For the last few months we have been conducting these water surveys in the surrounding villages. Our procedure is simple; we go down to the villages, we try to find our contact persona and otherwise someone else and we ask them if we could ask some questions, but from this point it becomes slightly more difficult. Most of us don’t speak any Marathi (maybe a bit of Hindi, thodi thodi) and most of the villagers don’t speak any English. Therefore we always ask a Marathi speaker to come with us, to do the translations. However of course sometimes questions and answers are lost in translation, or there is just general misunderstanding. I suppose the most common one is that we ask if we could ask something about the water and the woman nods and we are seated on a mat (so far so good), then you can here a tap running and a long pause and then she returns; holding three cups of water in her hand; Panni?

Although I can’t speak Marathi, I still feel I’m learning something from this experience. Firstly I learn a lot about doing surveys, with that I mean, assessing who to approach, being aware of how you pose a question (the surveyor for instance has to understand the purpose of the question to be able to pose it) and also discovering the thin line of what you can and can’t ask sometimes, addressing the taboos without offending anyone. Also when doing the survey I found out the importance of knowing the communities well, that otherwise there is a big chance that your questions might be misinterpreted. Even more this experience has taught me a lot about the daily life of the communities in Kolwan Valley because although one might say the glasses of water they drink per day is not really going to give you an isight in to their lifes, partly it did. Collecting water is an important part of their daily routine, similiarly with other questions I did feel I got a better view of what their day actually looks like.

During the water surveys I usually had the task of writing down the answers to the questions, a task that seems simple enough but actually wasn’t. Except for the obvious difficulties of having to try to distinguish in the fast conversation between English and Marathi it was also trying to get the answers of the people down as accurately as possible. Again lost in translation-related issues, but also sometimes selecting what is relevant to the survey (is it important enough to mention that the Sacred Grove nearby is annually used for an animal fair?!) and what is irrelevant.

Lastly, I learned where their water is usually from and how they get it and was therefore able to compare it our situation here, and my lack of knowledge on that. Just to compare:

(village) From the river Muslhi in to a well, add tablets to well, have pipes from well to water pump, go from house (10 min) to well with three buckets between specific two hour period that it is open, walk back with 60 litre of water on head

(us) Walk outside the door and open the tap

Written by Ernestine, Comm-d Group

Although I’ve been in India for a full two weeks now, it is only today which I’ve solidly gotten into the study group aspect of the project.

As hinted to in previous writing and correspondence, Mahindra United World College of India is literally on top of a hill. Not a lumpy thing, its sides slope upwards quite steeply and the campus is accessible by a 5 KM road winding up from the nearest village of Paud. The hill itself is in a valley boxed in by ridges much like the Portland to Walla Walla drive, maybe a wee bit higher. The college is on the side of the millton (hill/mountain) facing Pune; the basin in the opposing direction, behind MUWCI, is the Kolwan Valley.

From my vantage point near the top earlier this evening, it looks as though there is one major river winding through the basin. Most areas surrounding the water are green rice fields and browning bald spots. As you look higher up on the sides enclosing the valley system, it becomes increasingly more and more barren. Oddly enough, there are patches of trees scattered here and there. I also heard, in contrast, that the entire area is a bright green in the months following the monsoon. Unfortunately, there is very, very little rain during the 8 dry months.

Involved with implementing the survey are 20+ MUWCI students. Teams have been going out every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 1430 and return at 1700. One source of difficulty is that few of the community development team (”com-d” for short) speak Marathi, the local language. The implementing teams can usually talk 2 to 3 people into going out each afternoon, but it does not consistently mean the same surveyors with the same experience.

We went out this afternoon to a village called Kalmuli (spelled phonetically) which is just near the base of the hill. Since Ashwin of Gomukh has graciously offered to help us survey the Kolwan Valley, teams from MUWCI will now take villages within a 10 KM distance and social workers who are friends of Ashwin will help procure results beyond that point. Upon arriving at the village, we looked for the contact we had on the list of villages but could not find him. I believe if we had he would’ve been able to point to which households should be queried and the like. Apparently not finding the contact is common. Our survey respondents were then found by splitting into two groups of three and wandering the village randomly.

