Day 7 - India

Submitted by Michael on November 12, 2005 - 18:17.

Quote for the day: “Tough times don’t last; tough people do.” Indu Capoor, founder and CEO, CHETNA, and an Ashoka fellow.

CHETNA stands for Centre for Health Education Training and Nutrition Awareness. But CHETNA also means “Awareness”. If we treated UnLtd as an acronym, what would it stand for? Prizes for the best answers.

CHETNA is one of the best NGOs in India working on child health and women’s empowerment. Starting with an exploration of the issues of malnutrition, understanding the problems, discussing ideas and solutions with the community, and only then after four years developing practical responses to the children’s malnutrition, CHETNA has pioneered a wide range of techniques and taken the lead on many issues.

I visited the publications section, and amongst the manuals and handbooks that some of us purchased, we bought a teaching aid for sex education. Richard had stayed back to look after our two sick participants (Andrea and Rajeeb, who are both recovering), so we decided to give him this as a present. We asked him to close his eyes, and then tied an apron on him. He then was asked to open his eyes and smile. The result was photographed. Richard sporting an erect penis. As Mae West said “A hard man is good to find”. Second quote of the day. We have ordered him to attend the next UnLtd Board Meeting in this garb to report back on the Learning Journey. This will show that he is made of sterner stuff. If he doesn’t attach a photo to this blog, he’s a coward!

Yesterday I took Saleem and Rupert to the Centre for Environmental Education where we disucssed the idea of awards for individuals, and got a quite positive response, as it is an idea that they can graft on to their internship scheme. CHETNA also have an internship scheme and fund four girls to develop ideas on community health education for one year withy an award of Rs40,000, which is about £500 to cover project costs and living expenses. This has just started, and they are really interested in expanding the scheme as part of our emerging plan for UnLtd in India.

What else? We went to a hookah restaurant (not to be confused with a hooker restaurant) last night and had a wonderful veggie thali meal. A welcome relaxation after a hard day, even for the non-smokers.

The real highlight of today was hearing Indu’s story of how she started CHETNA and how it has developed over 25 years. If we could find just 1,000 Indu’s a year…