BILATERAL - MARCH 2014

India has seen tremendous growth in economy since the early 90 s when it opened to the global market. However, with a population estimated at about 1.2 billion, the benefit of such a growth has been marginal. It is estimated that 78 million economically backward people are homeless in India and in Karnataka state alone, it is estimated that more than 26,000 families are homeless. In urban areas, these populations occupy squatter settlements usually temporary in nature due to unavailability of land. It is also true that the economically backward or weak sections of the population are usually socially backward too. Socially backward refers to those segments of the population who are disadvantaged due to their social background. For example, the tribal communities may be socially disadvantaged because of their isolation from mainstream economy and the social benefits that it may provide to sustain life in the modern world. Their otherwise sustainable lifestyle may have been endangered due to insensitive government policies. We have selected Hunsur town as our area of focus for this workcamp. It is home to tribal communities living mostly at the edge of the reserved forest in the western ghats and their livelihood is primarily based on forest produce and partly from agriculture. The literacy level in these communities is very low due to several reasons like poverty, frequent migration, inadequate infrastructure and poor accessibility. The federal and local government has initiated several schemes exclusively for these communities but has failed to achieve the expected results. Still the literacy level has not crossed 30 - 40 and is even less among women population. FSL-India has been developing projects for many years in this region and has now formed a very strong network of local partners and local volunteers. We cooperate with a large number of government schools, orphanages, institutions for special education and the local authorities to develop projects that are meaningful for the development of this region. The workcamp will focus on Construction of Toilets and Urinals for Government schools and the local community. Almost 50 Government schools in this region do not have proper toilets, and in some cases, the children have no choice but to urinate and defecate in the open. This is not only unhygienic but is also inconvenient during the monsoon season. During this camp, we will construct 2 toilets and urinals i one in each Government school. In addition, we will also build toilets for 2 tribal families. In rural areas like Hunsur, land is usually available for tribal families and what lacks is the financial resource to build a toilet. The family has been selected to ensure that the poor and needy families are the beneficiaries of the construction work. In the mornings, volunteers will be involved in physical work and construction activities. The distance between the accommodation and project sites is about 5 to 10 kilometres and we will be using local transportation everyday. There will be skilled labor to help the volunteers in the construction activities. The volunteers will be mostly involved in unskilled work like i transportation of materials, earthwork (digging), curing, painting and helping the skilled person. It is important for the volunteers to maintain the quality of construction work. The tools that we use in India for construction are different than what you use in your countryi so volunteers are requested to take care while using tools so that they don t injure themselves. The team leader will give a demonstration on the first day on how to use the tools properly. Volunteers are requested to bring a first aid kit, hand gloves for the construction work and a face mask for the painting activities. In the afternoons, volunteers are going to conduct activities in a Government school where most of the children are from a poor background. The age group of the children is between 5 to 14 years. Volunteers will teach basic English and Mathematics, Health and Hygiene awareness, Environment awareness through creative learning methods like games, art, song, dance, music etc.