The first person we came in contact with knew how to read Marathi. We left the survey with him and moved on to find another household. At the second household, we interviewed a woman in her later years. From my observations, it seems as if almost fifty percent of the questions require some form of follow up statement to either clarify the question or clarify what we want in our response. Since we are now using Gomukh’s version of the survey, I am unsure as to whether this confusion is because of the wording of the questions or the topics themselves. At a com-d meeting this evening, we decided we would stick with this version of the survey all of the way through so that we don’t have yet another one to contend with when compiling results. Any questions we would like to clarify on we will do so during the focus groups.

As I’ve mentioned before, these are the constraints MUWCI has come across so far:

• Not having enough people who speak Marathi to translate
• Not having substantial time to implement the survey
• Questions which are vaguely worded or have unclear objectives

I’m sure there are more but I am blanking at the moment. I will let others clarify in the comments.

From here, the tentative plan is to:

1. Continue implementing the survey for the next ten days
2. Start typing and compiling results in that time period
3. Start planning how we will schedule the focus groups in that same time period
4. Implement the primary round of focus groups with MUWCI during the 1st through 6th
5. Implement secondary round of focus groups with Sadhana and Gomukh beyond 7th
6. Work on compiling other necessary materials for report beyond that date
7. Stakeholder meeting on either 16th or 17th to discuss results and implication of survey

All of that being said, it is hot, dusty, and pretty ballin’. I’m excited to see the tentative results of the survey because I haven’t yet already. There should be some pretty interesting stuff we come up with.

Hi all,
So the conference sub-committee has been hard at work the past few weeks sending out email invitations to a few less than five hundred organizations, social businesses, and trusts across India. The process has been long and tedious, and at times frustrating, but we have finally finished. As replies have been coming in slowly but steadily, the hard part of keeping everything organized and up-to-date begins. Yukta, Spenser, Alicia, and I will also be beginning to make calls next week to NGOs confirming details and urging the ones that haven’t responded yet to do so. We also have a growing number of travel scholarship applications to review, but that won’t begin until after the February 15th deadline for applications. Overall, we find people are much enthused about the conference, and we have also had a large number of groups willing to contribute to the Water Book. As the number of confirmed attendees grows, so does our excitement!

One Love,
John

Originally posted as A/M - SCWP, 15 January 2008 on Google Docs

Agenda/Minutes [More →]

Start time: 8pm
Location: Reid

Add anything to the agenda? Ask around - 2 minutes

Report on previous action items - 10 minutes

• Conference application and travel scholarship adden-didi-dum
  • Review and set mailing date
• Hella-legit Letterhead

Conference - 10 minutes

• UWC, WDA, Sadhana to give the introduction speech during the morning
• Report on lunch situation: Find new location (refund conference hall deposit?)? What will be cheapest: relocating or busing people to lunch?
  • Best case scenario: Nehru cuts lunch costs
  • Second best scenario: Relocating to a place where the conference and lunch can be in the same place
  • Worst scenario: Splitting the group up and busing to other restaurants
• Report on confirmed speakers/speech topics and titles
  • Ajit Nimbalkar: “Water Scenario of Maharashtra and the Regulatory Framework”
  • Raechelle Mascarenhas
  • Shyam Divan: “Water Rights and Jurisprudence”
  • Suresh Prabhu:
• Report on confirmed attendees
  • Indicate on SCWP spreadsheet
  • Look at asking more people from Maharashtra to attend (esp. because we have a speaker addressing the region)
  • Subscribe to IndianNGOs.com
• Afternoon workshops
  • CAWST (Successful Technology presentation Bio-Sand Filter)
  • Urban Rainwater Collection: Tim’s contact
• Closing Session: Give the run-down on the water book

Travel Scholarships

• Reimbursing NGOs if they can produce receipts?
• App. Question: What are they doing to raise money in order to participate in the conference?
• Hotels?
  • Joey will research prices

