time to show them to a volunteer from iPartner India as well as the Winter Work Camp volunteer group.

Ravi also asked us to interview families in Gummallapadu village (GP) about the houses that ARV and Longitude built for them and to prepare reports for our donors, so we made a field visit to GP and conducted interviews with several families, including that of 30-year-old Inta Kumari, a widow with 2 children (see the photo below). Until ARV built a house for her, she lived in a hut with a dirt floor and dusty mud walls, which made her asthma so severe that she had to be hospitalized. Fortunately, she has recovered since she moved into her house and is now able her to work in the fields whenever there is work available. She plans to send her daughter to nursing school and hopes that her son will have his choice of profession.

In every interview, we heard from the villagers that having a house allows them to work more days each year since they no longer have to take time off work to repair their mud huts after heavy rain and cyclones. Most of them, however, are still unable to obtain more than an average of 100 days of work per year, as they are unskilled agricultural laborers unable to find work outside the growing season.

We next visited Chevuru village, where we had the privilege of helping to distribute sarees to the seventy or so widows in the village as part of ARV’s Widow Welfare Program. We were moved by the women’s gratitude and their requests for loans, which they said they could repay, as well as for help completing the houses the government began building in Chevuru and then abandoned work on. Having taken their statements into consideration, ARV is now finalizing plans to hold this year’s March Work Camp in Chevuru.

We also joined the international volunteer group for the Winter Work Camp, which took place in GP from December 25th to January 2nd. Sixteen of us worked on a total of 30 houses and bonded with the villagers in our free time. During the closing ceremony of the work camp, a village representative thanked us not only for helping him realize his family’s dream of building a house but also for fostering community and solidarity by inspiring the villagers to help their neighbors build their homes. He then addressed the urgent need for safe drinking water in GP.

One of the most exciting tasks for our remaining three weeks here is to return to KI with Ravi to conduct surveys and interviews and to help put the finishing touches on the 5 uncompleted houses there. We can't wait to reunite with our friends in the village, since the connections we built with them were our primary motivation to come back and continue to work with ARV.

In the meantime, we will be working with ARV to develop a 5-year plan, update their vision and mission statements accordingly, and identify what steps they need to take to become self-sufficient. We will also begin applying for grants and researching ways to provide clean water and increased employment opportunities to the residents of GP and other Dalit villages. You can help make these and other ARV projects possible by donating to Longitude’s UnCaste India Campaign. Even a small donation will make a difference, and we will continue to update you on the projects your gift goes towards while we are here, so please consider contributing to ARV during our stay.

Thank you very much for your support of our work with ARV!

Meet our Staff-in-the-field!

Emily Haydock

When I revisited my friends in Kothasatram/Indiranagar village as a Longitude work camp leader in May 2008, I was moved and impressed by the measurable changes in their lives that ARV and Longitude had brought about since my first visit in December 2006. Inspired to stay as involved with this work as I could from Japan, where I taught English until July 2009, and then from home in the US, I became a Longitude staff member. I spent the past few months catching up with family and friends, assisting Longitude with volunteer recruitment, fundraising, and development, and counting down the days until my return to Andhra Pradesh.

Michelle Hua

I came to India for the first time as a work camp volunteer in May 2008. After finishing JET in August 2008, I spent 3 months working as an apprentice on different farms in Japan, and also spent a growing season working with my parents on their organic farm in Courtenay, B.C. I’m interested in sustainable development and food security. This time I decided to come back to India to work with Ravi and ARV because I enjoyed my first experience building houses with the villagers so much, and I hope to learn more about the villagers’ lives, the issues they are facing, and what I can help do for them in addition to building houses.

Support Ravi and the Association of Relief Volunteers

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Vijay Sagar and T. Swathi, ARV staff

Contaminated water from government taps in Gummallapadu.

Inta Kumari and her son in front of their house.

Widow Welfare Program

Volunteers pass cement to be poured on a roof in GP

THE STORY

In early December 2009, Emily Haydock and Michelle Hua (both previous volunteers) returned to Andhra Pradesh to spend time helping Ravi Kumar and ARV. Their aim was to learn more about the life-altering projects being done, to assist in whatever ways they could and to report back to Longitude.

During the next three weeks, Emily and Michelle will be helping ARV assess its current operations and continue planning for the future. Please feel free to email them at emily@golongitude.org if you have any questions about the work they are doing with ARV.