Study group - 10 minutes

• Report on survey draft
  • Jessie and Tim: Review and give Joey feedback
• (Daniel) Where do we stand with Vasant?
• When will UWC begin issuing the survey?
  • UWC resumes on January 19th
  • Schedule WDA call to UWC later this week (Joey will email Anat to find time)

Water book - 15 minutes

• When will we send it out?
  • Showcase the book online before the conference
  • Hand out hard copies at the conference
• Publish in India
• Define scope: Will we stick to NGO chapters and/or include speeches and a directory of NGO contact information
• Report on NGOs who’ve agreed to write a chapter: 4 NGOs confirmed
  • Indicate on SCWP spreadsheet
• To split, or
• Outline structure
• Resources to include?
• Timeline/ list of todos

Outside advisory - 4 minutes

• Mr. Lal has offered to help, what questions should I ask?
• Perhaps he can facilitate invitations
• USE OUR NETWORKS! We should start asking our contacts in India to invite other NGOs

Study Abroad Approval- Future on-campus grants - 5 minutes

• We have approval which gives us the go-ahead to pursue funding on campus: Bob Carson/Presidents Office
• Are there other grants we would want to pursue?

Budget

• Revise and Redo!: Joey/Jessie/Tim
• $448 for the conference hall

Joe’s Role: Yep

• Building a board of advisors, work study funded through presidents office, write WDA handbook, etc. = codify WDA’s scope

Fundraising status - 10 minutes

• Near future projects: Date Auction 7th/8th
  • Assign project leader to coordinate with Kappas
• Take Action! Grant

January Retreat?

Meeting Time for Core Group

• Once per week: 11:30 on Fridays, 12:00 this coming Friday
• Rotate Core members attendance at Fundraising meetings/Fundraising leader to attend Core members meeting

Daniel’s Itinerary

• WDA to reimburse Daniel’s VISA
• Leaving Feb 5th, will be in Pune on the 2nd

End time: 945

Action Items [More →]

• Background research (Everyone)
  • read Melissa’s findings!
• Write formal invitation: Yukta
• Revise Applications: Tim and Jessie
• Meet with Raechelle to determine flights and purchase tickets
• Secure Visas ASAP: Use Traveldocs.com
• Schedule meeting on Saturday to talk with Fundraising group 1:30 pm
• Joey to figure out lunch situation

In attendance:

• Tim Shadix (via telephone)
• Jessie Conrad (via telephone)
• Daniel Bachhuber (via telephone)

Agenda/Minutes
Conference problem with lunches

• Lunch is going to cost us $13 a head which comes out to an extra $2700
• Options
  • Cut conference in half (i.e. only have a morning session)
  • Take people from the Science Centre to somewhere else
    • Networking sesh/get to know each other on the bus, dynamic seating arrangement at lunch

Application we want to create for NP’s to attend the conference

• One application for the conference and an addendum for a travel scholarship
• Conference application includes
  • Basic contact info
  • Paragraph about the NGO
  • Paragraph about the region they operate in
  • Paragraph about their keystone water projects
  • How many people they want to send/ interested in attending
• Travel scholarship application includes
  • Location
  • A paragraph about why they need a travel scholarship (or some way to demonstrate need)
  • What sort of travel conditions/ accommodations they are willing to accept

Travel scholarships

• Our budget says we have $2500 for these, but then again our budget needs an audit

Restructuring the water book

• Jessie’s idea (more of a directory for conference attendees)
  • Part one: name of NGO, paragraph description
  • Also include text from speeches, or essays from speakers
  • Text and synthesizes of workshops
• If we have time: massive case study book
  • Initial content will be compiled before conference
  • Interviews of the NGOs involved at the conference
  • Editing and publication in the two months after the conference
• Conclusion: go forth with first idea and, although we like the second idea, we need to discuss it with WDA

Action items

• Letterhead for formal invites (Jessie)
• Conference NGO application (Tim)
• Travel application addendum (Jessie)